One of the two main pillars of the Toyota Way management system is "respect for people." I've blogged about that often over the past ten years, including this post.Lean provides a philosophy and a management model that should be nothing but good for staff and patients. The idea of "respect for people" might sound nice in principle, but what does it mean in a practical sense. Respect for people can be illustrated in these ten ways, and more:
Mar 10, 2015•9 min
As often happens, I have too many open browser tabs full of articles that I was going to potentially blog about. Too much WIP (a problem that Jim Benson will discuss in our upcoming Boston workshop).So, it’s time for me to clear out my backlog and to share some articles I’ve been reading with some quick notes, instead of full blog posts. Well, I got my backlog down by three. I’ll try again next week with some shorter blurbs about more articles, perhaps.
Mar 09, 2015•8 min
http://leanblog.org/audio29 Some of you might know that I'm on the board of a Texas-based non profit, the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation. It's an important organization that helps patients, family members, and hospitals work together in the name of better care and safer care.One of the ways the Foundation helps is their publication "The Batz Guide for Bedside Advocacy." You can get a free PDF version or get a free iPad app version that does even more than a book can. Or, another option...
Mar 06, 2015•9 min
This article caught my attention the other day, primarily because I like scotch, whisky (and whiskey and bourbon). The Japanese love scotch whisky and have long produced a product that's a variation of scotch -- Japanese whisky (the lack of a standardized spelling for whiskey is an endless debate). I'll settle on "whisky."The article: Japanese Whisky Got a Lot of Hype, But Can One Bottle Really Be the Best? Now, you might not care about "the brownest of the brown liquors" (Simpsons reference), b...
Mar 05, 2015•8 min
Here's another video in the series that Joe Swartz and I shot at Franciscan St. Francis Health back in October. See them all here or via a YouTube playlist.You might remember pharmacy manager Ronda Freije from two previous videos. Here, she talks about a concept called "Seven Days' Grace." It's a concept that Joe Swartz and I wrote about in Healthcare Kaizen using stories from Franciscan (see excerpts via Google Books).
Mar 04, 2015•5 min
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 it's about topics that I hope we'd agree are relevant: Transparency of quality and patient safety data Making that data easily available and understandable by patients Using that data to hopefully make better decisions about where we get care Hoping that data, transparency, an...
Mar 03, 2015•9 min
http://leanblog.org/audio25 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 done.I wanted to share a story from Karen Kiel-Rosser, Vice President/Quality Improvement Officer, at Mary Greeley Medical Center in Iowa. MGMC is a KaiNexus customer, they've recently received the "Gold" level recognition in the st...
Feb 26, 2015•8 min
http://leanblog.org/audio24 It's really easy to make statements like "patient safety is our top priority." That same statement can be applied to hospital staff, as well.Or, it should. But the "happy talk" (as Pascal Dennis calls it) isn't always followed up by action. When a hospital executive makes the "safety is always our top priority" statement, is it REALLY true? Is that statement backed up by action and integrity or does it just sound good?
Feb 25, 2015•9 min
"Accountability" is a word that's easy to throw around in an organization. It's often pretty meaningless (or not well understood). What does it really mean? http://leanblog.org/audio23
Feb 23, 2015•7 min
Recently, I've seen many examples where businesses don't pay attention to little details. When you see little things going wrong, it makes you wonder about the more important stuff. One example from healthcare might be this story from the Cleveland Clinic, where patients told the CEO that there were dust balls under the beds in patient rooms. Why don't staff notice these things? Why don't they have better standardized work for cleaning the patient rooms?What are some of the other problems that I...
Feb 19, 2015•10 min
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" (which is meant to seem more positive than saying "minuses," I guess) are the things that could be improved upon. A "delta" is a gap between where you are and where you want to be. After being in the doctor's office for just over an hour, nobody said "let's plus / delta...
Feb 17, 2015•7 min
http://leanblog.org/audio19 This article caught my attention the other day: "Philly VA employees ask for golf shirts in suggestion box for improving veteran care." I hesitate to throw stones, but there are some very predictable dynamics involved here... and I will provide some ideas about a better approach and not just criticize.
