Ah, whiskey. I like whiskey. I’m not afraid to say that. I’ve blogged about whiskey (or whisky) once before: Why Kaizen is an Important Differentiator for Japanese Whisky. I also have a personal Kaizen story that I need to write about...
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 Spear argues that organizations deliver quality and value faster not by working harder, but by…
People often say Lean is pretty simple (or that it’s just “common sense“). Yeah, some of the concepts are simple… but sometimes deceptively so. Or, we find that it’s easier to describe Lean (as a management system, a set of…
Last year, the Institute of Medicine released its latest report titled, “Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America.” The report endorsed Lean as one strategy for improving the problems in our health care…
I hope you’ll join me and a lot of Lean friends at the 2012 Northeast Shingo Prize Conference, to be held in Worcester, MA September 25 and 26. I’m honored to be part of a great program (PDF), with keynote…
On Friday, there was yet another Wall Street Journal article about Lean (fixating as they always do on the “Just In Time” component). The article titled “For Lean Factories, No Buffer” yet again takes an outdated 1980s view that Lean…
I wanted to post a few updates about some efforts related to the Lean Enterprise Institute: WIHI audio session on lean healthcare today 4 PM with John Toussaint, Steve Spear, and Gary Kaplan The upcoming book “On the Mend“ Our…
I’ve been a fan of the “Lean Startups” work of Eric Ries since last year, so I’m happy to be producing a free LEI webinar called “Lessons from Lean Startups,” to be presented live on April 28 at 2 PM…
Episode #87 is a discussion with a returning guest, Steven J. Spear, DBA, author of the outstanding book Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders Outdistance the Competition and How Great Companies Can Catch Up and Win. The book is due…
It’s an honor to again contribute to John Hunter’s amalgamated Management Improvement Blog Carnival. The main page is located here. Ten bloggers are each selecting a few favorite posts from their favorite blogs to highlight. It’s quite a collection. Dan…
Wachter’s World: Can Patients Help Ensure Their Own Safety? More Importantly, Why Should They Have To? The whole subject of asking patients and families to participate in safeguarding their own safety is something I’ve written about before and the idea…
While in Boston, I’m getting the chance to sit in on some sessions of an MIT Seminar in Healthcare Systems Innovation. Today, the session that focused a lot of Lean as a means to improve quality and cost. Lean is…
