Mark and Lee Talk About Mistakes and Lean
My latest episode of “My Favorite Mistake” is one with a heavy Lean focus, so I’m sharing it here with you today. My guest is Lee Houghton, a consultant based in the UK who has done a lot of Lean…
Tag Healthcare
Healthcare Improvement Through Lean, Leadership, and Learning
Healthcare improvement isn’t about working harder—it’s about better systems, better leadership, and a culture that supports learning and speaking up. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on Lean healthcare, patient safety, quality improvement, leadership, and continuous improvement. Many of these posts draw on real hospital experiences and lessons from Deming, Toyota, and frontline healthcare teams, with a consistent emphasis on respect for people and learning from mistakes.
All (6528)3 Strategies (5)30 Rock (5)3P (10)5 Whys (18)5 Whys Survey (10)5S (134)A Lean Guy Reads (13)A.I. (1)A3 (47)A3 management process (1)A3 Open Mic (1)A3 thinking (2)Access (1)Accountability (4)Accounting (14)Ackoff (2)Adam_Zak (8)Admin (1)Adult Education (1)Adult Learning (1)Aerospace (1)Africa (2)Agile (15)AI (39)AI Lean Coach (14)Alaska (3)Alcoa (7)Alfie Kohn (2)Alternate History (1)Amazon (30)AME (6)American Airlines (7)Andon (44)Ankit_Patel (3)Apple (30)April Fool (12)Artificial Intelligence (3)ASQ (8)Auction (2)Audio (196)Audiobook (2)Australia (3)Authentic Conversations (1)Auto Industry (1)Autoliv (1)Automation (6)Automotive (16)Aviation (121)Backlog (10)Bad Systems in the News (8)Bahri (4)Baker (1)Baldrige (7)Balle (9)Banking (3)Bar (2)Bar Rescue (2)Baran (7)Barnas (3)Barnes Jewish (5)Baseball (26)Basketball (3)Batching (2)Batz Foundation (5)Beer Game (1)Being_The_Change (1)Benchmarking (4)Berwick (24)BIDMC (3)Billion Dollar Company (1)biofuels (1)Birth of Lean (2)Blame (160)Bliss (8)Blog Admin (88)Blog_Admin (2)blur (1)BMW (3)Board (1)Bob Emiliani (4)Bodek (76)Boeing (51)Bonini (9)Books (281)Boston (7)Brain (1)Brazil (5)Brophy (1)Buck (2)Burnout (7)business (1)Business Leadership (1)Bussell (1)Byrne (2)C-Suite Leadership (1)Cable (1)Calendar (1)Call Centers (2)Canada (101)Cancer (1)Capacity (1)Cardinal Health (13)Careers (36)Carnival (16)Carrie Schurman (9)Cartoon (7)Castle (5)Catalysis (22)Catchball (2)Cath Lab (1)Cats (1)CEO (184)Certification (1)CFO (1)Challenge (1)Change (57)Change Management (72)Changeover (1)ChangeThis (3)Charity (1)Charts (3)Charts and Graphs (3)ChatGPT (10)Checklist (14)Checklists (61)chemicals (1)Chick-fil-A (3)China (75)China Trip 2016 (6)Chrysler (33)Cincinnati (1)Cleveland Clinic (21)Clinic (1)CMS (1)CNN (1)Coaches (1)Coaching (101)Coffee (7)Collaboration (1)Comedy (5)Command and Control (12)Comments of the Week (1)Communication (2)Communications (8)Community (1)compassion (1)Compliance (1)Condo (4)Conference (1)Conner (1)Construction (6)Consulting (6)Contest (23)Continuous Deployment (1)Continuous Improvement (59)Convis (17)Cooking (3)Corrections (4)Cost (34)cost reduction (1)Costco (1)Countermeasures (1)Covey (7)Covid-19 (54)Covid-19 Pandemic (2)Creative Safety Supply (1)Creative Thinkers (1)Creativity (2)Crisis (1)Critical Strategic Decisions (1)Cross Training (2)Culbert (1)Culture (439)Culture Clash (1)Culture Of Improvement (1)Cunningham (6)Customer (1)Customer Experience (5)Customer Focus (59)Customer Satisfaction (8)Customer Service (12)Cycle Time (1)Dager (2)Daily Management System (5)Dallas (4)Dan