Mark Graban
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker, and podcaster with experience in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups.
Mark's latest book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, a recipient of the Shingo Publication Award.
He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean, previous Shingo recipients.
Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.
Unlearning Old Habits: What a Pickleball Mistake Taught Me About Feedback...
What Pickleball Taught Me About Kindness, Kaizen, and Culture
"Don't worry about your mistakes--you're learning."
That's what an instructor said during my first 1x1 lesson at...
Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: November 14, 2025
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly...
AI as a Thought Partner in Kaizen? Small Tests, PDSA Cycles,...
A question asked after a recent virtual keynote talk that I did for a health system on continuous improvement caught my attention:
"What are your...
From Firefighting to Flow: Darren Walsh on Lean Leadership Routines that...
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My guest for Episode #539 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Darren Walsh, author of...
From Coffee Filters to Culture: How Sister Martha Ann Helped Spark...
When people ask what it looks like to connect daily improvement to mission, I often think of Franciscan St. Francis Health in Indiana--and specifically...
GE’s Larry Culp: Why Lean Thinking Starts with Safety and Respect...
It's rare to find a Fortune 100 CEO who talks about flow, standard work, and kaizen with the same fluency as a plant manager....
Designing Systems That Flex–Not Fail–During Peak Demand
When I placed a mobile order at Starbucks recently, I was told up front that it would take 17 to 20 minutes to receive...
The Lasting Impact of a 2009 Kaizen Study in Emergency Medicine...
Back in 2009, my friend and KaiNexus co-founder Dr. Greg Jacobson and his colleagues at Vanderbilt University Medical Center published an article that still...
What Lean Leaders Can Learn from Dan Quinn: Accountability Without Blame
Leadership isn't about avoiding mistakes--it's about responding to them with honesty and humility.
This week, Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn offered a clear example....
Lean Without Layoffs: The Commitment That Makes Continuous Improvement Work
When I worked with Johnson & Johnson's ValuMetrix Services consulting group (from 2005 to 2009), we had a simple but firm rule before engaging...
Ghosts, Zombies, and Frankenstein Processes: A Lean Halloween Reflection
tl;dr: Halloween might be about ghosts, zombies, and monsters -- but those same creatures sometimes show up in our organizations all year long. They...
How to Cut Through Workplace Chaos: Nelson Repenning on Lean, Flow...
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My guest for Episode #538 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Nelson Repenning, Faculty Director...
