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.
This article caught my eye recently: “Canada leads in surgical mishaps.” By “leads,” the article means they have a high number of mishaps (which is really more of a trailing position, not a leading one). I’m not here to quibble…
Yesterday, the MIT SDM program hosted a webinar by Dr. Jack Billi from University of Michigan. I had the good fortune to meet Dr. Billi a few times during my involvement in the Healthcare Value Network. He is an extremely…
As mentioned in Monday’s post with Podcast #131 (Paul Borawski, CEO of the American Society for Quality), ASQ had a contest where members could submit videos about the impact of Quality on their careers and lives. The page for their…
Listen: My guest for episode #131 is Paul Borawski, the CEO of ASQ, the American Society for Quality. Today, we are talking about ASQ, their recent World Quality Month events (November), and other topics including:
This made news on Wednesday – Dr. Donald M. (Don) Berwick stepped down as CMS Administrator: “Harvard professor Don Berwick resigns as Medicare chief.” I had supported Dr. Berwick… but it didn’t really mean much because I’m not a U.S.…
I’m still looking for a published news source for this, but I learned earlier today from Paul Borawski, the CEO of the American Society for Quality, that an omnibus spending bill signed Friday by President Obama marked the end of…
Why inspection alone does not prevent defects TL;DR: Even with multiple editors and spell checks, publishing errors still occur. This post uses real examples to illustrate why 100% inspection is not 100% effective, a lesson that matters even more in…
American hospitals are concerned (understatement!) about their future revenues as healthcare reform gets implemented. I heard one senior executive tell his staff, “We are never going to be paid more for the work that we do than we are today.”…
Some people might find this graphic inflammatory, if they are feeling defensive about the state of healthcare and if they feel like they are being blamed personally. The data in this infographic represents the current state, to the best of…
tl;dr: When a leader yells, people learn fear–not lessons. True coaching means helping others learn from mistakes instead of punishing them. Whether on the football field or in the workplace, the best leaders build confidence, not compliance. I was happy…
When I recently interviewed Paul O’Neill and Dr. Richard Shannon about the amazing improvements in patient safety that had been made in the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative organizations, they each seemed a bit frustrated that these simple, yet effective, methods…
Listen: Podcast #128 turns the tables a bit, as your host Mark Graban is, this time, interviewed by Dirk Dusharme and Ryan Day from the online video show “Quality Digest Live.” Thanks to Quality Digest, I’m able to share the…
