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

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?

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.

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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.