KaiNexus: Continuous Improvement, Leadership, and More

In this webinar, we’re mixing up the format a bit to maximize time for Q&A and discussion. Please watch this longer webinar first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wwlaxfN8AE In this video, Mark Graban will give a short presentation that recaps and updates his thoughts on some of these concepts. We’ll also conduct some live polling (and see the results) related to the level of psychological safety that attendees feel in their organizations. Mark is also joined by KaiNexians Kaleigh Krauss and Linda Vicaro for discussion and their insights and stories. The rest of the webinar was a Q&A discussion moderated by Morgan Wright, where you can ask your questions related to how leaders can cultivate a culture where everybody feels safe enough to speak up about problems, ideas, mistakes, and more. Learning Objectives: Define psychological safety and explain its significance in the workplace. Identify the relationship between psychological safety and continuous improvement. Develop strategies for leaders to cultivate psychological safety within their teams. Understand methods to assess and sustain psychological safety in the organization. Mark Graban is an author, speaker, and consultant, whose latest book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. He is also the author of the award-winning book "Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Engagement" and others, including "Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More." He serves as a consultant through his company, Constancy, Inc, and is also a Senior Advisor for the technology company KaiNexus (and had his 13-year KaiNexiversary recently!). Mark hosts podcasts, including “Lean Blog Interviews” and “My Favorite Mistake.” Mark earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s “Leaders for Global Operations” Program.

In this episode, Mark Graban previews an upcoming webinar live event. Register here I'm excited to invite you to join me on August 21st for a special webinar titled “Ask Us Anything! Psychological Safety and Continuous Improvement.” This session, running from 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET, is designed to be highly interactive, with a focus on your questions and insights. You can also view this as a LinkedIn Live streaming session. But we'll only be able to take and answer live questions from the Zoom Webinar crowd. Psychological safety is a crucial foundation for any organization striving to foster continuous improvement. When team members feel safe to speak up–whether it's to share ideas, report problems, or admit mistakes–they are more likely to contribute to a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Without psychological safety, the fear of blame or retaliation can stifle innovation and lead to missed opportunities for growth. In our previous KaiNexus webinar, I discussed the importance of psychological safety and how it ties into continuous improvement. If you missed that session, don't worry–you'll receive a link to the recording when you register. I encourage you to watch it before the August 21st webinar, as it will set the stage for our discussion. I'll kick off the session with a brief 15-minute presentation recapping the key points from the previous webinar and sharing some updated thoughts on fostering psychological safety. We'll then conduct live polling to gauge the level of psychological safety attendees feel in their organizations, providing us with real-time data to inform our discussion. The heart of this webinar will be the Q&A session, moderated by Morgan Wright. I'll be joined by some other “KaiNexians” to share their thoughts on our culture. This is your chance to ask anything related to building a culture where everyone feels safe to engage in continuous improvement activities. Whether you're curious about specific strategies, leadership behaviors, or methods for sustaining psychological safety over time, we're here to provide practical insights. By the end of this session, you'll be able to: Define psychological safety and understand its critical role in the workplace. Identify the connection between psychological safety and continuous improvement. Develop actionable strategies for cultivating psychological safety within your teams. Assess and sustain psychological safety in your organization. To sum up, my goal for this webinar is to help you develop practical strategies to build psychological safety in your teams. This is about more than just making people comfortable–it's about creating an environment where continuous improvement is possible because people feel safe to contribute, challenge the status quo, and learn from mistakes. I hope you'll join us and bring your questions, your experiences, and your ideas. Let's make this a lively and impactful session! Register: Ask Us Anything! Psychological Safety and Continuous ImprovementWhy This Topic MattersWhat to Expect on August 21stLearning Objectives

