Lean Blog Interviews: Recent Episodes

Mark Graban

Mark Graban interviews leaders and innovators in the Lean thinking world. Topics will include Lean manufacturing, Lean healthcare, Lean production, Lean startups, and Lean enterprise. Visit the blog at www.leanblog.org. For feedback, email mark@leanblog.org. All past episodes, with show notes and more, can be found at www.leancast.org.

For links and more, go to http://www.leanblog.org/342

My guest for Episode #342 of the podcast is Adam Ward, the author of Lean Design in Healthcare: A Journey to Improve Quality and Process of Care.Adam is an innovation process expert and independent advisor. He spent the first 12 years of his career designing cars for Honda and the next 12 years working with Fortune 500 companies to turn around their product development process. A resident Buckeye, he coaches students at Ohio State's MBOE program.In this episode, we discuss his early days at Honda and how he made a career transition into healthcare. We'll talk about the story behind his book and some of his experiences and practices that are transferrable — going from “simultaneous engineering” to “Lean design.” What are some of the most common failures? How can we coach leaders so they aren't giving just lip service to these methodologies? We discuss all of that and more…

http://www.leanblog.org/341My guest for Episode #341 of the podcast is Dr. Rob Hackett, an anaesthesiologist in Sydney, Australia. Rob has become known around the world for his role in what's now called the “Theatre Cap Challenge” — a method for improving communication and, thereby, improving patient safety and outcomes.As we talk about today, Rob had the idea of writing his name and role on his surgical cap with a sharpie. Eventually, he (and others) have gotten printed caps made as shown below in my LinkedIn post about our discussion (it has received 200,000 views and counting).As I wrote on LinkedIn, Rob has, unfortunately, been trolled, threatened, and bullied for this seemingly benign and obvious improvement idea — both in the workplace and online. It seems that outsiders to healthcare and those who are new to medicine find an idea like this to be obviously helpful, but those who have been in healthcare the longest struggle to accept it.I appreciate Rob's perspective that those who oppose this innovation, for whatever reason, probably aren't bad people — they just have a different view and, possibly, some old habits or cognitive biases that they are stuck in.The interview goes for over an hour. One thing I'd like to do is produce a shorter audio piece that's more like an NPR news story. See below for a full transcript and for links, videos, and more. His website is www.psnetwork.org.

Here is a special sample preview of a new podcast... the “Lean Whiskey” PodcastIf you like it, please subscribe by searching your podcast directory for "Lean Whiskey" or go to www.LeanWhiskey.com.About the PodcastMark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh are two guys with a lot in common: Lean, writing books, speaking, consulting... and a love of good whiskey. Like the Car Talk guys, they both went to MIT... but Lean isn't rocket science. Let's hope they can hold their liquor, because they're not holding back on sharing their opinions... it's time for Lean Whiskey... Lean talk with a fun spirit!

Joining me for Episode #340 of the podcast is Dr. Joy Furnival CEng MIET, an experienced senior NHS manager, improvement leader, and chartered engineer. I first crossed paths with Joy at a Lean healthcare event in England back in 2007. At the time, she was working for David Fillingham and the Bolton NHS Trust, which was an early adopter of Lean in the NHS.In this episode, we talk about how we are, in some ways, “Lean twins,” as we both started our careers as engineers in manufacturing. Our career paths then diverged when she joined the NHS whilst I've worked as an outside consultant.I very much appreciate her perspectives as we talk about her roles in a few different hospitals and as a “national improvement advisor” for the NHS. I hope you'll enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

Joining me for Episode #339 of the podcast is Charles Protzman, author of a great number of Lean healthcare books. Today, we are talking about a book that he wrote for a broader audience, The BASICS Lean Implementation Model: Lean Tools to Drive Daily Innovation and Increased Profitability.I first met Charlie over a decade ago when I worked for Johnson & Johnson's VauMetrix Services consulting group — and he was a big influence on our team and our methodology. I'm glad to finally have him here on the podcast to discuss how he navigates the differences between manufacturing and healthcare settings and why he “looks forward” to questions about patients not being cars. We'll also talk about his BASICS model of Baseline, Assess/Analyze, Suggest Solutions, Implementation, Check, and Sustain.We also discuss the power of direct workplace observation, something that I wrote about in Lean Hospitals and I discussed with a healthcare CEO, Vance Jackson, in Episode #337.

My guest for Episode #338 is Mr. Grey Dube, the Chief Executive Officer at Leratong Hospital. He has over 40 years' experience in the Public Service, including time as CEO since 2005. Leratong Hospital is an 855 bedded regional hospital with over 1700 staff members, located in Mogale City, Krugersdorp, South Africa (just east of Johannesburg).Grey is the third consecutive hospital CEO guest, including Gladys Bogoshi (also from South Africa) and Vance Jackson (from the U.S.). I think it's interesting to hear similar philosophies and mindsets from these leaders.Like Gladys, Grey is going to be a keynote speaker at this year's Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, to be held in Washington, DC on June 13 & 14. I'll be there and I hope you can join us. I'll also be teaching a pre-Summit workshop on Measures of Success that I hope you can attend.In this episode, we talk about how he got introduced to Lean and how he leads the Lean transformation efforts, including assessing and modeling behaviors including humility and self-discipline. How is he working to change the culture to one where all people are trained to be scientific problem solvers? Grey shares that, some of their success stories, some of their challenges, and more in this conversation.

It's my second straight podcast with a healthcare CEO. This time, joining me for Episode #337 is Vance Jackson, FACHE, FACMPE, the President & CEO of Davis Health System, based in Elkins, West Virginia.Vance and I talk about how he was admittedly skeptical about Lean at a previous healthcare organization. But, over time, he realized the importance of Lean and the need for him to lead differently — getting input from everybody instead of the old autocratic way that we see in so many healthcare organizations. How does Vance lead by example as a CEO? Why is it so important for him to go to the “gemba” and observe the actual work and the workplace environment?We talk about all of that and more in this episode.

My guest for Episode #336 is Gladys Bogoshi, the Chief Executive Officer at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, one of the ten central hospitals in South Africa and the main teaching platform of the University of the Witwatersrand. The Hospital is situated in Johannesburg and has a bed capacity of 1189. Gladys is going to be a keynote speaker at this year's Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, to be held in Washington, DC on June 13 & 14. I'll be there and I hope you can join us. I'll also be teaching a pre-Summit workshop on Measures of Success that I hope you can attend. In this episode, we talk about how she got introduced to Lean, some of the improvements that her hospital has driven in surgery, pharmacy, and other areas. What is her role as CEO in a Lean journey? What are some of the fundamental behaviors that are important and how you can coach people on those? We talk about all of that and more.

It's two Barrys in a row on the podcast, as my guest for Episode #335 is Barry O'Reilly and we're talking, in depth, about his latest book, Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results. Barry is a business advisor, entrepreneur, and author who has pioneered the intersection of business model innovation, product development, organizational design, and culture transformation. See his full bio. Last week, I shared a shorter discussion with Barry that served as a preview of the webinar that he's presenting on Wednesday. You can find a link to register for the live webinar (or to view the recording) at leanblog.org/335. Barry and I chat about topics including 1) experimental approaches to entrepreneurship, 2) how leaders need to make it safe for people to try new things, and 3) why you have to unlearn before you can learn something new – that's the pathway that allows you to then achieve breakthrough results. These are good ideas in business and they also talk about the interesting case of tennis legend Serena Williams and how she reinvented her game to extend her greatness. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did and do hope you'll pick up the book.

Joining me for Episode #334, all the way from Australia, is Barry McCarthy. Barry spent more than 15 years in leadership roles with Toyota in Australia and now works as an Associate with consulting firm Honsha.We were able to spend a lot of time talking when I participated in Honsha’s Executive Development Mission trip to Japan late last year.One thing we talked about quite a bit was Barry’s experience with Toyota being “a development company,” as I blogged about here.In our discussion, Barry talks about why he was “skeptical” about Lean before he joined Toyota. But, he evolved as Toyota continues to evolve. Why is Barry afraid that Lean (outside of Toyota) might get stuck in the past? We’ll talk about all of that and more.

Episode 333 - Jean-Marc Legentil and Marc-Olivier Legentil, The Toyota Kata Memory JoggerMy guests for Episode #333 are Jean-Marc Legentil and Marc-Olivier Legentil, father-and-son Lean consultants from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They work together in the firm Bell-Nordic Consulting.I've had the pleasure of meeting both of them on numerous trips to Montreal and was happy to hear they were part of the team that created the latest book in the excellent “Memory Jogger” series:The Toyota Kata Memory Jogger I hope you enjoy our conversation about Toyota Kata, improvement, leadership, and more.

Joining me today for Episode #332 is Jason Burt, owner of EHIP Consulting. Jason is a Lean consultant and business coach with an extensive and diverse background, including a manufacturing career where he has led and coached organizations to increased levels of efficiency and performance. Using the Toyota Production System (TPS) approach has allowed him to positively change cultures to achieve sustainable improvements. During his time at Herman Miller, Jason spent 18 months learning TPS directly from Toyota as a Toyota Lean Consultant. Toyota and Herman Miller were in a partnership during his time with the company, which allowed him to receive direct coaching from Toyota Senseis for the entire 16 years. I was interested in talking with Jason about what it was like learning from Toyota's TSSC organization (a group that has done great work with a UCLA eye clinic and a food bank, to name two that I've featured on the blog). We talk about a wide range of topics, including common misunderstandings about TPS and Lean, the Toyota goals of developing people and their clients (knowing results will follow), and how he sometimes has to adapt to work with clients and their expectations. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

My guest today for Episode #331 is Eric W. Dickson, MD, MHCM, FACEP, a Professor of Emergency Medicine at UMass Medical School and Chief Executive Officer of the UMass Memorial Health Care system.You might have heard Dr. Dickson speak in Episode #231 of the podcast, which was audio from the CEO panel at the 2015 Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. By the way, I hope you can join me at this year's Summit. In that audio, Dr. Dickson talked about the beginning of what has been quite an impressive turnaround at UMass Memorial Health Care.I invited him to formally be a guest on the podcast to talk about their progress, and what it means for him to be creating a culture of “Everyday Innovators: Everywhere, Every Day,” which has led to over 65,000 ideas being implemented in five years. This is also a topic he blogs about quite a bit.In our conversation, we discuss how he found Lean originally “almost out of desperation.” How can we shift from “knowing the answer” to “continuous experiments?” Why is it important that he, as CEO, not be “throwing solutions out” when working with people? Does it help that he works a few shifts a month as an emergency medicine doc? We talk about that and more.

Joining me today for Episode #330 of the podcast is Christoph Roser, a professor of production management at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He has decades of experience with Lean manufacturing including time with Toyota in Japan, as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, and as a Lean expert and manager at Robert Bosch GmbH. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts.He is author of the book Faster, Better, Cheaper in the History of Manufacturing: From the Stone Age to Lean Manufacturing and Beyond. You can read his full bio here, via his excellent blog AllAboutLean.com.Today's discussion was sparked by his series of blog posts about his “grand tour” of automotive factories in Japan. You can read those or check out his overview blog post here. We'll talk about the differences between some of these companies, a bit about Lean in healthcare, and we'll discuss Christoph's concerns about the way Toyota's culture might be changing under CEO Akio Toyoda.

Joining me today for Episode #329 of the podcast is Mike Eisenberg, the director, editor, and producer of the film “To Err is Human,” a documentary about the incredibly important issue of patient safety. The film shares a title with the groundbreaking 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine.The film is available on as a digital download (through iTunes and other platforms) and a Blu-ray or DVD (through Amazon) and there also screenings taking place around the country (and you can arrange one at your organization).In our conversation, Mike and I talk about the scale and breadth of patient safety problems, some of the systemic causes, and some of the solutions that are being tried and used in healthcare. The term “Lean” is not a part of the film, but Mike said he's become aware of the alignment between Lean and systemic patient safety improvement, but there are limitations to what could be put into a 77-minute film. But, there are common themes including not blaming “bad apples” and improving the way care is delivered in a systematic way.I had the opportunity to watch the film before the interview — it's very powerful and well produced. I hope you'll check out the film, whether you are a patient or a healthcare professional (or leader). It's important that we help the public understand that patient safety can't be taken for granted… and it's important that hospitals step up their efforts on this front.

My guests for Episode #328 are Bette Gardner and Jeff Heil, of the company Breakthrough Learning. Bette is the creator of a fantastic simulation called "Friday Night at the ER" -- which I've blogged about. When we recorded the webinar, Bette was CEO and Jeff was COO, but recently Jeff took over the CEO role. They are also, as they mention, mother and son... which will be followed by an upcoming podcast with a father and son team (two of the authors of this book).In this episode, we talk about Bette's inspiration for the simulation, systems thinking, and healthcare improvement. We'll also talk about how the simulation is used by organizations in many industries as a way of teaching systems thinking principles.

My guest for Episode #327 of the podcast is Marc Rouppe van der Voort, Ph.D., who is joining me from Utrecht in the Netherlands. We first met back in 2009 when he invited me to come speak at a Dutch Lean Healthcare conference (which I blogged about here).We've crossed paths many times, as Marc has frequently visited the U.S. for the annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, coming with a large group of Dutch Lean healthcare practitioners from many organizations (they collaborate through an organization he chairs called Lidz, which has 60 organizations as members).I've also had the chance to go back to visit and teach at Marc's current employer, St. Antonius Hospital, where he is vice president of operations management and leads the application of Lean principles and several supporting teams. He has also written three practical books on the application of Lean in healthcare.Today, we'll be talking about his learning and his experience with Lean in Dutch healthcare organizations -- what are the differences in the Dutch system and what are the ways in which it's similar to the American system? We'll also discuss the connections between Value Based Healthcare and Lean, with the focus on patient outcomes and quality of life... and other topics related to Lean and leadership.

Joining me for the fourth time, here for Episode #326 of the podcast, is my friend and colleague Katie Anderson, a leadership coach, Lean consultant, speaker and writer from the San Francisco area. Hear our previous podcasts about visiting and living in Japan.Today, we're talking about a number of topics related to learning and collaboration: Her upcoming book with Isao Yoshino, the local San Francisco Bay area AME consortium that she is leading, her next trip to Japan (which you can join), and more.I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as we did. For some other resources, and to enter to win a copy of my book Lean Hospitals (and a copy of Measures of Success) that Katie is giving away, visit kbjanderson.com/mark. Thanks, Katie!

Joining me for Episode #325 of the podcast is Andrea Hardaway, an operational leader and the executive director of the Association for Vocal Disorders.Andrea and I first crossed paths through LinkedIn, seeing what she shares there and vice versa. We also had a chance to visit a hospital together in Florida last year to learn about their Lean improvement work. We have enough professional interests in common, I thought it made sense to record a conversation and share it here with the listeners.Andrea has worked in manufacturing, healthcare, and other parts of the service sector and has seen common themes across industries. This includes the opportunity to better use metrics in a way that resonates with staff and is connected to improvement work, something I'm also very interested in.So, we talk about that and more in this episode.

My guest for Episode #324 of the podcast is Art Smalley. Art was one of the first Americans to work for Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan and, since then, has been helping other organizations with the Toyota Production System (a.k.a. “Lean”) methods and approaches. You can also visit his website to learn more, www.ArtOfLean.com.Art is a fellow faculty member at the Lean Enterprise Institute. He has written two Shingo Publication Award-winning books: Creating Level Pull and (co-authored with Durward Sobek) Understanding A3 Thinking. Art later wrote Toyota's Kaizen Methods: Six Steps to Improvement with Isao Kato.I own all of these books and have only met Art briefly in the past, so I'm happy to finally have him here as a guest. Today, we'll talk about Art's career and his most recent book, Four Types of Problems, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute (note: LEI provided me a free electronic copy of the book).I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

I first met Davis Balestracci at a conference a few years back, where I heard him give a very spirited and insightful presentation. That's why I'm happy to have him as my guest for Episode #323 of the podcast.We'll talk about a range of topics, including some of the key lessons that you'll find in his book (as a much deeper dive than we can get into here) Data Sanity: A Quantum Leap to Unprecedented Results (2nd edition). Davis has been a long-time columnist for Quality Digest, and you'll hear his thoughts on Process Behavior Charts, W. Edwards Deming, Lean Six Sigma, and more.From his bio: “Davis has a BS degree in chemical engineering and an MS degree in statistics, yet describes himself as a “right-brained” statistician: his Myers-Briggs profile is INFP and he is a pipe organist who done graduate work in conducting.”

Today's podcast is a departure from the usual interview format. As I blogged about last week, the Lean community has lost a young, thoughtful, inquisitive, and reflective member -- Samuel Selay.I regret not having Sam on the podcast to talk about our learning and reflections. He was a guest of Ron Pereira's on the Gemba Academy podcast in 2016, talking about Lean in the Department of Defense.Today, I'm doing a reading of a blog post that Sam wrote for this site back in August. I'm also sharing the audiobook version of his chapter from the book Practicing Lean (which is read by our audiobook narrator). It's not his voice, but it's his words and thoughts.As the Marines say (Sam was an active duty Marine for 13 years), Semper Fi. There is a GoFundMe page that was set up by Sam's sister-in-law to provide financial support to the family — his wife and four children under 18. I've donated and I hope you might consider doing the same.

My guest for episode #321 of the podcast is Mark Hamel, He is a partner and COO with The Murli Group. Mark is a two-time recipient of the Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award for his books The Kaizen Event Fieldbook and his most recent book Lean Math, the main subject of this episode.I hope you enjoy the discussion, which is about people as much as it is about math.

Skip Steward, the Chief Improvement Officer at Baptist Memorial Health Care in Tennessee, was a guest on Episode #314 of the podcast talking about TWI and Toyota Kata in healthcare (he was joined by Brandon Brown).Today, I've asked Skip to come back and chat 1x1, in Episode #320, about his experience with Don Wheeler, learning from W. Edwards Deming, and more. I hope you enjoy his reflections, our discussions about healthcare, and connections to my book Measures of Success (Skip undoubtedly has a book in him too).

My guest for Episode #319 is Karen Martin, whose most recent book is Clarity First: How Smart Leaders and Organizations Achieve Outstanding Performance. She was previously a guest on Episodes #151, #190, and #285.Karen is an author of many books on Lean, quality, and performance excellence. She is also a speaker and a consultant with a B.S. in Microbiology from Pennsylvania State University and an M.A. in Education from California State University, Bakersfield. Read her full bio.What is clarity? How can we work toward creating less fog and more clarity in organizations? We'll talk about that, along with a bit of discussion about clarity in metrics, as I write about in my book Measures of Success.

318 - Marcus Hammarberg, How Lean & Kanban Saved an Indonesian HospitalJoining me from Sweden for Episode 318 of the podcast is Marcus Hammarberg, author of the fascinating book Salvation: The Bungsu Story: How Lean and Kanban saved a small hospital in Indonesia. Twice. And can help you reshape work in your company.Marcus is a software developer, consultant, lean/agile coach, speaker, and author. He ended up with an opportunity to work with a hospital in Indonesia and he tells that compelling story in the book. How did a huge hole in the roof help trigger a change in culture and results? You'll hear about that and more in this episode. I hope you enjoy it and find it inspirational, as I did.

My guest for Episode #317 of the podcast is Patricia Morrill, a speaker, trainer, consultant, researcher, and author of the book The Perils of Un-Coordinated Healthcare: A Strategic Approach toward Eliminating Preventable Harm.With 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, she has focused on blending operational efficiencies with healing environments. Patricia has successfully integrated Lean and Project Management methodologies with organizational strategic goals to build roadmaps for execution. Check out her website and her blog.In today's episode, we discuss her personal story about her mother's death that came as the result of a preventable medical error. What can be done to prevent medical errors, harm, and death?

@JamieFlinchbaugh Interviews @MarkGraban About "Measures of Success"oday's episode is the second time that friend and podcast guest Jamie Flinchbaugh has turned the tables by playing host to interview me about my new book, Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, which has recently been the #1 best selling book in Amazon's Total Quality Management category.Jamie is very knowledgeable on these topics, so he was a great person to interview me and to have more of a conversation about choosing the right metrics and then managing them the right way. I hope you enjoy the conversation and future podcasts will return to the usual format where I interview guests and try to let them do most of the talking.

Why do people fear change? Why are adults afraid of talking about their fears? My guest today is eminently qualified to answer such questions and to provide advice that can help us. My guest for Episode #315 is Robert Maurer, Ph.D., author of the outstanding book Mastering Fear.Bob was previously my guest for Episode #153, where we discussed one of his earlier books on Kaizen, One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way. By the way, earlier this year I noticed that his other book The Spirit of Kaizen was one of the few books by an American author that Toyota was selling at the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology in Nagoya (see photo below).I hope you enjoy today's discussion on Mastering Fear. As the subtitle says, can we "harness emotion to achieve excellence in health, work, and relationships"?

314 - Skip Steward & Brandon Brown, on TWI & Kata in HealthcareToday I have two guests joining me for Episode #314 of the podcast. They are Skip Steward, the Chief Improvement Officer at Baptist Memorial Health Care in Tennessee and Brandon Brown, the owner and "Master Kata Coach" of his firm, Continuous Coaching Commitment, LLC.In this episode, we discuss their use of methods such as "Training Within Industry" and "Toyota Kata" in the important work of healthcare improvement. Skip and Brandon both have backgrounds in manufacturing, but they have been able to translate Lean skills and mindsets into healthcare. We'll also talk about their dynamic as consultant / client and how the roles of "coach" and "learner" are often very situational and how we can be both at different times.

Today's episode (#313) of the podcast is a bit of a departure from the norm. Instead of interviewing a guest about their book or other work, I'm reading what's basically an audiobook-style excerpt of the first part of my new book Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More. I say "audiobook-style" because it's not professionally produced and my voice has been bad after being sick last week... but I thought this would be one way to share some of this material and promote the book. I won't be doing a full-blown audiobook because the book is so full of charts, I don't think it all translates well to the audiobook format. But, here I'm reading the foreword, the preface, the introduction, and part of Chapter 1.

Joining me today for Episode #312 of the podcast is Jeff Hunter, author of the excellent book "Patient-Centered Strategy: A Learning System for Better Care."Jeff was with the ThedaCare in Wisconsin, where he was Senior Vice President, Strategy and Marketing for the health system. After retiring from ThedaCare, he has been a faculty member for Catalysis and has started his own consulting firm, Jeff Hunter Strategy. In today's podcast, we discuss a number of topics, including how a good strategy is a necessary input for a "strategy deployment" management process, some of the problems with traditional approaches to strategic planning, and why an iterative PDSA approach works better than static plans.

http://www.leanblog.org/311My guest for Episode 311 is Jess Orr, a continuous improvement practitioner at WestRock, a large paper and packaging company, where she helps plants foster a culture of continuous improvement and employee engagement.\Her experience includes working directly for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky. She is particularly passionate about sharing best practices across industries, which motivated her to found Yokoten Learning.In today's episode, we talk about her path from Six Sigma Black Belt to a Lean-thinking engineer at Toyota. How did she progress from solving problems herself to developing others? We'll talk about a blog post that she wrote for this blog earlier this year, Lean and ROI, leadership and culture, and much more. What is it like working outside of Toyota again? I hope you enjoy the discussion.

Steve Shortell, The Impact of #Lean on Healthcare Quality http://leanblog.org/310Joining me again for Episode 310 is Stephen M. Shortell Ph.D., 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 was previously a guest on Episode 267 talking about the establishment of the Center for Lean Engagement and Research (CLEAR) at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is the director. In this episode, we talk about some initial research that they released in a paper that was published in The Joint Commision Journal on Quality and Patient Safety:"Use of Lean and Related Transformational Performance Improvement Systems in Hospitals in the United States: Results From a National Survey"

Back on the podcast for the sixth time is my friend David Meier, a Lean / TPS consultant who is a former Toyota leader at their plant in Georgetown, Kentucky. As we mentioned in our April episode (#304), he's gotten into what's, perhaps, the most Kentucky of industries... distilling bourbon (and more) at Glenn's Creek Distillery.In this episode, there's a lot of bourbon talk, with some Lean concepts thrown in. If you share our interest in Lean and whiskey, then this might be your most favorite episode ever. Of course, if` you don't have any interest in bourbon, you might well skip this one.

