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Eiji Toyoda on Mistakes: Give Your All, Then Write It Down The Taiichi Ohno 1981 Story Keeps Getting Reposted. It Can’t Be True. When Standard Work Isn’t Followed, Your Reaction Is the Real Standard What Toyota’s 1992 Booklet Leaves Out About Leadership Do Not Remove: What a Kaizen Binder Taught Me in Japan
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Do Not Remove: What a Kaizen Binder Taught Me in Japan

ByMark Graban July 9, 2026 Comment (0) 25
On a factory table in Japan, in December 2019, there was a binder. White cover, the word KAIZEN in...
toyota engineer gemba

What Toyota’s 1992 Booklet Leaves Out About Leadership

ByMark Graban July 8, 2026 Comment (0) 97
A chaotic, oversaturated AI-generated factory scene featuring robots, conveyor belts, gears, cars, cherry blossoms, Mount Fuji, a giant stopwatch, and a stern older Japanese man pointing, all covered by a large red prohibition symbol.

The Taiichi Ohno 1981 Story Keeps Getting Reposted. It Can’t Be True.

ByMark Graban July 7, 2026 Comment (0) 160
lean blog hospital sign standard work why

When Standard Work Isn’t Followed, Your Reaction Is the Real Standard

ByMark Graban July 6, 2026 Comment (0) 149

Mark Graban

Welcome to my blog!

Since 2005, LeanBlog.org has shared practical insights from real-world work in healthcare, manufacturing, and beyond.

Books Keynote Speaking Coaching / Advisory Podcasts
Books by Mark Graban on Lean, Leadership, and Learning (1)

Lean Blog Interviews Podcast

thomas cox and andre demerchant lean

Why Lean Fails to Stick — with Thomas Cox and Andre DeMerchant

ByMark Graban June 24, 2026 1368
Why does Lean fail to stick so often? Thomas Cox and Andre DeMerchant join me on Episode 547 to make the case that the missing precondition is psychological safety, and that it has to exist at the top...
gary peterson

When a Lean Leader Admits He Doesn’t Know What He’s Doing, with Gary Peterson

ByMark Graban June 10, 2026 1435
Gary Peterson spent almost 40 years helping O.C. Tanner build a continuous improvement culture, work that earned the company the Shingo Prize in 1999. He joins me to talk about psychological safety...
liker lean blog 20 years

Jeff Liker, Twenty Years Later: The Ideas That Keep Showing Up

ByMark Graban May 27, 2026 512
In 2006, I started this podcast. Jeff Liker was guest number 3, in August of that year. He has been back on seven more episodes since, which makes him one of the most frequent guests this show has...
manufacturiing quality lean blog

Chad Diggs on Building Quality Systems, Not Heroes

ByMark Graban May 20, 2026 1744
Why do so many quality programs fall apart the moment the firefighter walks out the door? In this conversation, Chad Diggs talks about his new book, Below the Surface, and what it takes to...

More Blog Posts

Lean Blog Cover (3)

Do Not Remove: What a Kaizen Binder Taught Me in Japan

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 9, 2026 25
On a factory table in Japan, in December 2019, there was a binder. White cover, the word KAIZEN in big orange letters, a photo of cherry blossoms underneath. Inside the front cover, someone had...
toyota engineer gemba

What Toyota’s 1992 Booklet Leaves Out About Leadership

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 8, 2026 97
A chaotic, oversaturated AI-generated factory scene featuring robots, conveyor belts, gears, cars, cherry blossoms, Mount Fuji, a giant stopwatch, and a stern older Japanese man pointing, all covered by a large red prohibition symbol.

The Taiichi Ohno 1981 Story Keeps Getting Reposted. It Can’t Be True.

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 7, 2026 160
lean blog hospital sign standard work why

When Standard Work Isn’t Followed, Your Reaction Is the Real Standard

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 6, 2026 149
kainexus logging mistakes and failures

Eiji Toyoda on Mistakes: Give Your All, Then Write It Down

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 1, 2026 332

Webinars

karen martin ask the expert webinar kainexus

Ask Karen Martin Anything on Operational Excellence: A KaiNexus Webinar

March 5, 2026
Karen Martin is one of those people I've been lucky to know and learn from for a long time. She's...
1. Professor with glasses in front of EMS 20th anniversary logo and KaiNexus logo on blue background.