Welcome to the Continuous Improvement Podcast with Mark Graban! In this episode, we celebrate Justin Self, Performance Improvement Manager at Barnes Jewish Hospital, and recipient of the prestigious Nexie Award from KaiNexus. Join us as Justin shares his decade-long journey in continuous improvement at BJC Health, highlighting the importance of standardization, grassroots efforts, and leveraging KaiNexus for both top-down and bottom-up improvements. 🎉 Key Highlights: - Justin's honorary KaiNexian award and its significance - The evolution of continuous improvement at BJC Health - Transition from paper idea boards to using KaiNexus - Importance of standardization in large health systems - Collaborative growth with KaiNexus' customer success team - Practical tips on managing continuous improvement portfolios 🔔 Subscribe for more insights into continuous improvement and learn from industry leaders! Learn more about KaiNexus: KaiNexus Website https://kainexus.com/ #ContinuousImprovement #LeanHealthcare #KaiNexus #NexieAward #BJCHealth #PerformanceImprovement #Standardization #HealthcareInnovation #CustomerSuccess

Welcome to the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Podcast with Mark Graban! In this special episode, we celebrate Mike McGowan, Director of Process Excellence at Memorial Health System in Marietta, Ohio, and recipient of this year's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Nexie Award from KaiNexus. Join us as Mike shares his inspiring journey in continuous improvement, the evolution of process excellence at Memorial Health, and the impactful integration of KaiNexus into their system. 🎉 Key Highlights: - Mike's honorary KaiNexian award in memory of Chris Burnham - Transition from project-oriented work to a culture of continuous improvement - Incorporating KaiNexus for tracking projects, quality initiatives, and safety improvements - Importance of standardization and iterative growth in lean practices 🔔 Subscribe for more insights into continuous improvement and learn from industry leaders! 🔗 Useful Links: Learn more about KaiNexus: https://www.kainexus.com #ContinuousImprovement #LeanHealthcare #KaiNexus #NexieAward #MemorialHealth #ProcessExcellence #Standardization #HealthcareInnovation #CustomerSuccess

Welcome to the latest episode of the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement podcast! In this engaging conversation, Mark Graban, Senior Advisor with KaiNexus, sits down with Greg Jacobson, CEO and co-founder of KaiNexus. They chat about various topics, including lean principles, continuous improvement, and the significant impact of the recent CrowdStrike software glitch on multiple sectors, including healthcare. Mark shares his personal travel delays caused by the glitch, while Greg discusses the broader implications, such as the disruptions in emergency healthcare services. They explore the importance of psychological safety and how KaiNexus fosters a culture where employees feel safe to speak up about mistakes. The discussion also covers the value of mistake-proofing, robust testing processes, and learning from both internal and external errors to enhance continuous improvement practices. Join Mark and Greg as they reflect on lessons learned, the importance of a kind and constructive response to mistakes, and the necessity of maintaining dynamic checklists in response to changing conditions like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Hashtags: #ContinuousImprovement #LeanPrinciples #Kinexis #SoftwareGlitch #HealthcareImpact #PsychologicalSafety #MistakeProofing #Leadership #GregJacobson #MarkGraban #LeanThinking00:00:26: KaiNexus Mid-Annual Meeting overview 00:00:44: Discussion about travel delays 00:00:55: Impact of Crowdstrike software issue 00:05:34: Software bugs and testing procedures 00:07:17: Psychological safety and response to mistakes in KaiNexus 00:11:02: Checklist usage and adjustments 00:16:00: Learning from Crowdstrike situation 00:17:46: Wrapping up and future Ask Us Anything session

