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I often find myself falling into the common trap of believing that if something is worthwhile, it is necessarily difficult. I think we all expect that valuable things are hard. The truth is, however, that sometimes the most effective and impactful things we can do are really quite simple.
When it comes to continuous quality improvement, this is absolutely the case.
Here are 9 examples of quality improvement tools, techniques, and technology that are uncomplicated yet extremely valuable.
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Mark Graban, from KaiNexus, chats with Brent Loescher about his upcoming webinar:It will be presented live on November 19 from 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ETRegister hereAn exploration of implementing LSW throughout Sperber Companies, a distributed Landscape Maintenance business made up of organically-grown business and M&A (read multiple cultures).Covering everything from embracing current cultures, developing an organizational culture with a common language, level setting business leader responsibilities, introducing Lean thinking, and implementing daily rhythms, this webinar will discuss the efforts, hurdles, and learnings this 5-year-old business is living every day.About Brent: Brent has spent more than 20 years working in and on the business, improving operations within high-speed manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, distributed-services environments, and governmental agencies.A Lean practitioner at heart, Brent received his formal Toyota Production System training while working for Toyota Motor Sales in their North American Parts Operations. While with Toyota, he was responsible for operational design of two new warehouses built in Puerto Rico and Mexico City. A certified TPS trainer, he developed strategic warehouse design standards, while also serving as the Toyota Customer Service Diversity and Inclusion Champion Coordinator.He helped develop a Lean program for the landscape maintenance industry, implementing and evolving continuous improvement programs across the country since 2009. This included co-leading a team focused on the operational integration of a $2 billion dollar merger.Brent is currently responsible for Learning & Development and CI for a start-up Landscape Maintenance & Construction company doing work in 14 states. He has a BA in Business Management from Mercyhurst University and is a retired military veteran, having served 21 years in the US Army and US Army Reserve.Brent is a girl-dad that, along with his wife, Kim, is anxiously awaiting the birth of their second grandchild. In his free time, he finds a way to see the Green Bay Packers wherever they play, enjoys boating, and spending time being creative around the house.
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Most of us have memories of playing the game of catch either as children or with our children. I really shouldn’t call it a “game” because there are no winners and losers. There is no defense because everyone is on the same side. One participant tries to deliver the ball to the other in a way that they will be able to grab and return it. The ability to catch and throw a ball is important because it is a foundation for success in many other, more complex sports. The Lean idea of catchball involves moving ideas and information from one person or team to another and, much like catch from childhood, it forms the basis for complicated decision-making and policy development.
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The process you use to develop your strategic plan is as important as the plan itself. Many organizations adopt the Hoshin Kanri method (also known as Hoshin Planning or Strategy Deployment), which integrates daily management with the strategic breakthroughs needed to propel the organization forward. Hoshin Kanri helps create specific, actionable plans and allocates the resources necessary to achieve them.
An important element of Hoshin Kanri is not just the setting of top-down objectives but also ensuring a two-way dialogue between leadership and employees, known as "catchball." This ongoing feedback loop ensures that strategic objectives are both communicated effectively and adjusted based on input from all levels of the organization. The entire process becomes an iterative cycle that aligns with the Plan-Do-Study-Adjust (PDSA) framework, fostering continuous learning and improvement.
Here are the seven steps typically followed in the Hoshin Kanri process:
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Presented by Melissa Sherman
Why is change so hard? Change is a complex and multifaceted process that often evokes a wide range of emotions and challenges. Despite these challenges, change is an inevitable part of life and is often necessary for growth, progress, and adaptation.
By acknowledging the difficulties associated with change and providing support, encouragement, and clear communications, we can help individuals and organizations embrace change and Continuous Improvements more effectively.
As continuous improvement practitioners, we don’t always think about the impact our continuous improvement initiatives will have on the employees.
Learning objectives: Throughout this session, we will look at various ways to improve the sustainability of our projects. Let’s discuss the importance of making sure we are embedding change management into your continuous improvement efforts. We will look at what change is, the resistance to it, the journey/change curve an individual goes through, the various change models, and some strategies you can use to assist in your efforts.
Accomplished Lean Leader and Sought-after Speaker recognized for driving continuous improvement initiatives and sharing change best practices, honed from 30 years of expertise in process excellence. Holistic ability to drive enterprise Six Sigma, Lean, and Kaizen deployments, delivering quantifiable productivity, efficiency, and waste elimination gains. Coached business teams during organizational adoption of agile solutions for high-level value delivery. Delighted business partners and stakeholders through strategic data-driven roadmap planning and creation. -
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In this episode, we discuss how to create a culture of continuous improvement in the workplace. We'll cover seven surefire ways to promote improvement, including making it ongoing, involving all employees, removing barriers to improvement, celebrating all types of improvement, providing resources and recognition for improvement efforts, and leading by example. By following these tips, you can create a workplace where everyone is constantly striving to be better.
