Lean Blog Audio

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), but there's an interesting detail in the article about the Kaizen mindset of continuous improvement. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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). --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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, and choice puts positive pressure on every health system to get better. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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 state Baldrige process, and she's an upcoming podcast guest (to talk about Baldrige). --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

"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 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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've seen just in the past two weeks? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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 your visit before you go." That never happens in a clinic setting. At best, you might get some sort of survey after the fact. But, the point of a good constructive "plus / delta" discussion is to give immediate feedback to those who might be able to make some improvements. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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... --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

What is the "productivity paradox" as coined by Erik Brynjolfsson of MIT and is there also a "Kaizen paradox?" http://leanblog.org/audio17 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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 few things that jumped out at me in a Saturday WSJ article on the Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick: "Deflategate Masks the Many Virtues of Belichick." --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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, and some free time after the holidays, inspired me to create a short Lean parody (no, I'm not doing an entire series). --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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?). --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

A look back at my visit to a Toyota plant in Japan, with a group of global healthcare leaders, in November 2014. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

It's sad and unfortunate when leaders SAY they want a culture of continuous improvement, but don't walk the walk. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

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 because I try to improve and I see how somebody else approaches coaching and client work. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support