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

Joining me today is Jim Lancaster, CEO of the company Lantech, a manufacturer that is the leader in stretch wrap technology and innovation, as well as case handling equipment. Jim is also author of the new book, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute, titled The Work of Management: A Daily Path to Sustainable Improvement. This episode is sponsored by the eVSM Group. It's almost 20 years now si...

My guests for Episode #282 of the podcast are two continuous improvement leaders from Cleveland Clinic: Dr. Lisa Yerian and Nate Hurle. Lisa is the Medical Director, Continuous Improvement and Nate is the Senior Director, Continuous Improvement. She's a doctor, he's an engineer, and they work together very closely in their efforts to help drive improvement at the Clinic. You can find them on Twitt...

Joining me for Episode #281 of the podcast is Julie Firman, DNP, RN, FACHE, the Vice President/ System Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) at Southern Illinois Healthcare. We have the opportunity to chat about the Lean transformation efforts at SIH thanks to my partners at Catalysis, as they are presenting the annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit this year in Palm Springs, June 7 and 8. Julie and...

A returning guest today for episode #280 is John Dyer, president of his consulting firm, JD&A, Inc., and a contributor for IndustryWeek.com. As we discussed in episode #229, John started his career at General Electric and later moved to Ingersoll-Rand, where he was VP of Operations for their Security and Safety sector. He also had the good fortune to learn directly from W. Edwards Deming, as he to...

Back in 2012, I did a podcast interview (Episode 153) with a psychologist and family therapist, Robert Maurer, PhD. It's been almost five years since the discussion, but I'm often reminded of what I learned from his books and his advice about small change. It's human nature for us to be afraid of change. Instead of lecturing people to be brave, we need to work within our limitations. How do we avo...

In the Lean community (and in businesses and hospitals, as well), people often talk about "fire fighting" in a colloquial way. Today, my guest for episode #278 of the podcast is an actual professional fire fighter, Tom Bouthillet (@tbouthillet on Twitter). He serves as Fire Captain / Paramedic for the Hilton Head Island Fire Rescue where he is the Cardiac Care Program Manager (STEMI and CARES Site...

Joining me for episode #277 of the podcast is Kay Kendall (@KayAKendall), co-author (with Glenn Bodinson) of the excellent book "Leading the Malcolm Baldrige Way: How World-Class Leaders Align Their Organizations to Deliver Exceptional Results." Kay is CEO & Principal at BaldrigeCoach (see her bio there). Since 1989, BaldrigeCoach has worked with organizations across every sector, large and small,...

My guest for Episode #276 is a Lean consultant (although he might not prefer that term) and an author, A J (Andy) Sheppard. Andy is the author of The Incredible Transformation of Gregory Todd: A Novel about Leadership and Managing Change. He also contributed a chapter to my Practicing Lean book project. You can download the PDF of his chapter here and I hope you'll consider buying the book (it's f...

My guest for Episode #275 is Katie Anderson, following up on her last appearance here in Episode #233. Now, she has been back home in California and shares some more recent reflections on her time there, what she learned, and what she continues to learn. In this episode, we talk about how Lean isn't inherently Japanese in all ways, Ashikaga (the "5S City"), a key mentor of hers (Isao Yoshino), and...

Remastered January 2022 Episode page: https://www.leanblog.org/274   My guest for Episode #274 of the podcast is  Jay Arthur , author of  Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals: Improving Patient Safety, Patient Flow and the Bottom Line, Second Edition . Jay is owner and founder of his company  KnowWare International , based on Denver. Before founding that company in 1995, Jay was in a number of quality rol...

Joining me for Episode #273 of the podcast is David Veech, author of the new book Leadersights: Creating Great Leaders Who Create Great Workplaces. David is a senior lecturer in the Department of Management Sciences at Ohio State University and their Fisher College of Business, teaching in the MBOE program (see his full bio). Veech was previously a lecturer in the College of Engineering at the Uni...

My guest for Episode #272 is Steve Thompson, Director of Patient Driven Supply Network initiatives for Cardinal Health, a global, integrated healthcare services and products company. He is also a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, dating back to his time spent working in the automotive industry. In today's episode, we talk about his lessons learned from General Motors and Lear Corporation and how h...

