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.

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...

What Is an Andon Cord? How Toyota’s Andon System Really Works

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TL;DR: An andon cord is not primarily a line-stopping device. At Toyota, it's a signaling system that allows workers to call for help immediately....

Visiting the Toyota Museum in Nagoya

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While I'm in Japan this week (read about the trip), I'm going to keep my blogging light - my aim is to share one...

Archive of Free Webinar – Greg Jacobson, MD on Kaizen for...

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Updated 11/8 to include a link to the recording  and changing the post to past tense. Gregory Jacobson, MD, co-founder and CEO of KaiNexus (disclosure:...

KaiNexus Education Video #7 – No Countermeasure? That’s OK

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Here is the seventh in our series of short, simple Kaizen education videos from KaiNexus, a software startup where I am on the management team.  We...

Kaizen vs. the Suggestion Box: Why Employee Engagement Requires Leadership, Not...

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Suggestion boxes collect ideas--but Kaizen builds capability. In this short video, I explain why continuous improvement depends on leadership behaviors, not passive systems. The Lean...

Learning Jazz (and Lean?): Imitate, Integrate, Innovate

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Although I don't get to play much anymore, I used to be a pretty serious drummer (I almost said "musician," but that invites jokes...

Elon Musk Wrongly Pooh-Poohs Process as a Substitute for Thinking

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I've always been intrigued by entrepreneur (and billionaire) Elon Musk. He founded PayPal (which I have used for over ten years), founded  SpaceX (which...

KaiNexus Update – User Badges & Sharing Improvements Widely

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The team at KaiNexus (where I am the "chief improvement officer") is always improving. I want to share a few of these improvements, as...

KaiNexus Education Video #6 – Improve Continually

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Here is the sixth in our series of  short, simple Kaizen education videos from KaiNexus, a software startup where I am on the management team.  We...

Guest Post: Kaizen and Passion

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Mark's note: Today's guest post is from a friend of mine from The Netherlands. I had a chance to visit Marc and his hospital...

How Do You Find a Lean Healthcare Person?

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Mark's Note: Today's guest post is from a great friend of mine and this blog, Dean Bliss, of the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative.  Check out...
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