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 great conversation that was very thought provoking. What are your fears? Your failures? What have you learned about yourself in the last 12 months? What's a "thinking partner?" Those are just a few of things we discuss here today.

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 and what he learned there -- and why it's important that he learned about "how flow works" at Toyota. We chat about the terms "Lean" and "The Toyota Production System" and what those words mean to him. How does TPS "transcend culture and language," as well as industries?We then shift to talking about healthcare and some of the common challenges, including "financial hardships," that are faced in many countries. Why are hospitals "poorly prepared for change" in many cases? Another main theme is "cost cutting" and why you can't cut your way to success.

Podcast #306 - Mark D. Valenti, Motivational Interviewing and Health System ImprovementMy 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 "everyday closer to better" is part of their mantra.We discuss the MI approach and how it's different than traditional healthcare or change management models that focus on telling people to change (or why they should change). There are many lessons that I think are helpful in any workplace or personal change context.ECCM is a "physician-led, patient-centered approach [that] focuses on prevention, high-quality and compassionate care, patient engagement and satisfaction, and health outcomes." According to Highmark, "In the first year, the ECCM program has provided a large Pennsylvania health plan with total medical care cost savings of greater than 19% for engaged members; equivalent to one inpatient admission per year per member engaged. More than 1,500 members are enrolled across more than 60 provider sites."

Respect for People and Continuous Improvement for HealthcareI 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 PeopleContinuous ImprovementThe 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 a day of consulting.(Slides PDF and transcript also included)

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).I'll have two more podcast episodes where David and I talk about bourbon, whiskey, and continuous improvement for almost 90 minutes total there. Those episodes are coming soon.Today is a shorter episode, where we catch up and hear more about what David has been doing since his last podcast appearance in 2010 when we talked about the challenges Toyota was facing then. In this episode, David drops a lot of knowledge and wisdom in a very short time -- thoughts on problem solving and how Lean thinking isn't easy for anybody, even if you're Japanese.

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, engagement, quality and patient safety. He works with medical staffs and healthcare executives to create highly reliable organizations where employees want to work, physicians want to practice and patients want to receive care."Today, we're talking about his book The E-Factor: How Engaged Patients, Clinicians, Leaders, and Employees Will Transform Healthcare. We'll talk about the differences between satisfaction and engagement, how to tell if people are engaged in their work, and how to engage various stakeholders, including employees, clinicians, and executives. We'll also talk about how Studer Group became a recipient of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award in 2010.

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 Kaizen. Would it be easier to "implement Lean" (or whatever term you'd use) if you're a Japanese organization? And what are some of the approaches you see with quality improvement and Lean in Japan's hospitals?Our conversation also meanders into topics like eating sushi and more.

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 Practicing Lean. (read an excerpt).Today, we're talking about "Champions of Change," as I've been writing about for Cardinal Health.

Tracey & Ernie Richardson, The Toyota Engagement EquationMy 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

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. You can learn more about our books here. He was previously the guest in episode #187.Joe is Administrative Director of Business Transformation for Franciscan St. Francis Health System in Indiana (his full bio is here). Today is the first part of a two-part discussion, where Joe reflects on the history and evolution of more than ten years of "Kaizen" or continuous improvement in his system. In our next episode together, Joe will be talking about "Champions of Change." I hope you enjoy the discussion!

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 accountability, and important lessons he's learned along the way.

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 inspired by this podcast.

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 InstituteExecutive Director of the UCI-Yale Center on Stress & HealthPresident of the American College of Perioperative MedicineDr. Kain is "recognized as an international expert in the clinical management of perioperative fear and anxiety, and management of children undergoing invasive medical procedures. His research addresses major dilemmas encountered in the management of affected children."He's also an advocate for Lean and Six Sigma and the connections to reducing "clinical variation" in healthcare. So, that's what we're talking about today.

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 a new "Care in Place" model for home-based patient care that helps reduce trips to a clinic or hospital. Their work was featured in this HBR article: "How Atrius Health Is Making the Shift from Volume to Value."

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 firm believers in the combination of Studer and Lean practices, so we're also discussing that as our main topic.I hope you enjoy the discussion!

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 "the lowest level of the organization," up through the manufacturing leadership ranks at Goodyear, including time as a Plant Director at facilities in Oklahoma and North Carolina.He's been "engaged in Lean" for over 15 years and he is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Billy has a BS in in Electrical Engineering from Prairie View A&M University and an MBA from Baker University.Billy was very giving of his time and we talked for over 75 minutes, so I'm breaking this up into two parts, with Part 2 coming soon. Today, we talk about how he got started with Lean, the shift from tools- and event-based Lean to a culture focus, how to build a sense of ownership, servant leadership, strategy deployment, employee recognition and more.

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 seminal book) as a "collaborative conversation for strengthening a person's own motivation and commitment to change."My guests for Episode 292 are the three co-authors of an excellent book, Motivational Interviewing for Leadership: MI-LEAD. They are (pictured from left to right in this order):Jason Wilcox, Director of Education and Connected Care at VA RoseburgDr. Brian Kersh, Clinical Psychologist at New Mexico VA Health SystemDr. Elizabeth Jenkins, Clinical Psychologist/Courtesy Assistant Professor at University of South Florida

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 and he probably talks to more organizations about their process improvement efforts - what their aims are and what they're struggling with - than anybody I know.Our main theme for the podcast today is not technology. Our topics include what Jeff is hearing from organizations and trends he hears about. I hope you'll enjoy our conversation, as I did.I hope you'll also join us on Thursday as Jeff presents a free webinar hosted by me and KaiNexus:The Why, How and What of Continuous Improvement

@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, Eric talks about how "Lean Startup" concepts came from "Lean" and the Toyota Production System and how Toyota then approached him about applying Lean Startup concepts in the development of a new in-dash electronics system. In recent years, GE and other large companies, in their efforts to be more innovative and entrepreneurial, have adapted these approaches into what Eric calls "The Startup Way." Will modern companies embrace a formal "entrepreneurship" function as they earlier embraced finance and marketing? We'll discuss that and more.Below, you'll find the full audio podcast, a 7-page PDF summary, and a complete transcript. The Startup Way is set for release tomorrow, October 17. Learn more at www.TheStartupWay.co. I had a chance to read the book in advance and enjoyed it very much. I hope you'll also join me at Lean Startup Week, where I'll be a speaker and session facilitator.

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. Kathleen and David will discuss why it was important to engage stakeholders in innovation, how they viewed and addressed resistance to change, why it was important to test the idea in practice, and why it was important to measure results. They also discuss their lessons learned and their challenges along the way.This WSJ article has a nice summary of the program: "Paramedics Aren't Just for Emergencies.""In the Geisinger pilot program, mobile health visits can be requested by a patient's primary-care doctor, a cardiology clinic, or after an emergency room or hospital discharge. Patients who frequently visit the ER are offered the option of being seen at home by a paramedic as an alternative to an ER visit and potential hospital admission, especially for conditions that can be treated at home if caught early."I hope you enjoy the episode.

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 reform topics.Dean was also previously my guest in Episodes 119 and 144.I'm including a full transcript along with a three-page PDF summary, as I've been doing recently.

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 was also a contributor to the book Practicing Lean, which is now available in audiobook format.I've been involved with some "government healthcare" organizations in different countries, but have never delved into other parts of government. I'm glad Harry is doing so! This seems like a big challenge, but an important and necessary one. We're seeing some examples of success with Lean at the local and state levels around the U.S., it seems. I hope we see more.I hope you enjoy our discussion whether you work in government or vote, pay taxes, or use government services (or all of the above!!).I'm including a four-page PDF summary, as I've been doing recently.

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 to talk with me about his lessons learned as he looks back on how ThedaCare's Lean journey has evolved, including some things he would consider to be missteps and challenges that they used as a springboard to get even better.I will also be releasing a separate episode where Dean talks about their experiences with Accountable Care Organizations (our topic from #144) and other "big picture" healthcare issues of the day.I'm including a full transcript along with a three-page PDF summary, as I've been doing recently.

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

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, and her belief, as stated in the article that "Lean methods can positively affect safety and throughput and are complementary to patient-centered clinical goals in a behavioral health setting."Dr. Balfour is the VP for Clinical Innovation and Quality at Connections Health Solutions, one of the largest providers of psychiatric emergency care in Arizona, and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona.Dr. Balfour received her MD and PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cincinnati and completed residency and a fellowship in Public and Community Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.A link to the article can be found at http://www.leanblog.org/284

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 since the book "Learning To See" was published and value stream maps were established as central to a lean deployment. What has changed rapidly, however, is the supporting eVSM toolset that captures and analyzes the initial wall maps, making it easy to do "what-if" studies and prioritize improvements. Receive a free eBook and see the state of the art at evsm.com/2020.

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 Twitter as @LisaYerianMD and @NateHurle.In today's episode, we talk about topics including the Cleveland Clinic Improvement Model (see my previous posts on this), how their program is structured, what a "culture of continuous improvement" means to them and their staff, how to get others to accept Lean and C.I. methods, and some of the challenges they are facing in their work.

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 I will both be there and I'll be doing a full-day workshop called "Better Metrics." Come join us!In today's episode, we talk about how Lean has been helpful to nurses (and other healthcare professionals), Julie's role as a nurse leader, and different ways patients and the health system have benefitted.

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 took the famed four-day seminar (that included the Red Bead Experiment) and was also invited to take the follow on course with a smaller group. You'll also want to scroll down to see the great picture that he posted on Twitter of him and Dr. Deming.Today, our focus is that famed "Red Bead Experiment." We'll talk about it, he'll share memories of Dr. Deming facilitating this, and we'll both share and discuss our reflections and our experiences with this, and the lessons learned.Tomorrow, I am facilitating the experiment as part of my "Better Metrics" workshop that I'm leading in Seattle through Catalysis. I'll also be doing this in June before the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit (you can still sign up). And, of course, I'd love to come to your organization to do the workshop and help you with your approach to managing metrics, people, and improvement.

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 avoid the "fight or flight" instinct and reaction from kicking in?We start by making change SMALL. That's a key Kaizen insight that Dr. Maurer is able to tie to the way our brain works.Here's our original discussion:https://www.leanblog.org/2012/07/podcast-153-robert-maurer-phd-the-kaizen-way/

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 Coordinator).In this episode, we discuss the role of Lean and process improvement in fire departments and EMS, why blame is "completely ineffective" as a strategy, why "unsafe supervision" is a problem (and what that means), and why it's necessary to build in quality instead of just inspecting for quality.

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, to use the Baldrige framework to create focus, align empowered employees, provide high quality products and services, deliver exceptional customer experience, and achieve enviable results.In this episode, we discuss topics including her background in manufacturing and quality, her experience with the Baldrige approach, and the ways that Lean and Baldrige are complementary.

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 for a good cause).He is a coach for leaders of change. His core expertise is helping workforces to quickly achieve systematic change in practice. A former McKinsey & Company consultant, he has now spent eighteen years working out this art of transformation in diverse industrial environments across the USA, Europe and Asia. He also continues to draw from prior experience of navigating change in corporate environments and experiencing it on shop floors. Further information about Andy can be found on www.ajsheppard.com. Andy is also happy to take any follow-up questions about leading change on his Goodreads Author Page. I hope you enjoy the conversation, which touches on Lean, change management, the need to balance empathy and urgency, and more.

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 more.

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.To me, "Lean Sigma" is often a controversial topic... not because anything is wrong with Six Sigma. Six Sigma methods can be very compatible with a Lean culture. But, "Lean Sigma" books and trainers (including Jay), paint a picture that says Lean is only about speed or efficiency and that Six Sigma is the method to improve quality.He says pretty directly in his book that Lean helps fix all of the types of waste... except for the waste of defects. He says Six Sigma is used to address defects. That's silly.I challenge Jay a bit about this in the podcast, and I'd like to remind the listeners that Lean and the Toyota Production System are about flow AND quality. Lean and quality go hand in hand. Lean methods and mindsets can very directly improve quality.So, I disagree with him on that point, but there are many good points in his book about not overcomplicating Lean or Six Sigma -- that the goal is results (and I'd add "developing people").You can read more about Jay and his bio here.

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 University of Kentucky. He joined the University of Kentucky after retiring from the US Army in 2001. He taught in the Defense Acquisition University from 1998 to 2001 and was assistant professor of military science at Stetson University from 1988 to 1991.In today's episode, we talk about his book, how his background and career in the Army influenced his views on Lean and leadership, "self-efficacy," and more.

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 he's helping healthcare leaders apply these lessons to improve their supply chain operations.In the past year, I've had a marketing partnership with Cardinal Health, which has led to content like this webinar and article, but after meeting Scott last year and having a great chat, I'm doing this podcast outside of that formal partnership. I'm pleased to have him on the podcast.

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 read his bio (PDF) and learn more about Isaac via his personal website. Scroll down to the show notes for links to a special Lean Hospitals book excerpt and more free downloads about Lean Design and Isaac's work at ETCH.

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 professionals. We also talk about how Lean, in particular "Lean done right," can help prevent or even reverse burnout by eliminating some of the systemic causes, such as the never-ending chaos that exists in far too many organizations.

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 always interesting to see what people outside of our "Lean community" see when they study Toyota. They describe how "continuous improvement is at the heart of Toyota's high-performance model."And, as somebody committed to healthcare improvement, I'm always curious to learn lessons from organizations like Mayo Clinic. The authors write about a key driver of the Mayo Clinic's success being its "commitment to collaborative medicine."

Re-uploading audio to fix a glitch from the intro.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. Heworks as a consulting editor for LEI and with many other Lean authors.He's a regular contributor to LEI's "The Lean Post." Eight of his edited books have won the Shingo Research Award.Today, we talk about some of the books he's played a role with, we'll talk about the evolution of the understanding of Lean, and his thoughts on shifting from his experience covering startups to thinkingabout "The Lean Startup" methodology in more recent years.

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 initiative that's part of CHOIR called CLEAR: the Center for Lean Engagement & Research in Healthcare. You can read a release about CLEAR, which highlights funding coming from the Lean Enterprise Institute, the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, and Rona Consulting Group.In this episode, we talk about the Center, their planned research, and some reasons why there is variation in what organizations would describe as "Lean" - variation in methods and approach as well as variation in results.

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.In this episode, we'll discuss her book and the important applications of Lean in service settings. Karyn says delighting customers requires something different than a "mechanistic Lean implementation" approach - and I agree, completely. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

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 that time.We first crossed paths when we had the opportunity to work together on a project for Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis to work with staff and leaders on designing parts of a new patient tower. You can read a bit about that work here. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

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 delivery, like ITIL.Tyrone is one of the first to hold the "Certified Executive Master Black Belt (CEMBB)" certification through Mikel J. Harry, PhD.We first met probably back in 2010 when we were both part of a Lean group that went to visit the Toyota plant in San Antonio (which I blogged about here and here).In this episode, he'll share some of his experiences, including a presentation to Michael Dell, his thoughts on the combination of Lean and Six Sigma, and methods that he has seen work in software development and other settings.

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 generally don't read business novels, but I really enjoyed this book and tore through it in a few days. It was really compelling and many of the scenarios felt quite familiar. I think this is a helpful book for painting a picture of what it could feel like to start a Lean journey in healthcare.The book is, of course, a sequel to his earlier book Andy & Me, Second Edition: Crisis & Transformation on the Lean Journey.

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 program in 1999 when MIT was teaching TQM in that summer course) and he also teaches executive education programs for MIT Sloan.Steve was previously a guest in Episodes #58 and 87. I'm glad to have him back on the show after six years.Steve is going to be one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming Northeast L.E.A.N. Conference, being held October 4th and 5th in Massachusetts. I hope you'll check it out, as I've participated in past years and it's always been great (and you get to meet Bruce Hamilton of "Toast Kaizen" fame).

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, #10, #50 (where he interviewed me), and #64. We were long overdue for another one. This episode is intentionally more conversational than most, with no more of a plan than me asking Jamie, "What's new?"He's also in final editing of a chapter for the book Practicing Lean, so I'm happy to be adding that to the book. Jamie is also going to be giving a keynote talk at our upcoming KaiNexus User Conference.

See http://www.leanblog.org/260My 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 working for a health system there. In San Antonio, Brad helped spread these "Lean Daily Management" practices at the Baptist system and University Health System. I was able to come visit and see how this process was engaging leaders and staff at UHS (see photos below).You can learn more about Brad's book at his website, which includes a two-page PDF on how these methods can improve patient flow.http://leandailymanagement.com/

See http://www.leanblog.org/259Today'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 experience at NUMMI. Today, we talk about what happened after his two years at NUMMI, why he feared getting lost back in the regular old GM, what he's done to teach and spread Lean in various industries over the past 30 years, and other thoughts on the current state of Lean.A transcript of the discussion can be found at the bottom of the post.

Joining me for Episode #258 is a many times returning guest, Jim Huntzinger, the President and Founder of Lean Frontiers (check out Episodes 8, 15, 33, 196, and 251, his with Russ Scaffede).Jim has written two eBooks, The Roots of Lean: Training Within Industry: The Origin of Japanese Management & Kaizen and Deflation: The Road to Prosperity. We'll talk about that second book and topic in the podcast today.We're also going to talk about Lean Accounting and Lean Management, the related topics at the upcoming Summits in San Antonio later this month. I hope you can join us, as I'll be giving a talk on "Practicing Lean" to kick off the event and I'll be around that whole day. Lean Frontiers produces many great events and I hope you can check one out some time.

My guest for episode #257 is somebody I've known for a while in the Lean healthcare community, Tania Lyon. She's the Director of Organizational Performance Improvement at St. Clair Hospital in Pittsburgh. She has a PhD in sociology (like Jeff Liker, author of the Toyota Way book series) and she initially got involved with Lean through PRHI, a common connection to previous podcast guests Paul O'Neill and Naida Grunden. St. Clair is a KaiNexus customer and Tania has played a major role in their rollout of our software to support their ongoing spread of continuous improvement. Regular readers of the blog know my part time role with KaiNexus, as the VP of Improvement and Innovation Services. We initially recorded this to be a podcast and blog posts for our customers, but I thought this was a conversation that would be of interest to a wider audience, as we're talking mainly about Lean and improvement strategies, with a little bit of KaiNexus talk thrown in.

See http://www.leanblog.org/256I'm really excited to have Steve Bera as my guest for Episode 256 of the podcast. I read about him, as he was featured prominently in parts of the 1994 Pulitzer-Prize winning book Comeback: The Fall & Rise of the American Automobile Industry.

My guest for episode #255 is Mark DeLuzio, author of the recently-released book Turn Waste into Wealth: How to Find Cash in Every Corner of the Company. It's Mark's first book, but he's been well known in the Lean community for a long time.Mark started learning and practicing Lean in 1988 when he worked for Jake Brake, a Danaher company (and Danaher has long been considered a great Lean company). As his bio says, "After studying TPS under Taiichi Ohno's influential Autonomous Study Group, he was instrumental in developing Jake's first zero-defect line for Toyota's Hino Motors. He has spent considerable time in Japan implementing TPS at various world-class companies and has had a successful career in finance."In 2007, Mark was inducted into the Shingo Academy for his contribution to the Lean movement. He is also CEO of the consulting firm Lean Horizons.hixgdxw5

Episode #254 is interesting to me for a number of reasons.For one, I have a "guest co-host" joining me for the first time. He's Chip Ponsford, DVM, a doctor of veterinary medicine and former practice owner who I've gotten to know here in Texas over the past few years.Chip has been a great student of Lean, following a path similar to that of Sami Bahri, DDS ("The World's First Lean Dentist") in reading the "classic" Lean books from industry because there had been nothing written about Lean in VetMed. I've been helping Chip with his "Lean Vets" blog and we've collaborated in a few other ways to promote Lean in veterinary medicine.Our guest is Samantha (Sam) Parrett, the Director of Business & Administrative Services at North Carolina State University Veterinary Health Complex. Chip and I ran across Sam's name in one of the few articles we've found on Lean in VetMed:NC Vet College Dives Into Lean TrainingIn the podcast, we'll discuss their story at NC State and the potential for Lean to make the jump into veterinary medicine more broadly. We hope you enjoy the discussion.

Joining me for Episode #253 is Ash Maurya, author of the book Running Lean:Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works and his latest, being released this week, called Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth. Ash is an entrepreneur and a big part of the "Lean Startup" community. Visit his website at www.LeanStack.com.

My guest for episode #252 is Jordan Peck, a Senior Director in the Center for Performance Improvement at MaineHealth and Maine Medical Center. Jordan and I first met when he was a graduate student at MIT and was involved with the Lean Advancement Initiative (and I was working basically across the street at the Lean Enterprise Institute). At MIT, he earned a PhD in Engineering Systems and Health Care Systems.Jordan and I have continued to cross paths every year at the Society for Health Systems annual conference. His career has taken him to the Veterans Health Administration and now into the private sector at Maine Health, as we discuss in the podcast.

Episode #251 is a bit different in that it's audio shared by the good folks at Lean Frontiers. They recently hosted a webinar where Jim Huntzinger, founder and president of Lean Frontiers asked questions that answered by Russ Scaffede about Lean leadership. See their other webinars here.Russ has a lot of great wisdom and experience to share, so I asked Jim if I could share it here. Russ is a big part of the upcoming event - The Summit on Lean Leadership, which is being produced by Lean Frontiers. It's being held June 21-22 in Charlotte. You can save 25% off that event by using the discount code leanblog. I should also mention that I'm going to be a keynote speaker at their upcoming Lean Accounting Summit in San Antonio this August.In this discussion, Russ shares a lot of gems not just about how Toyota does things (as he learned in his time there), but also some key insights about transforming an organization that is NOT Toyota (as he learned from his experience at Tiara Yachts and other companies).

Episode #250... a big round number. 250 podcasts in just under 10 years. Thanks again to Norman Bodek (my first guest and frequent guest) for the idea back in 2006.My goal with the podcasts has always been to showcase my guests. Occasionally, I take the stage or share the stage with audio of me. Today is one of those episodes.Earlier in May, I had the chance to co-present a webinar with Dr. Jack Billi from the University of Michigan (archived here). The webinar was hosted by the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement, which is being spun off by the American Medical Association.Before the formal webinar, Jack and I recorded some informal Q&A with the host, Stephen Davidow. This audio, shared with the permission of the PCPI also includes the Q&A that was done after the webinar presentation. I hope you enjoy our discussion about how we each got started with Lean in healthcare and more.

My guest for episode #249 of the podcast is Steve Leuschel, author of the book Lean Culture Change: Using a Daily Management System.You might remember a post from January that included an excerpt from his book on "huddles."In this episode, we discuss topics including his greatest influences, the lessons he learned from Rodger Lewis (a former Toyota general manager), "mutual trust," PDCA cycles, daily huddles, and more. What's the potential of a Lean management system and why is it difficult to get organizations and leaders to embrace a holistic system like that?

Joining me for episode #248 of the podcast is Drew Locher, an author, consultant, speaker, and, also like me, a faculty member for the Lean Enterprise Institute and the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. You can read his bio via his consulting website, Change Management Associates.Drew's books include Value Stream Mapping for Lean Development: A How-To Guide for Streamlining Time to Market, Lean Office and Service Simplified: The Definitive How-To Guide, and Unleashing the Power of 3P: The Key to Breakthrough Improvement.He also, most recently, released a second edition of The Complete Lean Enterprise: Value Stream Mapping for Office and Services, a recipient of the Shingo Research Award. You can also read his two guest posts that I've published on this blog.In this episode, we talk about his books, how Lean is about more than just tools, and the need to focus on "the critical few things" instead of falling victim to a "scattershot" approach to reducing waste. "We learn more by doing than talking about it," says Drew about Lean.

