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.
Healthcare in 2026: Still Faxing, Already Talking About AI
TL;DR: Three stories from a single day highlight a familiar pattern in healthcare technology: a pharmacy text message with the wrong hours that nobody...
Why a Lean Coach Asks Questions Instead of Giving Answers
TL;DR: Generic AI gives you a confident list of best practices. A Lean AI coach asks questions first, helps you understand your specific situation,...
Why I Built My Own AI Instead of Telling You to...
People keep asking me a reasonable question:
"Why not just use ChatGPT?"
After all, ChatGPT "knows" a lot about Lean. You can ask it about...
“How Do I Use Lean to Reduce Headcount?” — Why ChatGPT’s...
TL;DR: I asked ChatGPT how to use Lean to reduce hospital headcount. It gave me a detailed plan to do exactly that. My custom...
Fujio Cho on Standardized Work: The Foundation for Improvement, Not Control
TL;DR: Fujio Cho explained that standardized work is not about control or compliance--it's the foundation for learning, quality, and continuous improvement. When used as...
What a Brandi Carlile Concert Teaches About Practicing Continuous Improvement
TL;DR: A sound check, live song requests, and a naming regret -- what watching Brandi Carlile perform taught me about specific problem-solving, vulnerability, and...
What Deming and Fujio Cho Agreed On: Stop Demotivating People
TL;DR: Deming and Toyota's Fujio Cho asked the same uncomfortable question: why do management systems destroy motivation in people who started out wanting to...
How to Choose the Right KPIs, Manage Change, and Understand Customer...
Formerly known as "Lean Whiskey" -- Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh explore how to choose meaningful KPIs, integrate change management with Lean, and uncover...
Create Your Own Lean System — But Don’t Lose Sight of...
TL;DR: In a 1993 speech, Toyota leader Fujio Cho said organizations can create their own Lean systems, but success depends on three principles: leaders...
From Book to Coach: Building an On-Demand Lean Assistant for Healthcare...
TL;DR: I turned my Lean Hospitals book into an interactive coaching tool leaders can use during real work -- exploring whether improvement knowledge can...
Before “Just Culture,” There Was NUMMI: Learning Instead of Blaming
TL;DR: NUMMI proved in the 1980s what healthcare is still learning today: you can't punish your way to safety. Real improvement comes from mutual...
Long-Term Thinking: What NUMMI Understood and GM Struggled to Practice
TL;DR: GM said it believed in long-term thinking. NUMMI actually practiced it. A 1987 GM executive summary admitted that short-term financial pressure drove decisions...
