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What Toyota’s 1992 Booklet Leaves Out About Leadership When Standard Work Isn’t Followed, Your Reaction Is the Real Standard Do Not Remove: What a Kaizen Binder Taught Me in Japan
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Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape:  Best of First Half of 2026

ByRyan McCormack July 10, 2026 Comment (0) 3738
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and...
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Do Not Remove: What a Kaizen Binder Taught Me in Japan

ByMark Graban July 9, 2026 Comment (0) 161
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What Toyota’s 1992 Booklet Leaves Out About Leadership

ByMark Graban July 8, 2026 Comment (0) 222
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.

ByMark Graban July 7, 2026 Comment (0) 286

Mark Graban

Welcome to my blog!

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

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Lean Blog Interviews Podcast

LeanBlog Podcast #44 – Ralph Keller, President of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME)

LeanBlog Podcast #44 – Ralph Keller, President of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME)

ByMark Graban May 21, 2008 1388
Episode #44 of the LeanBlog Podcast is a conversation with Ralph Keller, the President of AME, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. Today, we're discussing AME and their upcoming regional...
Mike Micklewright Performing as Dr. W. Edwards Deming: What Would Deming Say About Lean and Six Sigma?

Mike Micklewright Performing as Dr. W. Edwards Deming: What Would Deming Say About Lean and Six Sigma?

ByMark Graban May 19, 2008 1772
Episode #43 of LeanBlog Podcast is a very special one. My guest is Mike Mickleright, writer, consultant, and performer — most interesting to me is his impersonation of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. As...
Mistakes, Complexity, and Why Inspection Can’t Catch Everything: A Conversation with Martin Hinckley

Mistakes, Complexity, and Why Inspection Can’t Catch Everything: A Conversation with Martin Hinckley

ByMark Graban May 7, 2008 2068
Mistake-proofing expert Martin Hinckley joins the podcast to explain why traditional inspection methods can't catch rare mistakes — and what it actually takes to eliminate them. We cover the...

How Toyota Develops Lean Leaders — Jeffrey Liker on Manager Development (Part 3)

ByMark Graban April 27, 2008 2018
Why do so many Lean efforts fail at the leadership level? Jeffrey Liker explains how Toyota develops managers over time–through stability, daily coaching, and deep respect for...

More Blog Posts

Shaunté Kinch on Solving Big Problems in Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Beyond

Shaunté Kinch on Solving Big Problems in Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Beyond

Mark GrabanByMark Graban June 19, 2023 1906
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #478 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Shaunté Kinch. In 2022, Shaunté founded Empact Global, a consultancy that...

Patient Frustration: Why Did I Bother Checking In Online Then?

Mark GrabanByMark Graban June 19, 2023 1175
Masaaki Imai, the Japanese consultant who introduced "kaizen" to the global business community through his 1986 book

Masaaki Imai (1930-2023): The Father of Kaizen and His Lasting Influence on Continuous Improvement

Mark GrabanByMark Graban June 16, 2023 8635

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: June 16th, 2023

Ryan McCormackByRyan McCormack June 16, 2023 1314

First Printed Proof Copy of The Mistakes That Make Us (Video)