My guest for episode #247 is James Chisholm, a principal and co-founder of the Toronto-based ExperiencePoint. James is a pioneer in the design of online game-based learning, and has authored numerous leadership simulations in use by over 100,000 executives and managers worldwide. I fell in love with their "Lakeview" hospital change management simulation a few years back when I first got to try it and I've been very happy to learn from James and to partner with ExperiencePoint.James speaks and writes widely on the subject of games, learning and change. He co-authored chapters in the "Handbook of Experiential Learning" and in the Center for Creative Leadership's Fieldbook, "Experience-Driven Leader Development: Strategies, Tools, and Practices" (both published by Pfieffer). Read his full bio: (PDF).In this episode, we discuss topics including why change management is such an important issue for him and organizations, the role of simulations and experience-based learning, how "leadership is a process," and how "change is synonymous with leadership."

Episode #246 is my second episode in recognition of Patient Safety Awareness Week.My guest is Steve Montague, who talked about Lean and Crew Resource Management with me in episode #195 in 2014. He's a retired Navy fighter pilot, a commercial pilot, and a consultant for hospitals and health systems... and a fellow Texan and a near-neighbor of mine. See his full bio here.Today, we're talking about a number of topics, including patient safety and checklists... what's the difference between good checklist systems and bad (and what are the parallels to Lean done well and Lean done badly). We talk about a number of articles and recent events about how NHS employees are afraid to speak up, an Iowa hospital that had four wrong site surgeries in 40 days, and the recent NEJM brouhaha.

See http://www.leanblog.org/245Today is the first of two episodes that I'll post here during Patient Safety Awareness Week. I agree with the National Patient Safety Foundation that every day should be patient safety day.I'm sure my guest for episode #245 would agree with that. He is Tom Evans, MD, FAAFP, the President and CEO of the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. I've know Dr. Evans for many years, but was prompted to do the podcast by this editorial he wrote in the Des Moines Register: "Iowa hospitals succeed at keeping patients safe."In this episode, we talk about the progress being made in Iowa hospitals, what they are doing, and the lessons learned.

See http://www.leanblog.org/244Joining me again for Episode #244 is Dan Markovitz (@DanMarkovitz on Twitter). Today's episode is part 2 of our discussion about his most recent book Building the Fit Organization: Six Core Principles for Making Your Company Stronger, Faster, and More Competitive, a recipient of the Shingo Research Award. You can hear Part 1 in Episode #241.

My guest for Episode #243, Michael Bungay Stanier, takes us a bit outside of the Lean realm... but that's good. Our topic today, which ties in very nicely to Lean and Kaizen (as you'll hear in our conversation) is coaching.His most recent book is titled The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever and it's available today. It's a very practical book that's full of tips and seven key questions that you can use as a coach.Michael is "founder and Senior Partner of Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work."

Episode #242 is unique in that it's a collection of audio clips from videos that Joe Swartz and I shot in late 2014 at his health system, Franciscan St. Francis Health in Indianapolis. In the videos, a number of nurses and leaders talk about continuous improvement in a way that's fun, wise, and inspirational.As we did last year, Joe and I are hosting a learning event at his system called "Kaizen Live!" where you have a chance to see and hear what a culture of continuous improvement is really like. We hope you'll join us April 5 & 6 for the main experience (where we'll be out visiting departments instead of spending all of our time in a conference center) and we have some optional classes on April 4.We hope you enjoy the stories and reflections here in the podcast.

Joining me for Episode #241 is a returning guest and friend of mine, Dan Markovitz (@DanMarkovitz on Twitter). He was a guest on Episodes #135 (talking about A Factory of One) and #52 (talking more generally about office Lean). He has also written a number of guest posts here. Oh, and he has his own blog.Today we're talking about his most recent book Building the Fit Organization: Six Core Principles for Making Your Company Stronger, Faster, and More Competitive, which, like his first book, is a recipient of the Shingo Research and Publication Award. Congrats!

My guest for episode #240 is somebody I've wanted to interview for a long time, Leah Binder, the president and CEO of Leapfrog Group, "a voluntary program aimed at mobilizing employer purchasing power to alert America's health industry that big leaps in health care safety, quality and customer value will be recognized and rewarded."In this episode, Leah talks about the story behind Leapfrog Group, the scale of the patient safety problem in America, some efforts of Leapfrog Group to grade hospitals, the connections between Lean and patient safety, and other topics.Please check out Leapfrog Group and their Hospital Safety Score website. How does your hospital measure up? How do the hospitals in your community compare? What can hospitals be doing to close their gaps so they get an "A"? How can large businesses who pay for healthcare and have their employees' interest in mind, like manufacturers, help put positive pressure on healthcare to improve?

Joining me for Episode #239 is Pascal Dennis, somebody I really respect and have learned a lot from over the years... I'd call him "sensei" gladly (although he and I agree that's not a term one should bestow upon themselves... see his blog post). I'm very happy to have him as a guest again for what is just his second time (I thought it had been more frequent). In Episode 96, we talked about his book The Remedy. Today, we are talking about the new third edition of his book Lean Production Simplified.

Episode #238 is a conversation with somebody I've wanted to talk with for a long time, Kevin Cahill. He is the executive director of the W. Edwards Deming Institute.He's also a grandson of Dr. Deming!Kevin played an instrumental role in getting NBC to publicly release the 1980 documentary, "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?" that featured Dr. Deming (see my blog posts about it). We talk about that in the podcast, along with his other recollections of Dr. Deming and how he watched the original NBC airing with him.We also discuss his reflections on learning the Deming philosophy and his attempts to utilize the ideas in his career (and how challenging that can be when it flies in the face of the prevailing business culture). It was a really fun discussion and I hope you enjoy it. If you have follow up questions for Kevin, please post a comment, as I'm sure we can do another podcast in the near future.

Episode #237 is, like the last episode, a bit different... but in a different way. My guest is my friend Paul Akers, author of the new book Lean Health. Paul was previously a guest for Episode 133, where he talked about his book 2 Second Lean and also for Episode 122. Today, we're talking about his new book, just released.What's different about this podcast is that I attempted to broadcast it live via YouTube. We eventually got there, but not until after some errors I made (and reflected upon here). What appears here is an edited audio-only version of our conversation, which includes some questions from live viewers.Paul has put a lot of time and money into this book. You can buy it on Amazon or download a FREE version as a PDF or audiobook via his webpage.

For episode #236, things are a little different than usual. Today, I wanted to share a video discussion between my friends Ted Stiles and John Toussaint, MD.Ted is a partner with the recruiting firm Stiles & Associates. John, of course, is the president of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and has been a frequent guest in my podcast series.John's most recent book is Management on the Mend.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/236.

For the episode and more details, visit http://www.leanblog.org/audio235.If you've been a listener of my LeanBlog Podcast series, you might know that I normally record conversations and then publish them into the podcast feed. Today, I'm going to do my first live broadcast of a podcast discussion via the "Blab.im" streaming platform. My guest is Sam MacPherson and we are talking about Lean leadership, including his lessons learned from his time as a Green Beret.Topics Include:Differences between Special Forces (The Green Berets) and the rest of the militarySimilarities between “The Green Beret Way” and The Toyota Way - shockingly similarCommand and Control vs. Leadership"Commander's Intent"Misconceptions regarding military leadership and industry leadershipLean transformation - you current leadership style and skills wont cut it!

Today's guest is Mitch Cahn, president of Unionwear, a manufacturer of hats, bags, and apparel in Newark, NJ. I first learned about Mitch and his company because of a display they had at the Northeast LEAN Conference, which I blogged about here. What caught my eye was their display of politician hats they produce, including the famous red "Make America Great Again" hat that Donald Trump wears.Beyond the surface of those hats is a fascinating story about competing instead of making excuses. As Mitch explains in the podcast, Unionwear has been very successful even though he's producing in one of the highest-cost parts of the world. Unionwear has had to compete against imports from China and lower-wage southern states in the U.S. Starting in 2007, Lean has been a major part of their strategy for improving productivity, reducing cost, and being fast to market.Whether you work in healthcare or manufacturing, I think you'll love the story behind Mitch, his company, and his employees.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/234.

Today's guest is Katie Anderson, and we're talking about her experiences living in Tokyo for 18 months and what she's learning about Lean culture, Japanese culture, and how those aren't always one and the same.I first met Katie through the Healthcare Value Network and our participation in that collaborative. She's an experienced Lean healthcare practitioner, coach, consultant, having worked for Stanford Children's Hospital and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation before starting her own consulting practice.Katie has been generously sharing her experiences in Japan and her reflections on her blog, which I highly recommend. You can also find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/232. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their software that helps spread continuous improvement -- Learn more at http://www.KaiNexus.com

Today's podcast, #232, is presented with a heavy heart, after the recent passing of my friend Dr. Michel Téatrault, the CEO of St. Boniface General Hospital and a great Lean leader. He was a friend to many in the Healthcare Value Network and the broader Lean healthcare community.As I was remembering Michel, it occurred to me that I had recorded a podcast with him, back in 2010, as part of a series that I was doing for the Healthcare Value Network. I never shared that audio as part of my main podcast series, so I'm doing so today.In the episode, we talk about "Lean from the CEO perspective." I hope Michel's words and experiences at St. Boniface continue to help and inspire people.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/232.

Today's guest is Eric Dickson,MD, MHCM, FACEP, the president and CEO of UMass Medical Center.Episode #231 of the podcast is a little different than the usual. Normally, I record a podcast interview via Skype or a phone call. Today's podcast is a recording of an interview that I did on stage at the 2015 Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, as part of the CEO panel I was moderating. Eric was one of three CEOs who did a 10-minute interview with me, then we had them take questions as a panel group.The audio quality isn't as good as normal, so there's a transcript of the conversation below. Eric tells what I think is an important story about why UMass Medical Center used Lean and Kaizen as an important strategy for the challenges and crisis they faced at the time.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/231.

Joining me for episode #230 is Paul DeChant, MD, MBA to talk about reducing burnout, especially physician burnout, through Lean.Paul (see his bio here) is the former CEO of Sutter Gould Medical Foundation, a 300-physician multispecialty medical group in California's Central Valley. Before that, he had stints at organizations including Geisinger Health System and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. He is now a consultant and executive coach for Simpler Healthcare.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/230.In the podcast, we talk about questions and topics including:Tell us about your career... how did you get involved in healthcare leadership and how did you get exposed to Lean?What problems or opportunities were you trying to address with Lean?How did you see your role and participation as CEO? As a physician leader?You recently wrote a blog post "why is physician engagement even an issue?" How would you describe the current state of life for an MD before Lean?Can Lean help prevent burnout for MDs or others?Is there a point where somebody gets "too burned out" and can't be turned?

My guest for episode #229 is John Dyer, president of his consulting firm, JD&A, Inc., and a contributor for IndustryWeek.com. 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.John had the good fortune to learn directly from W. Edwards Deming, as he took the famed four-day seminar (that included the Red Bead Experiment) and was also invited to take the follow on course with a smaller group. You'll also want to scroll down to see the great picture that he posted on Twitter of him and Dr. Deming.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/229.In the podcast, we talk about questions and topics including:Tell us about the early days of your career in manufacturing engineering and management... how did you get involved in operational excellence?While at GE, you had some experience with W. Edwards Deming, tell us about that...What are some of the key lessons from Dr. Deming that stick with you today?GE's CEO Jack Welch had once derided Deming as "too theoretical." Was it that or did Deming's concrete suggestions just fly in the face of Jack's way?What did John recently witness when a relative was a hospital inpatient? How did that compared to some things Dr. Deming saw and reported as a patient in 1987?

Joining me for episode #228 of the podcast is Zeynep Ton, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. You may have recently seen her being interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on CNN. She is author of the 2014 book The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/228.In this podcast, topics include:How she transitioned from industrial engineering and supply chain management to studying retail companies.In the vicious cycle of the "bad jobs strategy, " why is this considered conventional wisdom that the way to maximize profits in a low-margin industry is to offer minimal pay, training, and hours?What are the components (and system) of "the good jobs strategy?"What connections do you draw between the good jobs strategy and Toyota or Lean?Do the companies or founders that have a good jobs strategy sort of naturally embrace it?Of the "good jobs" components, is it most difficult to help people see that 100% utilization is often very harmful and that "slack" is necessary?Is it easier for privately held companies to pursue the good jobs strategy having less quarterly financial pressure?Any thoughts on why society focuses so much on wages, while seemingly ignoring other aspects of workplace conditions that need to be improved?

Joining me for episode #227 are Ruthie Davis and Stephen Cook, talking about the book that they edited, Do the Right Thing: Real Life Stories of Leaders Facing Tough Choices.While this episode isn't focused on Lean, per se, I think you'll enjoy the discussion and I highly recommend the book, which highlights the role of ethics and integrity in leadership... hence "doing the right thing" and being a great leader who others chose to follow.The book is inspired by the life and lessons of Don Davis, who served as CEO of Stanley Works (now Stanley Black & Decker) from 1966 to 1988. After retiring as CEO, Don volunteered to teach a leadership seminar for the MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, which I was fortunate to take as a student there.Ruthie is Don's daughter and Steve was a student of Don's at MIT, so they combined their efforts to publish a compilation of compelling stories from Don's students about real life leadership challenges that they faced and how Don's "leadership mantras" helped them in those times.Ruthie Davis is an entrepreneur and designer, the founder and CEO of the high-fashion Ruthie Davis shoes. Stephen Cook is currently a co-founder and Executive Managing Director of the private equity firm, LFM Capital.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/227. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their software that helps spread continuous improvement -- Learn more at http://www.KaiNexus.com

My guests for episode #226 are Steve Hoeft and Dr. Robert (Bob) Pryor from Baylor Scott & White Health in Texas.Bob serves as President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Medical Officer for the system and was formerly CEO of Scott & White Health before their merger with Baylor Health Care System. Steve is the Chief of Operations Excellence for the system.hoeft-pryor bookThey are co-authors of a recently released book that I think is outstanding: The Power of Ideas to Transform Healthcare: Engaging Staff by Building Daily Lean Management Systems. Steve is also previously author of another book I really like, Stories from My Sensei: Two Decades of Lessons Learned Implementing Toyota-Style Systems.I'm sure you'll enjoy the podcast, as they combine the perspectives of an industrial engineer and Toyota-influenced automotive guy (Steve) and a pediatrician and physician executive (Bob). They share a passion for healthcare improvement AND a belief that we need to respect and engage everybody who works in healthcare as a way to better serve patients.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/226. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their software that helps spread continuous improvement -- Learn more at http://www.KaiNexus.com

Joining me once again on the podcast today is John Toussaint, MD, the founder and CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. We're talking about his latest book, Management on the Mend.John wrote this new book to document "core elements of successful Lean transformations" that he's seen, not just at ThedaCare, but at other organizations around the world. The book outlines a "transformation model" that can be used to structure a Lean transformation, while John admits there's not just one prescription or framework that could work.John was previously a guest for episodes #184, #159, #146, #72, #62, and #54 going back to 2008. His previous books, which I highly recommend, are On the Mend and the follow up Potent Medicine, both are Shingo Research Award recipients.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/225. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their software that helps spread continuous improvement -- Learn more at http://www.KaiNexus.com

My guest for episode #224 of my podcast is a returning guest, Mike Grogan. About two years ago, we talked about his Lean work in Tanzanian healthcare, in episode #182. Mike is an international trainer, coach, and speaker, who works with successful but overwhelmed management teams, to help them understand the technical and behavioral elements of Lean leadership, so that they can realize a culture of constant and never-ending improvement in their organization.In this eposide, we talk about his experience with mentoring, in Tanzania and other settings.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/224. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

My guest for podcast episode #223 is Christian Wolcott, a senior advisor and director of Kaizen Institute North America and their director for Japan tours. Christian was an integral part of the team for the Japan Lean Healthcare Tour that I participated in last November as an instructor. Christian taught Lean concepts and facilitated discussions with me and the global attendees.In this podcast, we talk about our reflections on Japan and the tour, lessons learned, and reasons to go (which include wonderful camaraderie, fine cuisine, and evening discussions with the attendees). You can learn the difference between sushi, shabu shabu, and shōchū, in addition to learning about Lean and Kaizen.We're planning another tour in September, so please contact me if you'd like to be sent more information and check out the website I've set up about the tours. See past posts I've written about the tours --- http://www.japanleantrip.com.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/223. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

Joining me for episode #222 of the podcast is Erin S. DuPree, M.D., FACOG, the Chief Medical Officer and Vice President for the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare. Dr. DuPree is an OB/GYN by training, was previously the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. She is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt and is also a TeamSTEPPS (Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety) master trainer.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/222.One thing we have in common is both growing up around Detroit, being exposed to the auto industry and the ideas of W. Edwards Deming early in life.In this podcast, topics include:Her role in the Center for Transforming Healthcare (the Joint Commission does more than accreditation)How Dr. DuPree first got involved in healthcare quality improvement and, in particular, Lean and Six Sigma (two complementary practices, as we agree)Of the different estimates about the number of patients harmed or killed each year due to preventable medical errors, which numbers does she cite and why?There are pockets of improvement around healthcare, but what are some of the biggest barriers, that she sees, that prevent adoption of Lean and Six Sigma and, more importantly, the improvement of quality and patient safety?How does the idea of "High Reliability Organizations" fit with other improvement methodologies?What's the personal patient story that helped her see the preventable harm that occurs and the need for improvement?

My guest for episode #221 is Jacob Stoller, author of a book that was just released: The Lean CEO: Leading the Way to World-Class Excellence. It's available now through Amazon or you can learn more through his book's website. As Jacob explains, he's a journalist, not a Lean practitioner, and he interviewed CEOs across different industries to get their thoughts on Lean management.We discuss topics including how CEOs get exposed to Lean thinking, why humility is so important, what "respect for people" means in the Lean context, and reasons why more CEOs don't embrace Lean. Did Six Sigma and Dr. Deming come up in his interviews? You'll also hear a bit about Bob Brody, the CEO at Franciscan St. Francis Health, which was featured in my Healthcare Kaizen books.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/221. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

My guest for episode #220 is somebody I've wanted to interview for a long time, Dr. Robert Wachter, one of the leading voices in the modern patient safety movement. He's most recently author of a brand-new book The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age. His book was excerpted in this New York Times Op-Ed piece, "Why Health Care Tech Is Still So Bad."In this episode, we cover topics including:How Bob got into the patient safety fieldOf all of the estimates of patient harm and death caused by medical errors, which does he find most valid?His perspectives on the interface between Lean principles and practices and the modern patient safety movementWhat were some of the pros and cons of the $30 billion in federal government incentives for EMR/EHR adoption?Is it fair to say that EHR systems solve some patient safety problems while solving others?Some of the new waste introduced by new "meaningful use" regulationsThe story of a preventable medication error that harmed a child - a combination of technology problems, human factors, and bad processFinding the balance between "system problems" and personal accountability (see this article)Disclosure: I received an advance copy of The Digital Doctor from the publisher. I highly recommend the book for its balanced presentation of the promise, successes, and challenges of healthcare IT. The book discusses why electronic medical records haven't been adopted more quickly, why government incentives were introduced, and EMR/EHR systems are not the panacea that some had promised.Previously, Dr. Wachter has written books on patient safety (that I've read and recommend) including Understanding Patient Safety and Internal Bleeding. He received one of the 2004 John M. Eisenberg Awards, the nation's top honor in patient safety and quality. He has been selected as one of the 50 most influential physician-executives in the U.S. by Modern Healthcare magazine for the past seven years, the only academic physician to achieve this distinction. I was honored when Dr. Wachter recently interviewed me about Lean and patient safety for his AHRQ "Web M&M" series.Dr. Wachter is Professor and Associate Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, where he holds the Lynne and Marc Benioff Endowed Chair in Hospital Medicine. He is also Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine, and Chief of the Medical Service at UCSF Medical Center. He has published 250 articles and 6 books in the fields of quality, safety, and health policy. He coined the term "hospitalist" in a 1996 New England Journal of Medicine article and is past-president of the Society of Hospital Medicine. He is generally considered the academic leader of the hospitalist movement, the fastest growing specialty in the history of modern medicine.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/220. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.comFor earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Joining me for episode #219 is Tristan Kromer, a professional "Lean Startup" coach who works with startups around the world and volunteers for the non-profit Lean Startup Circle.

Joining me for episode #219 is Tristan Kromer, a professional "Lean Startup" coach who works with startups around the world and volunteers for the non-profit Lean Startup Circle.In this episode, we discuss topics including how he got involved in the Lean Startup movement, the difference between a coach and a consultant, and lessons from various startups. When are you "pivoting" versus just giving up on an idea? Tristan also talks about why being data driven and scientific "is the aspiration" and why somebody who "starts from a profound state of ignorance" can be helpful by asking the right questions.You can find Tristan on Twitter @trikro and via his blog. Read his bio here.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/219. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.comFor earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Joining me for episode #219 is Tristan Kromer, a professional "Lean Startup" coach who works with startups around the world and volunteers for the non-profit Lean Startup Circle.In this episode, we discuss topics including how he got involved in the Lean Startup movement, the difference between a coach and a consultant, and lessons from various startups. When are you "pivoting" versus just giving up on an idea? Tristan also talks about why being data driven and scientific "is the aspiration" and why somebody who "starts from a profound state of ignorance" can be helpful by asking the right questions.You can find Tristan on Twitter @trikro and via his blog. Read his bio here.

My guest for episode #218 is Karen Kiel-Rosser, Vice President/Quality Improvement Officer at Mary Greeley Medical Center in Iowa. You can see her full bio below in this post. You might remember Karen from a recent post where she told a great story about putting patient safety first.We're talking today about the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and how that framework and process is mutually supportive of Lean and quality improvement. In December, Mary Greeley Medical Center was named a recipient of Gold level recognition in the 2014 Iowa Recognition for Performance Excellence (IRPE) program - the state level Baldrige award. They previously received the Silver level in 2011.In the podcast, we talk about why and when Mary Greeley decided to pursue the Baldrige award, what it was like to be reviewed at the state level, and their future plans for applying at the national level.Karen also shares thoughts about how Baldrige ("the what") and Lean ("the how") fit together, some of their key quality outcomes measures, and how the recognition has helped internally with staff. She also talks about their safety huddles, the importance of "engaging those closest to the work," and the need for a "systematic approach" to capture Rapid Improvement Events and daily improvement work and how their use of KaiNexus has supported those efforts.The hospital was previously featured in episode #201: Ron Smith & Suz Kaprich, the KaiNexus WorkOut at Mary Greeley Medical Center.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/218. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.comFor earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.

Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.comOur guest today is Alan G. Robinson, PhD, an award-winning author, educator, researcher and consultant. He has co-authored six books, including Modern Approaches to Manufacturing Improvement: The Shingo System, Ideas Are Free, and his latest, The Idea-Driven Organization. His specialties include managing continuous improvement, creativity, ideas and innovation, and Lean production, being one of the earliest professors to visit Japan to study the Toyota Production System.In this episode, we talk about the history of suggestion programs (and a surprising detail about their history), why 80% of an organization's improvement comes from staff ideas, and why high-performing idea systems are rare. We also talk about some of the pitfalls of traditional cost-benefit analysis, the role of leaders and humility, and a company, Scania, that intentionally overstaffs to provide time for Kaizen, leading to 12-15% annual productivity improvement. Why is mankind still battling against command-and-control management systems? And what's the real story behind American Airlines famously removing an olive from their salads?We cover all of that and more in this episode.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/217. For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.

Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.comReturning to the podcast after his first appearance in Episode #188 is Daniel T. Jones, founder and chairman of the UK-based Lean Enterprise Academy. You can find him on Twitter now as @DanielJonesLean.Dan collaborated with Jim Womack on the books The Machine That Changed the World, Lean Thinking, and Lean Solutions and published other books through the LEA. He is also a senior advisor to the relatively new website and journal "Planet Lean."In this episode, we talk about some of the progress being made in areas outside of manufacturing. Dan says there's "awareness everywhere" but asks if there's "real depth" in Lean progress? We'll discuss how we can reframe Lean for the public sector and healthcare as a way of going beyond mere cost cutting programs. What does Dan seeing happen in software and startup sectors with Lean in companies like Spotify in Sweden? How is interest in the core "respect for people" leading to a search for "more holistic management methods?"For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/216. For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.

