Top all-time · #5888
Mark Graban
Personal blog · leanblog.orgbusinessproductivity
Mark Graban's personal blog at leanblog.org covers business and productivity. Since 2008, 14 different Hacker News readers have linked it 15 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (8) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Mark Graban's Lean blog. HN commenters link its older posts on Toyota, Lean healthcare, and workplace and retail history, and one points readers to it for Lean healthcare information.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 8 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Practical insights from Mark Graban on Lean management and continuous improvement, leadership, psychological safety, healthcare, and manufacturing.
What Hacker News says?
There is significant effort to improve things in the right way, it's via a systemic approach called Lean Healthcare (that takes into account processes, statistics, culture, leadership, and management), and you can check out leaders like Mark Graban for more information. http://www.leanblog.org/ https://twitter.com/markgraban Fun fact: the current battle is that Lean has roots in Toyota's production system (which is…
Comment linking /
on “Medical error is third biggest cause of death in the US, experts say”Submitted The Lean Entrepreneur as a story · 3 points
HN discussionHere are some articles from 2009 that mention Alfie Kohn, who wrote "Punished by Rewards." https://www.leanblog.org/2009/01/leanblog-podcast-57-alfie-k... http://www.blog.montessoriforeveryone.com/are-kids-punished-... This article also looks like a likely candidate for the OP: https://www.parentingscience.com/praise-and-intelligence.htm...
Comment linking /2009/01/leanblog-podcast-57-alfie-kohn-punished/
on “I Grew Up Gifted, but My Life Didn’t Turn Out the Way I Expected”Submitted Lean is About Quality, Folks as a story · 2 points
HN discussionDeming didn't do "anything of value"? Considering Kaizen and the concept of continuous improvement in Japan is mostly attributed to him. The prime minister awarded him the Order of the Sacred Treasure and recognizes him for their post-war rebirth as an industrial power. Detroit did everything wrong at the time (see GM's disaster in automation at their Hamtramck facility [0]). Even when American execs were posed with…
Comment linking /2016/06/gms-ceo-roger-smith-thought-toyota-had-magic-but-this-was-the-secret/
on “The Toyota Way”Submitted A Lack of Standardized Calendars Contributes to My Scheduling Mistake as a story · 1 points
HN discussion>I heard culturally Japan and to an extent other Asian manufacturing nations would never actually press the button. Can anyone confirm this? Its a cord, not a button, and the cord gets pulled all the time. It is a bit brave of Toyota to admit this fact when today's "journalists" are always looking for an angle to take a quote out of context and clickbait the headline. "Toyota admits they have constant flaws in their…
Comment linking /2012/11/andon-cords-at-the-toyota-takaota-plant-it-doesnt-come-naturally/
on “The Toyota Way”Submitted The Need to Consider Other Perspectives in Process Design and Kaizen as a story · 1 points
HN discussionAwesome! Whatever their motives* this is a great resource. If you object to the email address I am sure you can unsubscribe later. Oddily many paid ebooks are available free via the authors blogs. LeanPub and others make it really easy to roll up your blog into an ebook and then easily sell it via the usual channels.[1] *Motives - boost awareness of brand to extend userbase, collect email addresses for future market…
Comment linking /2012/02/podcast-140-leanpub-com-part-1-peter-armstrong-scott-patten/
on “Getting Real book is now free PDF”Submitted 1981 Article, "Why Japanese factories work," Relevant for Healthcare in 2013 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionToyota had a policy of not laying-off permanent employees for many decades after layoffs during the 50s (see e.g. [1] and the "Toyota Way" books). It is perhaps interesting to consider how this fits with some of the other ways that Toyota is run. E.g. Toyota has a culture of continuous improvement and elimination of waste in processes -- and it is very likely that employees will be more far more receptive regarding…
Comment linking /2009/01/report-toyotas-first-layoffs-since-1950/
on “Focusing on Developer Happiness with Humane Development”Submitted Dr. Deming’s “Role of a Manager of People” as a story · 1 points
HN discussionIn the early 20th century, warehouse pickers at the Montgomery Ward mail order company wore roller skates to get around their warehouse quickly: https://www.leanblog.org/2006/11/old-timey-roller-skate-prod... I think roller skates are an underrated mode of transportation, but there is a learning curve for people new to skating. If these Moonwalkers are easy to use with no prior experience, I think that's a big step…
Comment linking /2006/11/old-timey-roller-skate-productivity
on “Moonwalkers X”Submitted A simple way of managing NerdFuel, aka coffee, supply as a story · 1 points
HN discussionWalmart is ruthless. I think with Amazon’s recent dominance people may discount Walmart but long term I am bull Walmart. They have a long, storied history of being the most brutal capitalists that recent history has ever seen. I think a great example of this is this old article: https://www.leanblog.org/2006/01/man-who-said-no-to-wal-mart... I could absolutely see a reality where they went all in on drone tech simpl…
Comment linking /2006/01/man-who-said-no-to-wal-mart/
on “Walmart Announces Same-Day Drone Delivery in Six States”
