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

My guest for episode #165 is Chris Vogel, President & CEO of Compass Affiliates. I've met Chris before at an LEI Lean Transformation Summit and he is doing a learning session at this year's Summit, to be held March 13 and 14 in Orlando. Chris specializes in the Development of Lean Leaders and Administrative Lean. He has over 15 years of Lean Administrative and Process Improvement experience.

During his 15 years at Wells Fargo, Chris led and used Lean to transform a division of Wells Fargo with 1,200 staff members. In our discussion, we'll talk about applying Lean to settings outside of manufacturing, including mortgage processing and government. I think this discussion will help reinforce the idea that Lean is Lean and Lean leadership is Lean leadership, regardless of the setting.

In the episode, Chris says that “standardized work is misunderstood… it's not equal to creating documentation and it's not a constraint.” He emphasizes that standardized work is exactly the thing that allows people to “customize more quickly” when they have to.

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/165.

Learn more about the Healthcare Value Network, the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, and their annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit.

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 #164 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Rachelle Schultz, CEO of Winona Health (based in Winona, Minnesota). Rachelle was a part of the CEO panel that I moderated at last year's Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit and her comments on leading a health system's Lean transformation were well received. In this discussion, she says, “Everything I do has to drive Lean,” as we talk about how her system is using Lean in these challenging times and what the impact has been – quality, satisfaction, financial.

This episode is produced in partnership with the Healthcare Value Network.

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/164.

Learn more about the Healthcare Value Network, Catalysis, and their annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit.

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 #163 is Dr. Gregory R. Johnson, the Chief Medical Officer at Parkview Health in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In this episode, we talk about how Parkview is using Lean to cope with today's challenging environment, how Dr. Johnson encourages Lean thinking among physicians, and the role of standardization in medicine. Dr. Johnson says Parkview is moving toward “having everyone operating in a Lean way, all 8200 co-workers” instead of just doing “Rapid Improvement Events.”

This episode is produced in partnership with the Healthcare Value Network. Dr. Johnson and I also talk about Parkview's participation in the Network, including hosting a “gemba visit” by other members.

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/163.

Learn more about the Healthcare Value Network, the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, and their annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

My guests for episode #162 are Patrick Vlaskovits (@pv)  and  Brant Cooper (@brantcooper), previously guests on episode #99. I recently ran into them at the Lean Startup Conference and today we are speaking about their newest book (coming in February) The Lean Entrepreneur: How to Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets. You can learn more via their website:

www.LeanEntrepreneur.co

In this episode, we talk about:

• What is Lean Entrepreneurship?

Their books:

• The Lean Entrepreneur: How to Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Market

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/162.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

Steve Bell, author (most recently) of the book Run Grow Transform: Integrating Business and Lean IT  is my guest for episode #161 of my podcast series. Steve is a fellow faculty member for the Lean Enterprise Institute and he is also a founder of Lean4NGO.org,  working with non-profits in the developing world.

He is also founder of Lean IT Strategies, LLC, coaching IT professionals as they partner with their business colleagues to meet the challenges and exploit the opportunities in the rapidly changing, technology-enabled business landscape.

In this episode, Steve talks about:

• Why “Lean Thinking” is important in IT

• Lean Enterprise Systems: Using IT for Continuous Improvement

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/161.

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 #160 is Joseph S. Guarisco, M.D., FAAEM, FACEP. Dr. Guarisco is currently Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine and System Chief of Emergency Services for the Ochsner Health System. Dr. Guarisco is a keynote speaker at the upcoming Society for Health Systems conference (which I'll be attending) and we are both part of the American Academy of Emergency Physicians annual scientific assembly in February (where I'll be co-presenting with my Healthcare Kaizen co-author Joe Swartz on E.D. process improvement strategies). Here is a Q&A, hosted by SHS, with Dr. Guarisco.

In this episode, we talk about Dr. Guarisco's process improvement efforts at Oschner and how that was made necessary by Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath, where demand TRIPLED in their E.D. We also chat about standardized work and variation reduction fit in with the practice of medicine and improving E.D patient flow.

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/160.

• Society for Health Systems

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at [email protected] or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the “Lean Line” at (817) 993-0630 or contact me via Skype id “mgraban”. Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joseph S. Guarisco, M.D., FAAEM, FACEP. Dr. Guarisco is currently Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine and System Chief of Emergency Services for the Ochsner Health System. He joined Ochsner as a staff physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine in August, 1980. In July, 1990, he pursued a fellowship in anesthesiology at Ochsner. In July, 1992, he returned to emergency medicine as Chairman and Medical Director of the Emergency Department and is currently serving in that position becoming System Chief Emergency Services in 2007.

Dr. Guarisco has extensive experience in ED informatics automation pertinent to the design, development and implementation of ED information systems. He has published and lectured widely on the use of automation in workflow redesign and ED process improvement and is well known for his work in physician performance profiling and data driven ED management. The 2005 Ochsner Clinic Foundation award for outstanding achievements in patient satisfaction was awarded to the Department of Emergency Medicine. Additionally, Dr. Guarisco has been recently recognized by Press Ganey for innovative use of data and process design in improving patient satisfaction at Ochsner and is the winner of the Press Ganey 2005 National Success Story Award. In 2008, Press Ganey awarded the Ochsner Health System the Compass Award for the largest improvement in patient satisfaction amongst its client base. He has pioneered ED workflow redesign through innovative adaptation of Lean engineering principles to ED patient flow processes. He is also responsible for pioneering web based wait times for emergency departments nationally.

Dr. Guarisco has a bachelor's degree in engineering and is board certified in emergency medicine. He is a fellow in both the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine.

In 2012, he was named Chair of the American Academy of Emergency Physicians (AAEM) Operations Management Committee.

A returning guest for episode #159 is John Toussaint, MD, the CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and the author of the books On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry and Potent Medicine: The Collaborative Cure for Healthcare.

John was a guest on episodes 54, 62, 72, and 146. Today's main topic is a new report, published last month by the Institute of Medicine, titled “Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America.” John was a reviewer of this report and has key insights to share, as always, about the problem and things we can do to improve healthcare around the world.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/159b/.

Helpful links:

• IOM report main page  (with full report, briefs, sides, data, etc.)

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 #158 is Art Byrne, author of the new book The Lean Turnaround: How Business Leaders Use Lean Principles to Create Value and Transform Their Company.

Art is very well known in the Lean community for his successful run as CEO of Wiremold, having previously worked at GE and Danaher.  He is currently Operating Partner at the private equity firm J. W. Childs Associates L.P. In this podcast, Art talks about operations improvement as a business strategy, why the CEO needs to be directly involved in a Lean transformation, why “stretch goals” aren't demoralizing when you have the right leadership and culture, and more.

Also, listen to my podcast with Bob Emiliani (who documented the Wiremold story in the book Better Thinking, Better Results: Case Study and Analysis of an Enterprise-Wide Lean Transformation), where he talks about what happened to Lean at Wiremold after the company was purchased and Art left.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/158/.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.