Today's guest is my friend John Ervin and we were able to sit down together here in San Antonio to record this episode. John has about 20 years of healthcare leadership experience, including military medicine and the civilian sector. He's been a manager and director of operating rooms in many types of hospital and surgical center settings.We share a passion for Lean and, more importantly, patient safety. We believe strongly that you need the right type of culture and leadership to encourage and support a culture of safety and that's what we'll talk about today.While he's been in San Antonio for about three years, he's currently exploring job opportunities back in Philadelphia.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/215. For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

Today's guest is Michael Ballé, an author of many novels about Lean management, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute. He joins us for this episode from Paris (he shares many photos of "Paris moments" via his Twitter account @TheGembaCoach). Michael and his father, Freddy, have collaborated on these books and have learned about as directly from Toyota as anybody (Freddy was CEO of the French automotive supplier Sommer-Allibert and was coached by them).The three novels are:- The Gold Mine- The Lean Manager- Lead With RespectAs we joke about in the podcast, I'm not a fiction reader, in general, so I don't care for business novels. But, many people do!I read Michael's non-fiction essays and articles, including:- "The Gemba Coach" column on Lean.org- His answers to questions on TheLeanEdge.org (where I'm also a contributor)Michael is a first-time podcast guest (which we were both shocked to discover), but I did host a four-part written Q&A with him back in 2009.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/215. For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.comToday's podcast is different than my usual interview format. I still plan on continuing this podcast, but I also wanted to try something new.I'm starting a "Lean Blog Audio" podcast, which is basically an "audio book" type reading of blog posts. I won't do it for all posts, but maybe a few a week. I'll also occasionally look back at an old post, as I did in this episode, which is actually #4 in the new series. The episodes in this new series won't have their own page, but the audio will be embedded in the blog post itself. To find all episodes, you can visit www.LeanBlog.org/audio.I realize this won't add value to all readers of the blog or all listeners of this podcast. But, many people tell me they like listening to the podcasts while they drive or workout and this new podcast provides a way to keep up on the blog in addition to or instead of the written word on the blog. These are really easy to do and many of them will be done while I'm doing a final proofreading of a new post, basically (which might reduce the number of typos and other defects!). Interviews (planning them, prepping for them, editing them) for my original podcast series is actually more time consuming than doing a podcast of this type.If you go to www.LeanBlog.org/audio, you'll see information about how to subscribe via an RSS feed or the iTunes podcast directory.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/213. For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.

Today's guest is David Mann, talking about the new 3rd edition of his Shingo-Award winning book "Creating a Lean Culture." David tells us what's new in the book and we discuss "leader standard work" and other elements of a Lean culture.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/212. You can find links for buying the book and see a video of David talking about the new edition.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

Today's episode is actually the republication of an episode of the "Healthcare Tech Talk" podcast, #23, where I was a guest of Terry Baker and Kelley Hill, talking about Lean healthcare for an audience of healthcare IT and IS people. This is being shared here with their permission. I hope you'll check out their entire podcast series at http://healthcaretechtalk.net/ or via iTunes and other places to get podcasts.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/211.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

My guests today are Darrell Damron and Hollie Jensen and we're talking about Lean in Washington state government. Darrell and Hollie are both state employees, serving in the role of Enterprise Lean Consultant within a team called "Results Washington." I've seen them both present at a Lean Enterprise Institute summit and I'm really happy to have them share their ongoing improvement story here in the podcast.In the episode, we talk about their backgrounds and how they got started with Lean - Darrell in the public sector and Hollie at Starbucks. How did the state of Washington get started with Lean? What are some of their goals and accomplishments? How is Lean a strategy under Governor Jay Inslee and why is Lean a non-partisan issue that was supported by both gubernatorial candidates in the last election? What are some of the challenges that lay ahead for Washington?For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/210.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

My guest for episode #209 is George Friesen, Business Practice Leader for Lean Transformations in the Workforce Solutions Group at St. Louis Community College.In this episode, we talk about his early experiences at the GM/Toyota NUMMI plant, why candor and trust are so important in a Lean transformation, and how to engage front-line employees in Kaizen and continuous improvement, and much more.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/209.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

Joining me for episode #208 is Michael Bremer, author of the recently released eBook How to Do a Gemba Walk. Michael is president of The Cumberland Group, a business improvement consulting firm based in Illinois.In today's episode, Michael talks about different types of gemba walks, key behaviors that need to be exhibited by leaders, and why it's critically important to build trust and credibility over time. How can gemba walks help a leader be more in touch with reality in the workplace? How can gemba walks help develop critical thinking skills in others? Listen to find out.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/208.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

Episode #207 is part two of my conversation with Chris Jerry, founder of The Emily Jerry Foundation. The foundation was created in the aftermath of the tragic death of his daughter, Emily - a preventable medical error caused by a number of factors and bad systems. You can read Emily's story here.In the first part (Episode #203), Chris told the story of what happened. In part two, we talk about topics including:A systems view vs. blaming an individualChris skipping over the "anger" phase of griefWhy his barber required more certification than a pharmacy tech compounding medications?"Emily's Law" was passed in 2009 in Ohio and he's working on this nationallyHow he learned his ex-wife pursued the criminal charges against CroppPublicly forgiving Cropp and meeting him face to face for the first timeHow we're all fallible and capable of making a mistakeAll of the elements of the system have to fit together and work togetherDifferences between advances in automotive safety over time and healthcare safetyWarning people without demonizing the individualsThe importance of patient and family involvementHow to reduce hospital acquired infections - hand washing!How much progress is being made in the patient safety battle?For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/207. Part one was at www.leanblog.org/203.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

My guest for episode #206 is Ed Pound, co-author of the book Factory Physics for Managers: How Leaders Improve Performance in a Post-Lean Six Sigma World that was released in April. It is, of course, a new version of the original Factory Physics textbook that I used in college and was the subject of Podcast #25 with Prof. Mark Spearman.Ed is the chief operations officer of Factory Physics, Inc., a company started by Spearman.In the podcast, we talk about the term "Factory Physics" (including the origin of the term) and what it means, including understanding the relationships between capacity, throughput, inventory, and variability. Ed also brings up great points about "dogma" versus manufacturing science, including dogma that can get companies in trouble, including:- Thou shalt have no finished goods inventory- Thou shalt have single piece flow, always- Thou shalt always have a moving assembly lineWe also talk about the subtitle of the book and what he means by a "post-Lean Six Sigma world" (it doesn't mean a world without Lean or Six Sigma). It's a great discussion and I hope you'll enjoy it, even if you don't work in factories. The lessons and ideas are certainly applicable.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/206.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

Episode #205 is a conversation with Joe Schnur, VP Business Development at Intelligent M, a company that "designs data-driven hand hygiene compliance improvement solutions for hospitals that dramatically reduce healthcare-acquired infections and their associated costs." Joe and I share a passion for improving patient safety and we've had a number of great conversations comparing notes on the problem and the different ways we need to work toward solving it. We decided to finally record one of those discussions for a podcast.In the podcast, Joe shares some shocking statistics about "hand hygiene compliance" - that while hospitals report numbers that are far higher, the typical care provider washes or cleans their hands only about 20% of the time. One management challenge (and sales challenge for Joe) is that hospital executives might find it too easy to sit back and point to the inaccurately high numbers that claim 90%+ compliance (numbers that are based on sampling instead of real data).When I first started talking to Joe, I was skeptical about a "monitoring" technology for healthcare professionals, since I see hand hygiene as a system problem (lack of time, empty gel dispensers) that management has to work to fix... it's a process problem. But, I think (as in many cases) there is a role for technology that can be supportive of people (patients and staff) and can enable systemic improvement. What's the proper balance between individual accountability and the role of "the system?" I'm curious to hear what you think (you can post a comment on this post).For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/205.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

Joining me today for Episode #204 is Paul Plsek (@PaulPlsek) and we're talking about his excellent book (a Shingo Research Award recipient this year) titled Accelerating Health Care Transformation with Lean and Innovation: The Virginia Mason Experience. Virginia Mason, of course, is Virginia Mason Medical Center, the outstanding Lean organization that was named "Hospital of the Decade" by Leapfrog Group.In our discussion, we touch on topics including how you can be Lean AND innovative, how an organization and people can LEARN to be innovative, and what is the health system board's role in this innovation and improvement strategy? I think you'll enjoy the discussion (and the book!).You can learn more about Paul, his book, and his work at his website: www.directedcreativity.com.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/204.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

My guest for Episode #203 (and future follow ups) is Chris Jerry, founder of The Emily Jerry Foundation. The foundation was created in the aftermath of the tragic death of his daughter, Emily - a preventable medical error caused by a number of factors and bad systems. I first learned about this tragedy a few years back and I blogged about it: "A Pharmacist’s Jail Cell Interview – What Good Does Blame Do?" Some people ask, "Why are you defending a pharmacist who screwed up and killed a sweet little girl?" The main victims were, of course, Emily and her family. That doesn't mean that a simplistic response of punishing and jailing one person will do anything to protect other patients in the future... and Chris Jerry agrees with that view.I saw Chris speak at a conference earlier this year and we finally found an opportunity to record a podcast after talking about this for a few years off and on. The story is powerful and I admire Chris for his work and advocacy to help others -- as a way of honoring Emily and her life and memory.In this first part, Chris tells the story of what happened. I'll release the remaining audio as either one or two more parts in future podcast episodes.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/203.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

My guest today for Episode 202 is Patrick Graupp, co-author of the excellent book Getting to Standard Work in Health Care: Using TWI to Create a Foundation for Quality Care, co-authored with Martha Purrier from Virginia Mason Medical Center. If you're brand new to the Training Within Industry (TWI) model, you might want to first listen to Episode 196, with Jim Huntzinger, on "What is TWI?"Patrick is also a senior master trainer with the TWI Institute. His other publications include the book The TWI Workbook: Essential Skills for Supervisors, a Shingo Research and Professional Publication Prize Recipient for 2007 and Implementing TWI: Creating and Managing a Skills-Based Culture which was published by Productivity Press.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/202.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

Joining me for episode #201 are Ron Smith, a Process Improvement Coordinator/Lean Facilitator at Mary Greeley Medical Center (in Iowa) and Suz Kaprich, a consultant with KaiNexus (disclosure: I'm on the management team of KaiNexus and have an ownership stake in the company). Today, they are talking about a three-month "WorkOut" process that Ron and Suz ran recently at the hospital. Given the challenges in today's healthcare environment, the focus was on cost reduction and financial benefits, but they of course made improvements to the timeliness and quality of patient care, as well. The total financial impact, validated by finance, was about $800,000 in that time. The goal was not just to drive short-term improvements, but to also demonstrate how improvement was possible... to help spark a culture of ongoing continuous improvement.Through the course of the WorkOut, Mary Greeley Medical Center used the KaiNexus web-based software platform to facilitate and track their improvements and results and they remain a customer of KaiNexus for their ongoing improvement efforts.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/201.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leancast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.

My guest for episode 200 is Paul Spiegelman, author of the book Patients Come Second: Leading Change by Changing the Way You Lead. Today, we're talking about his book and its provocative title - what do you mean patients don't come first? What about this trend for "patient-centered care" (and why wasn't it patient-centered to begin with?). In the podcast, Paul talks about:The book's title and how it was meant to be provocativeWhy focusing on engaged employees leads to better patient care and more success for the organizationHow do we crate engagement?Why is it important to connect things to purpose and values?Why is being vulnerable important and why is that the sign of a strong leader?And more....Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode at http://www.leanblog.org/200.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.

Joining me for episode #199 is Jeff Gothelf (@jboogie), talking about "Lean UX" or "Lean User Experience," a key method for software development, usually used in conjunction with design thinking, agile development, and Lean Startup business practices. Jeff is author of the book Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience and he is Managing Director at Neo, the global product innovation company.Jeff is teaching a workshop in Austin on June 10 called "Lean UX Bootcamp: Agility through cross-functional collaboration."I barely know anything about LeanUX, but have chatted with Jeff before and read the first few chapters of his book... but my role here is to just ask questions... Jeff will explain Lean UX to us today. I'm taken by the parallels between Lean UX (along with Lean Startup) and more general "Lean," as I know it in manufacturing and healthcare.It's about deeply understand the customer and their needs, forming hypotheses, and iterating in an experimental and data-driven way... a departure from the old way of the designer "knowing" what the customer wants or a software company writing a huge specification document (about "half of which never got used," says Jeff). Lean UX designers are problem solvers, they "get out of the building," and they get their designs (or even just sketches) in front of customers to get feedback early and often. It's better to do small, inexpensive tests of change... if you're going to fail, better to fail early and fail often... and we'll be more successful as a result. That's good solid Lean thinking and Kaizen thinking.Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode at http://www.leanblog.org/199.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.

Episode #198 is a discussion with Harry Kenworthy about his work bringing Lean into local and state governments. We had a great conversation that touches on the influence of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and many other concepts that might be of interest even if you're not interested in "Lean Government" and the work happening there.Harry is Principal and Manager of the Quality and Productivity Improvement Center (QPIC, LLC), a consulting organization he founded in 1984 and has been with full time since 2004. He worked with Dr. Deming in 1983-85 on a series of 2 day seminars throughout the US, sponsored by MIT. He has spoken at over 90 conferences on Quality, Productivity, LEAN, and Six Sigma, and has been published several magazines including Quality Progress and Purchasing. He also had working relationships with Dr. Joseph Juran and Dorian Shainin.He was one of the first practitioners to apply LEAN in the Government sector in the mid-90's. Harry was also a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Examiner from 1989-1991, a licensed Professional Engineer and a Certified Quality Engineer.He worked at a NYSE listed, global manufacturer, for 26 years in a variety of capacities: Operations Manager, Division Manager, Group VP and, for his last 3 years, as Corporate VP, Manufacturing. He was the Executive Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Champion: leading the LSS effort and developing the LSS training program, which incorporated the best of traditional Six Sigma (DMAIC), LEAN, and a series of Specialized Problem Solving Techniques. He provided LSS training in the US, Europe, Japan and China. For 9 years, he was on the Board of Directors of a Japanese Joint Venture based in Nagoya, Japan. The JV was a key supplier to Toyota and Harry was able to learn about LEAN through Toyota. He also had a long term relationship with JUSE (Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers) which administered the Deming Prize in Japan and had the honor of visiting several Deming Prize winning companies.Harry holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA in Finance from Syracuse University. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode at http://www.leanblog.org/198.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.

My guest for episode #197 is a hospital leader I really respect, Kim Barnas, author of the new book Beyond Heroes. Until very recently, Kim was a Senior VP at ThedaCare, leading Appleton Medical Center and Theda Clark Hospital. I've seen Kim speak to groups at ThedaCare and a few conferences and she has a lot to teach us about Lean leadership, using her stories and experiences in a way that's very powerful. I hope you'll check out the book.In the podcast today, we talk about topics including her initial reactions to Lean when first introduced to it as a hospital leader, why "heroes" are overrated and sometimes create "chaos" in healthcare, and the importance of moving beyond tools and projects to a Lean culture and management system.Kim talks about the need to "create more value" (not just reduce waste), saying "just trying to do more with less makes no sense - you need a plan." We also talk about programs like GM's "Speak up for Safety," where she says that speaking up "needs to be a conversation, not a reporting" transaction.Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode at http://www.leanblog.org/197For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode at http://www.leanblog.org/196For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode 196 is Jim Huntzinger, founder of Lean Frontiers. Today, we're talking about the Training Within Industry methodology and his new website WhatIsTWI.com. We are discussing topics including what a typical TWI "journey" looks like for an organization, how TWI is such a fundamental Lean concept/method, and some examples of how TWI is helping organizations in various industries, including healthcare. What's the latest in the seven years since our first podcast on this topic?Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode at http://www.leanblog.org/196For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for episode #195 is my friend Steve Montague from LifeWings. Steve and I met initially through our shared interest in Lean and, like Ron Pereira, we discovered we both lived in Keller, Texas (I've since moved to San Antonio).Steve is a retired Navy pilot and currently flies for a major commercial airline. He's also been involved, through LifeWings, in the movement to bring aviation safety practices (and culture) to healthcare via "Crew Resource Management" or "TeamSTEPPS." He's also been on the forefront of combining Lean and TeamSTEPPS, something we both agree is a great idea.In honor of National Patient Safety Awareness Week, we talk about topics including:- Steve's background with CRM in aviation and healthcare- Why CRM isn't just about checklists, but also learning how to "communicate more assertively" in the cockpit or operating room...- How Lean and CRM / TeamSTEPPS fit together conceptually- How standardization and iterative improvement fit togetherThere's so much we could talk about, so we barely scratched the surface on this topic. If you have questions, we can do another podcast. Please post them as comments on this post.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/195 -- go there for some links and material that Mark wrote to share with the listeners (and he'll have a guest post soon that expands on the thoughts in the podcast).Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #194 is Paul Piechota, Director for the Center for Competitive Change at the University of Dayton School of Engineering. Piechota has authored over 30 publications with such titles as Transforming the Enterprise, Getting to the Future First!, and Establishing a Method for Process and Culture Change in the Military. His most recent publication is the book titled, Keeping Your Business in the U.S.A.: Profit Globally While Operating Locally.In this episode, we'll talk about topics including how the university is using Lean and Six Sigma to improve their own operations, how they are getting students involved, and their attempts to engage professors to improve their work in the classroom. This all follows up a blog post I wrote about their press release on this topic.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/194 -- go there for some links and material that Mark wrote to share with the listeners (and he'll have a guest post soon that expands on the thoughts in the podcast).Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #193 is Mark Jaben, MD, talking about our brains, Lean, and change. Mark has been a guest blogger for me before and it's great to talk to him today about his research and experiences. In our conversation, Mark talks about "the troublesome features of our brain's operating system" (such as our "hidden brain"), how the A3 problem solving process fits with the way our brains work, and how to deal with "resistance" to change. Mark has also helped talk to some healthcare organizations about KaiNexus and we both presented at a conference last year.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/193 -- go there for some links and material that Mark wrote to share with the listeners (and he'll have a guest post soon that expands on the thoughts in the podcast).Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for podcast #192 is John Torinus, author of the excellent book, The Company That Solved Health Care: How Serigraph Dramatically Reduced Skyrocketing Costs While Providing Better Care, and How Every Company Can Do the Same. John is the CEO of Wisconsin-based Serigraph Inc., a graphics parts manufacturer with ownership in ten plants in the U.S., Mexico, China and India with over $130M in annual sales. John has served as business editor and columnist at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.John is collaborating with the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value for a new workshop: "Solving the Employer Healthcare Crisis," to be held in Phoenix on January 28 (and hopefully again in the future).In this episode, we talk abouthow Serigraph has kept healthcare costs under control while improving the health of their employees. How do concepts of consumer choice, data transparency, and focusing on preventive care help to "engaged all employees in the healthcare challenge"? For example, 90% of their diabetic employees have their disease "under control" as compared to about 30% nationally. What is this "grass roots revolution" in healthcare?For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/192. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for podcast #191 is my friend and fellow LEI faculty member Mike Orzen (@MikeOrzen), co-author of the Shingo Award-winning book Lean IT: Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation. I recently crossed paths with Mike in Columbus, Ohio because we're both mentoring students in the Ohio State University MBOE program. We have a lot in common!Mike is also collaborating with the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value for a new workshop: "Leveraging Information, People & Systems in Healthcare," to be held in Phoenix January 28 and 29.In this episode, we talk about topics including an overview of "Lean IT," how Lean is different compared to manufacturing and other service settings, how healthcare organizations can benefit from Lean IT, and the potential for kaizen and continuous improvement in IT.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/191. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #190 is a returning guest (from episode #151) is my friend Karen Martin, talking about her newly-released book, Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation. You can order via Amazon and also learn more via Karen's website.In the episode, we talk about topics including how this book fits with her others, what some common struggles are faced when mapping value streams, why is it important for senior leaders to be involved with VSM work, how long mapping should take, the publishing value stream and the use of VSM in different industries. I hope you enjoy the conversation!For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/190. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me as my guest for episode #189 is Rich Sheridan, CEO and Chief Storyteller at Menlo Innovations, a software development company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Rich is author of the new book that I'm really enjoying: Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love. Learn more about the author and the book at www.menloinnovations.com/joyinc. You can also download a free chapter here.There's so much to love about his book and what they are doing at Menlo. I think it's great to start a new year, 2014, with a look at a book that gives us hope about creating workplaces where employees are fully engaged and everybody wins - customers, company, and employees. I'll have a chance to visit Menlo in about two weeks when I'll be in Michigan for my public Kaizen workshop, so I'll report back on what I see during that visit.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/189. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for Episode 188 has been a leading voice in the Lean community for 25 years, Daniel T. Jones, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy, based in the UK. Dan collaborated with Jim Womack on the books The Machine That Changed the World, Lean Thinking, and Lean Solutions and published other books through the LEA. Currently, Dan is helping promote Lean in healthcare and government and is learning about the Lean Startup community by becoming an advisor to the company Elastera. He has also recently joined Twitter as @DanielJonesLean. You can also watch recently-released free videos (via Gemba Academy) of Dan, Jim, and John Shook reflecting on 25 years of Lean and other topics. In this episode, we touch on all of these questions and also take a question via Twitter.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/188. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for episode #187 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. You can learn more about our books here.Joe is Director of Business Transformation at Franciscan St. Francis Health System in Indianapolis (his full bio is here). In the episode, we talk about his background with Kaizen and how he got into healthcare. Joe discusses how Franciscan got started with Kaizen, some of his favorite Kaizen examples, why it would have taken too long to engage everybody through Lean Six Sigma projects, what they are teaching managers about leading in a Kaizen culture, and the work that still needs to be done in their cultural transformation.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/187. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #186 is my friend Jon Miller, CEO of Kaizen Institute and long-time blogger at Gemba Panta Rei. Today, we're talking about his upcoming book, Creating a Kaizen Culture: Align the Organization, Achieve Breakthrough Results, and Sustain the Gains (co-authored by Mike Wroblewski and Jamie Villafuerte. I can't believe I haven't had Jon on the show before... hopefully this won't be the last time.In this episode, we'll talk about "artifacts" of a Kaizen culture and why core beliefs, including safety and security, are so important. What are some of the other core beliefs in a Kaizen culture? Why are some of these beliefs and behaviors "not natural Japanese behaviors" and what are the implications for those of us doing this in other countries?For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/186. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guests for episode #185 are Karen Dunn Skinner and David Skinner and our topic, for the first time on the Podcast, is Lean in law firms and the legal profession. David and Karen are husband and wife, attorneys, from Quebec, and consultants for their firm Gimbal.I had a chance to meet up with them in Montreal earlier this year, after connecting via social media, and they're a delight to talk to - in person and in our podcast.I think there are a lot of fascinating parallels between Lean in healthcare and Lean in law. There are opportunities to focus on payment for value instead of activity, big opportunities to reduce waste and errors, and to make sure people are doing the right work for their job level. "The way it's always been" seems very powerful in both professions and the "but we don't make cars" objection can be powerful.In the episode, we discuss topics including:- How do Lean methods apply in a Law firm?- What are some benefits to the clients and the firm itself?- How do you get past the "we don't build cars" objection?- How widespread is Lean in the legal profession?- How did Karen and David discover Lean (and Six Sigma) as attorneys?- What's the balance between using Lean and/or Six Sigma in law?- How can standardized work and checklists help?- Why are legal clients dissatisfied with the pricing and quality of legal work?- How do you strike a balance between law being an art vs. being a process?For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/185. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

