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.
By Jason Turgeon: This is a Lean-meets-EPA powerpoint. Download the original here. Click the little window emblem in the upper-right corner of the embedded image to see it full-screen. It’s been a while since I had the chance to post…
Sir Terry Leahy: The ‘Robert Mugabe of retail’ bites back – People, News – The Independent First off, that’s a pretty nasty nickname, being called the Robert Mugabe of anything. I don’t know the whole history on that one, but…
Everybody Everyday: Managing for Daily Improvement The link above is an online video presentation by Jamie Flinchbaugh, courtesy of IndustryWeek (click here to subscribe to their print edition of the magazine). In This Presentation You Will See How 90% of…
Heard a great comment today: “Suggestions are things somebody else should do. Ideas are things that I can do.” Maybe that is why Norman Bodek’s books and the others (The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen and Ideas Are Free:…
asahi.com article – ENGLISH Interesting article from Japan… Toyota’s 40,000 factory workers in Japan are all engaged in kaizen, or continuous improvement, as a core part of the quality control (QC) activities. No surprise there… Lean and kaizen are tightly…
My Way News – Airlines slow down flights to save on fuel I’m just thrilled anytime I see an example of an airline making a process improvement (a “kaizen” if you will) instead of their usual game plan of whining,…
Last week, I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Norman Bodek in person for the first time. After all of our podcasts and electronic correspondence over the years, this was a real treat. I had a chance to chat…
Listen: Here is LeanBlog Podcast #40, an interview with a retired UAW/GM employee who wishes to remain anonymous, at this point. We have traded many emails over the past year, about Lean, and I’m impressed with this individual’s true passion…
Hamilton Beach HDC100B Pourover Pod Brewer Sorry for the blog downtime the past few days. I had a great weekend back in my old hometown, Phoenix. My wife and I stayed at a hotel in Scottsdale that had some room…
Are Rapid Improvement Events enough? | Lean Healthcare I don’t have anything against Kaizen Events (often called “RIE” or “Rapid Improvement Events” in healthcare). They have their proper place and can bring many benefits, but events are not enough. They…
Starbucks Gossip Blog – Open Thread Starbucks Replaces CEO with Chairman I’ve posted about Starbucks before – I believe they have people at headquarters learning about and starting with Lean, but I don’t know any details (any Starbucks employees reading…
“Use our minds first, not our money” | DailyKaizen I like the phrase, above, that Lee Fried used at the DailyKaizen blog. I think I like the phrase better than “creativity before capital.” Same idea, but a slightly different way…
