Lean Blog Interviews — 328: Bette Gardner and Jeff Heil, Friday Night at the ER

My guests for Episode #328 are Bette Gardner and Jeff Heil, of the company Breakthrough Learning. Bette is the creator of a fantastic simulation called “Friday Night at the ER” — which I’ve blogged about. When we recorded the webinar, Bette was CEO and Jeff was COO, but recently Jeff took over the CEO role. They are also, as they mention, mother and son… which will be followed by an upcoming podcast with a father and son team (two of the authors of this book). In this episode, we talk about Bette’s inspiration for the simulation, systems thinking, and healthcare improvement. We’ll also talk about how the simulation is used by organizations in many industries as a way of teaching systems thinking principles.