It's great to have Dr. John Toussaint back for episode #184 of the podcast (see links to previous episodes below). He is, of course, CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and the author of two Shingo Award-winning books, On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry2028and Potent Medicine: The Collaborative Cure for Healthcare.In this podcast, we start by hearing John's thoughts on some of the top issues that healthcare CEOs are facing today, such as changes in payment structures and Accountable Care Organizations. We also talk about the "Enduring Excellence" program that Paul O'Neill and John are leading to teach healthcare senior leaders about Lean culture change and their important role.This podcast was produced in conjunction with the Healthcare Value Network as a continuation of their previous podcast series.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/184. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #183 is Scott Sambucci, who I met at the 2012 Lean Startup Conference. Scott is author of an excellent book, Startup Selling: How to sell if you really, really have to and don't know how. Scott is also founder of SalesQualia, a firm that helps people improve sales performance. His latest project is the Sales Model Canvas, an online tool.Scott and I talk about getting better at sales (something I've honestly struggled with, as an engineer, during my time with KaiNexus). Scott talks about how "sales is a process," what some of the biggest mistakes people can make with sales, what some common "vanity metrics" are (to be avoided), and how to look out for "vampires and gatekeepers" as you sell.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/183. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for episode #182 are Michael Grogan and Dr. Brenda Dmello, joining me via Skype from Tanzania where they are working together to use Lean to improve health care at the Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT). Michael is Irish born and left his career in the United States to work in Africa (which you can read about in his guest post that I published earlier this month - see link at www.leanblog.org/182 ).In the episode, we talk about their mission to reduce maternal death rates and "needless suffering" by creating "engaging, problem solving managers" as "everything rises and falls with leadership." They are developing leaders who can "stop blaming" and treat people with respect, eliminating the "culture of fear" that we see in far too many organizations around the world. Dr. Brenda says, "I don't think it's ethical to allow change to happen so slowly" and that "clinical skills alone" won't solve healthcare's problems.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/182. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for Podcast #181 is a good friend, Ron Pereira of Gemba Academy, an outstanding provider of online Lean (and now Six Sigma) education. You might also know Ron from his blog posts (and now, also, a podcast) at LSSacademy.com. I was recently a guest on episode #8 of his podcast series. Ron was also the guest host for episode #143 of my podcast, where he interviewed me with follow up questions from a webinar I did for Gemba Academy on SPC.Before I moved to San Antonio, Ron and used to live just about five miles apart in Keller, Texas and would meet for coffee regularly... but, today, we are talking via Skype. We're talking about his background with both Six Sigma and Lean and about how these methods can be used together. Ron tells a story about a time he used statistical methods to solve something that might have been difficult with standard Lean approaches.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/181Conflict of interest disclosure: Gemba Academy is a formal partner of KaiNexus, a technology company I work with and have an ownership stake in. I have received a free subscription to the Gemba Academy training classes. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for episode #180 of the Lean Blog Podcast is Dan Florizone (@DanDeputy), who served from 2008 until last month as Deputy Minister of Health in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Dan has just recently transitioned into his new role as the Deputy Minister of Education and he will also focus on the application of Lean principles across all departments of the government.Dan previously had over 25 years of healthcare management experience, including a five-year stint as CEO of the Five Hills Health Region. Dan and I first met a few years back when we were at a Lean healthcare conference hosted by Cindy Jimmerson. I really enjoyed talking with Dan and have closely followed the Lean healthcare transformation work being done in the province.In the episode, we talk about Dan's introduction to Lean, his 2005 visit to Seattle to learn more, and how Lean is part of their "patient first" model. Lean has been a shift from "traditional cost cutting" to a "patient-centered, not provider-centered" approach to care. Lean has helped change their leadership model, where "the barrier to our change was thinking," as Dan says.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/180. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guests for Podcast #179 are my friends Judy Worth and Tom Shuker, two of the co-authors of the book Perfecting Patient Journeys, which was published earlier this year by the Lean Enterprise Institute. We'll talk about their book, what types of value streams and "extended value streams" are being worked on in healthcare (including "end-to-end" flows), breaking down silos, improving quality and cost as a result of taking time out of the value stream, and more.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/179.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for Podcast #178 is Drew Greenblatt, President and Owner of Marlin Steel Wire Products, a manufacturing company based in Baltimore. I was really impressed with Drew's keynote talk at the recent AME Southwest Region conference here in San Antonio. Drew's company is successfully competing against cheap Chinese imports by using Lean and "theory of constraints" methods, being passionate about serving customer needs, and making a commitment to (and investment in) his employees.Whether you're a manufacturer who is considering "re-shoring" your production (or avoiding off-shoring) or if you're an organization looking to success by partnering with all of your employees, I think you'll find Drew inspiring.For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/178, which includes links to the following:- Check out Bill Waddell's recent blog post about Drew and Marlin Wire.- Inc. Magazine article on Drew- Video of Eli Goldratt's last speech, shared by Drew onlineYou can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for Podcast #177 is a returning guest, Bob Emiliani. In this episode, we're talking about one of his latest eBooks: Nobody Is Exempt From Improvement. Check out our previous podcasts together - Episodes 132, 77, 48, 38, and 30. Bob is a professor at Central Connecticut State University and a prolific author on Lean management.Also check out his new book and blog - "The Lean Professor." http://leanprofessor.com/blog/For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/177.You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me once again for episode #176 is my good friend Norman Bodek, who has been a guest many times here. Today, we are talking about his latest book, The Harada Method the Spirit of Self-Reliance. You can also learn more about the book and Norman's workshops at his website, PCSPress.com. As always, it's great to hear Norman talk about his interests and what he has learned in his trips to Japan, including Harada's work.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/176. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for podcast #175 is Mike Taubitz of the firm Sustainable Lean and FDR Safety. Mike is a retired GM employee (including a stint as Global Safety Director) and we met at the Michigan Lean Consortium conference in 2011. We quickly discovered our shared interest in Dr. Deming, Lean, and, most importantly, safety improvement.I hope you enjoy our chat about his background and lessons from his career, the integration of Lean practices and safety improvement, lessons from Paul O'Neill and other great topics. Like my dad, Mike is a graduate of the then General Motors Institute (now Kettering University).To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/175.You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for podcast #174 is John Hunter, a long-time friend and fellow blogger - at his Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog and, more recently, as a blogger for the W. Edwards Deming Institute. John has recently published a book through LeanPub.com titled "Management Matters."In this episode, John joins us from Malaysia, where he has been living, and we talk about his quality background (growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, influenced by his dad, William Hunter, Brian Joiner, George Box, Dr. Deming, and others). John also talks about his book and work, why long-term thinking is such a rare commodity, and some of the lessons from Dr. Deming that mean the most to him.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/174. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for podcast #173 is Alan Gleghorn, CEO of Christie Clinic in central Illinois. Alan is one of the keynote presenters at the upcoming Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, to be held June 5-6, 2013 in Orlando. Alan has been CEO for 14 years, leading Christie Clinic in their Lean journey that started in 2005 when he saw ThedaCare's current CEO Dr. Dean Gruner present at a conference.In this episode, Alan talks about how they got started with Lean, what they learned from Autoliv and the Shingo Prize assessment process (being the first healthcare organization to do that). He also talks about his Summit keynote and how their work with Accountable Care Organizations is leading to better value and outcomes for patients.This podcast was produced in conjunction with the Healthcare Value Network as a continuation of their previous podcast series.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/173. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for episode #172 is Jerry Bussell, previously a guest on episode #137. Today, we're talking about his recent book, Anatomy of a Lean Leader. I just saw Jerry talk about the book yesterday at the AME spring conference here in San Antonio.Jerry talks about how he defines a "Lean leader" and why President Abraham Lincoln fits into that description. He'll talk about some of the modern CEOs he would put on the list of great Lean leaders, including the owner of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/172. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #171 is Chad Walters (@leanblitz), a friend and a Lean consultant. He is owner of Lean Blitz Consulting in Augusta, Georgia, a firm focused on continuous improvement for small businesses and sports organizations. I'm a big fan (and frequent commenter) on Chad's blog and he's contributed guest posts here on my blog. He has been cited and mentioned on ESPN.com and CNBC.com.Today, we talk about how Lean principles can apply to sports operations, including the stadiums and events you attend. We'll talk about concepts of value and waste from the sports fan perspective, specific challenges in the sports and entertainment fields and some examples related to baseball (play ball!, the season just started) and The Masters, which starts Thursday.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/171. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #170 is Stephen Parry (@LeanVoices on Twitter), joining us from England. He is a keynote speaker at the upcoming Lean Kanban North America conference in late April. I will also be a main stage speaker at the event. Parry has experience leading Lean transformation efforts in industries ranging from telecommunications, IT, shared services, financial services, and the public sector. He is author of the book Sense and Respond: The Journey to Customer Purpose. In this episode, we talk about his experience, how Lean engages employees to provide value to customers, and the differences between LINO (Lean In Name Only) and Real Lean.

Joining me for Episode #169 is Leonard L. Berry, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Marketing in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. We are talking about his article that he co-authored with John Toussaint, MD Mayo Clinic Proceedings: 201CThe Promise of Lean in Health Care201D (PDF) - which I blogged about earlier. In this podcast, Len talks about his time being embedded in ThedaCare and the lessons he learned there... for example, why is it incorrect to assume that "standardized work" means something stifling?This episode is produced in partnership with the Healthcare Value Network.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/169. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #168 is Carolyn McCulley, from CityGate Films, and she is a co-director and producer of the upcoming documentary called "Breaking the Wall of Silence." Through March 31, you can sponsor this project through the Kickstarter website (with a minimum contribution of $15) and I hope you'll join me as a supporter of this important work. Learn more at www.leanblog.org/168.As Carolyn discusses with me, the film does not just focus on the problems of patient safety and poor healthcare quality... it focuses on the positive steps that MedStar Health (a large system in the Washington DC area) is taking to transform its culture to reduce systemic patient harm. This focus is why she calls this a "hopeful film" as opposed to being alarmist.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/168. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #167 is Clare Crawford-Mason, the producer of the landmark 1980 NBC documentary that featured W. Edwards Deming, If Japan Can Do It, Why Can't We? I was fortunate to meet Clare and her husband Bob back in 2007 or so when I was teaching a Lean healthcare seminar near their home in Washington, DC. Clare and Bob led the efforts to create the "Deming Library" video series. They also created the PBS special "Good News: How Hospitals Heal Themselves" and the companion book The Nun and the Bureaucrat.We've talked for years about doing this podcast and I'm glad to finally being able to share this with you. Early in the podcast, Clare talks about meeting Dr. Deming and the production of documentary, which is a fascinating story and glimpse into his personality and work.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/167. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #166 is Julie Bartels, Executive Vice President, National Healthcare Information at the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. In this episode, we are talking about their new program, the Healthcare Clinical Business Intelligence Network (CBIN). Julie tells us about "business intelligence" and how data and transparency relate to Lean improvement efforts. Why is "the devil in the details" in making more data available to payers and patients? Listen to find out.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/166. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/165. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #165 is Chris Vogel, President & CEO of Compass Affiliates. I've met Chris before at an LEI Lean Transformation Summit and he is doing a learning session at this year's Summit, to be held March 13 and 14 in Orlando. Chris specalizes in the Development of Lean Leaders and Administrative Lean. He has over 15 years of Lean Administrative and Process Improvement experience.During his 15 years at Wells Fargo, Chris led and used Lean to transform a division of Wells Fargo with 1,200 staff members. In our discussion, we'll talk about applying Lean to settings outside of manufacturing, including mortgage processing and tbe government. I think this discussion will help reinforce the idea that Lean is Lean and Lean leadership is Lean leadership, regardless of the setting.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/164. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/165. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #164 is Rachelle Schultz, CEO of Winona Health (based in Winona, Minnesota). Rachelle was a part of the CEO panel that I moderated at last year's Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit and her comments on leading a health system's Lean transformation were well received. In this discussion, she says, "Everything I do has to drive Lean," as we talk about how her system is using Lean in these challenging times and what the impact has been - quality, satisfaction, financial.This episode is produced in partnership with the Healthcare Value Network.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/164. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #163 is Dr. Gregory R. Johnson, the Chief Medical Officer at Parkview Health in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In this episode, we talk about how Parkview is using Lean to cope with today's challenging environment, how Dr. Johnson encourages Lean thinking among physicians, and the role of standardization in medicine. Dr. Johnson says Parkview is moving toward "having everyone operating in a Lean way, all 8200 co-workers" instead of just doing "Rapid Improvement Events."This episode is produced in partnership with the Healthcare Value Network. Dr. Johnson and I also talk about Parkview's participation in the Network, including hosting a "gemba visit" by other members.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/163. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guests for episode #162 are Patrick Vlaskovits (@pv) and Brant Cooper (@brantcooper), previously guests on episode #99. I recently ran into them at the Lean Startup Conference and today we are speaking about their newest book (coming in February) The Lean Entrepreneur: How to Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets. You can learn more and pre-order via their website:www.LeanEntrepreneur.coIn this episode, we talk about:- What is Lean Entrepreneurship?- How does Lean create disruptive innovations?- Why is it better to fail fast and learn your idea isn't viable sooner rather than later?- Why is "follow your passion" really bad advice?- What's a value stream in the context of a startup?- Why would data "inform decisions" rather than make them?Their books:- The Lean Entrepreneur: How to Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Market- The Entrepreneur2019s Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the EpiphanyTo point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/162. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Steve Bell, author (most recently) of the book Run Grow Transform: Integrating Business and Lean IT is my guest for episode #161 of my Podcast series. Steve is a fellow faculty member for the Lean Enterprise Institute and he is also a founder of Lean4NGO.org that works with non-profits in the developing world. He is also founder of Lean IT Strategies, LLC, coaching IT professionals as they partner with their business colleagues to meet the challenges and exploit the opportunities in the rapidly changing, technology-enabled business landscape.In this episode, Steve talks about:- Why "Lean Thinking" is important in IT- What is "Lean IT," including some success stories- How do agile, scrum, Lean IT, and Lean Startups fit together?- His upcoming LEI workshop in San Francisco this February- Lean4NGO initiative

My guest for podcast #160 is Joseph S. Guarisco, M.D., FAAEM, FACEP. Dr. Guarisco is currently Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine and System Chief of Emergency Services for the Ochsner Health System. Dr. Guarisco is a keynote speaker at the upcoming Society for Health Systems conference (which I'll be attending) and we are both part of the American Academy of Emergency Physicians annual scientific assembly in February (where I'll be co-presenting with my Healthcare Kaizen co-author Joe Swartz on E.D. process improvement strategies). Here is a Q&A, hosted by SHS, with Dr. Guarisco.In this episode, we talk about Dr. Guarisco's process improvement efforts at Oschner and how that was made necessary by Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath, where demand TRIPLED in their E.D. We also chat about standardized work and variation reduction fit in with the practice of medicine and improving E.D patient flow.

A returning guest for episode #159 is John Toussaint, MD, the CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and the author of the books On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry and Potent Medicine: The Collaborative Cure for Healthcare. John was a guest on episodes 54, 62, 72, and 146. Today's main topic is a new report, published last month by the Institute of Medicine, titled "Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America." John was a reviewer of this report and has key insights to share, as always, about the problem and things we can do to improve healthcare around the world.

My guest for podcast #158 is Art Byrne, author of the new book The Lean Turnaround: How Business Leaders Use Lean Principles to Create Value and Transform Their Company. Art is very well known in the Lean community for his successful run as CEO of Wiremold, having previously worked at GE and Danaher. He is currently Operating Partner at the private equity firm J. W. Childs Associates L.P. In this podcast, Art talks about operations improvement as a business strategy, why the CEO needs to be directly involved in a Lean transformation, why "stretch goals" aren't demoralizing when you have the right leadership and culture, and more.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/158. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for episode #157 is Nick Sarillo, founder of Nick's Pizza & Pub and author of the new book (out September 13) called A Slice of the Pie: How to Build a Big Little Business. I had a chance to meet Nick and visit one of his restaurants in 2010 after I blogged about an Inc. magazine article about their culture and their approach to operations.It was great talking to Nick about his new book and what I call the "Like Lean" mindsets and approaches that remind me of the challenges and opportunities that organizations face with Lean Manufacturing or Lean Healthcare. I hope you'll take a listen.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/157. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode is #156 is a friend, Mike Stoecklein, the Director of Network Operations for the Healthcare Value Network.I was able to work with Mike when I was an employee of the Lean Enterprise Institute, working closely with the HVN team and their members.Our conversation is about Mike's reflections on meeting Dr. W. Edwards Deming in the late 1980s, volunteering to assist with some of his famed 4-day seminars around the country. You can read Mike's excellent blog post that was the basis for some of our discussion here. Why are we hear? To learn... and to have fun, as Dr. Deming said!To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/156. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for episode #155 is Jim Benson, author of the book Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life. Jim is the founder of a company with a great name, Modus Cooperandi. He is, most notably, the creator of the "personal kanban" approach for managing work. It's not kanban as in material management, but rather a way of visualizing work and setting WIP limits (much as kanban might be used to trigger or limit production in a factory) -- but for knowledge workers and anybody! Learn more about this approach on his "Personal Kanban 101" site. - see leanblog.org/155 for links.You can learn more about the book and interact with Jim at http://www.personalkanban.com/pk/To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/155. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #154 is Rick Morrow, a director at Healthcare Performance Partners and author of the book Utilizing the 3Ms of Process Improvement in Healthcare: A Roadmap to High Reliability Using Lean, Six Sigma, and Change Leadership, from Productivity Press (which is my publisher, as well). We talk about the book as well as a favorite issue of mine - why we shouldn't ask patients to inspect the work of healthcare providers.You can learn more about the book and interact with Rick at his website:http://www.rpmexec.com/This podcast episode is brought to you by Creative Safety Supply, Leaders in Visual Safety, floor marking,label printing and more. Visit their website at www.creativesafetysupply.com/leanpodcast/ for a special listener discount.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/154. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for Podcast #153 is Robert Maurer, PhD, Director of Behavioral Sciences for the Family Practice Residency Program at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and a faculty member with the UCLA School of Medicine. We are talking about his excellent book titled, One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way.I discovered Maurer's book when doing research for our recently-published Healthcare Kaizen. It's really interesting to hear about applying the Kaizen approach in the realm of psychology and therapy instead of the workplace. Maurer writes about the brain chemistry that causes people to "fear change" - except when it's small change. Fascinating stuff and I'm thrilled to have spoken with him a few months back.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/153. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for podcast #152 is Matt Stewart (@MattKCTV5) and we are talking about his book The Walk-On: Inside Northwestern's Rise From Cellar Dweller To Big Ten Champ. Matt and I are both graduates of Northwestern University. While he played football on a championship team, I was on the field as a marching band drummer. There are a lot of football stories in the book, but our podcast focuses on the lifelong leadership lessons that come from the rise of Northwestern's program - how do we motivate people to tackle seemingly insurmountable challenges?Matt's book website: www.MattStewartBooks.com.This podcast episode is brought to you by Creative Safety Supply, Leaders in Visual Safety, floor marking,label printing and more. Visit their website at www.creativesafetysupply.com/leanpodcast/ for a special listener discount.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/152. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for episode #151 is my friend Karen Martin, talking about her newly-released book The Outstanding Organization: Generate Business Results by Eliminating Chaos and Building the Foundation for Everyday Excellence. Karen is the founder of Karen Martin & Associates and she is previously the co-author of The Kaizen Event Planner: Achieving Rapid Improvement in Office, Service, and Technical Environments.www.ksmartin.comTo point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/151. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #150 is Jeffrey M. Lobosky, MD, the author of the book "It's Enough to Make You Sick: The Failure of American Health Care and a Prescription for the Cure." Dr. Lobosky talks about what he thinks is lacking in current healthcare reform efforts driven by Washington D.C. We talk about how he defines the crisis in healthcare - "why are things going bad?" After we diagnose the problem, what are some treatments, cures, or solutions?To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/150You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

