Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership
Mark Graban
Since 2006, the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast has featured thoughtful, in-depth conversations with leaders, authors, executives, and practitioners who are applying Lean thinking and continuous improvement in the real world.
Hosted by Mark Graban—author of Lean Hospitals, Measures of Success, and The Mistakes That Make Us—the podcast explores Lean as a management system, a leadership philosophy, and a people-centered approach to improvement. Episodes span industries including healthcare, manufacturing, startups, technology, and professional services.
This isn’t a podcast about chasing tools, jargon, or “Lean theater.” Instead, guests share candid stories about what actually works—and what doesn’t—when organizations try to improve. You’ll hear honest reflections on leadership, culture, learning from mistakes, and building systems that help people do their best work.
Whether you’re a Lean practitioner, healthcare leader, executive, coach, or someone new to continuous improvement, each episode offers practical insights you can apply immediately.
Common topics include:
Lean as a management system and cultural transformation—not just a toolbox
Continuous improvement, Kaizen, and problem-solving at every level
Leadership behaviors that enable trust, learning, and sustained change
Psychological safety as a foundation for improvement and innovation
Lessons from the Toyota Production System, Lean Startup, and Deming’s thinking
Real-world stories about mistakes, learning, and resilience
You won’t hear much about “Lean Six Sigma” here. But if you believe improvement starts with respect for people—and that better systems beat blaming individuals—this podcast is for you.
Many episodes feature a special focus on Lean in healthcare, reflecting Mark’s long-standing work with hospitals and health systems to improve patient safety, quality, flow, and staff engagement.
Find all episodes and show notes at www.LeanCast.org.Learn more about Mark and his work at www.LeanBlog.org.Questions or feedback? Email mark@leanblog.org
Hosted by Mark Graban—author of Lean Hospitals, Measures of Success, and The Mistakes That Make Us—the podcast explores Lean as a management system, a leadership philosophy, and a people-centered approach to improvement. Episodes span industries including healthcare, manufacturing, startups, technology, and professional services.
This isn’t a podcast about chasing tools, jargon, or “Lean theater.” Instead, guests share candid stories about what actually works—and what doesn’t—when organizations try to improve. You’ll hear honest reflections on leadership, culture, learning from mistakes, and building systems that help people do their best work.
Whether you’re a Lean practitioner, healthcare leader, executive, coach, or someone new to continuous improvement, each episode offers practical insights you can apply immediately.
Common topics include:
Lean as a management system and cultural transformation—not just a toolbox
Continuous improvement, Kaizen, and problem-solving at every level
Leadership behaviors that enable trust, learning, and sustained change
Psychological safety as a foundation for improvement and innovation
Lessons from the Toyota Production System, Lean Startup, and Deming’s thinking
Real-world stories about mistakes, learning, and resilience
You won’t hear much about “Lean Six Sigma” here. But if you believe improvement starts with respect for people—and that better systems beat blaming individuals—this podcast is for you.
Many episodes feature a special focus on Lean in healthcare, reflecting Mark’s long-standing work with hospitals and health systems to improve patient safety, quality, flow, and staff engagement.
Find all episodes and show notes at www.LeanCast.org.Learn more about Mark and his work at www.LeanBlog.org.Questions or feedback? Email mark@leanblog.org
Episodes
Mentioned books
Apr 7, 2021 • 55min
Katie Labedz on "How to Improve Absolutely Anything"
Author of new book, trainer, consultant
My guest for Episode #408 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Katie Labedz, the author of the new book How to Improve Absolutely Anything: Continuous Improvement in Your Home, Office and Family Life.
Katie Labedz is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with over 20 years of experience implementing continuous improvement solutions within non-manufacturing and manufacturing environments. Her company is Learning to Lean.
Katie also has her Master's certification in instructional design, her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification through PMI and is a certified instructor/facilitator through Langevin.
Topics and questions in today's episode include:
What's your Lean origin story?
What did you learn moving from IT to manufacturing to working with Lean in office settings?
How is Lean different with “carpet walkers”?
How do you define “continuous improvement”?
When do you need to take a break from improvement to stabilize things?
Lessons from working on virtual improvement this year?
Why write the book?
Favorite practical tips and tricks (Lean methods at home) from the book?
Lessons about motivations and “resistance to change”?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.
Mar 31, 2021 • 1h 9min
Joy Mason on Optimism and Lean Instead of Layoffs
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/407
My guest for Episode #407 is Joy Mason, a Strategist, Author, Speaker, and Entrepreneur based in Indianapolis. He is President and Senior Business Strategist at her company, Optimist Business Solutions, that she started after 18 years at Eli Lilly.
She is the author of the book The Optimist Workbook: 5 Steps to Sustainable Solutions for Women In Business and also Purpose: A Shift from Driving It to Embracing It.
Topics and questions in today's episode include:
How Joy got started with continuous improvement
Being introduced to Six Sigma first… then Lean tools… then looking beyond the tools
How did “scientific problem solving” resonate with scientists (and others) at Eli Lilly?