Unlock the Power of Leadership: A Preview of the Electrolux Manufacturing System (EMS) Webinar

December 4, 2025
KaiNexus recently hosted a webinar I was especially looking forward to: “Unlock the Power of...
Breaking Through Cultural Friction: Respect for People and Sustainable Performance

Breaking Through Cultural Friction: Respect for People and Sustainable Performance

June 9, 2025
When organizations struggle to sustain Lean transformation, people often look first at tools...
Driving a Culture of Patient Safety: Lessons for Healthcare and Beyond

Driving a Culture of Patient Safety: Lessons for Healthcare and Beyond

April 28, 2025
Recently, I had the pleasure of moderating a webinar titled “Driving a Culture of Transforming...
Why Lean Fails Without Psychological Safety

Why Lean Fails Without Psychological Safety

April 16, 2025
TL;DR: Lean tools don't fail because people resist change–they fail because people don't feel...
Preview: Driving a Culture of Accountability – Transforming Patient Safety with KaiNexus (Webinar, April 15)

Preview: Driving a Culture of Accountability – Transforming Patient Safety with KaiNexus (Webinar, April 15)

April 8, 2025
One of the most powerful elements of continuous improvement is the ability to learn from each other...
My Upcoming Webinar on Mistake-Proofing Across Industries

My Upcoming Webinar on Mistake-Proofing Across Industries

February 3, 2025
I'm excited to be presenting this webinar on February 12th at 1 pm ET as part of the KaiNexus...
Top 5 Takeaways from my KaiNexus Webinar: Psychological Safety as a Precondition for Continuous Improvement

Top 5 Takeaways from my KaiNexus Webinar: Psychological Safety as a Precondition for Continuous Improvement

January 8, 2025
TL;DR: Psychological safety isn't optional for continuous improvement. This KaiNexus webinar...
Creating Leader Standard Work (LSW) Across a Distributed Business Model — Webinar Preview

Creating Leader Standard Work (LSW) Across a Distributed Business Model — Webinar Preview

November 7, 2024
I'm happy to be hosting and moderating this webinar that will be presented by Brent Loescher, a...
Embedding Change Management into your Continuous Improvement Initiatives – Webinar Preview

Embedding Change Management into your Continuous Improvement Initiatives – Webinar Preview

September 25, 2024
I'm happy to be hosting and moderating this webinar that will be presented by Melissa Sherman, a...
View Our “Ask Us Anything” Event on Psychological Safety and Lean

View Our “Ask Us Anything” Event on Psychological Safety and Lean

August 20, 2024
Psychological safety is often described as “feeling safe to speak up.” In Lean...
From Strategy to Execution: Webinar with Karen Friedenberg

From Strategy to Execution: Webinar with Karen Friedenberg

July 17, 2024
Are you looking to transform your business strategy into actionable results? Join us for our...

Videos

john toussaint collaborative care fox video

ThedaCare’s Collaborative Care, Captured on a 2009 Video

ByMark Graban June 17, 2026 Comment (0) 359
Back in 2009, I pointed an early iPhone at my TV and recorded a Fox News segment about ThedaCare's...
mark graban elisabeth swan linkedin live

Mistakes and Leadership Lessons: Still Learning, Three Years Later

ByMark Graban May 8, 2026 Comment (0) 743
Three years ago, The Mistakes That Make Us came out. Around the same time, Elisabeth Swan published...
Yellow diamond warning sign on a pole showing a cyclist flying over handlebars after hitting streetcar tracks, along the Ohio River in Cincinnati

Warning: Signs! Mistake-Proofing Is More Effective Than Warnings

ByMark Graban April 20, 2026 Comment (0) 563
At the 2024 KaiNexicon (the KaiNexus user conference), I gave a talk called “Warning: Signs!...
Illustration of a laptop on a desk showing an AI coaching chat interface with a question from the user and a follow-up coaching response ending with a reflective question, representing the Lean Hospitals Coach tool

Watch the Lean Hospitals Coach in Action — Live, Unscripted, With Your Questions

ByMark Graban March 4, 2026 Comment (0) 597
Here's something I've learned over many years of consulting: giving people advice they haven't asked...
Innovative man with glasses smiling against a blue background, symbolizing continuous improvement.

Digital Support for a Culture of Improvement: A Reflection on Electrolux and KaiNexus

ByMark Graban December 15, 2025 Comment (0) 994
In a webinar I hosted with Sandro Casagrande from Electrolux, we reflected on the 20-year evolution...

