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)

Art Byrne on Lean from the CEO’s Perspective and The Lean Turnaround Answer Book

ByMark Graban May 22, 2024 6931

Art Byrne returns to the podcast to share CEO-level lessons from decades of Lean transformations and his new book, The Lean Turnaround Answer Book. The conversation covers Lean strategy, cost...

Japan Study Trips: A Voyage of Leadership Discovery with Katie Anderson

ByMark Graban May 8, 2024 3659

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #504 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Katie Anderson, author of the book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn. In this...

Lean Coaching for Lean Coaches: Sam Morgan Helps Mark Graban

ByMark Graban April 24, 2024 3331

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #503 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Sam Morgan of Illuminate Coaching + Consulting. He was previously a guest in...

Lean from a General Manager and Executive Perspective: DeWayne Allen

ByMark Graban April 10, 2024 3549

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #502 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is DeWayne Allen, an executive, speaker, and workshop facilitator. DeWayne is a...

Lean Blog Post Cover Image - 2026-06-07T155035.883

AI Didn’t Invent Lean Slop. It Learned It From Us.

ByMark Graban June 7, 2026 834

I have been seeing more AI-generated Lean infographics on LinkedIn lately. So many. It's annoying. I try not being annoyed, but it's hard. So, I made one of my own about the trend and posted it on...

Cartoon illustration of a royal Burger King–style mascot holding up the back of a smartphone while looking confused and frustrated, with a no-signal icon in a speech bubble and a question mark beside him.

Admitting Mistakes Is Not Enough: The Leadership Lesson Behind the Burger King and Domino’s Ads

ByMark Graban June 4, 2026 1192

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You’re Not Hiring Talent. You’re Renting It.

ByMark Graban June 2, 2026 559

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What Toyota’s 1992 Booklet Says About Stopping the Line, and What It Leaves to You

ByMark Graban June 2, 2026 919

Ohba Toyota palms up palms down improvement

First, We Develop the People

ByMark Graban June 1, 2026 604

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...

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

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

April 28, 2025

Recently, I had the pleasure of moderating a webinar titled “Driving a Culture of Transforming...

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)

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

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

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

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

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

August 20, 2024

Psychological safety is often described as “feeling safe to speak up.” In Lean...

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...

Distinguishing Signal from Noise in Metrics

ByMark Graban April 2, 2018 Comment (0) 1446

A talk given by Mark Graban at Lean Startup Week 2017. Visit this blog post to learn more:...

Friday Fun: “Bronze Orientation” Video

ByMark Graban March 9, 2018 Comment (0) 2611

I sometimes try to share some light or funny on Fridays to get into the weekend with a laugh. I...

A Look Back at “The Good Jobs Strategy” – For Retail and Beyond

ByMark Graban September 28, 2017 Comments (3) 2028

Today, I'm looking back at at podcast from two years ago, sharing this written summary that...

Mark Graban on YouTube

The Toyota andon cord allows a team member to signal a problem and request help without immediately stopping the production line.

Pulling the cord activates a light and calls the team leader to the workstation. If the problem can be resolved before the vehicle reaches a fixed stopping point, production continues. If it cannot, that section of the line stops.

This animation was AI-generated from still images taken from a Toyota video. It is a reconstructed demonstration, not original footage of the action or an official Toyota production.

The andon system gives team members both the ability and the obligation to call attention to problems so the team can respond before defects continue downstream.

#Andon #ToyotaProductionSystem #Lean #Kaizen #ContinuousImprovement #AIGenerated

Read more about andon: https://www.leanblog.org/2012/11/andon-cords-toyota-takaota-speaking-up/

Toyota Andon Cord Explained: How It Works

When someone makes a mistake, most managers say the same thing: be more careful next time. There's a Japanese term for why that almost never works.

Poka-yoke means mistake-proofing. It rests on one uncomfortable truth -- telling people to be more careful isn't a countermeasure. It's just asking them to try harder at something they were already trying at.

So poka-yoke changes the question. Not "how do we get people to stop making this mistake," but "how do we design the work so this mistake is hard, or impossible, to make in the first place?"

In this short: the part that only fits one way, the loom Sakichi Toyoda built before Toyota made cars, and why mistake-proofing is a more respectful idea than it first appears.

More on Lean leadership, psychological safety, and continuous improvement at LeanBlog.org.

#PokaYoke #MistakeProofing #Lean #ContinuousImprovement #LeanManufacturing #Leadership #Quality #OperationalExcellence #Kaizen #ProcessImprovement

"Be More Careful" Is Not a Real Countermeasure

Why 85% of Us Avoid Hard Conversations | Dr. Jonathan Thorp