Popular Posts
A Lean Management System That Doesn’t Depend on the Lean Team — Emily Swaney, OhioHealth 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

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

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

ByMark Graban June 19, 2023 1974
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...
Interview with Prof. Zeynep Ton: The Case for Good Jobs and the Good Jobs System

Interview with Prof. Zeynep Ton: The Case for Good Jobs and the Good Jobs System

ByMark Graban June 7, 2023 5010
In this Lean Blog Interviews episode, Zeynep Ton explains why good jobs are not a perk or policy–but a system. We discuss her book The Case for Good Jobs, the Good Jobs System, and how dignity...
Ken Pilone On Transferring TPS & Lean To Areas Outside Of Manufacturing, Including Policing And Healthcare

Ken Pilone On Transferring TPS & Lean To Areas Outside Of Manufacturing, Including Policing And Healthcare

ByMark Graban May 30, 2023 1288
Joining us for Episode #476 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Ken Pilone, who has more than 30 years' experience in Organization Development in government, retail, automotive, distribution, and...
Interview with Joshua Kerievsky on the Joy of Agility — It’s Not Just for Software Companies

Interview with Joshua Kerievsky on the Joy of Agility — It’s Not Just for Software Companies

ByMark Graban May 17, 2023 2721
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #475 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Joshua Kerievsky, the founder and CEO of Industrial Logic, one of the oldest...

More Blog Posts

Empty conference room with whiteboard covered in a fishbone diagram and sticky notes, chairs pushed back after a meeting

Why You Can’t Think Your Way to a Root Cause

Mark GrabanByMark Graban April 22, 2026 1264
You know the feeling in the conference room when the team finally lands it. The fishbone is covered in sticky notes. You've worked through five whys, or ten, or fifteen. Somebody on the team traces...
Lean Blog Post Cover Image - 2026-04-17T070148.509

Staff Had Concerns: What a Surgeon’s Manslaughter Charge Tells Us About Speaking Up

Mark GrabanByMark Graban April 21, 2026 766
Yellow diamond warning sign on a pole showing a cyclist flying over handlebars after hitting streetcar tracks, along the Ohio River in Cincinnati

Warning: Signs! Mistake-Proofing Is More Effective Than Warnings

Mark GrabanByMark Graban April 20, 2026 779
Lean Blog Post Cover Image - 2026-04-18T075308.059

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: April 17, 2026

Ryan McCormackByRyan McCormack April 18, 2026 4243
A busy hospital waiting room with about a dozen patients seated in rows of connected chairs, illustrating the waste of waiting -- one of the eight wastes of Lean.

The 8 Wastes of Lean: A Practical Guide (With Healthcare Examples)

Mark GrabanByMark Graban April 16, 2026 2055

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

Video: The Culture is Staff Input; Info About a Class on Kaizen at Franciscan St. Francis Health

Video: The Culture is Staff Input; Info About a Class on Kaizen at Franciscan St. Francis Health

ByMark Graban December 16, 2014 Comment (1) 1186
Here's the latest in our series of videos about Kaizen and a culture of continuous improvement at...
How Engaging Everyone in Kaizen Saves this Hospital Leader Time Lots of Time

How Engaging Everyone in Kaizen Saves this Hospital Leader Time Lots of Time

ByMark Graban December 2, 2014 Comment (0) 1519
A few weeks back, I posted the first new video from my Healthcare Kaizen co-author‘s health...
Is “The Jerk” Good at Problem Solving?

Is “The Jerk” Good at Problem Solving?

ByMark Graban November 21, 2014 Comment (0) 3774
Four years ago, I parodied the style of GEICO commercial that they were running at the time with a...

