Tag: Kaizen

Kaizen: Daily Improvement, Learning, and Leadership in Practice

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.

Kaizen Alone Isn’t Enough: Why Leaders Must Fix the System for...

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TL;DR: Daily Kaizen is essential--but it can't overcome broken systems. Only leaders can fix structural constraints like layout, staffing, policies, and budgets. When leaders...

Einstein’s Favorite Mistake — and What It Teaches Us About Lean...

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Albert Einstein -- the mind who redefined physics -- once called something he did "the biggest blunder of my life." When he completed his general...

What Visiting Japan Taught Me About Lean Leadership and Healthcare Culture

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This October, I'll be returning to Japan for another Lean healthcare study trip--my seventh time overall and my fifth healthcare-focused visit. With each visit, I...

Kaiteki: The Japanese Philosophy Behind Motivated Employees and Lean Success

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tl;dr: Kaiteki is a Japanese management philosophy focused on comfort, purpose, and respect for people--and it helps explain why motivated employees and Lean success...

From Chaos to Clarity: How a Health System CEO Used Process...

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tl;dr: A healthcare CEO explains how Process Behavior Charts replaced reactive metric debates with clarity, trust, and focused improvement by separating signal from noise. "Every...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: April 18, 2025

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Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly...

How Chick-fil-A Uses Lean “Game Film” to Improve Drive-Thru Flow

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TL;DR: Chick-fil-A improves drive-thru flow by using Lean thinking and "game film" to study the work, remove bottlenecks, and design better systems--while showing deep...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: February 21, 2025

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Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly...

Safety First: GE Aerospace’s Lynn Facility Demonstrates True Lean Leadership

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At its core, Lean is about people--respecting them, empowering them, and ensuring their well-being while driving continuous improvement. Recently, GE Aerospace's Lynn, MA, facility...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: November 29, 2024

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Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly...

Lean Whiskey #49: Japan Study Tour, a Lost iPhone, and Some...

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Listen: It's Episode 49 of the Lean Whiskey podcast with Jamie Flinchbaugh and Mark Graban! Mark shares tales of his holiday / study tour trip to...

Ten Years Ago — In the News Visiting a Japanese Lean...

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Just over a week ago, I got back from Katie Anderson's Japan Study Trip. It was amazing! I have so much to write about...
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