The blog post
What if a book could become an interactive coach instead of a static reference?
In this episode, Mark Graban shares a behind-the-scenes look at his experiment turning the award-winning book Lean Hospitals into an AI-powered chat assistant embedded directly on his website. What started as a Friday afternoon curiosity quickly evolved into a working WordPress plugin, a subscription model, and a new way to deliver improvement knowledge on demand.
Mark walks through how non-developers can use AI tools to write functional software, what he learned comparing different AI coding assistants, and why the real breakthrough isn’t the technology — it’s the ability to access proven Lean thinking at the moment of need.
He also explores the broader implications for leaders and organizations: Could AI assistants trained on your own standards and practices reinforce daily management, support problem solving at the gemba, and scale coaching without more training sessions?
This episode is both a practical case study in rapid experimentation and a thoughtful discussion about the future of learning, leadership, and continuous improvement in the age of AI.
Key themes include:
-
Turning expertise into on-demand guidance
-
Using AI to prototype software without coding experience
-
Subscription models for knowledge delivery
-
Point-of-use support for leaders and frontline teams
-
Why technology alone won’t create a Lean culture — but can reinforce the right behaviors
If you care about scaling improvement capability, preserving organizational knowledge, or simply experimenting with new ways to learn, this episode offers a candid look at what works, what broke, and what might come next.