For today’s “Throwback Thursday,” I recently re-watched parts of a DVD I helped produce a few years back for the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value — Thinking Lean at ThedaCare DVD: Strategy Deployment, Alignment & Leadership. In the video, ThedaCare’s CEO, Dr.…
Following up my earlier post about the “Patriot Way…” During her halftime extravaganza (video), Katy Perry had a silver strap around her wrist, attached to the microphone. It reminded me of the Nintendo Wii strap that helps prevent throwing the controller (Update:…
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…
I’ve been overdue in writing more posts about our Japan tour that took place two months ago now. See previous posts in this series. I’m going to try to do one post a week on this topic. It’s always fascinating…
I’m guessing that many of you know Bruce Hamilton’s wonderful “Toast Kaizen” video from GBMP. When I use clips of the video for teaching Lean and Kaizen principles, part of the discussion is about how to go from the current…
Note: Scroll down to see comments for additional links, articles, videos and discussion. As I’ve written about (here and here) poor systems, a lack of protocols, and not adhering to protocols and standard practices are almost always “system problems.” A…
Although I’m a proud alum of Northwestern University, a former marching band member, and an ardent follower of our football team (as I’ve written about before), I grew up as a fan of the Michigan Wolverines and have many friends…
In a Lean culture, the mindset is that “problems are treasure” or “problems are gold.” By honestly identifying problems, we can solve problems and prevent them from occurring in the future. Problems in healthcare can include medication errors, laboratory specimen…
Recently, while watching part of The Simpsons marathon that aired on FXX, I was inspired to write this post: “Proof That Nelson from The Simpsons is Not a Good Kaizen Coach.” That led Simon from Germany to point out a different…
My blog will turn 10 years old in February 2015. You’re probably either thinking, “Wow, that’s awesome!” or “Get a life, dude.” :-) Here’s a look back at some of the posts from August 6 in past years… what was…
Today is the first day of the 5th annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. Follow along on Twitter with hashtag #HCSummit14 to see my tweets and thoughts from others. I will be adding updates to this post during the day, as well. These are not…
TL;DR: GM’s “Speak Up for Safety” program targets the wrong problem. Employees spoke up about the ignition switch for more than a decade. Leaders didn’t listen. The problem at GM wasn’t that employees didn’t speak up. An engineer flagged the…
