Popular Posts
A Lean Management System That Doesn’t Depend on the Lean Team — Emily Swaney, OhioHealth Creating a Continuous Improvement System in Accounting: Nick Katko on PDCA, Culture, and Psychological Safety Signals & Levers: Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi on Change Theater, Open Loops, and Systems Thinking for Software Teams
Joel Tosi and Elisabeth Hendrickson stand against a light blue radial background, one holding a megaphone and the other presenting on a podium

Signals & Levers: Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi on Change Theater, Open Loops, and Systems Thinking for Software Teams

ByMark Graban October 21, 2026 Comment (0) 884
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guests for Episode #550 of the Lean Blog...
Man in light blue shirt standing indoors next to icons indicating conditions for speaking up, safe, and worthwhile.

Why People Stay Silent at Work: My New Psychological Safety Course

ByMark Graban October 19, 2026 Comment (0)
Nick Katko in blue shirt beside chalkboard reading ACCOUNTING with chalk gears labeled Payable, Ledger, Assets, Expenditure, Review

Creating a Continuous Improvement System in Accounting: Nick Katko on PDCA, Culture, and Psychological Safety

ByMark Graban October 14, 2026 Comment (0) 884
Illustration of three hands with different skin tones cradling a glowing orange heart, surrounded by blue and beige abstract leaf shapes

Peter Pronovost on Leading with Love: What the Checklist Needed All Along

ByMark Graban October 12, 2026 Comment (0)

Mark Graban

Lean Leadership, Psychological Safety, and Continuous Improvement

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

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Lean Blog Interviews Podcast

Joel Tosi and Elisabeth Hendrickson stand against a light blue radial background, one holding a megaphone and the other presenting on a podium

Signals & Levers: Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi on Change Theater, Open Loops, and Systems Thinking for Software Teams

ByMark Graban October 21, 2026 884
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guests for Episode #550 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi, co-authors of the new book Signals &...
Nick Katko in blue shirt beside chalkboard reading ACCOUNTING with chalk gears labeled Payable, Ledger, Assets, Expenditure, Review

Creating a Continuous Improvement System in Accounting: Nick Katko on PDCA, Culture, and Psychological Safety

ByMark Graban October 14, 2026 884
Accounting teams see problems every day. As Nick Katko puts it, they fix them, but they don't necessarily solve them. We talk about what a continuous improvement system looks like inside an accounting...
emily swaney in a black blazer smiling in a bright hospital corridor with blurred medical equipment and a Lean Blog logo

A Lean Management System That Doesn’t Depend on the Lean Team — Emily Swaney, OhioHealth

ByMark Graban September 30, 2026 884
Emily Swaney, VP of Operational Excellence at OhioHealth, explains how a Lean Promotion Office of 11 people supports a Lean management system for 35,000 associates. The approach relies on developing...
20 year anniversary lean blog interviews podcast

20 Years Of Lean Podcasting, Thanks to Norman Bodek

ByMark Graban July 16, 2026 1209
Twenty years ago, on July 16, 2006, the Lean Blog Podcast began with a conversation with Norman Bodek. Norman was my friend and mentor–and the person who suggested that I start doing audio...

More Blog Posts

emily swaney in a black blazer smiling in a bright hospital corridor with blurred medical equipment and a Lean Blog logo

A Lean Management System That Doesn’t Depend on the Lean Team — Emily Swaney, OhioHealth

Mark GrabanByMark Graban September 30, 2026 884
Emily Swaney, VP of Operational Excellence at OhioHealth, explains how a Lean Promotion Office of 11 people supports a Lean management system for 35,000 associates. The approach relies on developing...
Historical black-and-white image of nurses and aides performing separate tasks for patients in a crowded hospital ward, illustrating functional or assembly-line nursing.

Assembly-Line Nursing Was Meant to Be Temporary

Mark GrabanByMark Graban September 29, 2026
Toyota Main Gate and Toyota Durban Manufacturing Plant sign at the Prospecton plant entrance

The Toyota Andon System in South Africa: Two Buttons Instead of a Cord

Mark GrabanByMark Graban September 27, 2026
Retro cassette tape with unspooled brown magnetic tape winding across a table past three map location pins, a coffee cup, and a map

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: September 25, 2026

Ryan McCormackByRyan McCormack September 25, 2026 3624
Person in scrubs adjusting medical leads on a crying infant lying on a pink blanket inside a hospital incubator

A British Hospital Missed a Killer for Two Years. The Recommendations Are Mostly Hardware.

Mark GrabanByMark Graban September 15, 2026

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) 582
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) 1000
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) 779
At the 2024 KaiNexicon (the KaiNexus user conference), I gave a talk called “Warning: Signs!...