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In today's episode host Mark Graban, a senior advisor with KaiNexus, chats with Yehor Skorodumov, a senior web application developer who joined our team earlier this year.In the episode, Yehor talks about his rigorous and analytical approach to researching companies, including KaiNexus. He also shares about the interviewing process, a little bit about what he does in his role, and what his first few months at the company were like. Learn more about KaiNexus: https://kainexus.com/And KaiNexus careers: https://www.kainexus.com/continuous-improvement/kainexus-team
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Mark Graban of KaiNexus talks with Melissa Sherman to preview her webinar...Register hereWhy is change so hard? Change is a complex and multifaceted process that often evokes a wide range of emotions and challenges. Despite these challenges, change is an inevitable part of life and is often necessary for growth, progress, and adaptation.By acknowledging the difficulties associated with change and providing support, encouragement, and clear communications, we can help individuals and organizations embrace change and Continuous Improvements more effectively.As continuous improvement practitioners, we don’t always think about the impact our continuous improvement initiatives will have on the employees.Learning objectives: Throughout this session, we will look at various ways to improve the sustainability of our projects. Let’s discuss the importance of making sure we are embedding change management into your continuous improvement efforts. We will look at what change is, the resistance to it, the journey/change curve an individual goes through, the various change models, and some strategies you can use to assist in your efforts.About the Presenter:Melissa ShermanAccomplished Lean Leader and Sought-after Speaker recognized for driving continuous improvement initiatives and sharing change best practices, honed from 30 years of expertise in process excellence. Holistic ability to drive enterprise Six Sigma, Lean, and Kaizen deployments, delivering quantifiable productivity, efficiency, and waste elimination gains. Coached business teams during organizational adoption of agile solutions for high-level value delivery. Delighted business partners and stakeholders through strategic data-driven roadmap planning and creation.
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Welcome to the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Podcast, hosted by Mark Graban, Senior Advisor at KaiNexus. In today's episode, we share insights from one of our YouTube videos, featuring two esteemed leaders from UMass Memorial Health. Cathy Burke and Jeff Marks discuss how KaiNexus, known internally as "Innovation Station," helps them drive leadership and continuous improvement in their organization.
Cathy Burke shares her leadership approach of inviting team members to raise opinions, identify obstacles, and work collaboratively—values that Innovation Station enables through its platform. Jeff Marks adds how the platform supports their weekly commitment to optimize performance, leveraging both new ideas and past solutions to avoid redundant efforts.
Together, Cathy and Jeff highlight the impact of empowering every employee, regardless of role, to contribute ideas that can affect change on a larger scale. Discover how Innovation Station tracks, monitors, and facilitates execution on these improvements, ensuring that opportunities lead to tangible successes.
To learn more about how KaiNexus can support your improvement initiatives, visit www.kainexus.com.
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In this video, Mark Graban, senior advisor at KaiNexus, chats with Marc Haberer, a process engineer at one of our customers, Polytainers.At KaiNexus, we believe our success is best reflected in the achievements of our customers. Each year at KaiNexicon, we honor some of our most outstanding customers through the Nexie Awards. This Annual Nexie Award Ceremony is a cherished highlight of KaiNexicon, celebrating our customers' dedication and exceptional accomplishments over the past year.Learn more: https://blog.kainexus.com/customer/announcing-our-2024-nexie-award-winners This year’s Award for Top Turnaround goes to Polytainers. The Top Turnaround is awarded to the organization that has displayed the most progress using KaiNexus to build its improvement culture since last year’s conference. The Polytainers team has demonstrated a remarkable commitment to collaboration and their willingness to work with us on redefining their processes has led to a fantastic partnership. Building from the ground up is never easy, but through exceptional leadership, teamwork, and dedication, they have made leaps and bounds forward in creating standard practices.Their commitment to excellence serves as an inspiration to us, reminding us of the incredible impact that determination, an open mind, and partnership can have on achieving success. Thank you for being an incredible partner to us.
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When leaders consider implementing a structured business process improvement methodology, one of the challenges they often face is explaining to employees what types of opportunities to consider. Usually, there are some apparent needs that people attack immediately. Still, once those are addressed, it can be challenging to recognize the flaws in processes, especially ones you operate every day.
A practical approach for overcoming this issue is providing employees with categories of improvement potential to keep in mind. Sharing a few examples with your team — and asking lots of questions — can help spark ideas, get people thinking creatively, and foster innovation.
Of course, recognizing the opportunities for improvement is only the first step. Next, your team will need to leverage various improvement techniques to implement positive change.
This post breaks down common improvement needs into several categories and then covers several practical tools for problem-solving. -
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=0wwlaxfN8AEIn 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.
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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
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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
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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
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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 overview00:00:44: Discussion about travel delays00:00:55: Impact of Crowdstrike software issue00:05:34: Software bugs and testing procedures00:07:17: Psychological safety and response to mistakes in KaiNexus00:11:02: Checklist usage and adjustments00:16:00: Learning from Crowdstrike situation00:17:46: Wrapping up and future Ask Us Anything session
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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.
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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 hereIn 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 ETPresented by Karen FriedenbergWhat 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.
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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.
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