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

Jim Lancaster, "The Work of Management"

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.

Dr. Lisa Yerian & Nate Hurle from The Cleveland Clinic

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.

Julie Firman, a CNO's Role in #Lean Transformation

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.

John Dyer, Deming's Red Bead Experiment

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.

Revisited: Dr. Robert Maurer, Kaizen & the Brain

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/

Tom Bouthillet, Lean and Fire Fighting (the Real Kind)

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.

Kay Kendall, #Lean and Leading the Malcolm Baldrige Way

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.

Andy Sheppard, #Lean, Change Management & More

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.

Katie Anderson, #Lean Reflections on Living in Japan

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.

Jay Arthur, ”Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals” *

Remastered January 2022
Episode page: https://www.leanblog.org/274 
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.
Jay is owner and founder of his company KnowWare International, based on Denver. Before founding that company in 1995, Jay was in a number of quality roles at US West / Qwest from 1973 to 1995. He has a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Arizona.
Lean and Quality and Six Sigma
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.
The Podcast Discussion
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, like error proofing, and mindsets, like not blaming people, 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”). I'm also glad that the phrase “Patient Safety” is in the subtitle of his book, as it is in mine.
You can read more about Jay and his bio here.