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.
I went through our new book Healthcare Kaizen to categorize the different improvement examples in the book… We have, by my count, 124 examples from hospitals and healthcare organizations around the world., not including the fun examples from Chapter 12…
I’ve been busy over the past year working with the startup KaiNexus. Our technology is now being used (or in the process of going live) in nine medical centers / health systems in the U.S. We have published our first…
I’ve done a number of radio interviews recently to talk about our soon-to-be-released book Healthcare Kaizen. I haven’t posted them all here, but check out this page for links to what is already been aired (MP3 files). In at least…
What a great time on Thursday with Masaaki Imai! We were hosted by a non-profit organization, SightLife, that has used Lean to improve the way they collect, process, and ship corneas to transplant patients around the world. It’s a bit…
Today is an exciting day for me, as I’ll get to meet a famed Kaizen guru – Masaaki Imai. We are in Seattle for one leg of his tour to promote the release of the 2nd edition of his classic…
Following up on my notes from Day 1, here are some notes and key points from Day 2 of the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. It was great to meet and get reacquainted with so many blog and book readers. It’s…
Here are some notes and key points from Day 1 of the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. There are over 500 people here from North America and around the world (including a group, again, of about 40 from different hospitals and…
Virginia Mason Medical Center, a world-renowned leader in the application of Lean principles in healthcare, has a new blog: Virginia Mason Blog. They name blogs the way I do, simple and direct :-) One of their first posts highlights a…
After the date had been previously pushed back to July 27, due to some delays on the publisher’s side, I”m happy to announce that my upcoming book (with Joe Swartz) Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements has…
As a very frequent flyer on American Airlines, I’ve learned not to expect much from the company and its employees in terms of customer satisfaction (yet alone anything that would unexpectedly delight a customer). It seems like a company culture…
Ken Congdon at Healthcare Technology Online recently interviewed me for this story that’s now online: Kaizen: The Key To Lean Healthcare?. Mark Graban, lean expert and co-author of an upcoming book titled Healthcare Kaizen, often compares Kaizen to the suggestion…
As I’ve mentioned, my wife and I are in the process of moving from suburban Fort Worth to San Antonio. As we have potential buyers coming through the house, one thing I have to be mindful of is NOT turning…
