Kaizen is often misunderstood as small ideas or isolated improvement events. In practice, Kaizen is a daily, people-centered approach to learning and improving work—supported by leadership, good systems, and psychological safety. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and real-world examples of Kaizen in action, across healthcare and other industries, with a consistent focus on leadership behaviors, respect for people, and learning from problems rather than hiding them.
The team at KaiNexus (where I am the “chief improvement officer”) is always improving. I want to share a few of these improvements, as our CEO/co-founder Greg Jacobson, MD and I are presenting today at the annual conference of the…
Here is the sixth in our series of short, simple Kaizen education videos from KaiNexus, a software startup where I am on the management team. We are embedding these videos into our web-based (and iOS) software, to provide short tips and hints…
Mark’s note: Today’s guest post is from a friend of mine from The Netherlands. I had a chance to visit Marc and his hospital back in 2009 and I’ve seen Marc and colleagues the last three years at the Lean…
Mark’s Note: Today’s guest post is from a great friend of mine and this blog, Dean Bliss, of the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. Check out my podcast with him. By Dean Bliss As someone who’s been doing Lean in healthcare for…
Today’s guest post is by Duke Rohe, a Quality Improvement Education Consultant at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. I know Duke from his heavy involvement with the Society for Health Systems. Kaizen’s Test for the Best Idea…
Mark’s note: Ankit Patel is a returning guest blogger and a good friend in the world of Lean and Lean Healthcare. Check out his blog and website. By Ankit Patel: In all my years of practicing lean/process improvement I’ve…
Mark’s note: Today’s vacation post is from my good friend Dan Markovitz, who normally blogs here. Listen to my podcasts with him here and here. By Dan Markovitz: You’d think by now we’d be past this sort of nonsense that…
Yesterday was an outstanding day at the Northeast Shingo Prize Conference in Worcester, Massachusetts – my first time attending and speaking at this event. It’s always great to see Bruce Hamilton (of “Toast Kaizen” fame) and the rest of the…
The list of stuff I’ve read and wanted to blog about has grown… that inventory becomes this post. Here are links to some varied articles I’ve read recently that might be of interest on a number of Lean related topics,…
As I worked on co-authoring Healthcare Kaizen, I dove deeper into my study of “kaizen” practices and mindsets, revisiting many core books on kaizen after years of practice in different industries. I used to define kaizen as the phrase it’s…
Organizations that are most successful with Kaizen and continuous improvement don’t have fancier boards or better software — they have leaders who are more likely engaged with the right behaviors, more consistently. In my experience, I’ve put the same mechanics…
Last weekend was the start of the college football season (Go ‘Cats!) and tonight is the “kickoff” of the NFL season, which (of course) starts with an opening kickoff. And, I mean “American football,” for my global readers. So, in…
