During this week-from-home pandemic era, one of my projects has been to set up a podcast for the firm Value Capture. A month ago, we decided to name the podcast “Habitual Excellence” as a way of recognizing and building upon…
Today, I went for a brisk 50-minute walk on a sunny morning and my companion was the voice of the late Paul O’Neill as I listened to the audio from a video I’m sharing here. I listened to it and…
TL;DR: Paul O’Neill showed that safety isn’t a metric–it’s a leadership obligation, and the foundation for what he called habitual excellence. It was a sad weekend, hearing about the passing of Paul H O’Neill, Sr. on Saturday. He was 84.…
TL;DR: Pursuing zero harm isn’t about unrealistic goals or punishing people for failure. It’s a leadership choice that creates psychological safety, accelerates learning, and strengthens Lean systems. When organizations treat safety–physical, emotional, and professional–as a non-negotiable value, improvement capability follows…
I'm often reminded of three challenging questions that are asked by Paul O'Neill, former CEO of Alcoa and former US Treasury Secretary.
I've mentioned the questions before, in this blog post about Eric Ries and an employee's bill of rights. See more blog posts and my podcast with Mr. O'Neill.
Sadly, I'm reminded of the questions when I'm around people who cannot answer "yes" to them in healthcare workplaces. This is a widespread problem.
TL;DR: Captain “Sully” Sullenberger’s leadership lessons from Flight 1549 highlight that safety depends on humility, trust, teamwork, and learning from mistakes–not heroics or checklists alone. High-risk industries like aviation improve safety by focusing on systems, psychological safety, and fact-based decisions.…
There's a lot to admire about Elon Musk. I admire his risk taking and his entrepreneurial spirit. I use PayPal a lot (one of his early companies) and I admire the innovation of Tesla and SpaceX. But, I question how much Musk and Tesla have been willing to learn from Toyota or people like Paul O'Neill.
I often get asked a question along the lines of "So, what exactly do you do?" Today, I give some updates about my various projects and partnerships, including continuing with KaiNexus (with a different title) and a new partnership with Value Capture.
Last month, I saw this article from the publication Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN), where they summarized a speech given by the legendary Dr. Don Berwick at the National Patient Safety Foundation annual conference: Don Berwick’s 7 Roadblocks to Improving…
One of the highlights of my podcasting adventures was the opportunity to interview Paul H. O'Neill back in 2011. The original episode was posted here as #124 in the series. This post a summary of our discussion.
This week is the annual Patient Safety Awareness Week. As the National Patient Safety Foundation says, “Every day is patient safety day.” I’ve expressed similar sentiments here on the blog before. I think we need more ongoing efforts to raise…
Later today and tomorrow, I’ll be attending the annual World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit that’s produced by a non-profit called the Patient Safety Movement. If you’re also at the event, please say hi! Follow the event on the…