Pink (12)Dan_Jones (8)Dan_Pink (13)Danaher (14)Data (1)DC Lean Tour (5)Defect (4)Defects (11)DEI (4)Dell (43)Delphi (13)Demand (1)Deming (490)Denmark (1)Dentist (1)Denver (6)Denver Health (3)Design (11)Design Thinking (5)Detroit (3)Detroit 3 (1)Detroit Three (27)developing solutions (1)DFW (1)Digital (1)DirecTV (3)DMAIC (3)Doctor (180)Don Wheeler (49)Doofus (5)dr (1)Dr. Muda (6)Drucker (2)Dynamic Environment (1)Earthquake (1)Ebola (5)Economics (1)Edmondson (21)Education (34)Efficiency (4)Electric Car (1)Elon Musk (4)Email (2)Emergency (29)Emergency Dept (61)Emil (1)Emiliani (23)Emoji (1)empathy (1)Employee Engagement (17)Employee Voice (1)Empowerment (2)EMR (9)Enabling Bureaucracy (1)Energy (3)Engagement (2)Engand (1)England (47)Entrepreneurship (5)Ephlin (12)Equity (1)Ergonomics (3)Eric Ries (40)Errors (7)Events (6)Everyday Lean (108)Evidence-Based Medicine (1)Excuses (1)Exercise (3)ExperienceChange (7)Experiment (3)Experimentation (3)Eytan (1)Facebook (2)Factory Physics (2)Facts (1)Fail (3)Failure (18)Family (1)Family Guy (1)FastCap (8)Fear (30)Fearless Organization (1)Finland (1)Fire Fighting (5)Fitness (1)Flashback (5)Flexing (2)Flinchbaugh (187)Flow (27)FMEA (4)Fol (1)Food (6)Football (10)Forces Of Destruction (1)Ford (102)Fort Worth (1)FORTUNE (3)Fox News (2)Franciscan (46)Franciscan Videos (8)Fujio Cho (3)Fun (2)Funny (75)Futility (4)Galsworth (10)Gaming the Numbers (43)Garrison Brothers (3)Gas Station (1)Gawande (31)Geisinger (1)Gem (1)Gemba (167)Gemba Academy (8)Genchi Genbutsu (4)General Electric (76)General Motors (10)Germany (3)Gert (2)Gets it Wrong (4)Gilbreth (6)Glover (3)GM (180)Go To Market (1)Goals (1)good jobs (1)Good Jobs Strategy (1)Google (10)Government (139)Green (37)Grey's Anatomy (3)Grocery (2)Group Health (8)Growth Mindset (1)Grunden (16)Gruner (9)Guest (106)Guest Post (29)Guthridge (7)Habit (4)Hajek (1)Hamel (1)Hamilton (3)Hand Hygiene (7)Hanover (7)Hansei (8)Harada (2)Hawaii (1)HBR (2)Health (3)Healthcare (2019)Healthcare Kaien (1)Healthcare Kaizen (99)Healthcare Reform (1)Healthcare Value Network (1)Hebert (1)Heijunka (17)Henry Ford (5)Heparin (3)Hershfield (1)HIMSS (2)hiring (1)Hoeft (1)Honda (6)Honesty (1)Honeywell (2)Honsha Trip (5)Hopkins (1)Hoshin (15)Hoshin Kanri (4)Hospitalist (2)Hotel (5)HP (1)Huddle (13)Huddles (2)Human Error (7)Human Resources (1)Humane (1)Humility (23)Hunmtz (1)Huntzinger (4)Hyundai (1)IBM (2)ICU (1)If Japan Can (3)IHI (6)IIE Blog (1)IKEA (1)Imai (34)Improvement (5)Incentives (7)India (3)Industrial Engineering (1)Industry Week (7)Infections (12)Innovation (46)Inspection (7)Intel (1)Interview Process (1)Interviews (5)Inventory (45)investing in employees (1)Iowa (17)iPad (1)Ireland (2)Irony (1)Israel (1)IT (7)Italy (1)Jaben (4)Jackson (1)Jacobson (5)James (2)Japan (118)Japan Tour (62)Japanese (1)Jidoka (8)Jimmerson (1)Jobs Bank (11)Joiner (2)Joint Commission (3)Jon Miller (5)Jones (2)JPS (4)Just Culture (11)Just in Time (2)Just-In-Time (68)Kach (11)Kaikaku (1)KaiNexus (242)Kaizen (722)Kaizen Event (20)Kaizen Kickoff (1)Kaizen Live (12)Kanban (52)Kaplan (6)Karen Martin (11)Karyn Ross (7)Kata (28)Katie Anderson (26)kind leadership (2)Kindle (2)Kindness (6)Kitchen Nightmares (4)Knowledge Management (1)Kodak (1)Krafcik (2)L.A.M.E. (6)Lab (10)Laboratory (55)Laedership (1)LAME (109)Larry Culp (29)LaSorda (6)Law (4)Layoffs (92)Layout (12)Leader Standard Work (4)Leadershihp (2)Leadership (915)leadership