How can you “break down silos” (or is it better to “work across silos”)?
“Lean before layoffs” or “Lean instead of layoffs”?
What does being an optimist mean to Joy and why is that important?
Joy talks about the work she does now, in particular with non-profits
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.
Mar 24, 2021 • 54min
Ivan Zak, DVM on Using Lean to Address Burnout in Veterinary Medicine
Veterinarian & Entrepreneur, Ivan Zakharenkov, DVM
My guest for Episode #406 is Dr. Ivan Zakharenkov, he's a doctor of veterinary medicine and he's Chief Executive Officer at the company Veterinary Integration Solutions. He goes by Dr. Zak for short and he's based in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
I'm joined, as my co-host, by Chip Ponsford, DVM — he was also co-host of Episode #254 with a veterinarian as our guest then, as well. Chip also has a blog called Lean Vets and a book titled Lean Veterinary Practice Management.
Today, we all talk about the important issue of burnout — Ivan wrote a whitepaper on the subject and you can download that as a PDF: “Lean Thinking in Veterinary Organizations to Improve Employee Experience.” He also wrote an MBA dissertation of the same name. In that research, he considered a correlation between human and animal healthcare and proposed that lean thinking can help reduce burnout.
This is a topic that we've explored twice on the podcast with Dr. Paul DeChant, looking at it in the realm of “human healthcare.” I agree that Lean can be part of the solution, in these settings and elsewhere!!
Topics and questions include:
Tell us about your background as a veterinarian and entrepreneur
How did you get introduced to Lean?
The Goal by Eli Goldratt
John Toussaint, MD and the Catalysis Summit
How bad is the burnout problem? Is it worse for women?
Female vets 3.5x rate in society, male vets it's 2.5x
Spectrum of burnout?
What is compassion fatigue vs. burnout?
“Compassion fatigue goes away on vacation, burnout is deeper”
What other conclusions did you draw from your dissertation?
What are the six triggers of burnout?
How does Lean address burnout?
Lean as a technical and social system?
Mar 22, 2021 • 7min
Adam Lawrence's "Wheel of Sustainability" is Now a Book - Enter to Win a Copy
I interviewed Adam a year ago... and his concept (The Wheel of Sustainability) is now a book!
Check out the original episode and enter to win here:
https://www.leanblog.org/2020/03/podcast-362-adam-lawrence-on-kaizen-events-the-wheel-of-sustainability/
Mar 12, 2021 • 56min
A Kata Geek in the Communities: Deondra Wardelle
CEO at DeondraWardelle.com, Co-host of "KataCon7"
For show notes and discount codes for KataCon7 and for Deondra's workshop, go to http://leanblog.org/405 or scroll down.
My guest for Episode #405 is Deondra Wardelle, CEO of her own company and one of the hosts of next week's virtual KataCon7 event. She is, among other things, a Visionary, Coach, Strategist, Speaker, Consultant, Kata Geek, Leader of the #RootCauseRacism Movement. Her mission is developing a world of problem-solvers.
You can register for 10% off of KataCon7 by using code LF10 (thanks to Lean Frontiers for that code). Deondra is also doing a Strategic Vision Board Workshop on Saturday and you can register with a 20% discount by using code LEANBLOG.
In today's episode, Deondra shares how and why she became a “Kata Geek” and how that built upon her continuous improvement foundations from her time in manufacturing. We'll talk about the similarities with Lean across industries (“it's always going back to the people”) and what “Respect for People” means to her. Deondra shares stories about how Kata helped her become a better manager — less of a micromanager. We also discuss communities including Lean Communicators and Women in Lean.
All of that — and more — in this episode… released early because of the timing with these two events — KataCon7 and Deondra's workshop.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.
Mar 10, 2021 • 1h 4min
Covid Testing, Treatment, and Vaccination at Cleveland Clinic: Nate Hurle
Senior Director, Enterprise Continuous Improvement at Cleveland Clinic
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/404
My guest for Episode #404 is Nate Hurle, a Senior Director of Enterprise Continuous Improvement at Cleveland Clinic. He was previously a guest on Episode 282. He was also recently a virtual keynote speaker for the Society for Health Systems annual conference.
Today, Nate shares stories and reflections from the past year — the pandemic year — and how Cleveland Clinic quickly stood up drive-thru testing, how they built a 1000-bed hospital (that thankfully wasn't needed), and how they've been ramping up Covid vaccination.
What happened when Nate got a surprise phone call about the need for testing to be up and running “in a few days.” Why was the approach of “get it up and running… then make it better” a useful one and how were mockups and other methods used to put safety first, given the cars and people on foot.
How did they utilize effective standardized work and training methods, huddles, and continuous improvement methods? Why was the question of “What's the most important problem to solve?” such a useful one?