In this insightful webinar, Karen Friedenberg, Founder and Managing Director of Performance Improvement Consulting, explores how to leverage a Strategy to Execution Framework to achieve sustainable business results. The webinar delves into the critical aspects of strategy execution, emphasizing the importance of clear communication, organizational alignment, and operational consistency. Strategy Articulation: Karen emphasizes the need for strategy to be communicated in a clear and powerful way. This ensures that all stakeholders understand the direction and objectives of the organization, fostering a unified approach towards achieving goals. Organizational Alignment: The importance of aligning the leadership team and the entire organization to the company's goals is highlighted. Karen discusses methods to ensure that everyone understands how their contributions align with and support the overall strategy. Operational Alignment: Ensuring that processes and operations are consistent and aligned with the strategy is crucial. Karen shares insights on how to streamline operations to support strategic objectives effectively, reducing inefficiencies and improving performance. Executing with Excellence: Karen underscores the necessity of having a robust structure and method in place to manage strategy and key initiatives. This includes establishing clear roles, responsibilities, and metrics to track progress and ensure accountability. Organizational and Culture Change: Building a culture of performance improvement and bringing people along for the journey is essential for sustained success. Karen discusses techniques for fostering a culture that embraces change, continuous improvement, and innovation. Karen Friedenberg brings a unique perspective to strategy execution, combining her experience in consulting with her background in industry. As a former executive, she understands the importance of having executable plans that deliver results. She has led Strategic Program Management and Operational Excellence departments, overseeing large business and digital transformations. Karen is passionate about listening, connecting the dots, and using various disciplines such as Lean Six Sigma, change management, and design thinking to solve business problems and facilitate sustainable change. For more detailed insights and to access the slides, visit: Leveraging a Strategy to Execution Framework - A Journey of Transformation.

Link to the blog post Leaders who want to develop a culture of rapid continuous improvement have many tools at their disposal. So many that it can be challenging to keep them all in mind when deciding how to execute an opportunity for improvement or address a difficult challenge. Most organizations don't use all of these techniques simultaneously, but each can be remarkably effective when applied to the right situation.We put together a list of the most common and helpful business process improvement tools and techniques that you can start implementing today. Each will help your team improve product quality, increase customer satisfaction, and achieve optimal performance with minimal waste.

Register here In this video, Mark Graban (webinar host from KaiNexus) talks with Karen Friedenberg about her webinar. Scheduled for: July 23 from 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET Presented by Karen Friedenberg What is a Strategy to Execution Framework? How can this be leveraged to achieve sustainable business results? Learn more about how to execute a journey of Transformation from: 1. Strategy Articulation – How to ensure strategy is communicated in a clear and powerful way. 2. Organizational Alignment – Is the leadership team and the organization aligned to how they contribute to the company goals? 3. Operational Alignment – How to ensure processes and operations are consistent and aligned to strategy. 4. Executing with Excellence – Is there a structure and method in place to ensure strategy and key initiatives are managed? 5. Organizational and Culture Change – How do you build a culture of performance improvement and bring people along for the journey? About the Presenter: Karen Friedenberg is the Founder and Managing Director of Performance Improvement Consulting. Having worked both in Consulting and within industry, Karen brings a unique perspective to strategy execution. Karen sat in the seat of an executive, so having executable plans that deliver results is imperative. She built out and led Strategic Program Management and Operational Excellence departments leading large business and digital transformations. Karen is passionate about listening, connecting the dots and bringing her experience in various industries, lean six sigma, change management, design thinking and other disciplines to solve business problems and facilitate sustainable change.

Read the blog post Here at KaiNexus, we get the opportunity to chat with organizations across all industries and write about many different continuous improvement tools and techniques they use. Lately, I’ve been thinking about two things that most have in common. First, the tools they use are generally simple but not easy. And second, the key to success lies in the planning phase. Both of these observations apply to Kaizen events. The concept is straightforward. A team sets aside other responsibilities for a few days to focus on solving an important challenge in short order. That’s pretty simple, but getting results requires a significant amount of planning and preparation Fortunately, there is a well-defined path to success. Here are the seven simple steps to follow before you kick off your next event.

Today, host Mark Graban (a Senior Advisor) with KaiNexus is joined by our new Manager of Customer Enablement, Andrea Beidl. We'll learn about her background, why she joined KaiNexus, and what appealed to her during the recruiting and interviewing process. Learn a little about her onboarding process -- and what she thinks are the best things and the worst things about living in Austin — oops, I mean San Antonio. Learn more about KaiNexus: https://kainexus.com/