Mark Graban on YouTube

Asked to name the 5 S's, the manager gets every one wrong: "straighten, salami, stopwatch, Sasquatch, and salmonella." He can't explain how any of it helps the work. His only answer is that the consultant said so. That's the actual failure mode here, not the mangled Japanese. A leader who can't explain the reasoning behind a program can't sustain it, coach it, or adapt it when it stops working. The team ends up following instructions instead of understanding a problem-solving method, and that's the difference between Lean as a toolkit and Lean as a costume. Watch the full video: https://youtu.be/t8IfQp4A4ZI #Lean #5S #LeanManagement #ContinuousImprovement #Leadership
"Salami, Stopwatch, Sasquatch..." -- This Manager Has No Idea What 5S Means
Publishing strategist Wiebke Tasch reviews manuscripts for a living. She says she can tell within a few pages when a book was written by ChatGPT: paragraphs disappear, replaced by short, choppy sentences formatted like a social media post. It reads fast and looks flat, and readers notice. Her point isn't that AI has no place in writing. It's that overuse flattens voice, and voice is the thing readers are actually there for. Full episode - "Why Amazon Deleted Her Bestselling Book Overnight - with Wiebke Tasch": https://youtu.be/i2_wYH7rbTM #MyFavoriteMistake #AIWriting #ChatGPT #SelfPublishing #AuthorTips
The AI Writing Pattern Editors Spot Immediately
A consultant tells an office to tape outlines around hammers, monitors, and coffee cups because "the best factories do this." No one asks whether any of it fits the work actually being done. This clip is a satire of what happens when 5S gets applied as a checklist instead of a way of thinking. Real 5S starts with understanding the work and removing friction for the people doing it -- not mandating tape and pen limits because a consultant said so. Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/t8IfQp4A4ZI If you've ever sat through a "Lean program" that felt more like theater than improvement, this one's for you. #Lean #5S #ContinuousImprovement #LeanManagement #WorkplaceCulture
This Office 5S Program Is INSANE (Lean Gone Wrong)
Publishing strategist Wiebke Tasch reviews manuscripts for a living, and she says AI-written chapters give themselves away fast. Same sentence structure. Same "it's not this, it's that" construction, over and over. Once you've seen it a few times, you can't unsee it. Her advice for authors: use ChatGPT for proofreading and unsticking, not for writing your book. Readers notice sameness, and it costs you the one thing AI can't replace, your own voice. Watch the full episode - "Why Amazon Deleted Her Bestselling Book Overnight - with Wiebke Tasch": https://youtu.be/i2_wYH7rbTM #MyFavoriteMistake #AIWriting #ChatGPT #SelfPublishing #AuthorTips #BookWriting
ChatGPT's Writing Style Problem: Why Editors Can Spot It Instantly
The biggest mistake authors make isn't in the writing. It's finishing the book, publishing it, and telling no one. Publishing strategist Wiebke Tasch explains why the first five days after launch function as a blueprint for a book's entire future on Amazon. The algorithm tracks how much traffic you drive in that window, then uses it to decide whether your book gets suggested to readers in your niche going forward, or quietly disappears. Watch the full episode - "Why Amazon Deleted Her Bestselling Book Overnight - with Wiebke Tasch": https://youtu.be/i2_wYH7rbTM#MyFavoriteMistake #BookMarketing #AmazonKDP #SelfPublishing #AuthorTips #BookLaunch
The Biggest Book Marketing Mistake: Publishing, Then Going Silent
Publishing strategist Wiebke Tasch had built a bestselling book and a comfortable full-time income on Amazon -- enough to quit her PR job. Then one morning an automated email told her she had violated Amazon's terms, and both of her accounts and all of her books were deleted. No warning, no explanation, no human to appeal to. Her mistake: she had opened two accounts, one for a pen name and one under her real name, not knowing Amazon allows only one per person. This is Wiebke's favorite mistake, and losing everything became the start of her company, Digital Authors. Episode page with links and more: http://markgraban.com/mistake356 What you'll learn: 🔵 How an innocent rule violation can erase a book and an income overnight 🔵 Why you should never build your livelihood on a platform you don't control 🔵 How to bring readers into your own community instead of renting an audience 🔵 Why book structure should start with market demand, not your own wish list 🔵 Why the first five days after launch shape an Amazon book's entire future 🔵 Where AI genuinely helps an author, and where over-reliance produces forgettable books About the guest: Wiebke Tasch is a publishing strategist and the founder of Digital Authors, a US-based firm that helps nonfiction authors across the US and Europe publish professional, market-ready books. Her work spans market analysis, positioning, structure, editing, cover design, and launch marketing, with an emphasis on building a direct relationship between authors and their readers. She holds a master's degree from the Bauhaus University in Germany. Digital Authors: https://digital-authors.com Chapters: 00:00 Introducing Wiebke Tasch and Digital Authors 01:06 Wiebke's favorite mistake: two Amazon accounts 04:12 The email from Amazon 09:35 Why you can't build a business on a platform you don't control 20:50 Has Amazon's customer service improved? 26:09 Where AI helps authors and where it hurts 32:30 Book structure as a strategic decision 34:44 Marketing a book: start before you publish 38:45 The book description and keywords Subscribe for more honest conversations about leadership, mistakes, and what it really takes to learn from them. New episodes of My Favorite Mistake every week. #SelfPublishing #BookMarketing #WritingCommunity #Authors #AmazonKDP #NonfictionBooks
