Lean Blog Interviews: Real-World Lean Leadership Conversations in Healthcare and Beyond

Joining me again for Episode #308 is Mike Grogan, a previous guest in episodes #182 (from Tanzania) and #224. Mike now lives in the Philippines, where he's helping and coaching many people and has written a new book, The MESSI Way. In this episode, we talk about the idea of "personal Lean" and being the best version of yourself. I appreciate Mike's reflections and honesty and I think we had a grea...

Joining me for Episode #307 of the podcast is my friend Andre DeMerchant, the President of DeMerchant Healthcare Solutions Inc., based in Kitchener, Ontario. We first crossed paths when we had the chance to work together with an American healthcare client via our then-affiliation with Pascal Dennis and Lean Pathways.  In today's episode, we talk about Andre's history working for Toyota in Canada a...

Podcast #306 - Mark D. Valenti, Motivational Interviewing and Health System Improvement My guest for Episode #306 is Mark D. Valenti, the manager of training, education, and workflow integration for the Enhanced Community Care Management (ECCM) at Highmark Health. In this episode, Mark and I talk about the use of "Motivational Interviewing" methods and mindsets in the ECCM program and how "everyda...

Respect for People and Continuous Improvement for Healthcare I was recently asked to do a recorded video presentation for a medical conference in Turkey. I spoke about the dual pillars of "The Toyota Way": Respect for People Continuous Improvement The video is about 20 minutes, split about half and half on each of those interrelated topics. I'm coming to you from a hotel room, somewhat tired after...

Episode page Back on the podcast for the fifth time is my friend  David Meier , a Lean / TPS consultant who is a former Toyota leader at their plant in Georgetown, Kentucky. He's gotten into what's, perhaps, the most Kentucky of industries…  distilling bourbon  (and more). You can also listen to another, much longer  episode where David and I talk about bourbon, whiskey, and continuous improvement...

Joining me for Episode #303 is Craig Deao, a senior leader with Studer Group. From his bio: "Since 2006, Craig Deao, MHA, has been an integral part of Studer Group as a senior leader for the organization's speaking and conferences teams, and he now directs thought leadership across Huron [Consulting Group]'s broader healthcare practice. Craig is a highly regarded national speaker on leadership, en...

My guest for Episode #302 is Katie Anderson, following up on her last appearances in Episode #233 (when she was living in Japan) and Episode #275 (after she returned to the U.S.). Today, we're chatting because I've just returned from a short trip to Japan and Katie's going back in May (and you can join her). We're sharing observations and reflections on topics ranging from standardized work to Kai...

This podcast is sponsored by Cardinal Health. All opinions expressed here are those of Joe Swartz and not of his employer or any other organization. Joining me again for episode #301 of the podcast is Joe Swartz, my friend and co-author for our books Healthcare Kaizen and The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen:. You can learn more about our books here. He also contributed a chapter to the book P...

Episode page Remastered October 2022 My guests for Episode #300 of the podcast are Tracey and Ernie Richardson, authors of the excellent book titled: The Toyota Engagement Equation: How to Understand and Implement Continuous Improvement Thinking in Any Organization The book is full of solid insights and personal experiences from their time working for Toyota in Georgetown, Kentucky at the plant kn...

Joining me again for episode #299 of the podcast is Joe Swartz, my friend and esteemed co-author for our books Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements and The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen: Leadership for a Continuously Learning and Improving Organization. Episode page with links and more. You can learn more about our books here. He was previously...

Joining me again for Episode #298 is Billy R. Taylor, for Part 2 of a discussion we started in Episode #293. Last week, a friend texted me last week and said he couldn't wait for Part 2. He said he pulled off the road to take some notes when he listened to Part 1. So without further ado, here is Part 2. Here, we discuss "extreme ownership," why creating ownership is more important than forcing acc...

My guest for Episode #297 is John (JJ) Villarreal, Ed. D., the superintendent of the Rockwall I.S.D. here in the Dallas area. In this podcast, we talk about the applications of Lean in education, how to move beyond what JJ calls "the behavior waste of judgment and blame," and how visiting a factory was inspiring and helpful, among other topics. Even if you don't work in education, I hope you'll be...

Joining me for Episode #296 of the podcast is Zeev N. Kain, MD. MBA, FAAP. He is a physician and a Chancellor's Professor at the University of California, Irvine. See his full bio. He has many additional roles and titles, including: Director, System Redesign & Value Based Care for the UC-Irvine Health Policy Research Institute Executive Director of the UCI-Yale Center on Stress & Health President...

