Tag: Quality

Quality: Leadership, Systems Thinking, and Continuous Improvement

Quality doesn’t come from inspection, pressure, or choosing between speed and accuracy. It comes from well-designed systems, capable processes, and leaders who focus on learning instead of blame. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on quality through a Lean and Deming lens—covering psychological safety, metrics, variation, leadership behavior, healthcare quality, and why sustainable improvement depends on fixing systems rather than managing people harder.

Throwback Thursday: This Hospital CEO Was Never Going to Get Lean

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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:

Podcast #229 – John Dyer, Reflections on Deming, Six Sigma, and...

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My guest for episode #229 is John Dyer, president of his consulting firm, JD&A, Inc., and a contributor for IndustryWeek.com. John started his career...

Throwback Thursday: Inc. Writes About Dr. Deming in 1987

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I stumbled across an article from the Inc. magazine archives from 1987, so it's today's "Throwback Thursday." In 1987, I was starting high school and...

I Wish I Could Say I Intentionally Made This Mistake to...

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As I mentioned on Monday, I'm working on a 3rd revised edition of my book Lean Hospitals. Traditional book publishing is a funny (and sometimes frustrating)...

Using Lean to Organize Hospital Closets… NPR Commenters Are Not Impressed

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I saw this story when it originally appeared online as part of a local public radio station in California. It was now picked up nationally...

Parody Video: Keith Olber-Lean and the “Worst Persons in the Lean...

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In this post, I'll present a parody video of Keith Olbermann's "worst persons in the sports world" videos. I don't know how much overlap there...

See How a British Psychiatrist is Using LEGO Videos to Explain...

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A collection of creative videos was recently brought to my attention and I'd like to share them here. They are created by Dr. Mark...

How Do You Deliver Quality and Value Faster? Steve Spear on...

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Editor's note (2026): In an era of AI, dashboards, and real-time data, Spear's reminder still holds: information only matters if it changes behavior. TL;DR: Steve...

U.S. Hospitals Have the Best E.R. Care for Kids, But Aren’t...

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There's been a back-and-forth of views about the state of pediatric emergency medicine recently in the Wall Street Journal. Let me start first, actually, with...

Dr. Atul Gawande’s Article on Reducing the Waste of Unnecessary Healthcare

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I've been a big fan of Dr. Atul Gawande's writing for a long time (see previous posts about him and his work). His latest article...

Cleaning out the Backlog: 3P in the NHS, “Secret” HAI Weapons,...

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As I sometimes do, I'm going to close out a bunch of browser tabs (which makes my Mac run faster) and I'll do that...

Throwback Thursday: A Lean Healthcare Conference From 2007

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Back in 2007, I had my first opportunity to travel to England, a country I really love visiting. I had the chance to attend...
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