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

Art Byrne, former CEO of Wiremold and author of 'The Lean Turnaround', shares his expertise in transforming businesses through lean principles. He emphasizes that CEO involvement is crucial for successful lean transformations and that stretch goals can be motivating with the right culture. Art also discusses the importance of fostering innovation through fearless experimentation in the workplace and contrasts the leadership challenges in healthcare with those in manufacturing. His insights provide a comprehensive roadmap for implementing effective lean strategies.

Show notes: https://leanblog.org/157 Remastered June 2021 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. For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/157/. Some questions, key topics and thoughts: Was it just intuitive to you that getting everybody oriented around that purpose was important? How do you get others to share the sense of purpose? Talk about what you see the “main job” of a manager to be… Describe the process of “trust and track” and why it's better than fear-based management and “command and control?” Why do you think fear-based management is, sadly, so common in so many industries and companies of all sizes? Can you talk about the role of transparency in your daily management and the impact it has on your employees? How does Nick find managers who are “coaches, not cops”? What's the difference between purpose, values, vision, and mission? Why is trust so important in an organization? Why does clarity have to exist around purpose in an organization? Does the younger generation have a higher expectation of leadership today? What are “ops cards” and how are they like standardized work? For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS  or via Apple Podcasts.

My guest for episode #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 its 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 here? To learn… and to have fun, as Dr. Deming said! For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/156/. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

Joining me for episode #155 is Jim Benson, co-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. For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/155/. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to  subscribe via RSS  or via Apple Podcasts.

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. 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 atwww.creativesafetysupply.com/leanpodcast  for a discount. Check out their  industrial labeling system  and  SafetyTac tape products. For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/154/. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to  subscribe via RSS  or  via Apple Podcasts.

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. Here is my earlier review and blog post about his book. 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. For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/153/. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to  subscribe via RSS  or via Apple Podcasts.

My guest for podcast #152 is Matt Stewart, 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 episode 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. For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/152. 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. Check out their  industrial labeling system  and  SafetyTac tape products.

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 Outstanding Organization: Achieving Rapid Improvement in Office, Service, and Technical Environments. FastCompany.com has an excerpt from The Outstanding Organization here. For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/151/. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS  or via Apple Podcasts.

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? For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/150/. About Dr. Lebosky: Jeffrey M. Lobosky M.D. was awarded his Bachelor of Science degree in preprofessional studies from the University of Notre Dame and his Doctorate of Medicine from the University of California at Irvine. There, he received the J. Gordon Hatfield Award for Outstanding Student in the field of Surgery. As a surgical intern at UC Irvine Medical Center he was named Resident of the Year. He completed his neurosurgical residency at the University of Iowa where he was the recipient of the Department of Surgery's Outstanding Resident Research Award. Dr. Lobosky currently serves as Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California at San Francisco and is Co-Director of the Neurotrauma Intensive Care Unit at N.T. Enloe Memorial Hospital. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Joint Section on Trauma and Critical Care for the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Lobosky served as one of organized neurosurgery's six representatives to the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma which advises national policy makers on health care issues. Dr. Lobosky has received national and international acclaim for his work on injury prevention, has been an invited lecturer throughout the U.S. and abroad and is listed in “Who's Who in American Medicine”. He has served as Chairman of the Board of the National Injury Prevention Foundation and has written a variety of research articles published in national journals as well as several book chapters and articles on the health care crisis in America's trauma system. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to the field of trauma and injury prevention and in 2007 was recognized for his distinguished teaching experience by the students and faculty of the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine. He and his wife, Diana, reside in Chico, California where he continues an active practice as a founding member of Northstate Neurosurgical Associates. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

My guest for episode #149 is Gregory Jacobson, MD, the co-founder and CEO at KaiNexus. 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 train others, especially physicians, in getting started with this methodology? In a future episode, we'll talk more about KaiNexus and use of software, but today's focus is on the application of core Kaizen principles (as discussed in my book Healthcare Kaizen). For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/149. Conflict of interest disclosure: I have been on the management team at KaiNexus since 2011 and I am a part owner of the company.