About Mark Graban
Writing on LeanBlog since 2005
Most organizations aren’t short on good ideas. They’re short on reasons for people to share them.
Mark Graban started his career as an industrial engineer at a General Motors engine plant. Since then, he has worked with executives and front-line teams in healthcare, manufacturing, and technology on a practical question: how do you build an organization that gets a little better every day, where people feel safe saying what they see, and where saying it actually leads somewhere?
He is a consultant (independent since 2010), author, speaker, and the host of two podcasts. He is also a Senior Advisor to KaiNexus, a continuous improvement software company, and holds a small equity stake.
- 3Shingo Publication Awards
- 2005Started LeanBlog.org
- 550+Lean Blog Interviews episodes
- 12+Countries spoken and coached in
New book – coming February 9, 2027
The Silence Tax
How Leaders Drive Out Fear and Futility
Every organization pays it. It never shows up on a budget line.
It’s the problem nobody raised, the idea nobody shared, the near miss that stayed quiet until it wasn’t. Fear is part of the reason. So is futility – the sense that speaking up won’t change anything anyway. Removing fear isn’t enough. People need evidence that speaking up leads to help, action, or at least an honest answer.
Mark’s new book shows leaders how to make speaking up both safe and worthwhile, through four everyday behaviors:
- Model
- Encourage
- Enable
- Reward
Signed pre-orders are open. Pre-order buyers are invited to a live online Q&A with Mark before launch.
Ships by February 2027. Your card is charged when you order.
What you’ll find here
Four ideas that run through Mark’s work
Lean is a management system, not a toolkit
The tools work when leaders change how they lead. Copying the tools without the thinking gets you the paperwork without the results.
Silence is a signal, not a success
A quiet meeting can mean everything is fine. More often it means people stopped bothering. Psychological safety is half the fix. Follow-through is the other half.
React less to the numbers
Most changes in a metric are noise. Leaders who can tell noise from signal waste less time explaining every up and down, and spend more of it improving.
Mistakes are information
Mark has made plenty of them, enough to fill a podcast and a book. Organizations that learn from mistakes, instead of hiding them, get better faster.
Books
More books by Mark Graban
Three of Mark’s books have received the Shingo Publication Award.
Shingo Award, 2025
The Mistakes That Make Us
Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation
How leaders make it safe to admit mistakes, then turn them into learning and improvement. Grew out of the My Favorite Mistake podcast.
Measures of Success
React Less, Lead Better, Improve More
Simple statistical methods, including Process Behavior Charts, that help leaders stop overreacting to every metric and focus on changes that matter.
Shingo Award, 2009
Lean Hospitals
Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Engagement
The first healthcare book to receive a Shingo Award. Translated into eight languages. Third edition, 2016.
Shingo Award
Healthcare Kaizen
Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements
With Joe Swartz. How front-line staff find problems, test ideas, and make daily improvement a habit. A condensed Executive Guide is also available.
Practicing Lean
Learning How to Learn How to Get Better… Better
Edited by Mark. Sixteen practitioners share honest reflections on what went wrong, what they learned, and what they wish they had known.
Coming Feb 2027
The Silence Tax
How Leaders Drive Out Fear and Futility
Why people stop speaking up, and the leadership behaviors that make it safe and worthwhile again. Signed pre-orders are open.
Background
Where the ideas come from
- Early career Industrial engineer at General Motors, then roles at Dell and Honeywell, where he was certified as a “Lean Expert” (Honeywell’s equivalent of a Lean Black Belt)
- 2000-2004 Factory Logic, a manufacturing software startup later acquired by SAP
- 2005 Started LeanBlog.org
- 2005-2009 Senior consultant, ValuMetrix Services (then part of Johnson & Johnson), leading improvement work and coaching leaders in the U.S., Canada, and England
- 2009-2011 Senior Fellow, Lean Enterprise Institute, and Director of Communication & Technology for the Healthcare Value Network, a partnership between LEI and Catalysis
- 2010-present Independent consultant, often partnering with other firms on larger engagements
- 2011-present KaiNexus, now as Senior Advisor
Speaking and teaching
Keynotes and workshops across the U.S. and Canada and in Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, and China.
Guest lecturer at MIT, Wharton, Ohio State, and the UT Health Science Center. Faculty for the Lean Enterprise Institute, Catalysis, and Studer Group.
Education
- BS, Industrial Engineering, Northwestern University
- MS, Mechanical Engineering, MIT
- MBA, MIT Sloan
- Fellow, MIT Leaders for Global Operations program
Honors and boards
- Three-time Shingo Publication Award recipient
- Diplomate, Society for Health Systems
- Board member, Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation
- LinkedIn Top Voice
- Quoted in the New York Times and Health Affairs
Work with Mark
Looking for a keynote on The Silence Tax, a workshop for your leadership team, or a longer-term advisor? Start with the speaking page or the consulting page, or get in touch.