Amazon Deleted Her Bestseller Overnight | Wiebke Tasch
Andre DeMerchant showed up to one of his first Toyota manufacturing meetings without a problem to report -- and quickly learned that was the problem. In this clip from Episode 547 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast, Andre contrasts two kinds of meetings. In his previous industry, everyone reported green while the operation ran in chaos. At Toyota, every leader brought a problem, because "no problems is a problem." Showing up without one meant you didn't understand your own operation. What makes the story work is what happened next. Andre wasn't blamed or shamed. The miss was treated as a development opportunity, a chance to learn from his peers what to bring next time. That reaction is the precondition that makes a problem-surfacing culture function. Watch or listen to the full episode: https://youtu.be/MbA96zgnZFs Thomas Cox and Andre's A3 on why Lean implementations struggle is a free download at https://txl-lab.com/lean. Subscribe for more on Lean leadership, psychological safety, and continuous improvement. Host: Mark Graban, author of The Mistakes That Make Us, Measures of Success, and Lean Hospitals.
Showing Up to a Toyota Meeting Without a Problem | Andre DeMerchant
At Toyota, every manager was expected to bring a problem to the meeting. Andre DeMerchant learned that the hard way when he showed up without one and found out that "no problems" was the actual problem. In this clip from Episode 547 of Lean Blog Interviews, former Toyota manufacturing manager Andre DeMerchant describes what happened next. He wasn't blamed, shamed, or criticized. He was coached. The miss was treated as a development opportunity, with an open invitation to ask questions of anyone in the room, including the executive vice president. That response is the heart of "no problems is a problem," and a living example of the psychological safety that real continuous improvement depends on. Host Mark Graban talks with Andre DeMerchant and Thomas Cox about why Lean implementations so often fail to stick, and why psychological safety has to exist before any Lean rollout begins. Watch or listen to the full episode: https://leanblog.org/547 #Toyota #Lean #PsychologicalSafety #ContinuousImprovement #Leadership #Kaizen #LeanManufacturing #Shorts
At Toyota, Having No Problems Was the Problem
Here's the YouTube description. The first two sentences carry the keyword and hook before the "Show more" cutoff. Why do so many Lean implementations struggle or fail to stick? Thomas Cox and Andre DeMerchant join Mark Graban to argue that psychological safety is a precondition Lean can't create on its own, using Chris Argyris's Model 1 vs Model 2 framework. Lean asks people to surface problems, admit mistakes, and stop the line without fear. That only works if psychological safety already exists before the rollout begins. Under pressure, most leaders default to Model 1 behavior (controlling, self-protective, blame-oriented, closed off), which is the opposite of what Lean needs. Thomas Cox is a management bench builder, co-founder of the Transformative Leadership Lab, and a certified Harada Method coach trainer. Andre DeMerchant is president of DeMerchant Healthcare Solutions and a former Toyota team member who started as a forklift driver and rose to manufacturing manager. 🔵 Andre's contrast: meat-packing meetings where no problems was the goal vs. Toyota meetings where showing up without a problem marked you as not understanding the work 🔵 Alan Mulally banning sarcasm at Ford, and Mark Fields reporting red and getting applause instead of fired 🔵 The carrot-and-stick fallacy and McGregor's Theory X vs Theory Y 🔵 Whether consultants succeed because of method or because they cherry-pick Model 2 clients 🔵 The published A3 as a living document and a C-suite assessment tool Episode page with links and more https://www.leanblog.org/547 00:00 Introduction and the problem: why Lean doesn't stick 02:25 Andre's origin story: from meat-packing chaos to Toyota 05:08 The moment Lean got real (showing up to a meeting without a problem) 10:42 Thomas's origin story and the ethical PIP 14:43 If we can't blame the frontline worker, why blame management? 17:48 Framing the A3 and the problem statement 19:30 Argyris Model 1 vs Model 2 24:28 Mulally at Ford: banning sarcasm and applauding "red" 27:44 Carrots, sticks, and why behavior actually changes 31:36 Root cause analysis: why Lean fails 36:29 Countermeasures: getting executives into Model 2 42:24 Consultants, cherry-picking, and converting Model 1 organizations 49:33 Get the A3 and the C-suite assessment 51:58 Closing reflections Subscribe for more conversations on Lean, leadership, psychological safety, and continuous improvement, in healthcare and beyond. #Lean #PsychologicalSafety #ContinuousImprovement #Leadership #LeanThinking #Kaizen #RespectForPeople #LeanManagement
The Missing Precondition for Lean: Psychological Safety at the Top | Lean Blog Interviews
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