Mark Graban on YouTube

Psychological safety means everybody can have their say. It doesn’t mean they get their way. The goal is candor, not agreement. Psychological safety also isn’t all or nothing. It varies by team, by who’s in the room, and by topic. Someone might feel safe pointing out a machine that’s been down all week, but not safe saying the project is $50,000 over budget. That’s why it’s a problem when a leader says, “We already have psychological safety.” The people who say that are often the ones who feel safest. This clip is from my new course, Leading with Psychological Safety, from TKMG Academy. The course covers: 🔵 What psychological safety is, and common misconceptions 🔵 The four stages of psychological safety (from Timothy R. Clark) 🔵 Two reasons people stay silent: fear and futility 🔵 Four leadership behaviors that build it: Model, Encourage, Enable, and Reward 🔵 How to assess progress 13 lessons, about an hour total. Also available in Spanish. Learn more and purchase here: https://tkmgacademy.com/courses/leading-with-psychological-safety/
Psychological Safety Means Everyone Gets Their Say, Not Their Way
Counting how many teams run Agile ceremonies is measuring activity, not improvement. Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi call that “change theater,” and it’s one of the illusions their new book Signals & Levers is built to dismantle. In Episode 550 of Lean Blog Interviews, I talk with Elisabeth and Joel about Signals & Levers: Systems Thinking Tools to Unblock Software Delivery (IT Revolution, September 2026). The book applies systems thinking, Deming, Shewhart, Argyris, and Donella Meadows to software delivery, but most of the conversation applies to any organization trying to improve. In this conversation: 🔵 The three illusions that travel together: predictability, progress, and control 🔵 Why “running open loop” means changing things without ever checking whether the change worked 🔵 How organizations accidentally create latency by separating strategy from execution and skills from each other 🔵 Why Joel introduced process behavior charts (Shewhart charts) to software teams, and what he wanted to stop arguing about 🔵 Why story points are an opinion, cycle time is a fact, and doing math on an opinion still gives you an opinion 🔵 Why a Chris Argyris “Model One” organization scores itself high on psychological safety surveys while behaving otherwise 🔵 Why you can’t fix fear by telling people to be brave Chapters: 00:00 Meet Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi 04:30 Origin stories and a Toyota supplier lesson 11:50 Systems thinking applied to software 14:07 Three illusions: predictability, progress, control 17:32 Every change is a hypothesis 20:16 Open loop vs closed loop 25:24 Change theater and measuring activity 28:15 Latency that organizations create by accident 36:21 Process behavior charts and variability 44:11 Why story points are opinions 47:17 Psychological safety surveys that mislead 55:31 You can't fix fear by telling people to be brave 58:40 Everyone has levers About the guests: Elisabeth Hendrickson is the founder of Curious Duck Digital Laboratory, where she advises and coaches technology leaders. She was previously VP of R&D at Pivotal, leading about 170 engineers, product managers, and designers, and she is the author of Explore It! Joel Tosi is co-founder and CTO of Dojo & Co., which helps organizations improve the flow of work through immersive learning environments. He has more than 25 years of experience delivering software and is co-author of Creating Your Dojo and Coaching for Learning. Joel previously appeared in Episode 351 with Dion Stewart: https://www.leanblog.org/351 Signals & Levers: https://link.amazon/B0cmgBGmU Curious Duck Digital Laboratory: https://curiousduck.io Dojo & Co.: https://www.dojoandco.com Full show notes and transcript: https://www.leanblog.org/550 Mark Graban is an author, consultant, and speaker on Lean management, continuous improvement, and psychological safety. His books include Lean Hospitals, Healthcare Kaizen, Measures of Success, and The Mistakes That Make Us. His next book is The Silence Tax: How Lean Leaders Drive Out Fear and Futility. He hosts the Lean Blog Interviews and My Favorite Mistake podcasts and writes at https://www.leanblog.org Subscribe for more conversations on Lean, leadership, psychological safety, and continuous improvement. #LeanBlogInterviews #SystemsThinking #SignalsAndLevers #SoftwareDelivery #PsychologicalSafety #ProcessBehaviorCharts #ChangeTheater #Deming #DevOps #ContinuousImprovement
Change Theater and the Illusion of Progress | Elisabeth Hendrickson & Joel Tosi
Psychological safety doesn’t come from a tidy formula. Leaders build it through specific behaviors, repeated over time. They can practice those behaviors, watch what happens, and adjust. My new course, Leading with Psychological Safety, is now available from TKMG Academy. It’s for senior leaders, frontline managers, continuous improvement professionals, consultants, educators, and anyone who wants a culture where people speak up to improve how work gets done. The course covers: 🔵 What psychological safety is, and common misconceptions 🔵 The four stages of psychological safety (from Timothy R. Clark) 🔵 Two reasons people stay silent: fear and futility 🔵 Four leadership behaviors that build it: Model, Encourage, Enable, and Reward 🔵 How to assess progress 13 lessons, about an hour total. Also available in Spanish. Available now. Learn more and purchase here: https://tkmgacademy.com/courses/leading-with-psychological-safety/
Psychological Safety Isn’t a Formula. It’s Leadership Behavior.
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Retro cassette tape with unspooled brown magnetic tape winding across a table past three map location pins, a coffee cup, and a map
Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: September 25, 2026
Joel Tosi and Elisabeth Hendrickson stand against a light blue radial background, one holding a megaphone and the other presenting on a podium
Signals & Levers: Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi on Change Theater, Open Loops, and Systems Thinking for Software Teams
Man in light blue shirt standing indoors next to icons indicating conditions for speaking up, safe, and worthwhile.
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Nick Katko in blue shirt beside chalkboard reading ACCOUNTING with chalk gears labeled Payable, Ledger, Assets, Expenditure, Review
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