Helping organizations build daily improvement into the way work gets done — not as a program, but as a culture.
Most organizations start their improvement journey with projects, events, or weeklong workshops. Those can produce real results — but they rarely sustain. When the event ends, the momentum fades. Problems that don't fit neatly into a project scope go unaddressed. Frontline staff disengage because improvement feels like something that happens to them, not something they lead.
The organizations that sustain improvement over years — not months — take a different approach. They build systems where everyday problem solving is part of how work gets done. Where a nurse, a technician, or a line operator can identify a problem, test an idea, and make a change without waiting for a project team or a Lean event. That's kaizen: continuous, daily improvement driven by the people closest to the work.
Mark Graban helps leaders design and sustain these systems. His approach is grounded in two decades of hands-on work with hospitals, manufacturers, and other organizations, and in the principles described in his Shingo Award-winning book Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements.
Contact Mark | See the full consulting overview
What This Work Looks Like
Engagements are tailored to your organization's context, but typically focus on:
Building a kaizen system from scratch. Designing the mechanics — how ideas are captured, tested, tracked, and shared — along with the leadership behaviors required to make the system work. This isn't about installing a suggestion box. It's about creating a workflow where small improvements happen continuously, visibly, and with genuine leadership support.
Coaching leaders to sustain improvement. The most common reason improvement efforts stall is leadership behavior. Leaders who inadvertently punish problem-surfacing, ignore frontline ideas, or chase metrics without understanding variation will undermine any system. Mark coaches leaders at every level on the daily habits that keep improvement alive.
Assessing and strengthening existing programs. If your organization has already started a Lean or CI journey but results have plateaued or engagement has faded, Mark can help diagnose what's in the way. Common issues include overreliance on events, lack of visual management, metrics that don't drive action, and insufficient leadership coaching at the middle-management level.
Connecting improvement to psychological safety. People don't surface problems or test ideas in environments where mistakes are punished or questions are unwelcome. Mark helps leaders build the psychological safety that makes kaizen possible — not as a separate initiative, but as a foundational leadership practice.
Industries and Settings
Mark's continuous improvement work spans:
- Healthcare: Hospitals, health systems, medical practices, ambulatory surgery centers, dental practices, specialty clinics
- Manufacturing and operations: Production, distribution, supply chain
- Knowledge work and professional services: Technology, government, financial services, higher education
The principles of daily kaizen are universal. The application is always specific to your context.
Kaizen Workshops
Mark delivers hands-on kaizen workshops — on-site or virtual — for leadership teams, frontline staff, and mixed groups. Sessions range from half-day introductions to multi-day deep dives that include live practice with real problems from your organization.
Workshop topics include:
- What kaizen is (and isn't) — and how it differs from suggestion boxes and project-based improvement
- How to initiate, track, test, document, and share kaizen ideas
- What leaders must do differently to create and sustain a culture of daily improvement
- How daily kaizen fits with weeklong improvement events and larger transformation efforts
- Common mistakes organizations make in kaizen programs and how to avoid them
Workshops are limited to 20 participants to ensure high interaction and hands-on practice.
For more details and examples from past workshops, visit Healthcare Kaizen Workshops at hckaizen.com.
The Book Behind the Method
Healthcare Kaizen won the Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award. Written with Joe Swartz, it documents how health systems across the U.S. and beyond have built sustainable daily improvement cultures — with hundreds of real examples, practical tools, and leadership guidance.
The book serves as a foundation for Mark's consulting and workshop content. Organizations that engage Mark for kaizen consulting often use it as a shared reference for their leadership teams.
Learn more about Healthcare Kaizen | See all of Mark's books
What Organizations Say
“Fantastic day with Mark Graban leading an excellent Healthcare Kaizen workshop. Thanks for an inspiring and extremely useful session.” — Rob, via Twitter
“The Healthcare Kaizen workshop was truly energizing. The concepts of daily improvement were conveyed in a very easy-to-understand way through an effective combination of education materials and hands-on activities.” — Dave Levine, Executive Vice President, TechSolve Healthcare Solutions
“Your workshop was very practical and rich in wisdom.” — Workshop attendee
Get Started
Whether you're building a kaizen system from the ground up or trying to reenergize one that's lost momentum, Mark can help you figure out what's next.
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