TL;DR: Lean is about designing systems that make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing. When software like Excel allows irreversible mistakes with a single misclick–and no meaningful confirmation or undo–it violates basic…
On Saturday, I visited a clinic housed in a retail pharmacy... my symptoms turned out to be caused by an ear infection. The nurse practitioner ended up explaining some symptoms of a poorly-implemented IT system and what sounds like some other management dysfunctions. I jokingly offered to bill her for a counseling session.
Mistake proofing is a core Lean / TPS concept that makes it harder for people to do the wrong thing. Ideally, we make it impossible for errors to occur. This might be easier in physical settings, but can also be done in the digital realm.
Joining me for episode #199 is Jeff Gothelf (@jboogie), talking about “Lean UX” or “Lean User Experience,” a key method for software development, usually used in conjunction with design thinking, agile development, and Lean Startup business practices. Jeff is author…
Some of you might have seen it, but I wrote a piece for the LinkedIn Influencers series about how the “Lean Manufacturing” principles are being used in various “knowledge work” settings – including healthcare, education, software, government, financial services, etc.…
Yesterday, I had a chance to visit Menlo Innovations, a software company in Ann Arbor, MI. I was happy to not only meet their CEO (and my recent podcast guest) Rich Sheridan, but to meet team members and get a…
Last week, while in Canada, I saw this article in the Globe & Mail: “The power of the startup mindset.” I was surprised that the word “Lean” didn’t appear in the headline (there was physical space for it in the…
Mark’s Note: Today’s post is a guest post by Nial Toner, who works for PathXL in the UK. I thought this was an interesting post because it touches on leader behaviors and team dynamics in a setting that we don’t…
Here are a few upcoming free webinars that I am participating in… I hope you are interested and can attend: Mark Graban & Joe Swartz – Healthcare Kaizen Join Shingo Research Award recipients, lean experts and authors of Healthcare Kaizen,…
Joining me for episode #155 is Jim Benson, co-author of the book Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life. Jim is the founder of a company with a great name, Modus Cooperandi. He is, most notably, the creator of the…
Many leaders in healthcare (including John Toussaint, Paul Levy, and others) are working to eliminate the “name, blame, and shame” culture that often exists in hospitals. This push (in my mind) started with W. Edwards Deming, who taught that 94%…
It’s been about a year since I started working with a software startup KaiNexus. We’ve made a lot of progress in that year, refining our product, signing on more early adopter customers, and adding more talent as we continue pretty…