Feb 16, 2015•8 min
I'm planning two different workshops in the coming months:Boston 3/31: "Successful Lean Teams" - Personal Kanban (with Jim Benson) and Kaizen Indianapolis 4/22-23: On-site Kaizen Workshop at Franciscan St. Francis Health System
Feb 16, 2015•4 min
It's easy to point fingers at others who don't do what they know they're supposed to do. It's sometimes helpful to be reflective and introspective instead of just trying to figure others out...
Feb 11, 2015•5 min
What is the "productivity paradox" as coined by Erik Brynjolfsson of MIT and is there also a "Kaizen paradox?" http://leanblog.org/audio17
Feb 06, 2015•6 min
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. Dean Gruner, is talking about their "True North" objectives. First and foremost in that list is safety. We can include patient safety and provider/employee safety in that discussion.
Feb 05, 2015•4 min
http://leanblog.org/audio15 I have lived in Boston two different times, but I'm hardly a New England Patriots fan. I realize they have been accused of cheating (the previous "Spygate" controversy where they violated league rules by videotaping the hand signals of opposition defensive coaches and the recent "deflategate" controversy).For an organization to be truly admirable, integrity has to come first. Integrity is non-negotiable. There are many questions about the Patriots... But, there were a...
Feb 01, 2015•6 min
My wife and I were late to the wildly popular podcast "Serial," but we listened to the first six episodes while traveling over the holidays. I ran hot and cold on the serialized non-fiction story about a murder... it was somewhat interesting, but a bit drawn out. The show requires a lot of patience (and at least eight hours of listening).I wonder how many of you were hooked on Serial, as many of my friends seemed to be? Saturday Night Live did a Christmas/Santa-themed parody of the show. That, a...
Jan 30, 2015•8 min
Here's look back at a post from 2011 that talks about some of the misunderstandings that are thrown around about Lean and Six Sigma, with some new content and an audio clip from a speaker who gets this very wrong.
Jan 29, 2015•10 min
A look back at my visit to a Toyota plant in Japan, with a group of global healthcare leaders, in November 2014 (part 2 of episode 11 of this series). Topics include andon cords, proper breaks, and 5s (or is it 4s?).
Jan 27, 2015•7 min
A look back at my visit to a Toyota plant in Japan, with a group of global healthcare leaders, in November 2014.
Jan 20, 2015•7 min
It's sad and unfortunate when leaders SAY they want a culture of continuous improvement, but don't walk the walk.
Jan 19, 2015•6 min
Working with a personal fitness trainer has helped me see parallels to what I do with Lean... how my clients maybe see the world and things that I can do better as a coach, trainer, mentor, and consultant.I don't often get to be on the "coachee" side of the coaching equation. When I work with other consultants, like Karen Martin, that gives me a chance to get coached -- receiving positive feedback and being challenged to improve. When I've used a speaking coach, Kathryn Partan, it's very helpful...
Jan 18, 2015•11 min
Continuing the“Throwback Thursday” theme for the 10th anniversary of my blog, today’s post looks back at and builds upon one of my favorites from 2007. The post is a “GM War Story” from 1995 when I was just starting my career: “GM Got Gamed (Or, How to Fudge Your Production Numbers)” You can hearthat in episode 1 of this podcast - http://www.leanblog.org/audio1
Jan 15, 2015•7 min
It seems to me that a strategy deployment process can be described as a series of hypotheses that are tested over time. Strategy deployment is a high-level annual PDSA cycle that contains embedded PDSA cycles of analysis, improvement, measurement, and adjustment. http://leanblog.org/audio7
Jan 14, 2015•8 min
A post from 1/13/15. Why are healthcare professionals afraid to speak up, in military medicine or other settings? http://leanblog.org/audio6
Jan 13, 2015•9 min
A post from 1/12/15, looking at how the two teams in the College Football Playoff championship game are doing some things differently than the way things have always been done. http://leanblog.org/audio5
Jan 12, 2015•9 min
A post from 2007... I was thinking back to some first-hand experience I had when I started my career at a GM engine plant, circa 1995. It’s the most blatant example of someone intentionally distorting data that I’ve ever seen… but it’s totally understandable. I blame the senior leaders, not the front-line supervisor in this case...,
Jan 11, 2015•8 min
Looking back at two slides Mark used about 10 years when introducing Lean to healthcare executives http://leanblog.org/audio3
Jan 08, 2015•7 min
Mark describes some key points from the book "Four Days With Dr. Deming." Learn more at http://www.leanblog.org/audio2
Jan 07, 2015•6 min