(podcast v 2.0)My guest for episode #149 is Gregory Jacobson, MD, the co-founder and CEO at KaiNexus (www.KaiNexus.com). We'll be talking about his early work with Kaizen in emergency medicine settings - how did he get introduced to Kaizen principles and how did get train others in getting started? Bio: Greg graduated from Washington University in St Louis in 1997 with a BS in Biology. He attended Baylor College of Medicine from 1997 to 2001. From 2001 to 2004, he completed a residency in Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he then stayed on as faculty. Starting in 2004, it was his observation and research of operational inefficiencies and unrealized improvement opportunities that resulted in the creation of a rudimentary software tool at VUMC and, ultimately, the founding of KaiNexus. Jacobson is co-author of Kaizen: A Method of Process Improvement in the Emergency Department published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine. Conflict of interest: I have been on the management team at KaiNexus since 2011 and I am a part owner.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/149. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #148 is a conversation with a returning guest, Naida Grunden, and her co-author Charles Hagood (of Healthcare Performance Partners), talking about their new book Lean-Led Hospital Design: Creating the Efficient Hospital of the Future. It's an outstanding book and I was happy to endorse it, as have John Toussaint, MD and many others.In the podcast, we talk about what lean-led hospital design entails, including getting staff involved, how to tie processes and space together, and how to collaborate with architects and construction companies to build space and processes that best serve the patients and healthcare professionals.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/148. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #147 is a part two of a conversation with Scott Patten and Peter Armstrong from LeanPub.com (listen to part one in episode #140). They want to be THE website for publishing "in-progress books". In this episode, we are talking about how they are applying the concepts of the Lean Startup methodology to their service and their business. We'll talk about some of my own experiences as an early adopter and later as an actual user -- what have they learned along the way and how do they use lean methods to be innovative?Conflict of interest disclosure: I have published two blog compilations via their service, a Best of Lean Blog 2011 book and a Best of 2012 book that is being published incrementally throughout the year. I'm a huge raving fan of their service and the way Scott and Peter have worked with me as I learned and used Leanpub.com. To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/147. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #146 is a discussion with a returning guest (#54, #62, #72), John Toussaint, MD, the CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. Today, we're talking about his latest book, recently released, called "Potent Medicine: The Collaborative Cure for Healthcare." John talks about the three aspects of his collaborative cure: patient-centered care redesign, transparency, and payment for outcomes. A lot of the discussion follows on my conversation with Dean Gruner, MD in Podcast #144, talking about the experiments with "Accountable Care Organizations" at ThedaCare and other organizations.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/146You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #145 is a conversation with Natalie J. Sayer, co-author of the recently updated 2nd edition of the book Lean For Dummies. I was able to meet Natalie at the recent ASQ Lean and Six Sigma Conference, where she was also a presenter. While I was a bit resistant at first to the "for Dummies" being associated with Lean (given that "dummy" is a sort of disrespectful word), I came around when I read the first edition and found it to be a fun, solid overview of Lean concepts and a great first read for people who are new to Lean. In the podcast, Natalie shares what's new in the second edition and shares some of her history and experience with Lean, including some time learning at the famed NUMMI plant while working for GM.ADVERTISEMENT: This podcast episode is brought to you by Creative Safety Supply, leaders in Visual Safety, floor marking, label printing and more visit their website at www.creativesafetysupply.com/leanpodcast for a discount.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/145You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #144 is a discussion with Dean Gruner, MD, the president & CEO of ThedaCare, previously a guest in episode 119, talking about strategy deployment. Here, the topic is Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and how ThedaCare is using them, with Lean methods, to improve the coordination of care for patients.Dean will be presenting at the upcoming Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, June 6-7, 2012 in Minneapolis. I hope to see you there! I'll be attending and moderating the CEO panel again this year.Summit info: http://leanblog.org/healthcaresummitTo point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/144You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Like podcast #133, this episode is a Q&A that follows up a webinar I did for my good friends at Gemba Academy recently, on the topic "Using Statistical Process Control (SPC) to Make Better Management Decisions." You can view a recording of the webinar here (http://www.leanblog.org/SPCwebinar) or on the Gemba Academy website. This might seem like an esoteric topic, but it's one I've found to be VERY practical and helpful in my career and with my clients. Some feedback I got included, "That wasn't nearly as boring as one might have expected." :-)To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/143You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #142 brings us a returning guest, Eric Ries, author of the best-selling book The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. In the book, Eric cites the work of Ohno, including the "5 Whys" problem solving approach. In this podcast, Eric shares his story about finding Ohno's work (including the Lean classic Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production) and how it has influenced his work with startups.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/142Eric was previously a guest on episode 115: www.leanblog.org/115You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #141 is a chat with Norman Bodek with his recollections of working with Taiichi Ohno, one of the creators of the Toyota Production System. Norman met and worked with Ohno in Japan and then published the translation of Ohno's classic book "Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production" in 1988.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/141. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #140 is a discussion with Scott Patten and Peter Armstrong from LeanPub.com - they want to be THE website for publishing "in-progress books". We'll be talking about lean publishing and how that's different than self publishing and about how leanpub.com works. In the upcoming part 2 of the podcast, we'll talk more about how they are applying the concepts of the Lean Startup methodology to their service and their business.Conflict of interest disclosure: I have published two blog compilations via their service, a Best of Lean Blog 2011 book and a Best of 2012 book that is being published incrementally throughout the year. I'm a huge raving fan of their service and the way Scott and Peter have worked with me as I learned and used Leanpub.com. To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/140. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #139 is a conversation with Dave Munch, MD, who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer for Healthcare Performance Partners (HPP). Before joining the consulting firm, Dave was a senior C-level clinical leader at Exempla Lutheran Health System where he led their Lean Production applications for more than five years, resulting in substantial improvements in both clinical and non-clinical processes. Today, we are talking about important Lean mindsets and systems principles, including making it safe for people to surface problems in the workplace and aligning management behaviors and methods at all levels so we can use Lean to achieve our most important objectives in healthcare. Dave is also a speaker at the upcoming Lean Healthcare PowerDay event, produced by HPP. Hope to see you there!Conflict of interest disclosure: I will be a paid speaker at the Lean PowerDay event.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/139. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.About Dave Munch MD:Dave Munch, M.D. Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical OfficerDave oversees all of HPP’s clinical and Lean Healthcare engagements. He plays a lead role in new services development and HPP’s continuous adaptation to the healthcare industry’s ever-changing needs.Dave previously served at Exempla Lutheran Medical Center as their Chief Clinical and Quality Officer. He led their Lean Production applications for more than five years, resulting in substantial improvements in both clinical and non-clinical processes.Dave received his M.D. from the University of Colorado’s Health Sciences Center. He is also a faculty member for the Belmont University Lean Healthcare Certificate Program.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #138 is a discussion with Al Norval from Lean Pathways, talking about his new publication titled "The Lean Manifesto: Back to basics – how a Lean business system creates value by engaging everyone in improvement." It's a free six-page document and you can find a link to download it at http://leanblog.org/138 (email registration required). The manifesto is a fun, upbeat guide to the basics of the Lean methodology and management system, including a brief history of Lean, as well as its foundational concepts, and a discussion of why "just in time" is not the right place to start.Conflict of interest disclosure: I have a business relationship with Lean Pathways where I sometimes work with their healthcare clients.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/138. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.About Al Norval (from the Lean Pathways website):Alistair Norval is a professional engineer who developed his skills at Eastman Kodak Company, where he helped design and implement the Kodak Operating System, based on the principles of the Toyota Production System. In this capacity, he received in-depth personal training with leading international senseis. Following that, Alistair helped guide Celestica International, a provider of Electronic Manufacturing Services, with their lean journey at multiple site value streams in Asia. More recently, Alistair has been guiding clients on their lean transformation while achieving significant business results. His clients include the Medical, Consumer, and Professional Services business sectors.Alistair has been a manager of manufacturing, product and process engineering, and has helped launch several plants. His experience covers both continuous chemical processes as well as discrete manufacturing. He has applied lean methods in new product development and the supply chain. His passion is to apply lean thinking across the enterprise so as to achieve consistently superior results.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #137 is a chat with Jerry Bussell, the founder of the Jacksonville Lean Consortium. Jerry is one of the featured speakers at the upcoming Lean Transformation Summit from the Lean Enterprise Institute - to learn more, visit http://www.lean.org.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/137. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.About Jerry:Sporting a license plate reading “Leanjax,” Jerry Bussell is the past chairman and founder of the Jacksonville Lean Consortium, a group of companies and government agencies improving business performance by sharing knowledge about implementing lean principles. Recently retired as vice president, Global Operations, at Medtronic Surgical Technologies, Bussell is president of Bussell Lean Associates, a lean management advisory service for CEOs and their executive teams. He is also executive advisor to Underwriters Laboratories’ Center of Continuous Improvement and Innovation.Bussell received the prestigious Medtronic Wallin Leadership award for transforming Medtronic ENT's traditional manufacturing operation into a nationally recognized model of lean manufacturing. Under his leadership, Medtronic ENT/NT received an IndustryWeek Best Plants award for North America in 2002, a Shingo Prize in 2003, and a Shingo Silver Medallion recipient in 2009. In 2005 Bussell was inducted into the Shingo Academy for his contributions to operational excellence. He is a past chairman of the Board of Governors for the Shingo Prize and is a member of the Champions Club with the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. Bussell holds a bachelor’s degree from St. John Fisher College and a master’s degree from Baylor University. He is currently writing a book on lean leadership lessons from Abraham Lincoln that will be available in 2012.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Our guest for episode #136 is Paul Akers, President of FastCap and author of the book "2 Second Lean." Here, we are talking about the new book and how small improvements that save 2 seconds in your daily work can contribute to an engaging and fun "Lean Culture."Paul was previously a guest on episode #122. - leanblog.org/122This podcast episode is brought to you by Creative Safety Supply, Leaders in Visual Safety, floor marking,label printing and more. Visit their website at www.creativesafetysupply.com/leanpodcast/ for a special listener discount.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/136. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblogIf you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Our guest for episode #135 is Dan Markovitz, author of the new book A Factory of One: Applying Lean Principles to Banish Waste and Improve Your Personal Performance. If your New Year's resolutions include improving your own personal productivity, Dan is a great person to talk to about the application of Lean principles to your own professional work - whether you work in an aspiring Lean organization or not.Dan was previously a guest on episode #52. - leanblog.org/52To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/135. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #134 is a different topic than usual. Instead of strictly talking Lean, today's discussion is about broader issues of healthcare quality and our United States military. Joining me are Daniel Sullivan, President and General Manager of the The Sergeant Thomas Joseph Sullivan Center (SSC), a non-profit organization that is dedicated to improving health outcomes for current and former military personnel, especially those who are suffering from emerging, complicated, or currently unexplained post deployment health concerns. Named in honor of a fallen marine, the Sgt. Sullivan Center promotes the health security of America's troops and the principle that none should be left behind. Also joining us is Gregory Jacobson, MD, a college friend of Daniel's and the co-founder and CEO of KaiNexus.The Sergeant Sullivan Center is named for Daniel's brother, Sergeant Thomas Joseph Sullivan, a veteran of the Iraq war, who died suddenly in his northern Virginia home at age 30, four years after returning from deployment. With his medical problems originating during his deployment in Iraq and continuing in the years following his return home, Sgt. Sullivan suffered a progression of unexplained health complications that included chronic pain, swelling, cardiovascular disease, and severe inflammation. His autopsy revealed life threatening problems that medical tests had not detected.Today would have been St. Sullivan's 32nd birthday, so I am sharing his story here.Their website: http://www.sgtsullivancenter.org/To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/134. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 for free through January 7, 2012 and, beyond that date, you can still view the slides all through this link: http://leanblog.org/kaizenwebinarTwo of the main themes were that "kaizen" is not always about weeklong events and that suggestion boxes are not the same as the kaizen approach. Kaizen ideally involves everyone in continuous improvement, facilitated in ways that are better than the slow, batchy, non-collaborative suggestion box approach that many have tried and struggled with before.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/133. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

A returning guest for episode #132, we are joined today 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 via this blog post of mine - http://leanblog.org/virginiamason.In the podcast, Bob reflects on those videos and we talk about some of the lessons learned - what healthcare executives can learn about Lean leadership from manufacturing leaders.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/132. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 National Quality Month events (November), and other topics including:•Their "YouQ" video contest (vote on the submissions now via Facebook) - www.facebook.com/ASQ•The ending of federal funding for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award•Paul's blog post on the passing of Bob Galvin and Steve JobsTo point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/131. You can find links to posts related to this podcast there, as well. Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast episode.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 construction methods, parallels to general lean thinking, and lessons learned.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/130. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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," which can be purchased via their website. 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.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/129. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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. In this episode, we talk about lean healthcare and quality. We'll be back to the regular show next week.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/128. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 for Clinical Affairs, Department of Medicine. Dr. Shannon was an early pioneer in the use of Lean and Toyota methods to improve outcomes and patient safety, namely the reduction of hospital acquired central line bloodstream infections when he was at Allegheny General Hospital, near Pittsburgh, as documented in Naida Grunden’s book "The Pittsburgh Way to Efficient Healthcare: Improving Patient Care Using Toyota-Based Methods. Dr. Shannon learned from PRHI and Paul O’Neill, my guestIn episode #124 (www.leanblog.org/124)This podcast was produced in conjunction with the Healthcare Value Network. Visit their website at http://www.healthcarevalueleaders.org.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/127. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 podcast, we discuss his new book, his thoughts on designing products that create value and excitement for customers, as well as some of his thoughts on leadership.Bob's a "car guy" and a designer through and through, so what he says isn't always classic "lean thinking," but it's interesting and thought provoking. What's a "blanderizer"? You'll have to listen (or read) to find out.I hope you'll take a listen and/or read the transcript below. Be sure to share your thoughts and reactions by posting a comment on this post. I have my own thoughts and reactions, which I've added as comments to the transcript - notated by [MG1].As I wrote about in my preview post, Lutz says he is a fan of "autocratic" leadership, saying that the pendulum had swung too far during the "total quality" era toward too much slow consensus building and too much employee participation. In talking with him, much of what he's complaining about isn't what we'd recognize as Lean or Toyota thinking, but it's perhaps a reaction to the way the "Detroit Three" were using these TQM ideas in dysfunctional or extreme ways. He says we need more autocratic leadership, yet he doesn't think he's an autocratic leader, nor would he want to work for one. Interesting stuff.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/126. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 these methods in their administration, if elected.Their website is www.strongamericanow.org.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/125. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

I have a very special guest for Podcast #124, he is Paul O'Neill, the U.S. Treasury Secretary from 2000 to 2001 and former CEO of Alcoa. Mr. O'Neill is sharing his thoughts on patient safety and healthcare, including his time spent as the Chair of the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative and his work with Dr. Richard Shannon in dramatically reducing hospital acquired infections to near their "theoretical limit" of zero. Dr. Shannon will be a podcast guest next month. Mr. O'Neill talks about the leadership required to have such an impact on safety and quality, drawing on lessons from his years as Alcoa's CEO.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/124.This podcast was produced in conjunction with the Healthcare Value Network as a continuation of their previous podcast series -- http://hcvln.org/podcastFor earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.About Paul O'Neill:Paul O'Neill is a founder of Value Capture, LLC, where he provides counsel and support to health care executives and policymakers who share his conviction that the value of health care operations can be increased by 50% or more through the pursuit of perfect safety and clinical outcomes. He was the 72nd Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, serving from 2001 to 2002. During his 21 month tenure, the lost workday rate among Treasury employees fell by more than 50%. He was the chairman and CEO of Alcoa from 1987 to 1999 and retired as chairman at the end of 2000. Mr. O'Neill led Alcoa to become the safest workplace in the world, while increasing its market capitalization by more than 800%. Today, Alcoa operates across more than 40 countries at a lost workday rate that is 20 times lower than the average rate for American hospitals. Prior to joining Alcoa, Mr. O'Neill was president of International Paper Company from 1987 to 1985 and was vice president from 1977 to 1985. He served as the deputy director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget from 1974 to 1977, where he served on staff beginning in 1967. He worked as a computer systems analyst with the U.S. Veterans Administration from 1961 to 1966. During his government service, Mr. O'Neill helped to shape many of the policies which define the American health care system today. He serves as a board member at the National Quality Forum, RAND, and more than a dozen other major corporations and non-profit organizations.

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 primary care and wellness. You can read a PDF of a Health Affairs article that describes the benefits to patients and caregivers.This podcast was produced in conjunction with the Healthcare Value Network as a continuation of their previous podcast series at http://www.hcvln.org/podcast.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/123. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 collection of Lean videos. We're also talking in this episode about his LeanAmerica.org initiative.http://leanamerica.orghttp://www.fastcap.comTo point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/122. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 that is 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 improvement methodologies.More on the program: http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/mboeMrinalini Gadkari is a physician trained in India. She practiced in India for three years as a family physician. She came to the US 9 years ago to pursue her passion in Process Improvement in Healthcare.Mrinalini received MHSA (Masters in Healthcare Services Administration) from George Washington University. She worked as an administrative resident at the John’s Hopkin’s Bayview Medical Center focusing on Quality and Process Improvement. She worked at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital over 5 years and helped multidisciplinary teams apply lean principles to improve efficiency and safety of their clinical and business processes.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/121. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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. He currently serves as the Business Director of his group, Fredericksburg Emergency Medical Alliance. He currently serves as a faculty member in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Nationwide ED Collaborative, “Operational & Clinical Improvement in the Emergency Department.” Dr. Noon is a Professor of the Management Science Program in the Department of Management. He joined the faculty in the fall of 1987 after completing his Ph.D. in Industrial & Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan. He is also a founding member of the UT Physician Executive MBA Program.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/120. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 www.ThinkingLeanDVD.com for free preview clips of a new educational DVD produced by the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. You will also find a link to a free white paper about strategy deployment at ThedaCare, Group Health, and St. Boniface General Hospital.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/119. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #118 is a follow on to podcast #116 with Jim Womack, founder and former Chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institue, 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 reflections on the companies, and thoughts about where they are headed in the future. Jim also answers a reader question about the combination of the Lean and Six Sigma methodologies.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/118. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 talking about his most recent book, Get Rid of the Performance Review!: How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing--and Focus on What Really Matters. Much like Dan Pink's take on incentives in the workplace, Culbert is a contrarian about the generally accepted (yet dysfunctional) practice of the "annual performance review." In his writing, Culbert calls them "corporate theatre," as well as a sham, a facade, immoral and intimidating. In the podcast, we talk about the problems and alternatives to this common management practice.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/117. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #116 brings us Jim Womack, founder and former Chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institue, 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 walking around," some of his most memorable walks, progress in lean healthcare, and other topics.We recorded two podcasts in the same sitting. The next one will be out in a few weeks, with his thoughts on recent developments with GM and Toyota, his reflections on the word "lean," his thoughts on six sigma, and more.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/116. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #115 is a discussion with Eric Ries, entrepreneur and author of the upcoming book “The Lean Startup.” Today, we talk about how got introduced to Lean, core materials like books by Womack and Jones and Jeff Liker, and how he has put a lot of thought into how to take proven lean principles – reduced batch sizes, 5 whys analysis, and faster time to market – and applied them to startups. We both agree there are a lot of applications of these lean startup principles even if you are working on new products in larger, older, manufacturing settings – so I hope you’ll take 20 minutes to listen regardless of your background, as Eric’s work has stretched my attempts lean thinking in new directions.Book website: http://www.lean.st/Blog: http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/115. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 Transformation experience, John has spent the last 12+ years in executive consulting, implementing Lean in various sectors, including healthcare, which we are talking about today. His website is www.johnkimconsulting.com.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/114. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 from TV working to teach and implement the "Lean" methodology at hospitals around Los Angeles. Listen to the audio and judge for yourself - is he pulling our legs? Is this just another Hollywood publicity stunt? Is he the type of Lean consultant you would want around?Ok, it's an early April Fool's Joke.... that was audio taken from an interview he gave to ABC's Good Morning America show.

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 simple URL: www.leanblog.org/113. Visit Aubrey's website at www.aubreydaniels.com.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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. Here we talk about her experiences in Pittsburgh and her "small world" connection to Captain Chesley Sullenberger (a.k.a. "Sully") and the connections between Lean, aviation safety, and checklists.Our next podcast, out in a few weeks, will focus on Naida's recent trip to Cuba to teach Lean healthcare principles in that country. Naida's website is www.naidagrunden.com.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/112. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 Achieve Superior Performance and Toyota Under Fire: Lessons for Turning Crisis into Opportunity. The second book was clearly written in response to Toyota's recent challenges and Dr. Liker has some very strong perspectives to share here in this podcast. What was his take on Toyota's recalls and quality problems? Why does he think that Toyota was singled out as a "scapegoat" to be "taken down"? Does he think Toyota really will emerge stronger from these challenges?To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/111. You can leave comments there, as well.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

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 "standardized work" in a way that works for medicine and complex patient situations. This episode is also #3 of the new podcast series from the Healthcare Value Leaders Network series. The Healthcare Value Leaders podcast page is www.healthcarevalueleaders.org/podcast.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/110.For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.More about Dr. Billi:Jack E. Billi, M.D.Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, Medical School and Associate Vice President, Medical Affairsjbilli@umich.eduDr. Billi is Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Education. He leads the Michigan Quality System, the University of Michigan Health System's unified approach to improve quality, safety, efficiency, appropriateness and service using lean tools and philosophy. Dr. Billi's research and leadership interests are in health services delivery and the use of community consortia for quality improvement. He is active on statewide and regional groups affecting quality of care, pay-for-performance and public reporting. He chairs the Michigan State Medical Society's Committee on Quality, Efficiency and Economics and the Essential Benefit Design Work Group and is a member of MSMS's Board of Directors. Dr. Billi co-chairs the Medical Director Committee for the Michigan Quality Improvement Consortium which develops and disseminates evidence-based practice guidelines used by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and 15 other health plans representing over six million members. Episode Host: Mark Graban

Episode #109 is a discussion with Jim Morgan, Director, Global Body Exterior and Stamping Business Unit Engineering, Ford Motor Company. We will be talking about Lean product development methods in this show. James will be a plenary speaker at the upcoming Lean Transformation Summit, presented by the Lean Enterprise Institute, in Dallas this March 9th and 10th. Hope to see you there! Visit www.lean.org for more info.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/109.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #108 is a discussion with Dr. Gwendolyn Galsworth, recorded in person at the 2010 Shingo Prize Conference in Salt Lake City. Gwendolyn was previously a guest on episodes #26, 45, and 49.Here, we chat about lean and the "respect for people" principle, following up my talk with Dr. Stephen Covey (episode # 91) and we also touch briefly on her new book "Work That Makes Sense." You can find Gwendolyn's website at www.visualworkplaceinc.com.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/108.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #107 is something I've been looking forward to for some time now - an interview with Dan Pink, the author outstanding books including Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself, among others.Today, we're talking about "Drive" and a number of issues that will be familiar and relevant, yet thought provoking to Lean thinkers and students of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, ideas such as the dysfunctions of incentives and rewards, intrinsic motivation, and finding the balance between autonomy and following "standardized work" in a modern workplace.You can find Dan on Twitter as @DanielPink and his website is www.danpink.com, which has his blog, and more. DAn has a paperback version of Drive coming out in the spring of 2011 and, if you've read Drive, you can send him ideas and feedback via this blog post of his.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/107.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

For episode #106, we have a returning guest, Jim Baran of the firm Value Stream Leaders. Jim was previously a guest on episodes #16, 27, and 88 talking about careers in Lean. Today, Jim talks about a new offering called "Career Kaizen™," a service that combines coaching and personalized career management. With him today is Rick Pederson, one of the early people to go through this process with Jim.Jim's website is http://www.valuestreamleaders.comTo point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/106.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Podcast #105 is a conversation with the co-authors of the new book Simple Excellence: Organizing and Aligning the Management Team in a Lean Transformation from Productivity Press. They are Adam Zak, a regular guest blogger here on Leanblog.org and Lean-focused executive recruiter and Bill Waddell, a Lean consultant and frequent blogger over at EvolvingExcellence.com. Here, we talk about their book and their thoughts on Lean leadership, talent development, and other topics.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/105.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Podcast #104 is a discussion with Dr. Peter Patterson (@IDrPete), a friend of mine and the Lean Blog the past few years. He wrote a guest post for me back in 2009 (A Breakthrough in Training — Call it "Near-TWI") and I blogged about our presentation at the 2010 Society for Health Systems conference about Lean and TWI in healthcare.Here, we chat about his background with Lean in multiple settings, including histopathology. To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/104.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

In my latest Video Podcast (here as audio podcast #103), my guest is Matthew E. May, returning to talk about his latest book, a business fable called The Shibumi Strategy: A Powerful Way to Create Meaningful Change. I’ve been reading the book and have found it be a thought-provoking about your own personal effectiveness in a complex world.You can read more about the book at Matt’s website: www.ShibumiStrategy.com. Some of the topics we discuss include:▪What is “Shibumi” and where does the term come from?▪What’s the context for lean practitioners or students of Lean and TPS?▪Did you reach a point of Shibumi while writing this book or in your other work?▪Any particular reason you chose a car dealership as the job and the setting? Is it because it’s stereotypically a very numbers-driven “get it done” setting?To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/103. You can also watch video of our discussion at www.leanblog.org/v12 .For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for Episode #102 is Ron Wince, the President/CEO of Guidon Performance Solutions. We talk here about his views on lean healthcare and the impact of healthcare reform on the healthcare landscape.Prior to founding Guidon, Ron held senior leadership positions within world-class organizations, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Freudenberg-NOK, and Lear Corporation. You may have seen Ron as a guest commentator on Fox Business Network. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Ron holds a degree in engineering and is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. He currently resides in the Phoenix area with his wife and two children.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/102.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #101 of the Podcast is a discussion with Keith Syberg, former Chairman of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (see here for more about their 2010 annual AME conference in Baltimore, November).Today, we talk about consortia (I word I really struggled with) and collaboration efforts among manufacturing companies and the possibility of sharing across industries.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/101.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Can you believe this is Episode #100 of my podcast? Lots of great guests in the last four years and Dave Crenshaw is the latest interesting guest. He is the author of the book The "Myth of Multitasking: How "Doing It All" Gets Nothing Done" (which he talke about today) and his new book "Invaluable: The Secret to Becoming Irreplaceable."In this podcast, Dave and I talk about so-called multitasking - why are we so tempted to do it, what are the costs of this switching back and forth between tasks, and what are some alternatives for individuals and for organizations?To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/100.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

For episode #99 of the podcast, I'm talking with the authors of the book The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany. My guests are Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits, both are experienced entrepreneurs from California. We had a great discussion and I'm happy to bring a topic that will stretch the minds of Lean thinkers in many industries... so be sure to listen in even if you're not an entrepreneur...In this podcast, we discuss their book and the "Customer Development" methodology that was first published in Steve Blank's book The Four Steps to the Epiphany. This methodology is often used as part of the "Lean Startups" methodology and can be contrasted to a traditional "product development" approach.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/99.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Podcast #98 brings us Pat Bergin, President of Aerofil Technology, a manufacturer based in Missouri with 400 employees. Aerofil has been on its Lean journey since 2007 under Pat's leadership - first as a consultant and now as President.With more than 30 years of operations, finance, sales and marketing experience, Pat has brought both a broad and deep understanding of continuous improvement to Aerofil as President. His mission is the relentless pursuit of excellence through the total elimination of waste. His bio can be downloaded here (word doc). Pat was previously at Esselte, under the direction of Art Byrne (formerly of Wiremold), that Pat learned and developed his Lean (kaizen) management skills under the coaching of Shingijutsu Co LTD (Chihiro Nakao) of Japan, an original architect of the Toyota Production System.In this podcast, we talk about how he drives Lean as the company President, how Lean fits into their overall strategy, and what challenges they have worked through.To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/98.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.ort, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #97 is a discussion with Bob Sutton, a Stanford University Professor of Management Science and Engineering and the best-selling author of "The No A-Holes Rule." Other books by Bob include "The Knowing-Doing Gap" and "Weird Ideas That Work." Here, we talk about his new book, due out in September, called "Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from Worse." In this podcast, the conversation weaves through Toyota, HP, Intel, Southwest and other companies as well find parallels and complements between different management approaches, including Lean. Stay to the end to find out what company Bob thinks is surprisingly good and weeding out "A-holes" from their organization.You can read about or comment on this podcast at www.leanblog.org/97. You can find Bob and his blog at www.BobSutton.net.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.ort, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Our guest for Episode #96 is Pascal Dennis of Lean Pathways, Inc. Pascal is a faculty member with the Lean Enterprise Institute and he's the author of the books: Lean Production Simplified, Andy & Me, and Getting the Right Things Done. Here, we talk about his new book, The Remedy: Bringing Lean Thinking Out of the Factory to Transform the Entire Organization.You can read about or comment on this podcast at www.leanblog.org/96.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.ort, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #95 features Norman Bodek talking about some of the ideas in his most recent book, How to do Kaizen: A new path to innovation – Empowering everyone to be a problem solver. Late in the podcast, Norman asks and answers an interesting question: what if an employee suggests “we should blow up the factory”??This was recorded in March 2010, with Norman appearing from his office in Portland, OR.You can read about or comment on this podcast at www.leanblog.org/95. You can also see Norman speak, as this was also published as Video Podcast #11 -- go to www.leanblog.org/v11For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.ort, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #94 of the LeanBlog Podcast is here and our guest is Robert Miller, Executive Director of the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence. Bob was previously a guest for Podcast #59 (www.leanblog.org/59) talking about changes to the Shingo Prize criteria. Here, we are talking as a follow up to my discussion with Dr. Stephen Covey in Podcast #91 - www.leanblog.org/91Bob tells me some of the background and history about how Dr. Covey became involved with the Shingo Prize and how he became a professor at the John M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Bob also talks about some of the future hopes and plans for Dr. Covey's involvement with the Shingo Prize.You can read about or comment on this podcast at www.leanblog.org/94For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.ort, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #93 is a discussion with Jim Hearn, the Head of Lean and Six Sigma at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. This discussion found earlier online as part of the SixSigmaIQ.com podcast series on BlogTalkRadio, thanks to SixSigmaIQ for lining up the interview. Jim talks about his transition from manufacturing into healthcare and he describes some of his hospital's work and success improving patient care with Lean methods.