Mark GrabanByMark Graban June 14, 2023 1220

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

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Mark Graban on YouTube

One email from Amazon: "This is against our guidelines." No explanation, no chance to fix it. Just her books gone. Publishing strategist Wiebke Tasch had two Amazon accounts, one for her pen name, one for her real name, not knowing that's against the rules. Amazon read it as spam and deleted both accounts along with her bestselling book, right after she'd quit her job to write full time. Full episode - "Why Amazon Deleted Her Bestselling Book Overnight - with Wiebke Tasch": https://youtu.be/i2_wYH7rbTM #MyFavoriteMistake #Amazon #SelfPublishing #AuthorTips #KDP
Two Amazon Accounts, One Innocent Mistake, Her Whole Business Gone
Asked to name the 5 S's, the manager gets every one wrong: "straighten, salami, stopwatch, Sasquatch, and salmonella." He can't explain how any of it helps the work. His only answer is that the consultant said so. That's the actual failure mode here, not the mangled Japanese. A leader who can't explain the reasoning behind a program can't sustain it, coach it, or adapt it when it stops working. The team ends up following instructions instead of understanding a problem-solving method, and that's the difference between Lean as a toolkit and Lean as a costume. Watch the full video: https://youtu.be/t8IfQp4A4ZI #Lean #5S #LeanManagement #ContinuousImprovement #Leadership
"Salami, Stopwatch, Sasquatch..." -- This Manager Has No Idea What 5S Means
Publishing strategist Wiebke Tasch reviews manuscripts for a living. She says she can tell within a few pages when a book was written by ChatGPT: paragraphs disappear, replaced by short, choppy sentences formatted like a social media post. It reads fast and looks flat, and readers notice. Her point isn't that AI has no place in writing. It's that overuse flattens voice, and voice is the thing readers are actually there for. Full episode - "Why Amazon Deleted Her Bestselling Book Overnight - with Wiebke Tasch": https://youtu.be/i2_wYH7rbTM #MyFavoriteMistake #AIWriting #ChatGPT #SelfPublishing #AuthorTips
The AI Writing Pattern Editors Spot Immediately
A consultant tells an office to tape outlines around hammers, monitors, and coffee cups because "the best factories do this." No one asks whether any of it fits the work actually being done. This clip is a satire of what happens when 5S gets applied as a checklist instead of a way of thinking. Real 5S starts with understanding the work and removing friction for the people doing it -- not mandating tape and pen limits because a consultant said so. Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/t8IfQp4A4ZI If you've ever sat through a "Lean program" that felt more like theater than improvement, this one's for you. #Lean #5S #ContinuousImprovement #LeanManagement #WorkplaceCulture
This Office 5S Program Is INSANE (Lean Gone Wrong)
Publishing strategist Wiebke Tasch reviews manuscripts for a living, and she says AI-written chapters give themselves away fast. Same sentence structure. Same "it's not this, it's that" construction, over and over. Once you've seen it a few times, you can't unsee it. Her advice for authors: use ChatGPT for proofreading and unsticking, not for writing your book. Readers notice sameness, and it costs you the one thing AI can't replace, your own voice. Watch the full episode - "Why Amazon Deleted Her Bestselling Book Overnight - with Wiebke Tasch": https://youtu.be/i2_wYH7rbTM #MyFavoriteMistake #AIWriting #ChatGPT #SelfPublishing #AuthorTips #BookWriting
ChatGPT's Writing Style Problem: Why Editors Can Spot It Instantly
The biggest mistake authors make isn't in the writing. It's finishing the book, publishing it, and telling no one. Publishing strategist Wiebke Tasch explains why the first five days after launch function as a blueprint for a book's entire future on Amazon. The algorithm tracks how much traffic you drive in that window, then uses it to decide whether your book gets suggested to readers in your niche going forward, or quietly disappears. Watch the full episode - "Why Amazon Deleted Her Bestselling Book Overnight - with Wiebke Tasch": https://youtu.be/i2_wYH7rbTM#MyFavoriteMistake #BookMarketing #AmazonKDP #SelfPublishing #AuthorTips #BookLaunch
The Biggest Book Marketing Mistake: Publishing, Then Going Silent
Publishing strategist Wiebke Tasch had built a bestselling book and a comfortable full-time income on Amazon -- enough to quit her PR job. Then one morning an automated email told her she had violated Amazon's terms, and both of her accounts and all of her books were deleted. No warning, no explanation, no human to appeal to. Her mistake: she had opened two accounts, one for a pen name and one under her real name, not knowing Amazon allows only one per person. This is Wiebke's favorite mistake, and losing everything became the start of her company, Digital Authors. Episode page with links and more: http://markgraban.com/mistake356 What you'll learn: 🔵 How an innocent rule violation can erase a book and an income overnight 🔵 Why you should never build your livelihood on a platform you don't control 🔵 How to bring readers into your own community instead of renting an audience 🔵 Why book structure should start with market demand, not your own wish list 🔵 Why the first five days after launch shape an Amazon book's entire future 🔵 Where AI genuinely helps an author, and where over-reliance produces forgettable books About the guest: Wiebke Tasch is a publishing strategist and the founder of Digital Authors, a US-based firm that helps nonfiction authors across the US and Europe publish professional, market-ready books. Her work spans market analysis, positioning, structure, editing, cover design, and launch marketing, with an emphasis on building a direct relationship between authors and their readers. She holds a master's degree from the Bauhaus University in Germany. Digital Authors: https://digital-authors.com Chapters: 00:00 Introducing Wiebke Tasch and Digital Authors 01:06 Wiebke's favorite mistake: two Amazon accounts 04:12 The email from Amazon 09:35 Why you can't build a business on a platform you don't control 20:50 Has Amazon's customer service improved? 26:09 Where AI helps authors and where it hurts 32:30 Book structure as a strategic decision 34:44 Marketing a book: start before you publish 38:45 The book description and keywords Subscribe for more honest conversations about leadership, mistakes, and what it really takes to learn from them. New episodes of My Favorite Mistake every week. #SelfPublishing #BookMarketing #WritingCommunity #Authors #AmazonKDP #NonfictionBooks
Amazon Deleted Her Bestseller Overnight | Wiebke Tasch
Andre DeMerchant showed up to one of his first Toyota manufacturing meetings without a problem to report -- and quickly learned that was the problem. In this clip from Episode 547 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast, Andre contrasts two kinds of meetings. In his previous industry, everyone reported green while the operation ran in chaos. At Toyota, every leader brought a problem, because "no problems is a problem." Showing up without one meant you didn't understand your own operation. What makes the story work is what happened next. Andre wasn't blamed or shamed. The miss was treated as a development opportunity, a chance to learn from his peers what to bring next time. That reaction is the precondition that makes a problem-surfacing culture function. Watch or listen to the full episode: https://youtu.be/MbA96zgnZFs Thomas Cox and Andre's A3 on why Lean implementations struggle is a free download at https://txl-lab.com/lean. Subscribe for more on Lean leadership, psychological safety, and continuous improvement. Host: Mark Graban, author of The Mistakes That Make Us, Measures of Success, and Lean Hospitals.
Showing Up to a Toyota Meeting Without a Problem | Andre DeMerchant
At Toyota, every manager was expected to bring a problem to the meeting. Andre DeMerchant learned that the hard way when he showed up without one and found out that "no problems" was the actual problem. In this clip from Episode 547 of Lean Blog Interviews, former Toyota manufacturing manager Andre DeMerchant describes what happened next. He wasn't blamed, shamed, or criticized. He was coached. The miss was treated as a development opportunity, with an open invitation to ask questions of anyone in the room, including the executive vice president. That response is the heart of "no problems is a problem," and a living example of the psychological safety that real continuous improvement depends on. Host Mark Graban talks with Andre DeMerchant and Thomas Cox about why Lean implementations so often fail to stick, and why psychological safety has to exist before any Lean rollout begins. Watch or listen to the full episode: https://leanblog.org/547 #Toyota #Lean #PsychologicalSafety #ContinuousImprovement #Leadership #Kaizen #LeanManufacturing #Shorts
At Toyota, Having No Problems Was the Problem
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