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.
Caring cultures are not “soft” extras in Lean–they are foundational. Caroline Greenlee and Chris Butterworth explain how psychological safety, respect for people, and wellbeing enable sustainable continuous improvement. Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guests for…
In this episode of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast, Carlos Scholz discusses Lean healthcare leadership, psychological safety, and humility–why improvement depends on leadership behaviors, not just tools or events. Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guests for this bonus episode of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Geoff Neiley and Andrew Wagner, talking about the Lean Product & Process Development Exchange (LPPDE). Geoff serves as…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #535 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gregg Stocker, a seasoned Lean practitioner, consultant, and author. Over the past 30+ years, Gregg has worked across industries,…
In this episode of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast, Dale Lucht reflects on the leadership habits that separate short-lived Lean gains from lasting cultural transformation–and the mistakes leaders must stop repeating. Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #533 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Cheryl Jekiel, founder of the Lean Leadership Center and a longtime advocate for aligning continuous improvement with people-centered leadership.…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #532 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Anne Frewin, a seasoned Lean leader with over 12 years of improvement experience in healthcare, laboratories, and manufacturing. Anne’s…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #531 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Dr. Melisa Buie, a seasoned operations and engineering leader with decades of experience in high-tech manufacturing. Melisa has held…
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,…
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…
Former Toyota leader Mark Reich explains why Hoshin Kanri is not a top-down planning exercise, but a leadership system for aligning strategy, developing people, and managing on purpose through dialogue, PDCA, and shared ownership. Scroll down for how to subscribe,…
Learning Lean from Japan isn’t about copying tools or culture–it’s about seeing what’s possible when organizations commit to respect for people, continuous improvement, and long-term thinking. In this episode, Dave Fitzpatrick and I discuss the Lean Healthcare Accelerator Experience: an…
