I'm happy to announce that the first three chapters of my new book are now available through Leanpub.com.
The book is called Psychological Safety for Lean Leaders: Make It Safe to Speak Up, So Improvement Can Actually Happen. It's the first in a planned series of short, practical guides I'm calling “Lean Practice Guide.”
If you've read my Shingo Award-winning book The Mistakes That Make Us, you might be wondering why I'm writing another book about psychological safety. Fair question. The Mistakes That Make Us makes the case through stories — it's the book you hand someone to change their mind. This new book is the companion — the one you hand someone to change their behavior. It's shorter, more prescriptive, and organized around what leaders actually do differently starting this week.
What's in the Book
The book is built around a simple observation: organizations invest heavily in problem-solving training — A3 thinking, root cause analysis, PDSA cycles — and then wonder why problems aren't surfacing. The training is usually fine. The culture is the bottleneck. People know how to solve problems. They don't feel safe raising them.
The first three chapters make the reader feel that problem before offering solutions. Chapters 4 through 6 are the practical core — Model It, Encourage It, Reward It — organized around specific leadership behaviors. The final two chapters cover measurement and getting started.
I drew on material from hundreds of podcast conversations on Lean Blog Interviews and My Favorite Mistake, along with my consulting and speaking experience in manufacturing and healthcare. Some of the people whose stories appear in the book include Mike Hoseus, Keith Ingels, Isao Yoshino, Bill O'Rourke, and Paul O'Neill. There's also a fair amount of material from my own career, including my time at GM and years of working with hospitals.
I'm still trying to set up the Book Sample in LeanPub, but you can view a free preview below:
Why Leanpub (Again)
I've used Leanpub for several previous books, including Practicing Lean and Measures of Success. For those who aren't familiar, Leanpub allows authors to publish books while they're still in progress. You buy the early version, you get every update for free as the book develops. It's iterative — which, if you think about it, is a pretty Lean way to publish a book.
The feedback I got from early Leanpub readers on Measures of Success made that book measurably better. I expect the same here. If something isn't clear, if an example doesn't land, if a chapter feels like it's missing something — I want to hear about it before the final version goes to print. That's the whole point.
The first two chapters are available now. Later chapters will be added as they're completed, and all buyers will receive those updates automatically.
What's Next
A Kindle version and paperback will follow once the manuscript is complete. The paperback will be available through Amazon and other retailers, similar to how I've published my other books.
If you're interested, you can check out the book on Leanpub, where you can also download a free sample.
