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.
One of the key aspects of the Kaizen process is that we SHARE completed improvements with others. That’s a key principle that Joe Swartz and I wrote about in Healthcare Kaizen, and it’s a key aspect of the KaiNexus software platform.…
Since my wife and I moved to San Antonio just over two years ago, we’ve become big Spurs fans. Since the Spurs are the only major pro sports team here, it’s basically a civic obligation to get behind our local…
In November 2012, I had the opportunity to visit Japan for the first time as part of a Lean healthcare study mission. It was fascinating to compare notes with colleagues from the U.S., Belgium, and Holland as we visited factories,…
As I sometimes do, I’m going to close out a bunch of browser tabs and share some articles that caught my eye recently but don’t merit full blog posts of their own. I’m cleaning out the LeanBlog backlog and trying…
This episode shares how Mary Greeley Medical Center used a focused, time-bound Lean “WorkOut” to improve patient care while achieving validated cost savings of about $800,000. The conversation highlights how structured improvement, supported by KaiNexus, helped spark a culture of…
Today is the first day of the 5th annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. Follow along on Twitter with hashtag #HCSummit14 to see my tweets and thoughts from others. I will be adding updates to this post during the day, as well. These are not…
California week on the blog continues after yesterday’s post about Lean at San Francisco General Hospital. Today, I’m flying to Los Angeles to attend the 5th annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. I will be, as usual, moderating the CEO panel…
Happy June, everybody! Summer is here. We’ve actually had a delightfully long spring here in San Antonio, which means the temperature hasn’t really been above 90 yet, which counts as cool (and comfortable for us). I’m headed off to Los…
Here are a few articles (and a podcast) that I either wrote and had published recently or was interviewed for. Lean Management Journal – Lean and Technology I recently got introduced to the relatively new publication, the Lean Management Journal…
I recently saw an article about Avera Medical Group and Sanford Clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota: “Health systems learn to be lean.” Avera McKennan Hospital, in Sioux Falls, was featured in the 2nd edition of my book Lean Hospitals. A physician…
In the category of “not so new” (this blog is nine years old) and hopefully “somewhat improved,” you might notice a slightly different design today here at LeanBlog.org. The last major refresh I did to the site’s look and feel…
Last Thursday, Joe Swartz and I presented about “Kaizen Coaching” at the annual Shingo Institute Conference. In the start of our breakout session, I made a point I usually make, something I learned from Norman Bodek: “A suggestion is something…