W. Edwards Deming’s ideas about leadership, systems, variation, and psychology continue to shape how organizations pursue quality and improvement. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections exploring Deming’s teachings—and how they apply to Lean, healthcare, management, and continuous improvement today. Many of these posts challenge common misinterpretations of Deming’s work, emphasizing that quality cannot be delegated and that improvement starts with leadership.
Mark’s note: I’m happy to welcome a relatively new friend, Mike Stoecklein, as a guest author here on my Lean Blog. We have shared interests in healthcare improvement and, particularly, in Dr. W. Edwards Deming, with whom Mike had personal…
Due out in June is a book that I think will be an important one for the Lean Healthcare movement. That book is about the Lean journey of the Wisconsin health system ThedaCare. It’s called On the Mend: Transforming Healthcare…
I’m blogging notes and thoughts as I watch the Discovery Channel documentary by actor Dennis Quaid and others — “Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Healthcare Harm” that first aired April 24 at 8 am EDT. With laptop and…
Dear readers – as you may have noticed, my site has been suffering from intermittent downtime, due to problems with the shared database server provided by my hosting company. If you come to the site and it doesn’t load, try…
Recently, I was able to visit VIBCO, a Lean manufacturing company in Rhode Island. Company President Karl Wadensten is the host of “The Lean Nation” radio show. It was my third time visiting the factory in the last six months,…
TL;DR: Patient safety leader Lucian Leape’s critique appears less about Lean itself and more about “L.A.M.E.”–Lean As Misguidedly Executed. True Lean in healthcare prioritizes patient safety, quality, and respect for people; when those are missing, the problem isn’t Lean–it’s how…
Listen to my podcast with Nick One of my blog themes is the idea of “Like Lean” – practices that seem very much like the Lean philosophy and management system, but it’s not directly inspired by Toyota or Dr. Deming.…
What really motivates people to improve their work–especially in healthcare and other complex environments? Drawing on Daniel Pink’s Drive, Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s teachings, and Lean principles, this post explores why intrinsic motivation consistently outperforms incentives, rewards, and punishment in…
Being a huge fan of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, especially so some 17 years after his death, I like any article that concludes with this line: “The lesson of the Toyota recalls is not that Mr. Deming’s Japanese model is…
Dr. Donald Berwick (bio), founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, has reportedly named by President Obama to head Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the organization that administers programs including Medicare and Medicaid (“Berwick to be US healthcare…
Mark’s note: It’s great to welcome Andy Wagner back to the blog. Read his older posts here. General Motors, Chrysler, and Toyota have been dominating the headlines in recent months with their financial and, now, quality troubles, while some surprising…
Here’s one to ponder and comment on – does putting a pharmacist in jail for six months and ruining his career and life do anything to bring back a two year-old girl? Does it do anything to make future patients…
