Lean Blog Audio

http://www.leanblog.org/audio274 I find it really interesting when scientific facts and truth get superseded by new evidence. Science isn't supposed to be stubborn… it's OK to cast aside the old status quo when we learn something new (pay attention, “flat Earth” crowd). There are a lot of these themes, also, in a book I've been reading, The Case Against Sugar, by Gary Taubes. Some of the established science about low-fat diets being good for us might not really be true. How does this all apply in medicine and our practice of Lean? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

I haven't read it, but Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing has been a pop-culture phenomenon the past few years. I've seen some compare her process to the Lean practice of “5S.” Kondo says you should only keep an item if it “sparks joy.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

Here's an interesting column from Becker's Hospital Review, written by Michael Dowling, President and CEO, Northwell Health. I'm guessing he created the headline, since the phrase “give a damn” doesn't appear in the article: "Michael Dowling: CEOs — Give a damn about your people" Who are the CEOs he is speaking to who do NOT give a damn? What inspired him to write this? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

Yesterday's blog post was about a situation (with my podcast hosting service) that triggered memories of my time at General Motors in 1995. Today's post is about a recent article on Boeing that definitely caused me to think of that broken, dysfunctional “pre-Lean” culture that I suffered through (and learned from) in my first year at GM. In 1995, nobody claimed GM was Lean so the expectations were low. They were who they were and my new plant manager in 1996 started to change things. Boeing is a company that has been pointed at as a great example of Lean Manufacturing, so it's troubling to read reports that suggest otherwise. From the New York Times: Claims of Shoddy Production Draw Scrutiny to a Second Boeing Jet Workers at a 787 Dreamliner plant in South Carolina have complained of defective manufacturing, debris left on planes and pressure to not report violations. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

Episode #270 Ever since I started podcasting in 2006, I've been using a company called “Hipcast” to be the “hosting” company for the podcast audio files and feeds. For those of you not familiar with podcasting, that's the website where I upload podcast audio files… and they then serve those files when requested by services like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This has been an aggravating week or so, since Hipcast has been having a lot of technical issues going back to last Tuesday or so. Their website has been down, the podcast feeds (RSS feeds) have been broken. People haven't been able to listen to my podcasts unless they had already downloaded the episodes through their app. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

Is "Kaizen" a Slogan or a Methodology for the Seattle Mariners? Here is an interesting article that a few people pointed me toward the other day about the Seattle Mariners team: Mariners Sunday mailbag: Explaining the Japanese origin of the team's new slogan “Manager Scott Servais does have a mantra each year for the team, which is supposed to serve as a reminder of their purpose and responsibility… This year, Servais chose a Japanese word: Kaizen. An avid reader, Servais got it from a book by Masaaki Imai called Kaizen: The key to Japan's competitive success.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

Today, I'm writing about another view, from an article co-authored by our friend Dr. John Toussaint and the CEO of ZSFGH, Dr. Susan Ehrlich: Changing Leadership Behavior Gets Real Results As I blogged about yesterday, new leadership behaviors (sometimes as the result of getting a new leader) can make a huge difference for an organization — this was true during my time at General Motors and I've seen it in healthcare. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

Today, I'm reading the latest issue of Health Leaders magazine (March/April 2019) whose cover features a number of stories about nursing retention. The lead article shares some data about recruitment and retention. The article says that 17% of “newly licensed RNs” leave their first nursing job “within the first year.” 33% leave within two years. Instead of blaming nurses for leaving, better organizations are looking in the mirror to see what they can do to improve the work environment. That's always been one of my primary motivations for Lean in any workplace — providing a better, more fulfilling work setting. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

Here's an interesting recent article from the Wall Street Journal (you might require a subscription to read it): The Economy's Last Best Hope: Superstar Middle Managers Anemic growth, millennial malaise, you name it–blame a lack of inspiring bosses I'll comment first that organizations that have high aspirations of “Lean Transformation” need to have “transformational leaders.” Sadly, those transformational leaders seem to be few and far between. How many organizations have “bureaucrats” at the helm? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

Lean Should be the Solution to Hospital Overwork or Understaffing --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

When I had the chance to go back to Japan last October with Honsha, there was a big focus on what the former Toyota people kept referring to as "a development company." The meaning was that Toyota (and companies with similar performance) focus first and foremost on developing people. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

Value is Defined by the Customer (and not all Customers are the Same) http://www.leanblog.org/audio263 It's said in the Lean methodology that “value is defined by the customer.” Value can be defined as, in most cases, “Something the customer is willing to pay for.” In healthcare, this gets complicated when patients aren't the ones paying and when patients need care instead of wanting it. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

For Big Leaps With New Year’s Resolutions, Start With Baby Steps Thanks to the Lean Enterprise Institute for publishing my article about Kaizen, new habits, and New Year's resolutions: Take Baby Steps Towards Improvement Get the link: http://www.leanblog.org/audio262 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

Back in 2013, I wrote a post that I published as part of the LinkedIn Influencer series: The Carrot and The Stick “On Steroids” Please check it out. I hope it makes you chuckle and think. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

It's been a while since I've contributed something to the Lean Enterprise Institute's online publication, The Lean Post (see past articles). Today, they're allowing me to introduce some ideas from my book Measures of Success. Many "Lean thinkers" just haven't been exposed to these ideas. Many haven't read Deming or Wheeler... it's not their fault for not knowing of Process Behavior Charts and methods like this. But, I hope this post helps people see that "bowling charts" and "red/green" analysis are not the only way (or the best way) to look at metrics. My article: "React Less and Improve More by Using SPC More Effectively" --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

A retired labor leader from the automotive industry (who reads this blog) sent me a link to this article: #RedforMed: 1,800 Vermont Nurses Are On Strike Demanding Their Hospital Put Patients Over Profits The article isn't from a newspaper; it's from a site that provides "independent and incisive coverage of the labor movement and the struggles of workers to obtain safe, healthy and just workplaces." Again, for the record, I'm all in favor of "safety, healthy, and just workplaces." That's what Lean management aims to deliver. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

http://leanblog.org/audio258 “ER wait times down, but only slightly” or ER wait times are virtually the same? This article was sent by a friend and blog reader from Winnipeg the other day: “ER wait times down, but only slightly” Oh good, the waiting times are down. But what does “only slightly” mean? Have ER wait times gone down in a meaningful way? Or are they just comparing two data points? Is this “down” a signal or is it just noise in the system? These are the types of questions that can be answered by methods in my new book Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

The Catch-22 of #Lean & Kaizen: You Get More ROI by NOT Focusing Only on High-ROI Projects http://www.leanblog.org/audio257 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

Leaders & Lean: We Need to Better Support Doctors and Other Providers When surgeons have no better options than complaining about process problems on LinkedIn, are their leaders and organizations really properly supporting them? In this post, we'll explore questions of blame, accountability, and engaging people in process improvement... being of better service to them. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support

My Talk in Vegas: Leadership Lessons from Statistics and Psychology Today, I’m giving a keynote talk at the Lean & Six Sigma World Conference being held in Las Vegas. I don’t normally attend or speak at “Lean Sigma” events, but I had an opportunity to give a new talk that touches on two of my favorite themes in recent years – the need to apply statistics and psychology to our “Lean Management” practices or Six Sigma or whatever. I also bury the lede and talk about the soft launch of my book "Measures of Success." --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lean-blog-audio/support