How UMass Memorial Health Implemented 200,000 Improvement Ideas (KaiNexicon 2022)
UMass Memorial Health unveiled how it migrated a paper‑based idea‑capture system into Kexus’s digital “Innovation Station,” celebrating its 100,000th improvement suggestion on Jan. 25, 2022. The rollout covered 16,000 caregivers across hospitals and clinics in western Massachusetts. The initiative began in FY13, but a 2020‑2021 digital conversion added standardized boards, customizable team panels, and automated tracking. Leadership defined adoption as every team member having an account, submitting a first idea, and customizing their board, driving participation from a 20% baseline toward a 50% target, now at 40%. CEO Dr. Eric Dixon framed the effort as building an “army of problem solvers” to fulfill the system’s true‑north goal of being the best place to give and receive care. Engagement tactics included a space‑themed marketing campaign, a baby‑pool contest to guess the 100k milestone, and a clinical team’s simple daily staffing huddle that became the 100,000th idea. By embedding grant programs, A3 templates, and DEI initiatives into a single platform, UMass Memorial turned idea generation into a measurable, organization‑wide improvement engine. The model shows how health systems can harness frontline talent, improve transparency, and accelerate operational change at scale.
How to Avoid "Gemba Theater" -- Karen Martin on Making Gemba Walks Real
The video tackles “Gemba theater” – staged Gemba walks that hide problems – and offers practical steps to make walks authentic, emphasizing psychological safety as the foundation. Speakers stress surprising teams minutes before a walk to prevent “clean‑up” efforts, insisting leaders...
What If Your CEO Doesn't Support Lean? Karen Martin on Influencing Without Sponsorship
In a live Q&A, Karen Martin tackles a common dilemma: how a lean team can drive change when the CEO shows little interest in lean principles. She advises practitioners to locate the highest‑ranking leader who does support lean—often a division VP...
Ask Karen Martin Anything: Clarity, Leadership, and Continuous Improvement
Karen Martin joined Mark Graban for a live Ask the Expert session, fielding audience questions on Lean, leadership, and continuous improvement. She emphasized that adopting Lean tools without clear priorities and role definitions leads to confusion and stalled initiatives. Martin...
Ask Karen Martin Anything: Lean, Operational Excellence, and Leadership (Webinar Preview)
The KEXUS podcast is previewing a March 11, 1 p.m. Eastern “Ask an Expert” webinar featuring lean and operational‑excellence authority Karen Martin. The session will be a live, no‑PowerPoint Q&A where participants can submit questions on topics such as value‑stream mapping, leadership...
Leadership Behaviors That Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement
The webinar, hosted by Kexus VP of Innovation Mark Graven and co‑founder Dr. Greg Jacobson, explored the leadership habits needed to embed a culture of continuous improvement in any organization, from hospitals to manufacturing firms. They framed Kaizen not as...
Too Busy to Improve? How Leaders Make Time for Continuous Improvement
In a recent webinar, Mark Graban and Dr. Greg Jacobson dissect why leaders often claim they lack time for continuous improvement and argue that the issue is a matter of priority, not capacity. Drawing on Lean principles and behavioral science,...