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

Episode #133 is hosted by  Ron Pereira , from  Gemba Academy , as he leads me through additional Q&A as a follow up to our recent webinar on my upcoming book  Healthcare Kaizen   and some of the concepts from the book on the theme of “Putting the Continuous Back in Continuous Improvement.”  You can view the recording via this link . Two of the main themes were that “kaizen” is not always about wee...

A returning guest for episode #132, we are joined by  author and professor Bob Emiliani . Today, we are chatting about some videos he recently posted to his website… 10-year-old videos that document executives from Virginia Mason Medical Center, now considered a leader in Lean healthcare, visiting a Lean manufacturing company, Wiremold. You can view the videos on Bob's site or read some summaries ...

My guest for episode #131 is  Paul Borawski , the CEO of  ASQ, the American Society for Quality . Today, we are talking about ASQ, their recent  World Quality Month  events (November), and other topics including: Their  “YouQ” video contest  (vote on the submissions now via Facebook) The ending of federal funding for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award ( as I blogged about ) Paul's  blog p...

My guest for episode #130 is Greg Howell, co-founder and managing director of the  Lean Construction Institute  (LCI), a non-profit organization devoted to production management research in design and construction. Howell brings 35 years of construction industry project management, consulting and university-level teaching experience to LCI. In this episode, we'll be talking about lean design and c...

My guest for episode #129 is Chris Cooper, a vice president with Simpler Consulting. We're talking about his new book  The Little Book of Lean . We discuss his career in Lean and the background of his book, which is intended to be a simple introductory primer for those who are new to the methodology. Chris has worked in aerospace, as well as military and non-profit applications of Lean. For a link...

Episode Page Podcast #128 turns the tables a bit, as your host  Mark Graban  is, this time, interviewed by Dirk Dusharme and Ryan Day from the online video show “ Quality Digest Live. ” Thanks to  Quality Digest , I'm able to share the audio from my segment on the show with you in this format.  You can view the episode here, if you like . In this episode, we talk about lean healthcare and quality....

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/127 Remastered audio June 2021 Podcast #127 is a very special conversation with a leader and a hero of mine in the world of patient safety,  Richard P. Shannon, MD . Dr. Shannon is a cardiologist and is Chair, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as well as the Senior Vice Chair...

Episode Page My guest for Podcast #126 is  Bob Lutz , author of the book  Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business . Retiring in late 2010 as vice chairman of General Motors, he currently runs  Bob Lutz Communications . During his 47-year career in the auto industry, he worked for GM, Ford, BMW, and Chrysler and he's a legend in Detroit, where I grew up. In this pod...

My guest for Podcast #125 is Mike George, the founder of Strong America Now, a “nonprofit organization dedicated to mobilizing and educating citizens to support only those Presidential candidates who commit to eliminating the deficit with no new taxes.” In this episode, George talks about his efforts to get candidates to commit to getting personally educated in Lean Six Sigma methods and to use th...

U.S. Treasury Secretary from 2000 to 2001 and former CEO of Alcoa. Show Notes: https://www.leanblog.org/124 Remastered June 2021 I have a very special guest for Podcast #124 –  he is  Paul O'Neill , the U.S. Treasury Secretary from 2001 to 2002 and former CEO of Alcoa. 2020 Update:  Read my reflections on Mr. O'Neill's passing Mr. O'Neill shares his thoughts on patient safety and healthcare, inclu...

This episode is a discussion with two leaders from  Group Health Cooperative , a consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system based in Seattle, Washington. My guests are  Claire Trescott, MD, Primary Care Medical Director, and Alicia Eng, Vice President of Primary Care. We will be talking about their use of Lean principles in the design and management of their “ Medical Home ” approach to prima...

This episode is a conversation with  Paul Akers , founder and president of  FastCap LLC , based in Bellingham, WA. FastCap is an international product development company founded in 1997 with over 2000 distributors worldwide. Paul and FastCap have also embraced Lean, with an unmatched enthusiasm for kaizen – small, daily improvements made by people in the workplace, as you can see in their  collec...

