Leadership isn’t about titles, charisma, or quick decisions—it’s about creating systems where people can do their best work and continuously improve. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on leadership through a Lean lens, drawing on ideas from Deming, Toyota, healthcare, and real-world management practice. The common theme: leaders shape culture, influence behavior, and own the systems that produce results—for better or worse.
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Does Lean “work” in hospitals in the US? Sort of, according to the Journal of Healthcare Management. There is evidence that Lean improves efficiency and financial performance, but little evidence to support improvements in patient…
My guest for Episode #353 of the podcast is somebody whose work I’ve appreciated for a long time — Quint Studer. I was first introduced to his book Hardwiring Excellence back in 2005 and I’ve been following his work (and…
When productivity metrics are poorly designed, they can punish good people for system failures. Real improvement comes from redesigning the work–not pressuring individuals to work faster. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is the oldest children’s hospital in the United States.…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients “Imagine walking into a restaurant and being seated. Sometime after your meal, you receive the check and find an additional charge that was not indicated on the menu or previously mentioned by your waiter.…
My guest today is Tim Turner, who joined us previously in 2010 for episode #90. Tim was the lead author for a book called One Team on All Levels: Stories from Toyota Team Members that was about the Toyota plant and its…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients If you set a target without providing a clear path on how you want it achieved, and then punish staff when they fail to achieve it, then staff will achieve the target – by any means necessary and…
tl;dr: I recently returned from my first visit to Brazil, where I spoke at a Lean Six Sigma conference, led a workshop on Process Behavior Charts, and visited two organizations applying Lean principles. From churrascarias to Gemba walks, this trip…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Transformation and quality improvement is rarely sustained without changing management behaviours and management systems. John Toussaint writes about the challenges of adopting lean management systems in the NHS in “Is quality a strategy or an operation?”.…
On October 15th, I hosted the latest in our KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Webinar series. I’m really happy that the presenter was Paul Wainright, as he has been a great advocate for KaiNexus. Click here to view the recording of the…
Last week was our fifth annual KaiNexus User Conference (or “KaiNexicon” as we now call it). One of our keynote speakers was Jess Orr, a former Toyota engineer who shared perspectives on what it was like to now lead continuous…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Globally, at least 5 patients die every minute due to unsafe care. For Patient Safety Week, the World Health Organization is calling for urgent action to reduce patient harm in healthcare. On this theme, Manitoba discloses…
My guest for episode #349 is John Dyer, president of his consulting firm, John Dyer & Associates, Inc., and author of the new book, The Façade of Excellence: Defining a New Normal of Leadership, which will be released on October 1,…