Mark Graban on YouTube

Counting how many teams run Agile ceremonies is measuring activity, not improvement. Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi call that “change theater,” and it’s one of the illusions their new book Signals & Levers is built to dismantle. In Episode 550 of Lean Blog Interviews, I talk with Elisabeth and Joel about Signals & Levers: Systems Thinking Tools to Unblock Software Delivery (IT Revolution, September 2026). The book applies systems thinking, Deming, Shewhart, Argyris, and Donella Meadows to software delivery, but most of the conversation applies to any organization trying to improve. In this conversation: 🔵 The three illusions that travel together: predictability, progress, and control 🔵 Why “running open loop” means changing things without ever checking whether the change worked 🔵 How organizations accidentally create latency by separating strategy from execution and skills from each other 🔵 Why Joel introduced process behavior charts (Shewhart charts) to software teams, and what he wanted to stop arguing about 🔵 Why story points are an opinion, cycle time is a fact, and doing math on an opinion still gives you an opinion 🔵 Why a Chris Argyris “Model One” organization scores itself high on psychological safety surveys while behaving otherwise 🔵 Why you can’t fix fear by telling people to be brave Chapters: 00:00 Meet Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi 04:30 Origin stories and a Toyota supplier lesson 11:50 Systems thinking applied to software 14:07 Three illusions: predictability, progress, control 17:32 Every change is a hypothesis 20:16 Open loop vs closed loop 25:24 Change theater and measuring activity 28:15 Latency that organizations create by accident 36:21 Process behavior charts and variability 44:11 Why story points are opinions 47:17 Psychological safety surveys that mislead 55:31 You can't fix fear by telling people to be brave 58:40 Everyone has levers About the guests: Elisabeth Hendrickson is the founder of Curious Duck Digital Laboratory, where she advises and coaches technology leaders. She was previously VP of R&D at Pivotal, leading about 170 engineers, product managers, and designers, and she is the author of Explore It! Joel Tosi is co-founder and CTO of Dojo & Co., which helps organizations improve the flow of work through immersive learning environments. He has more than 25 years of experience delivering software and is co-author of Creating Your Dojo and Coaching for Learning. Joel previously appeared in Episode 351 with Dion Stewart: https://www.leanblog.org/351 Signals & Levers: https://link.amazon/B0cmgBGmU Curious Duck Digital Laboratory: https://curiousduck.io Dojo & Co.: https://www.dojoandco.com Full show notes and transcript: https://www.leanblog.org/550 Mark Graban is an author, consultant, and speaker on Lean management, continuous improvement, and psychological safety. His books include Lean Hospitals, Healthcare Kaizen, Measures of Success, and The Mistakes That Make Us. His next book is The Silence Tax: How Lean Leaders Drive Out Fear and Futility. He hosts the Lean Blog Interviews and My Favorite Mistake podcasts and writes at https://www.leanblog.org Subscribe for more conversations on Lean, leadership, psychological safety, and continuous improvement. #LeanBlogInterviews #SystemsThinking #SignalsAndLevers #SoftwareDelivery #PsychologicalSafety #ProcessBehaviorCharts #ChangeTheater #Deming #DevOps #ContinuousImprovement
Change Theater and the Illusion of Progress | Elisabeth Hendrickson & Joel Tosi
Psychological safety doesn’t come from a tidy formula. Leaders build it through specific behaviors, repeated over time. They can practice those behaviors, watch what happens, and adjust. My new course, Leading with Psychological Safety, is now available from TKMG Academy. It’s for senior leaders, frontline managers, continuous improvement professionals, consultants, educators, and anyone who wants a culture where people speak up to improve how work gets done. The course covers: 🔵 What psychological safety is, and common misconceptions 🔵 The four stages of psychological safety (from Timothy R. Clark) 🔵 Two reasons people stay silent: fear and futility 🔵 Four leadership behaviors that build it: Model, Encourage, Enable, and Reward 🔵 How to assess progress 13 lessons, about an hour total. Also available in Spanish. Available now. Learn more and purchase here: https://tkmgacademy.com/courses/leading-with-psychological-safety/
Psychological Safety Isn’t a Formula. It’s Leadership Behavior.
Tyler McBroom asked to reschedule a 10:30 PM call about partnering with Tony Robbins, then spent three years trying to get it back. When the offer finally came, he understood why the wait may have protected his firm. What you’ll hear: 🔵 The rescheduling request that turned into three years of follow-up 🔵 What Tyler sent every month while he waited, and the silence that came back 🔵 How his firm grew from four people to 24 before the partnership arrived 🔵 Why landing it the first time might have caused the firm to implode 🔵 The math on doubling your price and losing half your clients 🔵 The “grin test” for any tax deduction you’d have to defend in an audit Tyler McBroom, CPA, MBA, is the CEO of TRM CPA and the author of Cash Flow and Grow. Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/lq3VF9othSA Episode page and transcript: https://markgraban.com/mistake371 Subscribe for new episodes of My Favorite Mistake, where leaders talk candidly about the mistakes that taught them the most.
Getting the Deal Early Would Have Sunk Us | Tyler McBroom
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