Mark Graban

Lean Leadership, Psychological Safety, and Continuous Improvement

Since 2005, LeanBlog.org has shared practical insights from real-world work in healthcare, manufacturing, and beyond.

Books Keynote Speaking Coaching / Advisory Podcasts

Books by Mark Graban on Lean, Leadership, and Learning (4)

Podcast #159 – John Toussaint, MD, on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report, Best Care at Lower Cost

ByMark Graban October 16, 2012 1177

Listen A returning guest for episode #159 is John Toussaint, MD, the CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and the author of the books On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives...

The CEO’s Role in Lean Transformation: Art Byrne, Former CEO of Wiremold on The Lean Turnaround

ByMark Graban September 28, 2012 4717

Former Wiremold CEO Art Byrne explains why Lean must be led directly by the CEO and treated as a core business strategy–not a set of tools. Drawing on his experience at GE, Danaher, and The...

Mike Stoecklein on Working with W. Edwards Deming, the Red Bead Experiment, and Lessons for Lean Healthcare (Podcast #156)

ByMark Graban August 16, 2012 2014

In this 2012 conversation, Mike Stoecklein reflects on nearly a decade of learning directly from Dr. W. Edwards Deming — attending and helping with the famous four-day seminars, exchanging...

Podcast #155 – Jim Benson of Modus Cooperandi on ‘Personal Kanban’ and Setting WIP Limits

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Mark Graban on YouTube

Getting the Deal Early Would Have Sunk Us | Tyler McBroom

Why don’t employees speak up? Fear is part of it. But most silence comes from futility - people have spoken up before and nothing changed.

That distinction is the subject of my keynote, “The Silence Tax: Why People Stay Quiet, and What Leaders Can Do About It.”

Fear and futility look identical from the outside. Someone sees a problem and says nothing. But they’re different problems with different fixes, and most organizations only address the first one. The cost shows up as problems leaders never hear about, improvement ideas that never arrive, and mistakes nobody learns from.

In this keynote, we look at what makes speaking up feel safer and what makes it feel worth the effort: how leaders respond in the moment, whether problems actually get worked on, and whether anyone hears what happened next. Telling people to speak up doesn’t do it.

Audiences include healthcare leaders, manufacturers, municipal and government teams, and continuous improvement professionals. The keynote works as an opening session, a closing session, or paired with a half-day workshop.

Interested in bringing this to your organization or event? Get in touch: [SPEAKING PAGE URL]

I’m Mark Graban - speaker, consultant, and author of The Mistakes That Make Us, Measures of Success, Lean Hospitals, and Healthcare Kaizen. I host the Lean Blog Interviews and My Favorite Mistake podcasts and write at LeanBlog.org. My next book, The Silence Tax, comes out in early 2027.

More: https://www.leanblog.org

#PsychologicalSafety #KeynoteSpeaker #Leadership #SpeakingUp #WorkplaceCulture #LeanLeadership #ContinuousImprovement #EmployeeEngagement #LeadershipDevelopment #TheSilenceTax

Why Employees Don’t Speak Up | Psychological Safety Keynote

CPA Tyler McBroom had a call booked to discuss partnering with Tony Robbins. It was set for 10:30 PM, so he asked to reschedule. Then came three years of silence.

Tyler, CEO of TRM CPA and author of Cash Flow and Grow, explains what that request taught him about how opportunity works and why he kept following up anyway. He also talks about whether his four-person firm was ready for what it wanted. Later in the conversation, he shares how changing when the firm got paid nearly eliminated its accounts receivable. He also describes how a remote team built a culture that ranked number one among small employers on America’s Best Workplaces.

What you’ll learn:

🔵 Why adapting to a rare opportunity’s terms can matter more than protecting your schedule
🔵 How monthly follow-ups that showed real progress kept Tyler on the partner’s radar
🔵 Why a delayed opportunity can arrive when you’re finally able to absorb it
🔵 How charging up front, without raising prices, cut accounts receivable to a week or two of sales
🔵 Why a big price increase loses fewer clients than most owners fear
🔵 The “grin test” for deductions, and the line between tax avoidance and tax evasion
🔵 How a daily huddle keeps a remote team from feeling like a set of islands

Chapters:

00:00 Meet Tyler McBroom, CPA and author
01:10 The meeting he rescheduled with Tony Robbins' team
05:14 Three years of follow-up
06:20 The callback and the partnership offer
08:12 Why the wait built the capacity to grow
09:26 Tax avoidance vs. tax evasion
13:00 Changing when you get paid, not what you charge
20:09 Nine months of social media with zero clients
26:29 Bad tax advice and the grin test
35:16 Building a best place to work

About Tyler McBroom: Tyler McBroom, CPA, MBA, is the CEO of TRM CPA, which helps business owners legally keep more of their profits, and the author of Cash Flow and Grow.

Episode page: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake371

The Tony Robbins Meeting He Rescheduled | Tyler McBroom

Mark Graban

Lean Leadership, Psychological Safety, and Continuous Improvement

Lean Blog Interviews Podcast

Podcast #159 – John Toussaint, MD, on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report, Best Care at Lower Cost

The CEO’s Role in Lean Transformation: Art Byrne, Former CEO of Wiremold on The Lean Turnaround

Mike Stoecklein on Working with W. Edwards Deming, the Red Bead Experiment, and Lessons for Lean Healthcare (Podcast #156)

Podcast #155 – Jim Benson of Modus Cooperandi on ‘Personal Kanban’ and Setting WIP Limits

More Blog Posts

Japan Study Trips: A Voyage of Leadership Discovery; Mark Graban and Katie Anderson Discuss

Turning Bad News into Building Blocks: Cultivating a Culture Where Mistakes Fuel Growth

Bring Me to Speak at Your Health System’s Quarterly Leadership Forum

Please Consider Voting for “The Mistakes That Make Us” in This Book Cover Contest

Boeing’s Leadership Failure: How Executives Waved Off Lean and Put Safety at Risk

Webinars

Ask Karen Martin Anything on Operational Excellence: A KaiNexus Webinar

Unlock the Power of Leadership: A Preview of the Electrolux Manufacturing System (EMS) Webinar

Breaking Through Cultural Friction: Respect for People and Sustainable Performance

Driving a Culture of Patient Safety: Lessons for Healthcare and Beyond

Why Lean Fails Without Psychological Safety

Preview: Driving a Culture of Accountability – Transforming Patient Safety with KaiNexus (Webinar, April 15)

My Upcoming Webinar on Mistake-Proofing Across Industries

Top 5 Takeaways from my KaiNexus Webinar: Psychological Safety as a Precondition for Continuous Improvement

Creating Leader Standard Work (LSW) Across a Distributed Business Model — Webinar Preview

Embedding Change Management into your Continuous Improvement Initiatives – Webinar Preview

View Our “Ask Us Anything” Event on Psychological Safety and Lean

From Strategy to Execution: Webinar with Karen Friedenberg

Videos

Mark Graban on YouTube

Mark Graban

Lean Leadership, Psychological Safety, and Continuous Improvement

Lean Blog Interviews Podcast

More Blog Posts

Webinars

Videos

Mark Graban on YouTube

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