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.
Yesterday, the MIT SDM program hosted a webinar by Dr. Jack Billi from University of Michigan. I had the good fortune to meet Dr. Billi a few times during my involvement in the Healthcare Value Network. He is an extremely…
Here is the fourth short, simple Kaizen education video from KaiNexus, a software startup where I am the Chief Improvement Officer.
I am happy to be partnering with my friends at Gemba Academy to present the 2nd in their free Lean webinar series. My webinar is called “Putting the Continuous Back in Continuous Improvement” and it will be presented on Wednesday,…
This made news on Wednesday – Dr. Donald M. (Don) Berwick stepped down as CMS Administrator: “Harvard professor Don Berwick resigns as Medicare chief.” I had supported Dr. Berwick… but it didn’t really mean much because I’m not a U.S.…
Today, I’m linking to a post from a new blog written by the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business (“Think Op-Ex“). The post “What’s in a name?” features thoughts from James Hereford, formerly of Group Health (part of the…
Here is the third short, simple Kaizen education video from KaiNexus. We are embedding these videos into our web-based software, to provide short tips and hints for our healthcare users. We’re also making the videos available on our YouTube Channel and our education videos playlist. Subscribe…
Updated: There’s now a link to the GBMP video at the bottom of the post. I have long admired the Lean work of Sami Bahri, DDS and I consider him a friend (and have had a chance to visit his…
Paul Akers, the President of FastCap is a great advocate for staff-driven kaizen (or improvement) ideas in the workplace. Paul and his company bring many people through his company so they can see their fun culture of continuous improvement (as…
I’m back in Ontario again this week, giving three more short workshops about Healthcare Kaizen at three different hospitals (after seven hospitals in five days last week). Last night, coming through customs at the Toronto airport, I was asked by…
My dad was flying back from Seattle last week and he noticed this at the TSA “gemba” in the airport, as he reported in an email: The [TSA] woman’s stamp kept falling of the stand. She said they just got…
Here is an article from HealthLeaders Media about the Transforming Care at the Bedside program: “Rural Oregon Hospitals Implement Frontline Caregiver Program.” TCAB is a program that’s similar to the UK NHS program called Releasing Time to Care where nurses…
Here is the second short, simple Kaizen education video from KaiNexus. You can view the first video here and the entire series. We are embedding these videos into our web-based software, to provide short tips and hints for our users. We’re also making…
