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Creating a Continuous Improvement System in Accounting: Nick Katko on PDCA, Culture, and Psychological Safety Signals & Levers: Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi on Change Theater, Open Loops, and Systems Thinking for Software Teams
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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)

Lean Blog Interviews Podcast

Flow Engineering in Action: Insights from Authors Steve Pereira and Andrew Davis

Flow Engineering in Action: Insights from Authors Steve Pereira and Andrew Davis

ByMark Graban August 7, 2024 5555
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guests for Episode #512 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Steve Pereira and Andrew Davis, authors of the new book Flow Engineering: From...
Failing Forward: An Interview with Sam Yankelevitch on Lean, Communication, and Innovation

Failing Forward: An Interview with Sam Yankelevitch on Lean, Communication, and Innovation

ByMark Graban July 24, 2024 3839
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #511 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Sam Yankelevitch, a distinguished global operations executive who has dedicated...
The image is a promotional cover for the Lean Blog Interviews podcast, Episode 510. It features a teal background with rays emanating from the center. The title "MISTAKES & LEAN" is prominently displayed in bold, black letters with a white outline. The episode number "Episode 510" is written below the title. On the right side, there is a photo of Karen Martin, smiling and looking towards the camera. In the top left corner, there is a smaller image of Mark Graban with the text "Lean Blog Interviews" and his name, "Mark Graban."

Karen Martin on the Power of Mistake Proofing in Lean Management

ByMark Graban July 10, 2024 4873
Karen Martin and Mark Graban discuss mistake proofing in lean management, why “zero harm” is a meaningful aspiration, and how building quality at the source reduces errors without blaming...
Leveraging Lean & AI in Optometry: Ankit Patel’s Journey from Dell to Vision Care

Leveraging Lean & AI in Optometry: Ankit Patel’s Journey from Dell to Vision Care

ByMark Graban July 3, 2024 3774
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #509 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Ankit Patel, the founder of My Business Care Team, a BPO company providing...

More Blog Posts

A person stands in an office doorway facing a seated leader, the moment a problem gets delivered

The First Three Seconds After Someone Admits a Mistake

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 13, 2026 552
Someone walks into your office and says, “We have a problem.” Notice what your body does before your brain catches up. A small tightening. A breath you take to steady yourself. Maybe your...
mixtape best of h1 2026

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape:  Best of First Half of 2026

Ryan McCormackByRyan McCormack July 10, 2026 4199
Lean Blog Cover (3)

Do Not Remove: What a Kaizen Binder Taught Me in Japan

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 9, 2026 485
toyota engineer gemba

What Toyota’s 1992 Booklet Leaves Out About Leadership

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 8, 2026 491
A chaotic, oversaturated AI-generated factory scene featuring robots, conveyor belts, gears, cars, cherry blossoms, Mount Fuji, a giant stopwatch, and a stern older Japanese man pointing, all covered by a large red prohibition symbol.

The Taiichi Ohno 1981 Story Keeps Getting Reposted. It Can’t Be True.

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 7, 2026 747

Webinars

karen martin ask the expert webinar kainexus

Ask Karen Martin Anything on Operational Excellence: A KaiNexus Webinar

March 5, 2026
Karen Martin is one of those people I've been lucky to know and learn from for a long time. She's...
1. Professor with glasses in front of EMS 20th anniversary logo and KaiNexus logo on blue background.

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

December 4, 2025
KaiNexus recently hosted a webinar I was especially looking forward to: “Unlock the Power of...
Breaking Through Cultural Friction: Respect for People and Sustainable Performance

Breaking Through Cultural Friction: Respect for People and Sustainable Performance

June 9, 2025
When organizations struggle to sustain Lean transformation, people often look first at tools...
Driving a Culture of Patient Safety: Lessons for Healthcare and Beyond

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

April 28, 2025
Recently, I had the pleasure of moderating a webinar titled “Driving a Culture of Transforming...
Why Lean Fails Without Psychological Safety

Why Lean Fails Without Psychological Safety

April 16, 2025
TL;DR: Lean tools don't fail because people resist change–they fail because people don't feel...
Preview: Driving a Culture of Accountability – Transforming Patient Safety with KaiNexus (Webinar, April 15)

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

April 8, 2025
One of the most powerful elements of continuous improvement is the ability to learn from each other...
My Upcoming Webinar on Mistake-Proofing Across Industries

My Upcoming Webinar on Mistake-Proofing Across Industries

February 3, 2025
I'm excited to be presenting this webinar on February 12th at 1 pm ET as part of the KaiNexus...
Top 5 Takeaways from my KaiNexus Webinar: Psychological Safety as a Precondition for Continuous Improvement

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

January 8, 2025
TL;DR: Psychological safety isn't optional for continuous improvement. This KaiNexus webinar...
Creating Leader Standard Work (LSW) Across a Distributed Business Model — Webinar Preview