My guests for Episode #295 are Sarah Steinberg of Atrius Health and Ted Toussaint, a healthcare innovation strategist, formerly of Atrius Health. Ted is also a faculty member for Catalysis.  Today, we're talking about some innovative work that they led at Atrius, using a variety of modern product development and innovation methods, including Lean, Lean Startup, Design Thinking, and more to create...

Joining me for episode #294 is Clay Linkous, an account leader and speaker with Studer Group. He is an accomplished cultural transformation and leadership expert who has synthesized Lean and other improvement methods with Studer Group principles and practices. Today, we'll talk about Clay's career and his purpose and motivations - both for working in healthcare and improving healthcare. We're both...

My guest for Episode #293 of the podcast is a dynamic speaker and manufacturing leader, Billy R. Taylor. I saw him speak a few years ago at a Shingo Prize Conference and I've wanted to get him on the podcast ever since. He's currently the Director of Commercial, Off Highway, and Support Manufacturing North America for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Over the past 20 years, he has risen from "t...

Today, our topic is something that I've really taken an interest in the past two years: "Motivational Interviewing." See my past blog posts on this subject. I think it's a powerful methodology that will help anybody in their Lean transformation efforts... as well as our work engaging anybody in a small improvement. "Motivational Interviewing" or M.I. is defined by Miller and Rollnick (in their sem...

My guest for Episode 291 is my friend and colleague, Jeff Roussel (@jeff_roussel on Twitter). Jeff is the VP of Sales at KaiNexus, a technology company that I have been involved with for over six years. As Jeff will humbly explain in the podcast, he joined our team almost four years ago as an experienced sales leader, not as an expert in Lean or process improvement. But, he's a voracious learner a...

@EricRies: From #LeanStartup to "The Startup Way" Joining me again for episode 290 is a three-time guest, Eric Ries. When we first talked, in episode 115 six years ago, his New York Times bestselling book The Lean Startup was being published. In 2012, we discussed the impact of Toyota's Taiichi Ohno on his work, in episode 142. This time, we're talking about his new book, The Startup Way. In this...

Episode page Audio remastered January 2023 My guests for Episode #289 are Kathleen Sharp, MBOE, LSS MBB, now the Director of Optimization at McLeod Health, and David Schoenwetter, D.O., FACEP, a Medical Director at Geisinger Medical Center. They are joining me to talk about the innovative Geisinger Mobile Health Paramedic program that they developed and piloted with Lean thinking throughout. Kathl...

Joining me again for Episode #288 is Dean Gruner, MD, the recently retired CEO of ThedaCare, a health system in Wisconsin that has long been considered a worldwide leader in the practice of Lean in healthcare. Recently, in Episode #286, Dean shared his reflections on his work and ThedaCare's "Lean journey." Today, the topic is Accountable Care Organizations and other bigger-picture healthcare refo...

Joining me today for Episode #287 is another returning guest (see Episode #198), Harry Kenworthy. We're talking about his book, which will be released on Friday, Lean Government NOW! : Increase Service, Capacity and Employee Engagement While Reducing Costs and Wastes. The book is now available for pre-sale on Amazon at $19.95 (until September 7, 2017, at a $5.00 discount from list price). Harry wa...

My guest for Episode #286 is Dean Gruner, MD, the recently retired CEO of ThedaCare, a health system in Wisconsin that has long been considered a worldwide leader in the practice of Lean in healthcare. See this article about his retirement, where he says "I've gotten more than I've given." Dean was previously my guest in Episodes 119 and 144 and I'm thrilled that he took time out of his retirement...

In this episode, Mark and Karen discuss a provocative question she raised: "Is Lean Dead?" (or "dying?"). Karen is the author of books including "Value Stream Mapping" and "The Outstanding Organization." Her next book is titled "Clarity First" and we'll be discussing that in a future episode. http://www.leanblog.org/285 Is Lean dead—or just misunderstood? Karen Martin joins Mark Graban to explore...

My guest today for episode #284 of the podcast is Dr. Margaret (Margie) Balfour, the lead author of an article, published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, titled "Using Lean to Rapidly and Sustainably Transform a Behavioral Health Crisis Program: Impact on Throughput and Safety." Today, we're talking about that article, the important improvement work that led to it, a...