All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
I recently had an annual wellness exam through a hospital system’s primary care group. Everything went well and I had a good experience. Even though I can’t help thinking about opportunities for improvement, I wasn’t itching to provide any feedback.…
In Episode #530 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast, I’m joined by Ken Segel of Value Capture to discuss what it really takes to build a comprehensive Lean healthcare operating system, starting with safety. Scroll down for how to subscribe,…
It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since my Shingo Award-winning book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, was published. What started as a podcast–My Favorite Mistake–grew into a book grounded in one powerful…
TL;DR: Medical mistakes are usually system failures–not individual failures. By asking “why did this happen?” instead of “who caused it?”, healthcare organizations can strengthen psychological safety, fix broken processes, and prevent harm before it happens again. Why Medical Mistakes Are…
When was the last time a leader in your organization openly said, “I was wrong”? It’s not a common occurrence in many workplaces. And that’s a missed opportunity. Admitting a mistake might seem risky–especially for someone in a position of…
TL;DR: I learned SQDC the hard way at GM–first under cost- and throughput-obsessed leadership, then from a NUMMI-trained plant manager who showed me why safety and quality must come first if you want performance (and cost) to truly improve. Two…
Each year, I take a mid-year look at what readers are finding most helpful, most shareable, and most interesting across LeanBlog.org. It’s a chance to reflect on the topics that resonated–whether Lean leadership, psychological safety, continuous improvement, or lessons from…
This edition of Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape examines how leadership choices, system design, and culture determine whether organizations improve–or drift toward failure. From lessons on AI and employability, Boeing’s systemic safety breakdowns, and operating processes on the brink of…
This October, I’ll be returning to Japan for another Lean healthcare study trip–my seventh time overall and my fifth healthcare-focused visit. With each visit, I find new layers of learning. While my earlier trips were filled with curiosity about Lean…
Many Lean transformations stall not because of poor execution, but because respect for people is treated as an attitude rather than a system. In this conversation, Scott Gauvin explains how the Respect for People Roadmap turns respect into a deliberate…
I’ve always believed that culture isn’t just one component of success–it’s the foundation everything else is built upon. That belief is central to my own book, The Mistakes That Make Us, and it’s something I speak about frequently with clients,…
I’ve written about the AI translations before, but I wanted to mention again that my award-winning book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, is now available in Spanish — thanks to a high-quality AI-powered…
