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: “Things can always be better.”

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I saw this great image in a Honda TV ad during the BCS National Championship game last night. It's a very Kaizen expression... that things...

Announcing Baby Kaizen

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No, this is not a program of Kaizen, or continuous  improvement, for babies. Babies naturally grow, try new things, and gain new capabilities. But,...

Start the New Year with “The Spirit of Kaizen” (Small Baby...

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As we enter the new year, it's a great time to reflect back on 2012 - what worked and what didn't work... what do...

Visiting and Teaching at Ohio State – Meeting Archie Griffin, Reflecting...

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On Friday, I had a great opportunity to teach a class of healthcare professionals at the  Master of Business Operational Excellence (MBOE) program at...

Seattle Radio Interview on “Healthcare Kaizen”

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Note: Not sure why my blog plugin thinks the links are bad (crossed out), but they work if you click on them: Back in June,...

Japan Tour Reflections: Taking Home Lean Artifacts or Lean Thinking?

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Reflecting more on my recent Japan tour (see previous posts) one word came up in my notes: artifacts. One dictionary definition of that term is...

Patient Participation in Lean Renews Her Faith in Health Care

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Here is a nice story that's been in my blog's "to write about" inventory since late October: "Participation in Lean events has renewed my...

KaiNexus Education Video #8 — Fast Responses to Ideas

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Here is video #8 in our series of  short, simple Kaizen education videos from KaiNexus, a software startup where I am on the management team (see...

Weekend Fun: Muda and a Lack of Kaizen on “The Office”

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Here's a great clip from Thursday's episode of The Office. One of the new employees shows how he enters customer complaints into the computer...

The “Gold Prize” Kaizen QC Project Saved How Much?

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Yesterday, our tour group had a chance to visit an outstanding factory. They manufacture gas meters and they do everything from casting aluminum, creating...

How Kaizen Leads to Innovation: Lessons from a Japanese Hospital CEO

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A hospital CEO who turned around a near-bankrupt organization over two decades credits one thing above all else: the steady accumulation of small improvements....

Standardized Work: “Unity in the Essential, Liberty in the Non-Essential…”

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Our Kaizen Institute guide, Brad Schmidt (pictured above) talked to us on Monday about standardized work. He said, of the practice at Toyota, that...
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