In-depth conversations with leaders, authors, executives, and practitioners shaping the future of Lean, continuous improvement, and operational excellence. Hosted by Mark Graban, these interviews explore real-world leadership, systems thinking, psychological safety, and learning cultures across industries.
Browse episodes featuring CEOs, Toyota veterans, healthcare leaders, MIT researchers, and improvement thinkers sharing practical insights you can apply beyond tools and buzzwords.
Lean Blog Interviews features in-depth conversations on Lean leadership, continuous improvement, and operational excellence across healthcare, manufacturing, and knowledge work. Explore hundreds of podcast episodes with CEOs, authors, and practitioners focused on learning, systems thinking, and real-world results.
My guest for Episode #368 is somebody I’ve met fairly recently through his excellent posts on LinkedIn, Steve Feltovich. He is the president of SJF Consulting, Inc. and he previously had a long career in the automotive industry, in particular…
Joining me for Episode #367 of the podcast is Dr. Rachel Mandel, a self-described “healthcare whisperer” and Washington D.C.-based consultant for healthcare organizations. She has her own practice and also works as a Senior Healthcare Advisor for Operational Performance Solutions,…
My guest for Episode #366 is Harry Moser, founder of the Reshoring Initiative. We talk about “reshoring,” in general, and why that’s such an important issue in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. Harry definitely falls into the…
Joining me again for Episode #365 is Dan Markovitz, now a five-time guest (but he doesn’t get a special jacket like SNL). You can find past episodes here. The reason for getting together was to chat about his latest book,…
Joining me for Episode #364 is a returning guest, Mitch Cahn, the president of Unionwear, a Newark-based company. Back in Episode #234, we talked about how Lean manufacturing has helped them be competitive in the labor-intensive apparel industry, sewing goods…
For Episode #363, I’m joined by Crystal Davis as we discuss: What are you seeing in terms of how Covid19 is disrupting businesses? How do we move from crisis mode, to survival mode, to recovery mode? Why do we need…
My guest for Episode #362 is Adam Lawrence, managing partner with Process Improvement Partners LLC. He’s an industrial engineer who had a long career working with TQM, Six Sigma, and Lean at Thomasvile Furniture and other Armstrong World Industries companies.…
Episode #361 of the podcast is admittedly not about Lean, but it’s an important topic that I think needs to be shared in these times. I’m sharing audio that came from a KaiNexus webinar yesterday that we called “Ask Docs…
Returning for Episode #360 of the podcast is Leah Binder, the president and CEO of Leapfrog Group. We last talked four years ago in Episode #240 about the patient safety crisis and efforts to improve. Today, we’ll talk about hospitals’…
My guest for Episode #359 of the podcast is Prof. Dr. Alfred Angerer, joining me from Switzerland to talk about Lean healthcare. I had a chance to visit a hospital with Alfred, in Switzerland, late last year, as we discussed…
Returning to the podcast for Episode #358 is Steve Spear, a senior lecturer at MIT and author of the book The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition. He’s also the founder and co-creator of…
Joining me today for episode #357 is Michael Conroy, M.D., the Chief Medical Officer of Sutter Medical Group in northern California. Mike was previously the Medical Director of the Lean Promotion Office for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and he…
