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.
It’s nice to see examples of Lean Healthcare success in the news, this time on the front page of the Denver Post — “Denver Health saves millions using Toyota efficiency principles.” As the city health system, they are both an…
Hat tip to Helen Z. for finding this full-page print ad in the New York Times. The full ad appears below in this post, but the primary element of the ad is what you see at left – it says…
Norman Bodek discusses ideas from his book How to Do Kaizen, including why real innovation starts with empowering every employee to be a problem solver. He also tackles a great question: what should a leader do when an employee’s suggestion…
Mark’s note: Today’s guest post comes to us from Ireland and a lean consultant and author named Andy Brophy. He has a new book called Innovative Lean, for which he interviewed me and some client team members from Children’s Medical…
Video #11 features Norman Bodek talking about some of the ideas in his most recent book, How to do Kaizen: A new path to innovation – Empowering everyone to be a problem solver. Late in the podcast, Norman asks and…
Forgive me if some Texas pride comes through in this post, as well as some former-client pride. The clinical laboratory team at Children’s Medical Center Dallas was featured in the peer-reviewed Medical Laboratory Observer for their combination of Lean and…
Mark’s note: Today’s post is from a regular guest blogger and a friend of mine, Dan Markovitz – his regular blog can be found at his ‘Markovitz Consulting site. I saw Dan again a few weeks back at the Lean…
Mark’s note: I consider myself very fortunate to have met Patrick Anderson during my journeys in the Lean world. Patrick is the executive director of Chugachmiut, a non-profit corporation to advance the overall economic, social and cultural development of the…
Mark’s note: Today’s vacation guest post is from D. Mark Jackson, a lawyer who has been studying and embracing Lean principles in a California law firm. He normally writes in his very interesting Lean Law blog and I’ve been following…
This linked article (“Lean cuts Healthcare Costs at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle“) summarizes improvements and Lean methods at Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center and at the UK NHS Royal Bolton Trust hospital. Much of the VMMC story has been…
Something Lean is in the water in Wisconsin, as that state is one of the hotbeds of Lean healthcare. There’s, of course, the ThedaCare story (from Appleton) and the upcoming book about their journey (“On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to…
I’m sitting here on a Sunday morning, drinking a cup of coffee I made at home with bottled water. Why bottled water? Because of a massive water main burst west of Boston – Boston and 30+ other communities currently have…