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

Adam Ward (@adz_mikl) on Lean Design in Healthcare

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…

Dr. Rob Hackett (@patientsafe3) on #TheatreCapChallenge & Change in Healthcare

http://www.leanblog.org/341
My 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.

Preview: "Lean Whiskey" Podcast

Here is a special sample preview of a new podcast... the “Lean Whiskey” Podcast
If you like it, please subscribe by searching your podcast directory for "Lean Whiskey" or go to www.LeanWhiskey.com.
About the Podcast
Mark 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!

@JoyFurnival, Lean in NHS England

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.

Charlie Protzman, “Lean BASICS”

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.

Grey Dube, Another Lean Healthcare CEO from South Africa

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.

Vance Jackson, a Lean Healthcare CEO from West Virginia

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.

Gladys Bogoshi, a Lean Healthcare CEO from South Africa

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.

Barry O’Reilly on the Need to “Unlearn”

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.

Barry McCarthy, Toyota as a Development Company

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.