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

November 7, 2024
I'm happy to be hosting and moderating this webinar that will be presented by Brent Loescher, a...
Embedding Change Management into your Continuous Improvement Initiatives – Webinar Preview

Embedding Change Management into your Continuous Improvement Initiatives – Webinar Preview

September 25, 2024
I'm happy to be hosting and moderating this webinar that will be presented by Melissa Sherman, a...
View Our “Ask Us Anything” Event on Psychological Safety and Lean

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

August 20, 2024
Psychological safety is often described as “feeling safe to speak up.” In Lean...
From Strategy to Execution: Webinar with Karen Friedenberg

From Strategy to Execution: Webinar with Karen Friedenberg

July 17, 2024
Are you looking to transform your business strategy into actionable results? Join us for our...

Videos

What Still Matters from 2013: Kaizen, Leadership, and Learning with KaiNexus

What Still Matters from 2013: Kaizen, Leadership, and Learning with KaiNexus

ByMark Graban June 7, 2018 Comment (0) 920
Recently, I stumbled across some video of me and Dr. Greg Jacobson giving a talk at a health system...
Respect for People and Continuous Improvement in Healthcare: Lessons from Lean

Respect for People and Continuous Improvement in Healthcare: Lessons from Lean

ByMark Graban April 11, 2018 Comment (0) 2832
I was recently asked to do a recorded video presentation for a medical conference in Turkey. I spoke...
Stop Overreacting to Metrics: Lessons from Lean Startup Week

Stop Overreacting to Metrics: Lessons from Lean Startup Week

ByMark Graban April 4, 2018 Comment (1) 2207
Thanks to Eric Ries and the organizers for Lean Startup Week for allowing me to share video of my...

Mark Graban on YouTube

Wrong-site surgery didn’t disappear once healthcare introduced timeouts, checklists, and surgical-site marking. In this clip, Dr. David Mayer explains why those safeguards matter—but also why they aren’t enough on their own. Healthcare began improving these systems because clinicians started talking openly about errors that had previously remained hidden. Without transparency, organizations lose the opportunity to understand how mistakes happen and prevent them from happening again. That’s the larger patient-safety lesson: checklists and mistake-proofing matter, but learning also requires a culture where people can speak openly about errors, near misses, and system failures. This clip is from my My Favorite Mistake conversation with Dr. David Mayer about wrong-site surgery, medical error, transparency, and patient safety. #PatientSafety #MedicalErrors #SurgicalSafety #Healthcare #PsychologicalSafety #MyFavoriteMistake
Why Wrong-Site Surgery Still Happens — Even With Checklists
What happens when experienced problem-solvers start letting AI do the thinking for them? In this clip, Dr. Jeffrey Liker shares a cautionary story from a hospital CEO. Highly trained problem-solvers started using AI—and, as he puts it, “forgot everything they knew about problem-solving.” They were jumping to AI-generated solutions, sometimes solving the wrong problems, without finding root causes or testing their assumptions. The response wasn’t to abandon AI. It was to use it differently. Instead of asking AI for solutions, they learned to prompt it to challenge their assumptions and push their thinking. The result: AI became more of a sparring partner than a substitute for problem-solving. This clip is from an upcoming episode of Lean Blog Interviews with Dr. Jeffrey Liker, author of *The Toyota Way* and the new book *Tech and AI: The Toyota Way: Think, Test, and Learn Your Way to Prudent, Targeted Technology Adoption*. Full episode coming soon. https://www.leancast.org #Lean #AI #ProblemSolving #ToyotaWay #ContinuousImprovement #Leadership
AI Problem-Solving: Stop Asking for Answers, Ask Better Questions
Psychological safety isn’t just about making people feel comfortable. It affects whether teams perform, learn, innovate, and work safely. Research consistently finds a strong relationship between psychological safety and outcomes such as team performance, learning agility, innovation, and physical safety. Without psychological safety, people often spend energy protecting themselves instead of improving the work. They cover their tracks, hide mistakes, and tell leaders what they think the boss wants to hear. That’s a costly tradeoff for any organization. This clip is from my course, Leading with Psychological Safety, from TKMG Academy. The course covers: 🔵 What psychological safety is, and common misconceptions 🔵 The four stages of psychological safety, based on the work of Timothy R. Clark 🔵 Two reasons people stay silent: fear and futility 🔵 Four leadership behaviors that build psychological safety: Model, Encourage, Enable, and Reward 🔵 How to assess progress 13 lessons, about an hour total. Also available in Spanish. Learn more and purchase here: https://tkmgacademy.com/courses/leading-with-psychological-safety/ #PsychologicalSafety #Leadership #ContinuousImprovement #Lean #TeamPerformance
Psychological Safety: Why Teams Hide Problems Instead of Improving
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