Today's episode is a discussion with Mrinalini Gadkari, a Senior Lecturer at the Fisher College of Business. Today, we're talking about the new   Master of Business Operational Excellence (MBOE) for Healthcare Program  starting this fall. We'll talk about how the program is structured, who the intended students are, and delve a little into the curriculum that includes Lean, Six Sigma, and other im...

Today's episode is a chat with  Jody Crane, MD, MBA  and  Chuck Noon, PhD . They are talking about their outstanding book  The Definitive Guide to Emergency Department Operational Improvement: Employing Lean Principles with Current ED Best Practices to Create the “No Wait” Department . Dr. Crane is an Emergency Physician practicing at  Mary Washington Hospital  in Fredericksburg, Virginia. From 20...

Produced in partnership with the  Healthcare Value Network , episode #119 is a discussion with  Dean Gruner, MD , the president & CEO of  ThedaCare . Here, we talk about Strategy Deployment as a Lean management system and how it fits into their ongoing management and improvement efforts in their health system. To learn more about strategy deployment, visit  YouTube  for a free preview clip of a ne...

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/118 Remastered July 2021 Episode #118 is a follow up to  podcast #116  with   Jim Womack , founder and former Chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute, now their Senior Advisor and author of the new book  Gemba Walks , available in paperback, Kindle format, iBooks, and other formats. In this episode, we talk about both GM and Toyota – their challenges, Jim's r...

Episode Page Episode #117 is a conversation with  Prof. Samuel A. Culbert  of the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Along with  Daniel Pink , he is a fellow alum of Northwestern University. Prof. Culbert has a BS in Systems Engineering, the precursor of the Industrial Engineering department in which I was a student. Dr. Culbert then earned a PhD in clinical psychology from UCLA. Today, we are ta...

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/116 Remastered July 2021 Episode #116 brings us Jim Womack, founder and former Chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute, now their Senior Advisor and author of the new book "Gemba Walks," available in paperback, Kindle format, iBooks, and other formats (see lean.org for a link). Here, we talk about the new book, how a gemba walk differs from "management by wal...

Episode #115 is a discussion with  Eric Ries  ( @ericries ), entrepreneur and author of the book  The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful  Businesses. Remastered August 2021 Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/115 You can also  read a partial transcript of the podcast .  Today, we talk about how got introduced to Lean, core materials li...

Episode #114 is a conversation with John Kim, of the firm John Kim & Associates. John is a recognized leader in the Design, Development, Implementation and Deployment of Enterprise Wide Lean Transformations.  As an executive at The HON Company and Danaher Corporation, John learned the keys to implementing Lean while running multiple operations across the US. With over 20 years of Lean Transformati...

Now actor Charlie Sheen has been all over the news lately, giving interviews to practically anyone with a microphone. This is the type of "news" I normally try to tune out, yet alone blog about. Somehow, he stumbled across my "Lean Line" phone number to talk about Lean Healthcare, although I suspect he may have been looking for the street drug called "lean." He claimed to have spent his hiatus fro...

Episode #113 is a discussion with Aubrey Daniels, PhD, the founder and chairman of his firm Aubrey Daniels International. Today, we are talking about his most recent book titled Safe By Accident?, a book I really enjoyed, so I was happy to speak with him about creating an effective safety culture culture in an organization - what doesn't work and what does work? To point others to this, use the si...

Episode #112 is a chat with Naida Grunden, the author of the outstanding book  The Pittsburgh Way to Efficient Healthcare: Improving Patient Care Using Toyota Based Methods . Remastered Oct 2022 - the audio quality isn't great, but you can read the transcript here: https://leanblog.org/112 Here we talk about her experiences in Pittsburgh and her “small world” connection to  Captain Chesley Sullenb...

Episode #111 brings us some time with Professor Jeffrey Liker from the University of Michigan, the well-known author of many books in the The Toyota Way series. You can see Dr. Liker talk at the upcoming Shingo Prize Conference (hope to see you there!). Today, we are talking about his TWO upcoming books: The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achi...

Episode page Episode #110 is a chat with  Dr. Jack Billi  from the University of Michigan Health System and Medical School. Here, we talk about their lean work and how Dr. Billi works with physicians to engage them in lean, tying lean problem solving methods, including the A3 approach, to the scientific method and medical thinking. Dr. Billi talks about the right approach to the lean concept of “s...