Joining me for Episode #271 is Isaac Mitchell (@IssacMitchell), talking about Lean Design for healthcare, the Society for Health Systems, and more. Isaac is a full-time lean practitioner at East Tennessee Children's Hospital, a lecturer at the University of Tennessee's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and an instructor for the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. You can...

My guests for Episode #270 of the podcast are two physicians: Paul DeChant, MD and Diane Shannon, MD. They are co-authors of the recently-released book Preventing Physician Burnout: Curing the Chaos and Returning Joy to the Practice of Medicine. Paul was previously a guest for Episode #230. In this episode, we talk about the symptoms and causes of burnout for physicians and other healthcare profes...

Joining me for Episode #269 are Brian MacNeice & James Bowen, co-authors of the recently released book Powerhouse: Insider Accounts into the World's Top High-performance Organizations. They are founders of the international Kotinos Partners consultancy. In this episode, we talk about the book and take a deeper dive into two of the organizations they profiled: Toyota and Mayo Clinic. I think it's a...

My guest for Episode #268 is a long-time friend of mine in the Lean community and Lean Enterprise Institute circles, Tom Ehrenfeld (@tomehrenfeld). Tom is a writer and editor living in Cambridge, MA. A former writer/editor with Inc. Magazine and Harvard Business Review, he is the author of The Startup Garden: How Growing A Business Grows You. He works as a consulting editor for LEI and with many o...

Joining me for Episode #267 is Stephen M. Shortell PhD, MPH, MBA. He is Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professorship, HPM and is a Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. He is the director of the Center for Healthcare Organizational and Innovation Research (CHOIR). Today, we are talking about Lean healthcare and a new initiati...

My guest for Episode #266 of the podcast is Karyn Ross (KRCLean4Service on Twitter), co-author of the new book (with Jeff Liker): The Toyota Way to Service Excellence: Lean Transformation in Service Organizations. Karen first learned about and applied Lean in companies like Paychex, Zurich Insurance, and Liberty Mutual Insurance and has worked with other service sector companies as a consultant. I...

Joining me for Episode #265 of the podcast is Bernita Beikmann, AIA, EDAC, LSSBB, a Principal and Director of Lean Strategy at HKS, an international architecture firm. Bernita is originally from Kansas and has a Bachelor of Architecture from Kansas State University and a Certificate in Regional and Community Planning. She moved to Dallas in 1996 and has been employed by HKS, Inc in Dallas since th...

My guest for Episode #264 is a friend from here in the Dallas / Fort Worth area, Tyrone Butler. He is LSS Managing Partner at his company, Butler Active Business Solutions LLC. He has a background in the Air Force, he pre-dated me at Dell Computer in the 1990s, and he's being doing a lot of work all over the world with Lean, Six Sigma, and other methodologies for improving software and project del...

My guest for Episode #263 is another returning guest, Pascal Dennis (@AuthorPascal on Twitter). He was previously a guest on Episodes #96 and #239, talking about two of his previous books (see a full list here). Today, we're talking about his most recent book, a business novel called Andy & Me and the Hospital: Further Adventures on the Lean Journey. I don't normally read much fiction, and I gener...

My guest for Episode #262 is Steven J. Spear (@stevenjspear on Twitter). He is author of the fantastic book The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition. He's a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and recently taught a summer course on Lean and Six Sigma for the Leaders for Global Operations program (I graduated from that prog...

Joining me for Episode #261 is an old friend and trusted mentor, Jamie Flinchbaugh. Among other things, he's the co-author of the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean. He writes for a number of publications, has his own blog, and was previously a guest blogger here on LeanBlog.org. He's a speaker, investor (including in KaiNexus), and a great guy. Jamie was previously a guest on episodes #5, #6, #1...

See http://www.leanblog.org/260 My guest for Episode #260 of the podcast is Brad White, author of the recently-released book Lean Daily Management for Healthcare: A Strategic Guide to Implementing Lean for Hospital Leaders. He is currently a Senior Process Improvement Advisor at Grady Health System in Atlanta, but I first met Brad a few years back when we were both in San Antonio and he was workin...

See http://www.leanblog.org/259 Remastered audio 2025 Today's episode #259 is Part 2 of a discussion I started with Steve Bera in  episode #256 . Steve was one of the original 16 “NUMMI Commandos” that General Motors sent to work with Toyota in the 1980s, as discussed in the outstanding book  Comeback: The Fall & Rise of the American Automobile Industry . In Part 1, we talked about his experie...