What I Tell People Who Want to Write a Book About Lean
Twice in the past two weeks, I have talked with people who want to write a book about Lean. Both were early in the process and trying to figure out what they were signing up for. I’ve had a lot…
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All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Larry Culp on Resistance to Lean: Compliance Isn’t Belief
In early 2025, Eric Veiel asked Larry Culp a question that most Lean deployment articles skip: when you’re getting ready to implement one of these programs, is there some hesitation from the workforce? Culp didn’t argue with the premise. “Well,…
You Came Back From the Training Ready. Nobody Around You Could Change a Thing.
You came back with real energy. You’d seen how the work could be. You had notes, a few ideas, maybe a plan you’d already started sketching on the drive home. Then you walked back into the same building, run by…
When “Human Error” Is the Root Cause, the Investigation Stopped Early
Tennessee regulators released an eighty-page report this week on the medication error at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown in Nashville, where four patients scheduled for routine joint replacement were injected in the spine with potassium phosphate instead of an anesthetic. Two…
The Independent Double Check and the Risk of Human Error
A nurse on a telemetry floor had two orders to carry out. Forty milligrams of Lasix, to be given via IV. Two units of insulin lispro, given subcutaneously. At that hospital, every dose of insulin required a second nurse to…
Somebody Pulled the Cord and the Chairman of Radiology Showed Up
At Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, a nurse named Candice Bena decided a 76-year-old patient needed a new intravenous line. Radiology couldn’t install it right away. She was worried about infection, so she called Richard Shannon, who was chairman of…
Making It Safe to Admit Mistakes at Work Might Start With Thank You
I’ve been rereading Takehiko Harada’s book Management Lessons from Taiichi Ohno. Harada joined Toyota Motor Corporation in 1968 and spent about four decades there, including time as project general manager of the Operations Management Consulting Division, the group Toyota used…
29 Warning Signs and a Can Opener Bridge
I’ve been photographing warning signs for years. It started as a running joke and turned into a whole category on my site. Signs that say “Be Careful.” Signs that say “Do Not Spill.” Signs that exist because something went wrong…
Why Speak-Up Programs Fail: Boeing, Wells Fargo, and Who Reads the Report
My wife and I watched Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing last night. It’s Rory Kennedy’s follow-up to “Downfall,” and it’s built around former Boeing employees, including quality managers and inspectors, describing what they saw on the floor and what happened…
Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: August 21, 2026
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace…
Four Patients Got the Wrong Drug in Nashville. Ask a Better Question.
On August 14, four patients went to Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown in Nashville for joint replacement surgery. All four were harmed during the procedure. The hospital has not said how. One family says the drug was potassium chloride instead…
Ten Psychological Safety Outcomes, and What They Do and Don’t Prove
The second revised (and expanded) edition of Timothy R. Clark’s The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety came out this week. My copy showed up yesterday, and I’ve been working through it. I’ve learned a lot from Tim over the years.…