John Toussaint, MD, author of the book On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry, was on "The Lean Nation" radio show with "Captain Karl" Wadensten talking about Lean Healthcare.

The link below contains an audio interview with John Toussaint, MD, co-author of the LEI book "On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry."

The first Q&A:

Q I realize that it's a few months off yet, and you probably haven't finalized your remarks, but what are some of the challenges that you intend to address in your keynote speech in Baltimore? Some of the messages you're taking with you?

A I think that this is about leadership behavior. The tools are the tools, the tools are important, you've got to learn the tools, but you can learn the tools. The hard part is the people part. What does a lean leader look like? That's what I'll be focussing on, what it takes to be an effective lean leader. It means, pretty much, that you have to change everything that you've learned in business school, or medical school, or nursing school, and you have to pretty much retool yourself, because our existing education system is turning out autocratic control freaks who manage by the numbers, and they don't know anything about quality improvement, and they don't know how to manage a group of people to actually achieve 100% reliable results. If we don't change ourselves as leaders, we will never be able to transform our companies.

LEI Founder and Chairman Jim Womack and Senior Advisor John Shook are among the key experts interviewed for this look at the success of the Toyota-GM joint venture and what prevented GM from quickly deploying lessons that may have prevented bankruptcy.  ("All Things Considered," March 26, 2010.)

James Hereford, Executive Vice President, of Group Health was the featured guest on the February 13, 2010 edition of Paul Aker's "American Innovator" radio show from Washington State.

In the show, James talks about the applicability to lean in healthcare, problem solving, and "respect for people" by not using lean to drive layoffs. Group Health has improved processes to be more patient focused and to engage staff members in continuous improvement.

Group Health is a member of our Healthcare Value Leaders Network.

LEI Senior Fellow Mark Graban was a guest on The Lean Nation radio show with guest host Paul Carey.

To listen:

• Download MP3 audio 
• Streaming audio 

The Lean Nation is a show started and hosted by Karl Wadensten of VIBCO, a manufacturer in Rhode Island. His show airs daily at 4 PM eastern on AM 790 and via internet streaming radio.

In this podcast, Joe Dager of Business 901 interviews Dr. Sami Bahri, D.D.S., "The World's First Lean Dentist" and author of "Follow the Learner" from LEI. The 30-minute discussion is a nice overview of Dr. Bahri's lean journey and the transferrable lessons he has learned along he way.

Dr. Atul Gawande's new book, "The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right" has many conceptual ties to Lean. He was recently interviewed on NPR (text and audio available), where he talks about the benefits of checklists (a form of "standardized work" and also a form of "mistake proofing"). He also discusses the challenges of getting this powerful methodology to be more widely adopted.

Joan Wellman is interviewed by Mark Graban, Senior Fellow at the Lean Enterprise Institute, about her initial Lean Healthcare work that dates back to 1995 at a Seattle-area hospital. Use the streaming player below or click on "read more" for more listening options.