Kaizen is often misunderstood as small ideas or isolated improvement events. In practice, Kaizen is a daily, people-centered approach to learning and improving work—supported by leadership, good systems, and psychological safety. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and real-world examples of Kaizen in action, across healthcare and other industries, with a consistent focus on leadership behaviors, respect for people, and learning from problems rather than hiding them.
I wanted to share a recent Kaizen improvement story that I heard from a hospital. Great things can happen when we: Imagine you’re a new mother and you’re recovering in a room after your postpartum care. You’ve been cared for…
Mark’s note: Today’s guest post is by Gert Linthout, from Belgium. Gert and I were part of the same Lean healthcare study trip to Japan back in 2012. He was the co-creator of this creative video on Kaizen that I featured in this…
Last Wednesday and Thursday, I collaborated with Joe Swartz and a countless number of his colleagues to host 24 visitors from different health systems (and an Indiana state government organization) to learn about the “Kaizen” approach to continuous improvement first hand…
Sometimes, continuous improvement sparks something bigger than anyone expected. In this story from Franciscan Health’s NICU, a nurse named Kelly turned a heartbreaking event–a baby developing a pressure ulcer–into an inventive solution that made care safer, easier, and more human.…
Joe Swartz and I have been working for a while to put together our first onsite Kaizen workshop at his health system, Franciscan St. Francis Health – all day tomorrow and Thursday morning. We’re excited that the workshop / conference sold…
You might know my friend Karl Wadensten, the president of VIBCO, a small manufacturer in Rhode Island. I’ve interviewed him for episode #84 of my podcast series (which was also episode #10 of my video podcast series). I’ve had a…
I hope you might have access to this interesting article from the Wall St. Journal: “Toyota Veteran Rises to Corporate Office From Factory Floor.” I was able to access it while logged out from my WSJ account. Mitsuru Kawai, pictured,…
Hi – I’d let to let you know about or remind you about a few upcoming events that I’ll be a part of. I hope you can join me for one or more of them. One of them is a…
You Still Have Time to Register Update — you can also learn more and register for our April 2016 event via www.KaizenLive.com. Joe Swartz and I have been planning the first-ever workshop (a conference of sorts) where people can come…
I recently wrote a blog post for KaiNexus titled “How Kaizen Software Helps Me Be A Better Coach.” I’ve done a lot of Kaizen coaching with organizations and one challenge is me keeping up with their progress as a remote…
TL;DR: A look back at Lean manufacturing training from 2002 reveals a familiar lesson: Lean succeeds when customers treat suppliers fairly, production schedules are stable, and improvement goes beyond tools to include respect, trust, and Kaizen thinking. Toyota’s approach–then and…
Lean provides a philosophy and a management model that should be nothing but good for staff and patients. The idea of “respect for people” might sound nice in principle, but what does it mean in a practical sense...