Epsiode #92 brings a returning guest, the always entertaining and thought-provoking Mike Micklewright. He is the author of a batch of two new books: Out of Another @#&*% Crisis! Motivation through Humiliation and Lean ISO 9001: Adding Spark to your ISO 9001 QMS and Sustainability to your Lean Efforts. In this podcast, we talk about his "Crisis" book and why it's important to revisit the teachings of W. Edwards Deming. How are companies and CEOs performing against the famous 14 Points?You can find Mike online at www.mikemick.com. You might remember Mike from Podcast #43, "What Would Deming Say?" - www.leanblog.org/43You can read about or comment on this podcast at www.leanblog.org/92For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.ort, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #91 is a very special one-on-one conversation with Dr. Stephen Covey, recorded at the Shingo Prize Conference in Salt Lake City last week. My main question to Dr. Covey was to ask his thoughts on Toyota's "Respect for People" principle, sometimes called 'Respect for Humanity." You can listen to the audio or you can read a transcript below in this post. After the chat with Dr. Covey, I share a few thoughts at the end of the podcast about Dr. Covey's work and Lean, along with a little background about the interview and my personal reaction to speaking with him. Visit www.leanblog.org/91 to read the transcript or to join the discussion.Thank you to Bob Miller, the Executive Director of the Shingo Prize, to Steve von Niederhausern, the Director of Marketing and Communications for the Shingo Prize, and to Michael Ockey, who works for Dr. Covey and FranklinCovey for their help in lining up the time with Dr. Covey and for helping me prepare. I'm going to have a separate podcast discussion with Bob on his thoughts about Lean and Dr. Covey's work. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the “Lean Line” at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id “mgraban”. Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast

Podcast #90 features Tim Turner, a team leader at Toyota's factory in Georgetown Kentucky (aka TMMK or Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky). He is the author, along with a team of co-workers, of the new book called "One Team On All Levels: The Story Of The Toyota Team Members," available through Amazon.com.In the podcast, we discuss the book and the culture of teamwork at Toyota. Tim also comments on his reaction (and his colleagues') to Toyota's recent quality problems and the resulting bad publicity.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the “Lean Line” at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id “mgraban”. Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Our guest for Podcast #89 is Keith Russell, a Global Continuous Improvement Leader at AstraZeneca R&D. I met Keith at a recent Lean & Six Sigma conference for Pharma R&D where we both presented. Keith has substantial in-house R&D experience across the entire value stream and currently works with Global Drug Development. He is particularly interested in Design and Innovation and the application of Systems Thinking to complex Business problems. Keith has a PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of Cambridge.In this podcast, we discuss the applications of Lean and Six Sigma in a space that we've never talked about here - pharmaceutical development. How do you use Lean principles in such a technical field and how do you engage the highly educated scientists who do this work?For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.ort, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #88 is a conversation with a returning guest, Jim Baran of the firm Value Stream Leadership (he is @leanVSL on Twitter, also). His sites include the Lean Career Compass and his Lean Career Guide blog. In this podcast, Jim talks about a shift in his firm's business model away from traditional recruiting and placement to helping companies manage Lean talent within their organization. We've structured the discussion to follow somewhat of a "Verbal A3" format, so I hope that helps.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. You can also hear Jim in episodes #16 and #27.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

87 is a discussion with a returning guest, Steven J. Spear, PhD, author of the outstanding book "Chasing the Rabbit." The book is due to be re-released in May under a new title, "The High-Velocity Edge." In this podcast, we talk about an upcoming workshop Spear is doing for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, lessons that healthcare can learn from other industries, and the reaction of healthcare leaders to Toyota's recent quality problems.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #86 is a conversation with David Lawrence Sundahl, PhD, Managing Director of Rule 4 Consulting (www.rule4consulting.com). They are a firm that works with healthcare providers to drive improvements using Lean and what they call "Adaptive Design" methodologies. Sundahl was a contemporary of Steven Spear at the Harvard Business School and also worked with Dr. John Kenagy, author of the book Designed to Adapt, Leading Healthcare in Challenging Times.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #85 is a conversation with David Meier, a former Toyota Georgetown Group Leader and the co-author of the books "Toyota Way Fieldbook" and "Toyota Talent." We discuss the recent quality problems that Toyota is facing and we get a lean thinker's perspective on how to look for facts and really try to diagnose what is happening in a complex situation.David was a guest on episodes #17 and #35 of the podcast if you want to check those out.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode 84 is audio from Video Podcast #10 (available on iTunes, YouTube, or leanvideopocast.org). This is a conversation with Karl Wadensten, President of VIBCO, a manufacturer in Wyoming, R.I. Here, we talk about his radio show, "The Lean Nation," which airs on AM 790 in Rhode Island and streams live on the web everyday weekday at 4 PM eastern -- www.790business.com. For more video podcasts visit www.leanvideopodcast.org or www.leanblog.org/video.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Podcast #83 is an in-depth conversation with Jim D'Addario, the CEO of D'Addario, a manufacturer of guitar strings, drum heads, and other musical accessories. Jim and his family company were featured on CNN late last year, highlighting how lean manufacturing has helped save and create jobs as part of their business strategy. Jim agreed to speak with me to delve into more detail about their use of lean management principles.Jim is a hands-on CEO who gets out on the shop floor, which seems to be a big advantage for lean success. He describes his personal transition from a starting point of "not seeing the benefits" after lean was initially proposed to him to reaching a point where he articulates very well how lean allows D'Addario to better serve their customers' needs.D'Addario started in the warehouse where, prior to lean, the operations strategy involved millions of dollars of warehouse automation. Now, with lean, they have freed up space, they have deployed people, and they can now ship orders that come in by 5 PM that very same day, as opposed to 48-hour performance before lean. Customers are able to hold less inventory and they can order more often in smaller batches. While this might increase order picking costs to D'Addario, Jim emphasized the increased customer contact and the benefits that come from that.D'Addario has long had a committment to its people, avoiding layoffs as much as possible. In the course of lean improvements, people are redeployed and cross-trained to be more flexible. Now, with lean, D'Addario was able to shut down a California warehouse, resulting in job loss. But, the company has consistently moved to bring jobs to Long Island, acquiring product lines and moving production from China. In the case of guitar straps, Jim emphasized that while the unit labor cost for sewing is higher, they don't have "110 days lead time" coming from China. Customer service is better and that's good for D'Addario's business.Jim said: "We've moved more and more work here and we'll continue to do that."For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

This is an interview with Dr. Sami Bahri, D.D.S., a dentist from Jacksonville, Florida. He is a pioneer in using Lean methods in the management of his dental practice. In this episode, he talks about what he's learned from visiting manufacturing plants and how single-piece flow is a critical piece of Lean.His outstanding book, Follow the Learner, is available from the Lean Enterprise Institute (www.lean.org). The book documents his learning journey for himself and his office staff as they learned how to apply Lean in a very non-traditional setting.This an audio version of LeanBlog Video Podcast #9, available in a separate RSS/iTunes feed or at www.leanvideopodcast.org.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Podcast #81 is an interview with Rob Bryant, VP for Quality with CSC (Computer Sciences Corporation). In this podcast, we talk about how CSC, being outside of manufacturing, uses Lean in their business and for their customers. Rob shares some insights on Lean, an outlook for 2010, and finishes our discussion with an inspiring story about how he got into the quality field.You can visit Rob's website at http://www.robbryant.com/ to learn more about his work and his public speaking appearances and more.As the vice president for quality, Bryant has: * Assisted DynCorp in increasing its revenue from $900M to $2.1B in just four years as a direct report to the President * Led over 100 teams and studies resulting in over $100M in savings/revenue/improvements for all divisions of CSC as a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt Trainer * Received the Malcolm Baldridge Sr., Examiner for the National MB Award * Served on the “President Bush Business Advisory Council” for two years * Served as an editor for a book called Quality for Dummies and has written several published articles/papers for journals such as Quality Digest, Six Sigma Magazine, and others * Quality Certifications include ISO-9001:2000, TQM, Process Management, ITIL, CMMI, Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Business Excellence, and Malcolm BaldridgeFor earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.

A special holiday treat for my Lean Blog readers and podcast listeners, "Gemba Claus is Comin' to Town." Lyrics by Mark Graban, Performance by Steve Sholtes (http://www.stevesholtes.com/).

This episode is a discussion with Joan Wellman, of the consulting firm Joan Wellman & Associates. Joan is a real pioneer in the lean healthcare arena, having started her initial work with a hospital in 1995 -- I haven't found anybody who started this work earlier. We first met in Seattle a few months back and I'm thrilled to bring you this discussion about the early days of lean healthcare and her thoughts on the potential for the future.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Eve Yen, founder and CEO of Diamond Wipes, is our guest for episode #79 of the podcast. In this podcast, Eve discusses her company and how manufacturing in the United States provides a strong competitive advantage. While not explicitly "Lean," Eve articulates a value proposition that any Lean Thinker would recognize: manufacturing close to the customer allows for shorter lead times and, for these products, better quality and freshness. Her strategy also allows for just-in-time delivery and ready customization for customers.Her story is an inspiring one for many reasons, as an entrepreneur and an immigrant who has made the most of her opportunities in America. Eve believes strongly that manufacturing is critically important for our nation's economy and she's working to build her company, serve her customers, and spread that message.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #78 brings a very special guest, Sorrel King, to talk about systems, communication, and patient safety. Sorrel's 18-month old daughter, Josie, was the victim of a series of preventable medical errors at a world-renowned hospital, passing away in the hospital's ICU. Sorrel channeled her grief and energy into the Josie King Foundation, which works to educate healthcare providers, patients, and families about the patient safety and systems improvement. From their website:The Josie King Foundation’s mission (www.josieking.org) is to prevent others from dying or being harmed by medical errors. By uniting healthcare providers and consumers, and funding innovative safety programs, we hope to create a culture of patient safety, together.Sorrel is also the author of the recently released book, Josie's Story: A Mother's Inspiring Crusade to Make Medical Care Safe. I think much of what she talks about will resonate with Lean thinkers, as well as anyone with an interest in safer healthcareFor earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

A returning guest (episodes #30, #38, and #48), Bob Emiliani is again featured in episode #77 of the LeanBlog Podcast. Bob is the President of The Center for Lean Business Management, LLC. He is a leading authority on Lean management, who since 1995 has focused his efforts on de-mystifying the "black art" of Lean leadership through his "Real Lean" series of books.Today, we talk about his most recent work - the republication (with additional material and commentary from Bob) of a book by Frank Wollard called Principles of Mass and Flow Production. You can read more about the book here on Bob's web site: www.theclbm.com.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #76 is a discussion with Dr. David Jaques, VP of Surgical Services at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO.Dr. Jaques is a skilled surgical oncologist and surgery department administrator. He came to Barnes-Jewish after serving as vice chairman of the department of surgery and director of graduate education at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He received his medical degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, which was followed by a distinguished career in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He served as a combat surgeon in the Persian Gulf War and was later chief of surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as an oncologist. He served as the senior medical officer during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Honors during Dr. Jaques' time in the U.S. Army Medical Corps include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal.In this podcast, Dr. Jaques talks about how he has led Lean efforts that involve physicians in a unique "6/3" format that helps solve tightly-scoped problems without the need to have surgeons and clinicians for a full 4-day kaizen event. We discuss how he got started with Lean, improvements that were made in the "Mass Transfusion Protocol," and their broader Lean and physician engagement efforts. Really fascinating and innovative stuff. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Our guest today for Episode #75 is Peter T. Ward, a professor at Ohio State University’s Fisher College Business and Chair of the Department of Management Sciences. Professor Ward is a leading expert in lean management and is president of the Lean Education Academic Network. His research has been published in a number of journals, including Decision Sciences, Journal of Operations Management and Production and Operations Management. He is research director for the Center for Operational Excellence, associate editor of the Journal of Operations Management and Decisions Sciences. Among other distinctions, he serves as a judge for Industry Week’s Best Plants program.In this podcast, we talk about efforts to standardize and improve formal education about lean in universities and other academic settings.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #73 is a conversation with Doug Burgess, Senior VP of Corporate Lean Six Sigma for Xerox. We talk about the Lean Six Sigma approach at Xerox, how they've used it internally and how they have used it to help customers improve processes and eliminate waste. The Xerox corporate website is: http://www.consulting.xerox.com/lean-six-sigma/enus.htmlFor earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Our returning guest is John S. Toussaint, MD, the CEO emeritus of ThedaCare, and CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. In the interest of disclosure, he is a partner in our Lean Enterprise Institute efforts to promote Lean in healthcare.Dr. Toussaint has been the guest previously for episodes #54 and #62 where he talks about ThedaCare's lean journey.Dr. Toussaint is very well known for his leadership of the Lean efforts in the ThedaCare system, done under the heading of the ThedaCare Improvement System. ThedaCare has been profiled in the WSJ and many other articles about the quality and cost improvements they have achieved.In this podcast, Dr. Toussaint talks about the current health reform efforts in Washington -- what is lacking and how Lean can contribute to fixing our broken healthcare system.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #71 is the second part of a discussion with Patrick M. Anderson, the Executive Director of Chugachmiut, the Tribal consortium created to promote self-determination to the seven Native communities of the Chugach Region. I met Patrick at a Lean conference last year where he shared their experiences with applying Lean principles to healthcare delivery in Alaska. Part 1 of the discussion was Episode #53. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #70 is an interview with Tamra Kaplan, the COO of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. We talk about the lean transformation work being done in the hospital and Ms. Kaplan's experience in leading this effort. For an earlier blog post about her promotion to COO and Lean at LBMMC, visit http://ow.ly/gyeX. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

This is an interview with Dr. Sami Bahri, D.D.S., a dentist from Jacksonville, Florida. He is a pioneer in using Lean methods in the management of his dental practice. The book documents his learning journey for himself and his office staff as they learned how to apply Lean in a very non-traditional setting.His book, Follow the Learner, is available from the Lean Enterprise Institute (www.leanblog.org).For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Podcast #68 is a discussion with Benjamin G. Harrison, President & CEO of Kaysun, a privately-held manufacturer that, for over 60 years, has designed and manufactured complex, high-tolerance plastic injection molded products and assemblies. In his role as CEO, Ben is the champion for Kaysun's lean strategy and efforts and we discuss his support for lean in this episode. Kaysun was just named Lean Initiative and Plastics Supplier of the Year by Rockwell Collins, so congratulations to them for that award.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

This podcast is an interview with Matt May, author of the Shingo Prize winning book The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation. Available May 19 is his new book In Pursuit of Elegance. Matt's website is www.inpursuitofelegance.com. Come back for a 2nd conversation with Matt next week.There is also a video podcast version of this discussion available as episode #4 at www.leanvideopodcast.org.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

SPONSOR: MIT Professional Education - Short Programs: MIT will be holding three short courses on campus this July focused on various lean concepts geared towards busy professionals (Lean Academy® Course, Lean Engineering Seminar, Lean Healthcare Academy). To learn more visit them on the web at http://shortprograms.mit.edu/lean.CONTENT:LeanBlog Podcast #66This is a discussion with Joe Rizzo, Chairman of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) Annual Conference, to be held in Covington, Kentucky. The dates are October 19 to 23, 2009. For more info, visit http://www.ameconference.org. In this podcast, Joe talks about his lean background and what to expect if you attend the event.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

LeanBlog Podcast #65 is a discussion with Kevin Frieswick, a Lean Process Manager, with MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, MA. I found Kevin earlier this year when I discovered their YouTube video about innovations at MWMC, which included a unique error proofing device to help encourage handwashing by staff and physicians before entering patient rooms. I recommend you first watch the video here (http://www.leanblog.org/2009/02/error-proofing-handwashing.html) before listening to the podcast. In this podcast, Kevin gives us more details behind the invention of the device and how it has been received in the hospital.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #64, again with Jamie Flinchbaugh, Founder of and Partner with the Lean Learning Center and co-author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean. In this Podcast, we talk about the role of coaching in a Lean transformation effort. What is the difference between coaching toward a solution and coaching to learn a method, for example?This was also the first attempt at a "video podcast", this is the audio from that. The video, if desired, can be found at this address: http://www.leanblog.org/2009/03/video-podcast-beta-v-10-jamie.html . The video admittedly doesn't add too much to the discussion, but it's an experiment and I'll continue to put audio from the discussions here in the audio podcast series if I do more videos.For past episodes, please visit www.leanpodcast.org.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Very special guest today... very spur of the moment podcast with L.A. mayoral candidate, David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg. He is running on a platform is using Dr. W. Edwards Deming's 14 points for management. Very interesting listening -- David paid his own way to a Dr. Deming 4-day seminar in Houston in 1991 and it changed his life. He's talking about Dr. Deming on TV and all the media -- what a great service to Dr. Deming and hopefully to the residents of Los Angeles.For past episodes, please visit www.leanpodcast.org.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for LeanBlog Podcast #57 is Alfie Kohn, an author and lecturer in the fields of education, parenting, and human behavior. His books include Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes and The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing. I reached out to Alfie after there was some very good discussion on the blog about Chicago Public Schools giving incentive payments to high school students earning A's, B's, and C's. Many of the arguments that Alfie makes are reminiscent of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and can be applied, more generally, to many organization settings where rewards and incentives are used. I hope you find this interesting and thought provoking. If anything, the Dr. Deming fans will want to listen to the end of the Podcast where Alfie does a dead-on impression of Dr. Deming. To read more articles, Alfie's website is http://www.alfiekohn.org/ .For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. The podcast is available there in MP3 or AAC formats.

Episode #58 of the LeanBlog Podcast brings us Steven J. Spear as our guest. Spear is a Senior Researcher at MIT, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and is the author of the new book Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders Outdistance the Competition and How Great Companies Can Catch Up and Win. Today, we talk about he started studying Toyota and his new book, which includes examples from many high-performing organizations in manufacturing, healthcare, and other industries - fascinating reading.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #59 of the LeanBlog Podcast is here and our guest is Robert Miller, Executive Director of the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence. We are discussing the Prize, some of the recent changes made in its criteria, and some future directions for the Prize named after Dr. Shigeo Shingo, of Toyota Production System fame. www.shingoprize.org is their website.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Once again, our guest for Episode #62 is John S. Toussaint, MD, the CEO emeritus of ThedaCare, and CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. Dr. Toussaint is very well known for his leadership of the Lean efforts in the ThedaCare system, done under the heading of the ThedaCare Improvement System. ThedaCare has been profiled in the WSJ and many other articles about the quality and cost improvements they have achieved. This is the first of two podcast discussions we recorded (Part 1 is episode #54). In this podcast Dr. Toussaint talks about the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and some big picture issues related to Lean and healthcare improvement.For past episodes, please visit www.leanpodcast.org.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Norman Bodek is once again back for episode #61 of the LeanBlog Podcast, talking about his discovery of a unique system in Japan, at Canon, called the "Super Meister" system that trains employees to be able to build an entire copier on their own. This was introduced in Episode #55 of the Podcast. Norman also talks a little more about Gerry Corrigan and his Lean/5S work in Ireland, employee ideas, and his video terminal that allows him to teach people remotely.For past episodes, go to www.leanpodcast.org.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Podcast Episode #60 is the second part of a two-parter with retired Lt. Randy Russell of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, an innovator in the use of Lean methods for improving law enforcement (Part 1, Episode #51 is here). In this episode, Randy discusses some really interesting examples of how Lean methods are helpful in law enforcement and how 5S or standardized work can help save a life. Very powerful stuff.Randy’s company, Hyperformance Enterprises, LLC, operates a Lean consulting and training division that can be found online at www.improvementors.com. Randy's interests include waste identification and elimination, process improvement, transactional systems, and strategic alignment. His hands-on experience with Lean in a broad array of settings as the former Chairman of the (47+ member) Jacksonville Lean Consortium and his two decade career as a law enforcement commander and lead security planner for a Super Bowl provides valuable added experience and insights when it comes to dealing with sensitive and complex projects.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #56 of the podcast is a discussion with John Shook, one of my absolute favorite people in the Lean world. The few times I've seen John present or had the chance to chat in person, I've learned more in that amount of time than from anyone else, so I'm thrilled to have him here. John has a new book, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute, about the "A3" problem solving process called Managing to Learn: Using the A3 Management Process to Solve Problems, Gain Agreement, Mentor, and Lead. John also has a new blog on the LEI website, which is exciting to see. In the podcast, we discuss the story behind the book and some thoughts on how to get started with A3 thinking from scratch in your organization.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Norman Bodek is once again back for episode #55 of the LeanBlog Podcast, talking about his recent trip to Ireland. If you're a fan of Norman, his books and his podcasts, be sure to check out the special charity auction that's running on www.leanblog.org through December 19. You can get a specially autographed CD set of Norman's previous Podcasts along with an autographed book. You'll see links to the auction on the Lean Blog, so visit today. The auction benefits the Josie King Foundation, a group that supports improvements for patient safety in hospitals and healthcare, a very important cause.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Our guest for Episode #54 is John S. Toussaint, MD, the CEO emeritus of ThedaCare, and CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. Dr. Toussaint is very well known for his leadership of the Lean efforts in the ThedaCare system, done under the heading of the ThedaCare Improvement System. ThedaCare has been profiled in the WSJ and many other articles about the quality and cost improvements they have achieved. This is the first of two podcast discussions we recorded, so check back for the second by visiting and coming back to www.leanpodcast.org. In this podcast Dr. Toussaint looks back at ThedaCare's accomplishments, reflects on their journey, and shares his advice for other hospitals.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