lessons (1)leading with humility (1)Leadreship (1)Leadrship (2)Lean (22)Lean Accounting (1)Lean and Mean (9)Lean Coffee Talk (10)lean community (1)Lean Daily Management (14)Lean Dentist (34)Lean Design (37)Lean Edge (1)Lean Enterprise Institute (1)Lean Hospitals (82)lean leadership (2)Lean Management (14)Lean Management System (5)Lean Memes (6)Lean Mindset (8)Lean Nation (1)Lean Office (3)Lean Pathways (2)Lean Principles (1)lean production (1)Lean Sigma (18)Lean Six Sigma (11)Lean Solutions (15)Lean Startup (89)lean startup principles (1)Lean Startup Week (10)Lean thinking (2)Lean Thoughts (2)Lean toolbox (1)Lean transformation (2)Lean UX (1)Lean Whiskey (61)LeanBuzz Poll (1)LeanPub (10)LeanStartupWeek (1)Leantoon (1)Leape (7)Learning (2)LEI (103)Length of Stay (1)Lessons Learned (1)Levy (1)Library (1)Lifehacker (1)Like Lean (29)Liker (51)Linked (1)LinkedIn (29)Lippold (1)Listening (1)Livonia (9)Locher (1)Logistics (1)Lopez (18)Lucid (1)Management (9)Management by Emoji (1)Management System (1)Manufacturing (216)Manufacturing Business (1)Marketing (2)Markovitz (41)Mary Greeley (6)Materials (2)Matt_May (17)Maurer (3)MBA (1)McDuffee (13)McMahon (1)Measures of Success (75)Medical Mistakes (5)Medicare (1)Medium (11)Meier (26)Meijer (1)Memoriam (8)Menlo Innovations (1)Mental Healthcare (1)Mentoring (1)MEP (7)Merck (2)Metrics (57)Mexico (7)Meyer (2)Michigan (16)Micklewright (10)Microsoft (1)Military (46)Mindset (1)Mistake (4)Mistake-Proofing (185)Mistakes (148)MIT (13)MIxtape (184)Model Cell (1)Model Line (1)Moneyball (1)Montreal (1)Moral Injury (1)Morale (3)Motion (4)Motivation (1)Motivational Interviewing (28)Motorola (1)Move (25)Movies (1)Moving (2)MRI (1)MRP (1)Muda (3)Multitasking (1)Mura (1)Muri (3)Music (6)MVP (1)My Favorite Mistake (35)NASA (1)negative bias (1)Nervous System (1)Netflix (1)Netherlands (13)New Zealand (12)NGO (1)NHS (7)NICU (3)Nissan (8)Noble (2)Non-Profit (2)Nonprofit (1)Norval (2)NPR (13)NUMMI (75)NUMMI Tour (6)Nursing (99)NYT (2)NYTimes (85)O.R. (1)Office (8)Ohba (1)Ohio (1)Oil (1)OKRs (2)ONeill (57)Ontario (2)Operating Room (32)operations management (1)Operations Science (1)Organization Building (1)Organizational Behavior (2)organizational development (1)Oscars (6)Outpatient (1)Overburden (3)Overprocessing (14)Overproduction (20)Packaging (2)Par (1)Park Nicollet (14)Parodies (2)Parody (14)Parry (1)Pascal Dennis (16)Patient (5)patient care (1)Patient Experience (4)Patient Flow (79)Patient Focus (4)Patient Safety (393)Patient Satisfaction (10)Patients First Culture (1)Patrick_Anderson (5)Paul Akers (6)PBC Case Studies (38)PBC-Compare (4)PDCA (22)PDSA (71)People Development (1)Perfection (1)performance driver (1)Performance Measures (5)Performance Review (1)Performance Reviews (6)Pharmacy (41)Phlebotomy (1)Phoenix (1)Physician (17)Physicians (1)pink (1)Pittsburgh (2)Pivot (1)Pizza (4)Pod (1)Podcast (539)Podcast - Bodek (15)Podcast - CEO (45)Podcast - Deming (17)Podcast - Docs (45)Podcast - Healthcare (149)Podcast - Kaizen (12)Podcast - Lean Startup (14)Podcast - LEI (15)Podcast - Toyota (23)Podcast - Womack (6)Podcast 20 Years (5)Poka Yoke (5)Politics (2)Poll (2)Porsche (3)Power Of Kata (1)Practice (2)Practicing (1)Practicing Lean (25)Preventative (1)Primary (1)Primary Care (3)Prius (5)Private Equity (1)Problem (1)Problem Solving (175)Problem-Solving Approach (1)Problems (4)Process (4)Process Behavior Charts (117)Process Design (2)Process Improvement (5)Product Development (7)Product Market Fit (1)Productivity (10)Profit = Price - Cost (40)profitability (1)Pronovost (10)Psychological Safety (118)Psychology (2)Publishing (10)Pull (5)Punishment (3)Quaid (11)Quailty (1)Quality (339)Quality Circle (5)Quality Digest (20)Quebec (1)Quick Hits (1)Quotes (1)Radio (8)Radiology (10)Rapid Improvement Event (4)Reader Questions (55)Reading (23)Recruiting (3)Red Bead (16)Red-Green (6)Reflection (2)Remote Work (1)Research (1)Resilience (1)Resistance (7)resp (1)Respect (6)Respect for Business (1)Respect for People (280)Restaurant (55)Results (1)Retail (34)Retaurant (1)Review (3)Rewards (1)Rhode Island (1)Richardson (1)Rivian (1)ROI (3)Root Cause (4)Root Cause Analysis (3)RootCauseRacism (16)Rother (11)Russia (4)Safe Environment (1)Safety (177)Sales (4)San Antonio (1)Saskatchewan (9)Sayer (2)Scholtes (3)Scientific Thinking (1)Scotland (2)Scott & White (2)Searching (4)Seasonality (1)Seattle (25)Seddon (4)Senge (1)Sensei (3)Servant Leadership (2)Service (4)Services (3)Seth Godin (2)Shannon (7)Shewhart (2)Shingo (58)Shingujitsu (5)Shipping (1)Shook (62)SHS (18)Signs (14)Silence Tax (41)Simmer (1)Simpsons (3)Sin (1)Siren Song (14)Six Sigma (102)Small Tests of Change (1)SMED (10)Software (78)South Africa (1)Southwest (3)Soviet (2)Space (4)SpaceX (1)Spaghetti Diagrams (1)Spain (1)Spanish (1)SPC (29)Speaking (10)Spear (36)Spearman (1)Sports (179)SQDC (4)Standardization (2)Standardized Work (221)Starbucks (57)Startup (2)Startups (30)Statistics (2)Strategy (19)Strategy Deployment (32)Strong America (2)Struggles (4)Studer (20)Stuff (1)Stupid (2)Suggestion (2)Suggestion Box (29)Suggestions (7)Supervision (1)Supply Chain (55)Surgeon (3)Surgery (6)Sushi (1)sustainability (1)Sustainable Workplace (1)Sutton (1)Swartz (13)Sweden (8)System Dynamics (2)Systems Thinking (1)Tacky Advertising (1)Taiichi Ohno (70)Takt (5)Targets (1)Taylor (5)Taylorism (33)Teaching (1)Team (1)Team Building (1)Teamwork (4)Tech Support (3)Technology (10)TechSolve (2)Telecom (1)Tesla (15)Tetreault (1)Texas (5)The Jerk (1)The Mistakes That Make Us (58)The Office (4)The Resident (1)ThedaCare (205)ThedaCare Center (9)Thelen (5)Throwback (59)Tiered Daily Huddles (2)Time (3)TKMG Academy (1)TMMTX (3)Toast (6)Tom Peters (12)Toronto (1)Toussaint (127)Toyota (648)Toyota 1992 Booklet (6)Toyota culture (4)Toyota Kata (19)Toyota leadership (1)Toyota management (3)Toyota mentality (2)Toyota Production System (6)Toyota system (1)Toyota Way (2)Toyotas (1)TQM (10)Training (11)Training Within Industry (67)Transformation (3)Transparency (2)Transportation (2)Trash (1)Travel (62)True North (1)Trump (3)Trust (5)TSSC (8)Turgeon (13)Twitter (19)UAW (1)Uber (3)Understanding Variation (4)Unicorn (1)Union (3)Unions (3)United Technologies (1)UPS (8)USA Today (15)User Experience (1)User Interface (1)VA (15)Vaccination (12)Value (29)Value Capture (31)Value Steam (1)Value Stream (9)Value Stream Mapping (39)ValuMetrix (2)Van Dongen (5)Variation (10)Veterinary (7)VetMed (7)VIBCO (21)Video (262)Virginia Mason (114)Virtual (2)Vision (1)Visual Displays (3)Visual Management (52)Voice of the Customer (3)Volkswagen (2)Wachter (5)Wagner (21)Waiting (7)Walgreens (3)Walmart (12)Walters (5)Warning (6)Washington (2)Waste (149)waste elimination (1)Water (2)Webinar (96)Website (1)Weekend (3)Weekend Fun (21)Weight (1)Welch (7)Wellman (4)Wells Fargo (2)Wetzel (1)Wheeler (1)Whiskey (28)Whisky (3)Whole Foods (3)Wine (12)Wiremold (5)Wisconsin (23)Womack (107)women leaders (1)work culture (2)Work Design (1)Workaround (8)Workarounds (1)WorkOut (1)Workplace Culture (2)Workshop (6)Workshops (1)Wrye (3)WSJ (203)Yahoo (1)Yokoten (1)Zappos (1)Zarbo (1)Zero Defects (1)Zero Harm (6)Zoom (2)
Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: April 23, 2021
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! News, blogs, articles, resources, and links about creating value, continuous improvement, innovation, and leadership. Healthcare – Creating Value for…
Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: April 9, 2021
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! News, blogs, articles, resources, and links about creating value, continuous improvement, innovation, and leadership. Healthcare – Creating Value for…
Hospital Elevator Safety Failure: When Good People Work in Bad Systems
A story shared by Dr. Marty Makary reveals how hospital silos and lack of ownership can allow obvious safety risks to persist — even after someone dies. Editor’s note (2026): This story is from a 2021 post, but the lesson…
Why “On Deck Chairs” Can Improve a Covid Vaccination Clinic Flow and Throughput
My previous post in this series: A Lean Guy Gets Vaccinated at Dodger Stadium On Saturday, March 6th, I had the opportunity to visit two mass vaccination sites that were each being run in partnership with the UC San Diego…
A Lean Guy Gets Vaccinated at Dodger Stadium
This past year, due to COVID, I wasn’t able to be on-site with a healthcare organization for 359 days. That’s almost a full year, of course. In the past three weeks, I’ve been fortunate to have the chance to visit…
Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: March 26, 2021
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! News, blogs, articles, resources, and links about creating value, continuous improvement, innovation, and leadership. Healthcare – Creating Value for…
Interviewed by Doctors on the “Connecting the Dots” Podcast
I’d like to thank my friend Skip Steward for inviting me to be a guest on his podcast called “Connecting the Dots.” The podcast is one of their initiatives that’s intended to get the word out (internally and publicly) about…
What Does Lean Mean to Healthcare Professionals? What Should it Mean?
tl;dr summary: Lean isn’t just efficiency… it’s safety, quality, delivery, cost, and morale. People often misunderstand that — they don’t know or they were taught the wrong things I often have the opportunity to teach a group of experienced healthcare…
Operational Excellence Mixtape: March 12, 2021
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients What have doctors learned about treating Covid-19 in the last year? Plenty. Some…
Covid Testing, Treatment, and Vaccination at Cleveland Clinic: Nate Hurle
Scroll down for video, transcript, how to subscribe, and more My guest for Episode #404 is Nate Hurle, a Senior Director of Enterprise Continuous Improvement at Cleveland Clinic. He was previously a guest on Episode 282. He was also recently…
Some Recent Episodes of “Habitual Excellence” and “My Favorite Mistake”
Today, I’d like to share some recent episodes from these two podcast series… Habitual Excellence Here are some of the latest episodes from this podcast that I host for Value Capture. Dr. David Mayer: A Moon Shot for Zero Patient…
