In the world of continuous improvement and Lean management, clear and respectful communication is crucial. Let’s take a moment to examine two different approaches to communicating a simple instruction regarding the operation of a centrifuge, as seen in the images…
My guest for Episode #377 is Ritu Ward, an experienced healthcare executive who has had success delivering quality, growth, and strategy while leading high performing teams. We have known each other for a while through Lean healthcare circles and she…
Today, I'm giving a talk at the International Society for Blood Transfusion (ISBT) conference in Toronto. I was invited by the company Quotient to participate in a panel presentation and discussion with some laboratory professionals from the U.S. and the U.K.
The others are presenting examples of how they have improved flow, productivity, and quality in blood collection and hospital blood bank settings. Lean often gets portrayed as just being about efficiency or flow, when Toyota's definition of the Toyota Production System talks about how flow and quality go hand in hand.
I was specifically asked to give a short talk titled, "What Do Cars Have to Do With Healthcare? How to Adopt and Adapt Lessons From Manufacturing."
It’s probably, ahem, not the most closely watched election race in the United States today, but it will be interesting to see if Washington reelects Governor Jay Inslee, pictured at left, a big support of “Lean Government” efforts in that…
How many times do we hear people say things like “We don’t have time for Lean” or “We don’t have time for Kaizen“? It happens a lot, right? As I’ve said before (and this video) a “lack of time” is a problem to solve...
It's tempting to visit a place like ThedaCare and then mandate "everybody must have huddle boards." Then, a bunch of huddle boards get purchased and installed... and maybe not used. It's another thing for executives to realize that they have to change the way they manage. There's a great quote that ThedaCare folks readily share, including Kim Barnas in her book Beyond Heroes:
I often get asked, “How did you get into healthcare?” I was working on a chapter for a Lean healthcare compilation book that’s being published in Holland and I wrote the following material that wasn’t the right fit for that…
In March, I wrote a post titled “Is it Lean’s Fault or the Old Management System’s?” about how people’s complains about Lean are actually often complaints about old management mindsets. Unfortunately, what’s described as “Lean” in an organization is sometimes not…
It’s again time to close some browser tabs and clear out the backlog of articles I’ve wanted to share but maybe don’t merit an entire blog post… It’s time again for “Stuff I’m Reading”… Click on any header for the…
I think this was my sixth consecutive year attending the annual Society for Health Systems Conference, held this year in New Orleans. In the next few posts, I will share at least one key point from the talks and sessions…
Don’t forget my reader survey – share your feedback and have a chance at some great prizes. In November, I blogged about a panel at the Lab Quality Confab that included Dr. Richard Zarbo from Henry Ford Health System (see…
Reflecting more on my recent Japan tour (see previous posts) one word came up in my notes: artifacts. One dictionary definition of that term is straightforward: “any object made by human beings, especially with a view to subsequent use.” Another…