LeanBlog Podcast Episode #53 is a conversation with Patrick M. Anderson, the Executive Director of Chugachmiut, the Tribal consortium created to promote self-determination to the seven Native communities of the Chugach Region. I met Patrick at a Lean conference where he shared their experiences with applying Lean principles to healthcare delivery in Alaska. I am happy to bring their story to you, here in the first part of a two-part Podcast discussion.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Podcast Episode #52 is a discussion with a good friend (and sometimes contributor) to the Lean Blog, Dan Markovitz, founder and President of TimeBack Management. TimeBack Management is a corporate efficiency-training firm specializing in the application of Lean manufacturing principles to business processes. The company’s WorkLean program helps knowledge workers reduce the hidden waste in the way they manage information and improves the flow of value to the customer. As such, the WorkLean program supports companies in their Lean journey.In this podcast episode, we talk about applications of Lean and 5S principles in office and administrative settings.For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Podcast Episode #51 is the first part of a two-parter with retired Lt. Randy Russell of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, an innovator in the use of Lean methods for improving law enforcement. Starting in 2004, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office began using Lean as a continuous improvement program. In the podcast, Randy describes their journey and the improvements that have greatly contributed to providing more time and resources for the officers to use in protecting the community. As in healthcare, the real opportunity for Lean is not using isolated tools in a trivial way, but rather in ways that save lives and provide more time for officers to be out on the streets adding value, instead of dealing with waste. It sounds like a nearly direct parallel to using Lean in hospitals to free up time for nurses to care for patients.Randy’s company, Hyperformance Enterprises, LLC, operates a Lean consulting and training division that can be found online at www.improvementors.com. Randy's interests include waste identification and elimination, process improvement, transactional systems, and strategic alignment. His hands-on experience with Lean in a broad array of settings as the former Chairman of the (47+ member) Jacksonville Lean Consortium and his two decade career as a law enforcement commander and lead security planner for a Super Bowl provides valuable added experience and insights when it comes to dealing with sensitive and complex projects.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

To celebrate the 50th LeanBlog Podcast, the tables are turned. Guest host Jamie Flinchbaugh chats with me, Mark Graban, about the history of my blog, my podcasts, and how this led into my new book, Lean Hospitals.This was Jamie's idea (thanks). I normally try not to be the center of attention on the podcasts, letting my guests do most of the talking (so I can learn), so I'm a bit uncomfortable talking about myself... but here it is. Topics include why I started the blog, what I've learned along the way, how I got started with Lean, and how I transitioned into healthcare. You won't learn as much in this as a typical podcast with Jamie, Jeff Liker, or Norm Bodek. But, if you're interested... here you go! We get to the meat of the healthcare discussion and about the book about 20 minutes in.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #49 is another conversation with Dr. Gwendolyn Galsworth, who you might remember from Episode #26 last year and Episode #45, which was the first part of this conversation. In this episode, we talk about "Visual Displays," a topic from her Shingo Prize-winning book Visual Workplace, Visual Thinking: Creating Enterprise Excellence Through the Technologies of the Visual Workplace. Gwendolyn established Quality Methods International (QMI) in 1991 as a consulting, training and research firm, specializing in the Visual Workplace.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

A returning guest, Bob Emiliani is featured in episode #48 of the LeanBlog Podcast. Bob is the President of The Center for Lean Business Management, LLC. He is a leading authority on Lean management, who since 1995 has focused his efforts on de-mystifying the "black art" of Lean leadership. In this episode, we talk about his "Real Lean" series of books.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Norman Bodek is once again back for episode #47 of the LeanBlog Podcast, talking about his most recent trip to Japan (his 68th trip!). He poses the question, "What can we do to leapfrog Toyota?" Norman asks important questions about how we can help people, in any role, enjoy their work, rather than dreading Mondays. Why does Norman think the Canon photocopier plant he just toured is the best he's ever seen? Why does Norman disagree with the phrase, "Work smarter, not harder"??If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #46 is a chat with a good friend of the Lean Blog, Dean Bliss, a Lean Improvement Specialist with the Iowa Health System. Like myself, Dean made a transition in from manufacturing into health care a few years back, he'll share some of his experiences and recommendations for how to use Lean in a hospital and how to make that transition. He will also share some stories about how his hospital prioritized what problems to solve with the Lean methodology.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #44 of the LeanBlog Podcast is a conversation with Ralph Keller, the President of AME, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. Today, we're discussing AME and their upcoming regional conference in San Diego, to be held June 9 to 11, 2008.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #43 of LeanBlog Podcast is a very special one. My guest is Mike Mickleright, writer, consultant, and performer -- most interesting to me is his impersonation of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. As I wrote about before, I've seen his DVD and Mike agreed to create this podcast with me. We start off talking with Mike about his background with Dr. Deming and how he created the impersonation. Then, we shift into me interviewing Mike as Dr. Deming, asking him some questions on modern quality approaches including Lean and Six Sigma. His website is www.mikemick.com.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

This is LeanBlog Podcast episode #42 with Dr. C. Martin Hinckley, of the firm Assured Quality. He is the author of the book "Make No Mistake!: An Outcome-Based Approach to Mistake-Proofing," available through Productivity Press. We'll talk about his book and approaches for teaching people how to develop mistake proofing in processes.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #41 with Dr. Jeffrey Liker, Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. Dr. Liker is most recently the co-author (with Michael Hoseus) of Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way and many other books. This is part 3 of our recent series. Today, we talk about the development of managers within a Lean organization. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #40, an interview with a retired UAW/GM employee who wishes to remain anonymous, at this point. We have traded many emails over the past year, about Lean, and I'm impressed with this individual's true passion for Lean and Toyota Production System concepts. We both agree that the "root cause" of many Lean struggles comes back to management's inability to create trust and to give up some control to the employees who actually do the work. The intent here, from my perspective, is not "management bashing," but rather to illustrate that there are some on the UAW side who "get it" and success is going to require true cooperation and sacrifices on both sides.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #39, once again featuring Dr. Jeffrey Liker, Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. Dr. Liker is most recently the co-author (with Michael Hoseus) of Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way. This is part 2 of what will be a 3-part podcast series, so be sure to check back. Today, we talk about some of the challenges that organizations face in trying to adopt a Lean Culture.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #38, our guest today is Bob Emiliani of the Center for Lean Business Management and, most recently, the author of Practical Lean Leadership: A Strategic Leadership Guide For Executives. It's a workbook-style guide that forces you to think through your own leadership approach and your own situation, a book I enjoyed very much. In this podcast, we talk about "lean leadership," "value added behaviors," and some pitfalls to avoid in lean implementations.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #37, once again featuring Dr. Jeffrey Liker, Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. Dr. Liker is most recently the co-author (with Michael Hoseus) of Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way and many other books.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

LeanBlog Podcast #36 once again features our friend and frequent guest, Norman Bodek, noted lean author, consultant, and President of PCS Press. In this episode, Norman talks about his most recent publication, a text by the legendary Shigeo Shingo, called Kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking - The Scientific Thinking Mechanism, as well as future publications he is working on. This was recorded back in 2007, before the book was published (it has now been out in publication for a few months, I apologize for the delay in getting this podcast released). If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

LeanBlog Podcast #35 is another discussion with David Meier, co-author of the book Toyota Talent, written with Dr. Jeffrey Liker. In this podcast, we follow up our previous discussion (Podcast #31) to talk about the upcoming Toyota books, as well as some of the leadership challenges that companies face with working with Lean.If you enjoy this podcast, I hope you'll check out the rest of the series by visiting the LeanBlog podcast main page at http://www.leanpodcast.org/. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Finally, another episode of the LeanBlog Podcast. Sorry for the delay in getting new episodes out. Our guest today is Chris Harris, a former Toyota employee and author of the book "Developing a Lean Workforce." For more information, visit www.leanpodcast.org.

Episode #33 of the LeanBlog Podcast is the return of Jim Huntzinger, talking about the most recent Lean Accounting Summit. For more episodes or to give your feedback, please visit www.leanpodcast.org or www.leanblog.org. You can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN(817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

LeanBlog Podcast #32 once again features our friend and frequent guest, Norman Bodek, noted lean author, consultant, and President of PCS Press. In this episode, Norman talks about his recent study trip to Japan and what he saw there. If you enjoy this podcast, I hope you'll check out the rest of the series by visiting the LeanBlog podcast main page at www.leanpodcast.org.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

LeanBlog Podcast #31 is a discussion with David Meier, most recently the co-author of the book Toyota Talent, co-authored with Dr. Jeffrey Liker. In this podcast, we discuss the topics from Toyota Talent, including standardized work and how to use the methodology in the right way. We also talk briefly about Toyota's new San Antonio plant. I love David's quote, ""Standardization of work doesn't mean that everybody does it exactly the same way." There will be an upcoming Part 2 of this discussion with David where we talk about upcoming books in the Toyota series, so stay tuned.If you enjoy this podcast, I hope you'll check out the rest of the series by visiting the LeanBlog podcast main page at http://www.leanpodcast.org/. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

LeanBlog Podcast #30 is an interview with Bob Emiliani, President the Center for Lean Business Management and author of the books Better Thinking, Better Results and Real Lean: Understanding the Lean Management System (Volume One) (and Volume Two). Before starting the CLBM, Bob had a long career at United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney and also has degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, as well as a PhD in engineering from Brown University. Better Thinking, Better Results, which is now out in a 2nd revised edition, has a new epilogue about Wiremold, the subject of the book, and how they have moved away from Lean after their acquisition by another company. In this podcast, we’ll talk about why that happened and what others can learn from the story, in efforts to prevent the dismantling of even the most successful of Lean transformations. You can visit his website at theclbm.com. You can visit the page for this podcast at leanpodcast.org for links to Bob and his books, including the “Real Lean” series. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast. Vist www.leanpodcast.org for the LeanBlog Podcast page with all previous episodes.

Episode #29 of the LeanBlog Podcast features our very special guest, Dr. Sami Bahri, "The World's First Lean Dentist." If you're thinking "what can I learn about lean from a Dentist?", please listen in. I think you’ll be amazed and will learn a ton. I’ve really enjoyed the two chances I’ve had to talk with Dr Bahri, including this podcast session and I’ve been very impressed with his approach to lean. He’s gone back to all of the source texts, including Shingo and Ohno and has really had to figure it out for himself, as opposed to following a cookbook approach. I particularly appreciate how he involves his employees and staff… it’s a great example we can all learn from. If you have questions or comments for Dr. Bahri, he’s agreed to a follow on podcast. You can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or visit leanpodcast.org to leave a comment or read some linked articles about Dr. Bahri. His website can be found at www.firstleandentist.com.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast. Visit www.leanpodcast.org for the main LeanBlog Podcast page with all previous episodes and visit theLean Blog at www.leanblog.org.

LeanBlog Podcast #28 features our friend and frequent guest, Norman Bodek, noted lean author, consultant, and President of PCS Press. This also celebrates the 1 year anniversary of the Podcast, which featured Norman as our first guest. As I've given him credit for previously, the Podcast really was Norman's idea when he said I should do "radio interviews" with him. Thankfully, this has turned into a series of interviews with others that I have enjoyed immensely. I hope you enjoy them as well. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast. Visit www.leanpodcast.org for themain LeanBlog Podcast page with all previous episodes and visit the Lean Blog at www.leanblog.org.

LeanBlog Podcast #27 is the second part of two with Jim Baran, the Owner of Value Stream Leadership, a leading recruiting firm that specializes in Lean talent. In this part of the discussion, we focus more on Lean career paths for Lean leaders and practitioners, how to differentiate yourself and how to progress in your Lean career.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast. Visit www.leanpodcast.org for themain LeanBlog Podcast page with all previous episodes and visit the Lean Blog at www.leanblog.org.

Episode #26 of the LeanBlog Podcast brings us Dr. Gwendolyn Galsworth, of the Visual Lean Institute. She is the author, most recently of the book Visual Workplace, Visual Thinking: Creating Enterprise Excellence Through the Technologies of the Visual Workplace. Ironically enough, we wil be using this audio-only format to discuss visual methods in the workplace and how that ties into Lean and the Toyota Production System. Her book has hundreds of color photos and illustrations of effective visual methods, so if you find this discussion helpful, I hope will follow up with the book. The book is a very inventive and unique approach to visual management and helping people work more effectively. One small thing I really appreciate is how her case studies and examples from factories always have a photo of one of the value-adding associates who was involved in the work. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast. Visit www.leanpodcast.org for the LeanBlog Podcast page with all previous episodes or visit our blog site at www.leanblog.org.

For Episode #25, I'm pleased to have Dr. Mark Spearman, Founder and President/CEO of Factory Physics, Inc. (www.factoryphysics.com). You may know Dr. Spearman from his book, co-authored with Dr. Wally Hopp, Factory Physics. If there is ONE operations management textbook to own, this is it (it's well worth the cost). I was fortunate, as an Industrial Engineering undergrad at Northwestern, to take Dr. Spearman's operations course. The introduction given about Lean and the Factory Physics / Little's Law concepts (among others) have served me very well during my career. In the Podcast, we talk about his company, Factory Physics, and the work he is doing today in the manufacturing world.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast. Click here (www.leanpodcast.org) for the main LeanBlog Podcast page with all previous episodes.

Episode #24 of the LeanBlog Podcast is the 2nd part of my recent conversation with Jim Womack, of the Lean Enterprise Institute. In this episode, we talk about the state of the auto industry, from the time of The Machine That Changed the World through today. Who does Jim think is in the best shape among the "Detroit Three?" Jim also answers some questions from Lean Blog readers. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at podcast@leanblog.org or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.Please visit our websites, www.leanpodcast.org and the Lean Blog main page at www.leanblog.org.

Episode #23 of the LeanBlog Podcast features a panel of Lean leaders from the Group Health Cooperative (www.ghc.org), a consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system that coordinates care and coverage. Based in Seattle, Group Health and its subsidiary health carriers, Group Health Options, Inc. and KPS Health Plans, serve over 500,000 members in Washington and Idaho. GHC has been on a Lean journey, as documented on their "Daily Kaizen" blog (www.dailykaizen.org). Joining us on the Podcast are three of their Lean Leaders: James Hereford, Executive Vice President, Strategic Services and Quality Dr. Ted Eyan, Medical Director of Health Informatics and Web Services* Lee Fried, Manager of the Strategic Consulting team at Group HealthIn this Podcast, they discuss how GHC got started with Lean, their early "point improvement" succeses, and their transition to a more systemic approach to a Lean management system through their "model line" efforts.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at podcast@leanblog.org or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast. Click here for the main LeanBlog Podcast page (www.leanpodcast.org) with all previous episodes.

Episode #22 of the Podcast is a discussion with Allan Wilson, CEO of Factory Logic, a software company that was acquired by SAP late last year. Allan is now the VP of Lean Manufacturing Operations for SAP. We talk about the role of technology and software in a Lean implementation. In the interest of full disclosure, I worked for Factory Logic a few years back, including time under Allan's leadership, but I have no financial interest in the company or products.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast. Visit www.leanpodcast.org for all episodes.

LeanBlog Podcast Episode #21 features our friend and frequent guest, Norman Bodek, noted lean author, consultant, and President of PCS Press. In this Podcast, we talk about how Lean should be good for a company's employees, that Lean and the Toyota Production system are really about building people and investing in them rather than laying people off. Norman's previous Podcast episodes can be found on the Podcast main page, at www.leanpodcast.org.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

The LeanBlog Podcast is back with episode #20, our guest is Kevin Meyer, the founder of Superfactory Ventures, which can be found at Superfactory.com. You may know Kevin from his popular blog, Evolving Excellence. We'll be talking about a number of lean topics including his upcoming panel moderation at the Kellogg Manufacturing Business Conference, being held in Evanston IL in May.For more episodes, visit www.leanpodcast.org. Also visit the Lean Blog as www.leanblog.org.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817)776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #19 of the Lean Blog Podcast brings the return of Jim Womack. Jim was sitting in Melbourne Australia, where he had been speaking about lean healthcare, a topic that we will discuss in a future podcast. In this podcast, we talk about Jim's reflections on the book The Machine That Changed the World and its recent reissuing by the publisher (with updates). In the podcast, Jim not only talks about Toyota's success, but ways in which Toyota could fail or falter in the future. This is the first part of our discussion, I will release the second part in the upcoming weeks.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Here is Episode #18 of the LeanBlog Podcast. My guest today is Eric Christiansen, the President of a translation services company, OmniLingua (more can be found here on their philosophy as a company, being a self-described "Deming Company.) I was interested in talking with Eric about what it means to be a "Deming Company" and about their implementation of "wiki" tools (ala Wikipedia) for managing their standard work and process documentation.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast. Visit the LeanBlog Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org for all previous episodes.

LeanBlog Podcast #17 is a discussion with a good friend of the Lean Blog, David Meier, a former Toyota Georgetown Group Leader, founder of Lean Associates, and the co-author of the excellent book, The Toyota Way Fieldbook, and the upcoming Toyota Talent, due out in April (both co-authored with Jeff Liker, check out my Podcasts with him here and here). In this Podcast, we talk about David's recent first hand experiences with factories in China. Are there labor shortages? Is there a lot of waste in Chinese factories? Do the Chinese have good management skills at this point? What lean methods did David see in China? We'll cover all this and more.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast. Visit www.leanpodcast.org for the main LeanBlog Podcast page with all previous episodes.

LeanBlog Podcast #16 is the first part of two with Jim Baran, the Owner of Value Stream Leadership, a leading recruiting firm that specializes in Lean talent. I've known Jim for a few years now and he's helped me and some colleagues in the past, he's a great recruiter who really takes some interest in you. If you're looking to make a career change or if you're looking for lean talent, I can personally recommend him.In our discussion, we talk about the state of the job market for folks with lean experience and what helps a lean candidate stand out in the marketplace.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

LeanBlog Podcast #15 is a new discussion with a previous Podcast guest, Jim Huntzinger. Last time, we talked about the Lean Accounting Summit. This time, we're talking about the renaissance of the "Training Within Industry" program. We'll talk about the origins of this program, the impact it had on Toyota and the Toyota Production System, and why the program is being bought back in the United States and in lean circles. Jim is also organizing a Training Within Industry Summit, June 5-6 of 2007. Check the Show Notes at www.leanpodcast.org for more links to TWI resources and information.

LeanBlog Podcast #14 is a discussion with Dave Gleditsch, the ChiefTechnology Officer for Pelion Systems, a leading provider of softwarefor lean manufacturing applications. I first met Dave after I read hisIndustry Week columns and traded some emails with him. He has a greatbackground in manufacturing and lean, so I think he has an interestingperspective to share on lean and techonology. Don't worry, thispodcast isn't a sales pitch for Pelion's software. I think you'llenjoy the discussion.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or myguests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call andleave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN(817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give yourlocation and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) mightbe used in follow ups to the podcast. Visit the main LeanBlog Podcastpage (www.leanpodcast.org) for all previous episodes.

LeanBlog Podcast #13 brings us part 2 of our discussion with James P.Womack of the Lean Enterprise Institute, the author of many booksincluding the classic (published 10 years ago) Lean Thinking and themore recent Lean Solutions. Part 1 can be found by going towww.leanpodcast.orgIn the second podcast, Jim discusses the state of manufacturing inChina, including some factors to consider when competing with China,or setting up shop in China. Jim talks about the tradeoffs betweenmanufacturing for export versus manufacturing in China for the localmarket.

LeanBlog Podcast #12 brings us a special guest, James P. Womack of theLean Enterprise Institute, the author of many books including the classic (published 10 years ago) Lean Thinking and the more recent Lean Solutions. We ended up talking for about 40 minutes, so I'm going to split the discussion into two podcasts. In this first part, we focus more on China's adoption (or lack of adoption) of lean practices. In the second podcast, Jim talks more about general trends for China and for those considering doing business in China. Please visit www.leanpodcast.org for more podcasts in our series.

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #11, once again with Norman Bodek of PCS Press and the author of many books, including Kaikaku: The Power and Magic of Lean. In this Podcast, we discuss a topic posed by a podcast listener, Bruce from Akron Ohio: how do you educate your top leadership about lean? Norman and I discuss the perspectives of CEOs and executives toward lean, change, and their organizations and some examples of lean problem solving approaches. It's a long podcast (about 40 minutes), so I'd suggest you check out the show notes to find times of specific topics if you want to jump around.

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #10, again with Jamie Flinchbaugh, Founder ofand Partner with the Lean Learning Center and co-author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean. In this Podcast, we respond to an audio question from blog listener Bruce from Akron OH. The topic is how to educate your organization's leadership about lean and how to get them excited about your lean efforts.

LeanBlog Podcast Episode #9, is a discussion with David Mann, the author of the excellent book Creating A Lean Culture: Tools To Sustain Lean Conversions. In this Podcast, we will talk about Steelcase's experience with the their lean efforts and the realization that they required a "Lean Management System" for supervisors, managers, and leaders. We'll talk about what that means, why it's a critical feature of their Lean System and how to start making the transition to being a "lean leader."

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #8, an interview with Jim Huntzinger, the President of the Lean Accounting Summit. In this Podcast, we will talk about the notion of "Lean Accounting" and some of the ways that traditional cost accounting and managerial accounting can come into conflict with our lean transformation efforts. You might think, "I'm an engineer, what do I need to know about accounting?" But trust me, you need to learn about this topic so you can understand what drives some of the decisions your management might make and how they might need to change their approach to be more compatible with lean.

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #7, a new discussion with our friend NormanBodek, President of PCS Press and the author of many books, includingKaikaku: The Power and Magic of Lean. In this Podcast, we discussToyota's response to recent quality problems and recalls along withother Lean leadership topics.If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or myguests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call andleave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN(817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give yourlocation and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) mightbe used in follow ups to the podcast.

This is the second part of my conversation with Jamie Flinchbaugh, founder and partner with the Lean Learning Center and co-author of the book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean." . In the first part of the discussion, we talked about the specific language of waste reduction. This episode focuses on leadership's role in identifying waste and driving it out of your organization. If you'd like to hear the first part with Jamie, or earlier podcasts with Norman Bodek and Jeff Liker, you can visit www.leanpodcast.org for more information.

This is the first part of a conversation with Jamie Flinchbaugh,founder and partner with the Lean Learning Center and co-author of thebook "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean." . Prior to starting theCenter, Jamie has had a long career as a lean manufacturing leader,with Chrysler, with DTE Energy, as well as Rev! Motorcycles, anothercompany he helped start. Jamie is also a regular contributor to theLean Blog and I'm happy to have him here. Today, we will talk aboutwaste, as defined in lean manufacturing, and the specific language ofwaste elimination. Our second podcast will focus on leadership's rolein waste elimination, so you can subscribe to the podcast or staytuned to the Lean Blog to learn when that will be available. Visit www.leanblog.org or www.leanpodcast.org for more information.

This is the second part of my discussion with Dr. Jeff Liker of the University of Michigan and his books, including "The Toyota Way." This time, we focus on "lean healthcare" or the applications of lean in hospital settings, waste elimination, and problem solving. Please visit www.leanblog.org for show notes, links and more information.

My guest today is Dr. Jeffrey Liker, Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. He is the Director of the Japan Technology Management Program and co-Director ofthe lean manufacturing program. This will be the first of two podcast episodes with Dr. Liker. Today,we discuss the transition from “lean manufacturing” to “lean enterprise”, some of the challenges companies face in becoming lean, and some of the methods that Toyota uses to further the Toyota Production System.Please visit www.leanblog.org for show notes, links and more information.

In this podcast, I talk with Norman Bodek, author, lean consultant, and Toyota Production System expert. We talk about the Toyota principle of "respect for humanity" and how to stop blaming individual employees for problems or defects. Management is responsible for the design of the system, and therefore are also responsible for the results. Please visit www.leanblog.org for show notes, links and more information.

Here is my first LeanBlog Podcast, featuring author and consultant Norman Bodek, President of PCS Press.For more information, please visit www.leanblog.org. There, you can find show notes and can comment on the podcast. Norman Bodek, of PCS Press, discusses the history and evolution of kaizen and continuous improvement. He details the history of Toyota's employee suggestion system and how it has evolved, in Japan and North America, along with some tips for running a suggestion system of your own. If you have feedback, visit www.leanblog.org, email leanpodcast@gmail.com, or leave a voicemail by contacting skype id "mgraban" or by phoning (817) 776-LEAN (817.776.5326).