How are they balancing the need for higher throughput with having a patient experience that's not too rushed? How did Cleveland Clinic get so much done in such a short period of time, and what were the lessons learned that could be applied in more normal times? Why is Cleveland Clinic now looking to continuously improve (again) their Cleveland Clinic Improvement Model?
We also chat a bit about their adoption of “Process Behavior Charts” (as I have written about) and we'll talk about that more in a future episode.
Thanks for listening! Please subscribe (or follow), rate, and review!
Mar 3, 2021 • 57min
Arnout Orelio: A Dutch Engineer Now Working in Lean Healthcare
Show notes: https://leanblog.org/403
My guest for Episode #403 is Arnout Orelio, author of the book Lean Thinking for Emerging Healthcare Leaders: How to Develop Yourself and Implement Process Improvements.
Arnout is from the Netherlands, but we have crossed paths a number of times when he and many of his Dutch colleagues have come to the U.S. for events like the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, produced by Catalysis. His book, written in English, has a lot of great lessons for leaders and Lean practitioners in American healthcare and beyond. He has also written two books in Dutch.
Arnout and I have strikingly similar professional backgrounds and paths, which we discuss in the episode. We are both engineers who progressed from the automotive industry into healthcare. We talk about how he shifted into healthcare (in 2005, same year as me) and how this experience has reinforced that:
“Leadership is not a person, it’s a process. Everyone can be a leader if you want to change something.”
We talk about the differences in the Dutch healthcare system, at a high level, and the similarities in how Lean can be applied. We also discuss topics near and dear to my heart:
Why Lean should keep employees (and patients) happy
Process Behavior Charts
Training Within Industry / Job Instruction
Eliminating overburden for healthcare staff (see the first bullet point)
The relevance of TWI to Covid vaccination
Here are his website and his publisher's websites, so please take a look.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.
Feb 24, 2021 • 58min
Jay Hodge: Going From GM to Toyota to Healthcare and Beyond
Founder & President, Jay Hodge & Associates
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/402
My guest for Episode #402 is Jay Hodge, the founder and CEO of Jay Hodge & Associates. He has over 25 years of operational leadership experience in companies such as Toyota, General Motors, Caterpillar, and Tenet Healthcare. Jay is also the author of The Lean Treasure Chest.
We talk about Jay's career — going from teaching the Toyota Production System at General Motors to then actually going and working at Toyota. What did Jay first learn about “efficient operations” and leadership in the United States Marine Corps?
What did Jay learn about culture and servant leadership? What was the most difficult thing about leaving Toyota and going to other environments, including healthcare? How do we teach somebody to manage and to lead instead of just promoting them?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.
Feb 17, 2021 • 1h 1min
Jim Benson, Talking About Humane Management
Co-author of the book Personal Kanban
Show notes: http://www.leanblog.org/401
My guest for Episode #401 is my friend Jim Benson, who you might know as the co-author of the book Personal Kanban (and we talked about that in Episode 155, back in 2012). He was also a guest on Episode #4 of "My Favorite Mistake" with me.
We recorded this using the LinkedIn Live platform. Jim and I have talked a lot (and collaborated) over the years, so we intentionally went into this conversation without much of a plan.
The main theme is "humane management," a phrase of Jim's that I really like. We talk about workplaces, psychological safety (listen to my episode with Amy Edmondson on that), learned helplessness, respect, autonomy, systems thinking, and more.
We also jokingly brainstorm titles for a hypothetical podcast that we would do together. He is going to join me and Jamie Flinchbaugh for the next episode of the "Lean Whiskey" podcast, by the way. Is "Mark and Jim's Vomitorium of Management Ideas" a good name? Probably not.
Jim's company, Modus Institute, has a new "Lean Agile Visual Management Certification and Accreditation Series," so please check it out.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.
Feb 11, 2021 • 1h 7min
Jeff Liker on the Second Edition of "The Toyota Way"
Author of the newly-updated book, available now.
Show notes and more: http://www.leanblog.org/400
Wow, 400 Episodes!! 400 episodes in roughly 15.5 years… that's about 800 weeks, or one episode every two weeks, on average, over that time. Thanks again to the late Norm Bodek for the idea to get this podcast started, as I talk about in this memorial video. Thanks to everybody who has listened or participated as a guest!!
My guest for Episode #400 is Jeffrey Liker, the retired University of Michigan professor who has recently released the second updated and revised version of his seminal book The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer. The new edition has more examples from the service sector, including healthcare, and it incorporates “Toyota Kata” approaches (and he credits his former student Mike Rother).
Today, we talk about why he wrote a new edition and what he's learned since the publication of the original back in 2004. We talk about combining the perspectives of industrial engineering and sociology — the mechanistic vs. the organic views of a system like Lean/TPS. What is “coercive bureaucracy” vs. “enabling bureaucracy”? What's the difference between “being Toyota” and “emulating Toyota”?
We also learn a little bit about the musical instrument that Jeff has started playing again. We need to form a Lean band! Maybe not.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.
Jeff was previously a guest on episodes 3, 4, 37, 39, 41, and 111
