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.
Hat tip to Tony Manos of 5S Supply for sharing (via twitter) this interesting table that shows how a few minutes (or even a few seconds) can really add up across a period of five years. My friend Paul Akers…
Last Wednesday, Dr. Greg Jacobson and I gave a webinar for Gemba Academy titled Leadership Behaviors that Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement. You can view the recording via GembaAcademy.com. Greg and I came up with a list of 25…
I’m going to be participating in two webinars this week (including one that is also a live presentation in Austin). Tuesday August 13: HIMSS Meeting in Austin (and Webinar) Dr. Greg Jacobson (from KaiNexus) and I will be giving a…
I’m driving all over the state of Ohio this week, teaching three different workshops on Kaizen and Lean Healthcare with my friends at TechSolve. I was in Findlay yesterday, am teaching in Columbus today, and will be in Akron Thursday…
Is Lean management a “slow idea”? In this post, I reflect on why Lean and Kaizen often spread slowly in healthcare and organizations, drawing on insights from Atul Gawande’s essay on innovation. I just read Dr. Atul Gawande’s latest piece…
I was fortunate to be exposed to the writings of W. Edwards Deming before I even learned about Lean. While I sometimes get tired of reading new books on Lean and Toyota, I never tire of revisiting books by or…
I was fortunate to have the chance to speak and visit at a few hospitals in Sweden back in February, 2010 (see my blog post from that year). One of those hospitals, St. Göran (in Stockholm), was recently featured in…
Thanks to George Friesen for pointing me toward his video about “Idea Boards” as a Kaizen methodology. Like George, I was inspired to start using this approach thanks to David Mann‘s outstanding book Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain…
Again, I’m very happy to host the Carnival for John Hunter and his Curious Cat management improvement blog. My job here is to share some noteworthy and thought provoking posts from the past few weeks from the blogs I try…
While I love interviewing others for my Podcast series, sometimes the tables and the microphones get turned and I get interviewed. Here are a few recent interviews where I was yapping about Lean healthcare, Kaizen, and KaiNexus. Money for Lunch…
There’s a great piece, currently available for free on the HBR website, about continuous improvement: The Culture to Cultivate The author, George Halvorson, is the recently retired CEO of Kaiser Permanente and it’s really helpful that he is writing about…
I’m happy to announce that I’m partnering with TechSolve, a non-profit organization in Ohio, to jointly deliver three day-long workshops on Kaizen and Lean for healthcare. There will be sessions in Findlay, Columbus, and Akron on August 6th, 7th, and…