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.
Today’s post is hosted over at LinkedIn, as part of my participation in the LinkedIn Influencers series. The post is titled: “The One Thing Google Should Show When You Search for a Hospital.” It’s not about Lean per se, but…
In yesterday’s blog post (“Safety is always our top priority” – From lip service to daily practice?“), I challenged hospital leaders to back up the “happy talk” with real action and stories about putting safety first. It’s easier said than…
It’s a pretty common facilitation technique to do a “plus / delta” discussion at the end of a meeting, exercise, etc. In the plus column go the things that went well, were enjoyable, were helpful, and should repeated. The “deltas”…
I’m honored to have been interviewed by Dr. Robert Wachter for his “Web M&M” interview series on the AHRQ website. In Conversation with…Mark Graban, MS, MBA Dr. Wachter is a leader in the patient safety movement who I’ve respected and admired…
Last week, I wrote a post (part 1) looking back at our visit to the Toyota Tsutsumi factory that was part of our Japan tour that took place two months ago now. See previous posts in this series. I’m going to try to…
Today and tomorrow, I’m attending the “Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit” in Irvine, California, as part of my role as a board member for the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation. I’m taking notes via Twitter and I will post some below.…
Announcement: Dr. Greg Jacobson and I are doing a new webinar for KaiNexus on “More Leadership Behaviors That Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement‘” on January 27. It’s free… learn more and register here. * * * * * *…
TL;DR: Quality Circles are still thriving in Japanese hospitals and companies–rooted in the philosophy of developing people through structured problem solving. What some in the West now call “A3 Thinking” or “PDSA” is alive and well in Japan as a…
Note: This is being republished, with permission, under a Creative Commons license. See the original ProPublica page and comments. by Marshall Allen ProPublica, Sep. 19, 2013, 10:03 a.m.by Charles Ornstein and Lena Groeger, ProPublicaby Dan Nguyen, Charles Ornstein and Tracy…
I was recently interviewed by one of the reporters who put together this web article in Canada: “From the factory floor to the emergency department: Hospitals explore Lean method” The article highlights Lean success stories and it also raises some…
There are certainly many serious problems in healthcare. Let’s look at nursing, in particular. It’s a rewarding job, but it’s far more frustrating for nurses than it needs to be. Nurses often don’t have enough time in the day (or…
What happens when a mistake is made in your organization? How do you react when an error occurs? A lab specimen gets mislabeled. The wrong product is shipped to the wrong customer. A patient is injected with the wrong medication.…