All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
If you’ve used ChatGPT, you’ve seen the small text at the bottom of the screen: “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.” I noticed it again the other day and thought (and wrote on LinkedIn) — I need the same…
TL;DR: Kaizen means “change for the better.” Everyone improves their own work, one small change at a time, using the scientific method. It’s not a suggestion box — it’s collaborative, fast, and action-oriented. Success depends on leadership engagement and psychological…
AI tools are showing up everywhere in healthcare — for clinical decision support, operational analytics, and now for learning and coaching around improvement methodologies. If you’re a healthcare leader exploring AI, you’ve probably already been pitched a few. Most evaluation…
tl;dr: The “two consecutive reds” rule persists because reacting feels like leadership — but it generates wasted investigations, false success stories, and eroded trust. Process Behavior Charts tell you when variation actually means something changed. I’m writing about something that…
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace…
Karen Martin is one of those people I’ve been lucky to know and learn from for a long time. She’s been a guest on the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast five times now — which puts her in a very small…
Here’s something I’ve learned over many years of consulting: giving people advice they haven’t asked for is a reliable way to get ignored, no matter how correct the advice is. This is also, unfortunately, exactly what every AI tool does.…
Tl;DR: Leaders unintentionally create fear by overreacting to variation, waste, and mistakes. That fear quietly kills improvement. This post connects the threads across my four books to show why leadership reaction — not tools — shapes the system. You review…
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 has fixed, medical imaging that has to be mailed on a physical CD in 2026, and…
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, and lets the advice follow from there. Same question, completely different orientation. Ask ChatGPT a question…
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 value stream mapping, PDSA cycles, or the Toyota Production System and get a decent answer.…
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 Lean AI refused and explained why. Generic AI will confidently help you damage your culture. I…
