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)

Reflections on GE’s Lean Mindset Event: Learning, Leadership, and Culture

ByMark Graban September 12, 2023 5615

This bonus episode captures an unscripted, post-event conversation with Jim Womack, Katie Anderson, Jamie V. Parker, and Mark Graban reflecting on GE's “Lean Mindset” event. Together, we...

Interview with Keith Ingels on Developing Your People and Making Lean /TPS Your Own

ByMark Graban September 6, 2023 2869

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #484 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Keith Ingels, who previously joined us in Episode 390. He's the RLM Manager of...

A Discussion with Amanda Zimmerman and Dominic Stokes on “Squishy Lean”

ByMark Graban August 23, 2023 2478

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guests for Episode #483 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Amanda Zimmerman and Dominic Stokes, two Lean Six Sigma professionals who...

Interview with “Kata Girl Geek” Gemma Jones on Lean, Improvement, and Mental Health

ByMark Graban August 9, 2023 2456

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #482 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gemma Jones. Gemma is an Improvement Coach, Trainer, and Visual Facilitator...

Empty nursing station at a hospital during shift change, with a nurse visible down the hallway attending to a patient room, showing the gap between where leadership should be and where clinical demands pull the charge nurse.

The Most Expensive Person on Your Unit Is the One You Just Eliminated

ByMark Graban May 5, 2026 717

There's a hospital somewhere this quarter presenting a labor efficiency story to its board. A unit that used to have a dedicated charge nurse now has a “Working Charge Nurse” –...

Remembering Norm Bodek, 20 Years After Episode #1

ByMark Graban May 4, 2026 689

Lean Blog Post Cover Image - 2026-05-01T083005.021

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: May 1, 2026

ByRyan McCormack May 1, 2026 4205

Why Most People Don’t Think — and What to Do About It, with Scott Burgmeyer

ByMark Graban April 29, 2026 1837

A close-up of a metal name badge or nameplate on a dark blue work shirt. The badge reads "PROCESS COACH" in crisp embossed letters. The shirt and badge look new. Behind the figure, slightly out of focus, is an industrial factory environment with fluorescent overhead lighting and assembly line equipment. The composition emphasizes the contrast between the pristine, almost promotional quality of the title on the badge and the harsh, utilitarian reality of the environment. Photorealistic, documentary style, muted industrial color palette with deep blues and steel grays. The mood is quietly ironic - the title and the setting don't match.

Calling a Supervisor a “Process Coach” Doesn’t Mean the Job Really Changes

ByMark Graban April 28, 2026 1469

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...

See How a British Psychiatrist is Using LEGO Videos to Explain Lean Healthcare

ByMark Graban July 21, 2015 Comment (0) 1468

A collection of creative videos was recently brought to my attention and I'd like to share them...

What’s a Kanban System? This Video From Saskatchewan Provides a Great Overview

ByMark Graban June 8, 2015 Comments (11) 1958

Today, I'm sharing a 10-minute video that was shared by the Five Hills Health Region within the...

Safety Huddles in Healthcare: How Daily Huddles Improve Patient Safety

ByMark Graban May 13, 2015 Comments (5) 2391

Following up on yesterday's post on seemingly successful experiments with ACOs, here's another...

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