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.
Thanks to Keivan Zokaei and SA Partners for inviting me to be part of a webinar panel discussion that’s being held tomorrow: Future of CI in a Changing World: Panel Discussion with Dr Keivan Zokaei & Guests Click here to…
Verschlimmbesserung (noun)A German term meaning an attempted improvement that makes a situation worse. Pronounced: fer-shlim-bes-ser-oong Ever rolled out a “fix” that backfired? That’s verschlimmbesserung. In Lean and continuous improvement, it’s a powerful reminder that even well-intended changes can backfire if…
In June, I moderated a panel discussion webinar (as part of the KaiNexus series) on the theme of virtual improvement. You can view the recording here. It went really well, so we did another session today with three different panelists.…
It’s a big webinar week for me, as I presented two (here and here) and I moderated a new webinar in the KaiNexus series. I was excited that we had two KaiNexus customers joining us, along another special guest expert.…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Customer Experience practices are being more widely adopted in healthcare. Patient satisfaction surveys are no longer enough to put the patient experience at the centre of care.…
Joining me for Episode #370 is Edward Blackman, the founder and managing partner of Kelda Consulting. He has previously had Lean and process improvement-focused roles at organizations as varied as Whirlpool, Amway, and Spectrum Health. Today, we are discussing behavioral…
As organizations like UMass Memorial Health surpass hundreds of thousands–and even millions of kaizens, it’s worth pausing to reflect on what those numbers really mean for culture, leadership, and improvement. Toyota famously documented millions of employee suggestions over decades. More…
In this post, I’d like to share two posts from the KaiNexus Blog. Walking More Safely I wrote this post for KaiNexus based on my own experiences and improvements to the way I go out for brisk exercise walks each…
For years, I’ve scheduled many phone calls and web meetings. That’s only increased during this current Covid-19 era. Sooooo many Zoom meetings. I do like Zoom a lot better than GoToMeeting, Webex, and Google Hangouts. One day, I had meetings…
I wrote a blog post for KaiNexus that’s the first in a series that we’re going to run about “Opportunities for Improvement” in everyday situations like golfing, walking for exercise, getting take-out food… or my post about going to the…
TL;DR: When staff invent workarounds to cope with shortages or failures, the real problem isn’t their behavior–it’s the system leaders allowed to fail. This blog post is a collaboration with a Lean healthcare consulting friend of mine, who heard another…
TL;DR: Most organizations say continuous improvement matters, but treat it as optional–while performance reviews are non-negotiable. That choice reveals more about leadership priorities than any strategy statement. There’s a very well-known cartoon that you might have seen where a caveman…