Lean Blog Audio

https://www.leanblog.org/audio312 In this post, I'm going to share some reflections from one of my workplaces, some things that occurred last week. I'm going to be vague, so forgive me for that. It feels right to be less specific in this case, or at least that's the cautious (and maybe respectful) thing to do. When wearing one of my different "hats" with one of the organizations I work with, something went wrong. It wasn't something I did (or I would own up to that in specific ways). But the mistake affected me and the work I was doing. When a preventable process problem occurs, the engineer in me finds it relatively easy to be logical and think through "what happened?" instead of "who messed up?" A few deep calming breaths help, as well.

http://www.leanblog.org/audio311 I'm not a Buffalo Bills fan (a.k.a. "The Bills Mafia"), but I did attend one game at what was then called Rich Stadium in 1998 when I was a grad school intern at Kodak. Even without being a fan, I wish I could have written a headline for this post that said "Buffalo Bills Kaizen Their Way to a Super Bowl." Readers of this blog, of course, know that "Kaizen" is a Japanese word meaning "good change" and it's framed as an approach to engaging everybody in small improvements to the way they do their work. So what does this have to do with football? Football is a workplace, even if it's college. I blogged about my alma mater, Northwestern University, using the word "Kaizen" (and the mindset) within their football program. This article about the Bills isn't new, but I recently discovered it on Twitter: Sean McDermott, Bills use 'Kaizen' strategy to stress constant improvement From the article...

https://www.leanblog.org/audio310 During this "let's try to get people vaccinated" phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, almost every article that I've seen about the vaccine and its distribution mentions the need to not waste precious doses. There are many opportunities for error with the different vaccines. If some of them aren't stored properly at the correct temperature, the vaccine degrades and gets wasted (or worse, gets injected and gives a false promise of effectiveness). Good process design (lessons I learned as an engineer) means being proactive and thinking about what could go wrong -- and then designing the process in a way that prevents errors or mistakes. The ideal would be "error proofing" that makes it impossible to make a mistake. Or, we could make it more apparent that a mistake has been made (for example, a temperature-sensitive label on a vaccine bottle that would let you know if it's been out of the correct storage temperature too long). A countermeasure like this might prevent the mistake of using expired vaccine. But how can we prevent the storage problem (and the waste of the vaccine) to begin with? I wasn't planning on blogging over the holidays, but this article caught my attention: Wisconsin hospital tosses 500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine due to 'human error' (See the full post at the link https://www.leanblog.org/audio310)

https://www.leanblog.org/audio309  Subscribe now to "My Favorite Mistake"

http://www.leanblog.org/audio308 You might have heard of a "social media takeover" where a brand with a large following gives control of their social media feed to somebody who is promoting a cause or a social message. One person I've followed on LinkedIn is Deondra Wardelle. She is a Lean practitioner (like me) and she's a Black woman (unlike me). So, thinking back to the idea of a "social media takeover." I was inspired by Deondra, so I asked her to accept a "blog handover" as I'm calling it. My initial thought was to give a platform for her to write and talk about anything she wanted, to give more exposure to her voice.

http://www.leanblog.org/audio307 Today, I wanted to share an excellent article written by Dr. John Toussaint (of Catalysis) and Ken Segel (of Value Capture)...

http://www.leanblog.org/audio306 I'm excited to announce that our book Practicing Lean is now available as an audiobook through Audible. As we did with the paperback and Kindle versions of the book, 100% of royalties will be donated to the Louise Batz Patient Safety Foundation (it's been almost $5000 so far). You can buy or subscribe through Audible.

http://www.leanblog.org/audio305 It's possible that I could start traveling again for my healthcare consulting work next month... or maybe in July. My colleagues at Value Capture aren't sure yet how this will work out, but clients are sharing their current plans for starting to re-open -- to a new normal, not the old normal. As I mentioned (if not buried) in a post last week, my wife and I relocated from Orlando to Los Angeles last week because she is starting a new job (we will still have our permanent home in Texas). Anyway, as the consultants start to think about traveling again, I have compiled some thoughts from my own research and experience since I'm the only one who has flown or stayed in hotels over the past two months, due to the relocation.

http://www.leanblog.org/audio304 It was a sad weekend, hearing about the passing of Paul H O'Neill, Sr. on Saturday. He was 84. I had the good fortune to meet and spend time with Mr. O'Neill on a few occasions and I'll share some reflections in this post. My condolences go out to his family and friends, and especially to my Value Capture colleagues who worked with him at Alcoa or at the firm over the past 15 years. Here are his obituaries from the WSJ, the New York Times, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. You can also read more about his life on a memorial page that his family set up and people are sharing memories there.

http://leanblog.org/audio303 This is from the 3rd edition of my book Lean Hospitals. I've copied and pasted from the book with no additional edits, although I'll bold italic some parts for emphasis. I'll some closing thoughts at the end. For a more complete PDF excerpt, click here (requires Dropbox access).