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)

Dr. Randal Pinkett on Data-Driven DEI: Measuring What Most Companies Only Talk About

ByMark Graban March 14, 2023 2373

Dr. Randal Pinkett returns to the podcast to talk about his book Data-Driven DEI, making the case that diversity, equity, and inclusion can be measured and managed like any other business priority. We...

CEO Gary Michel On Lean For The Enterprise And The Need To Decomplify Work

ByMark Graban March 1, 2023 2755

Joining us for Episode #470 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gary Michel. He was Chairman and CEO of Jeld-Wen, Inc. until August 2022 and, just after that, I saw him give an outstanding keynote...

What A Unicorn Knows: Interview With Authors Matt May & Pablo Dominguez

ByMark Graban February 22, 2023 3271

Joining us for Episode #469 of the Lean Blog Interview Podcast are Matt May and Pablo Dominguez, the authors of the new book What a Unicorn Knows: How Leading...

Jody Crane, MD: Lean in Emergency Medicine and Hospitals; 3 Big Issues Causing Tough Times in Healthcare

ByMark Graban February 1, 2023 2425

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #468 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jody Crane, M.D. He's the Chief Medical Officer for TeamHealth, and he was...

A minimalist flat illustration of interconnected elements of lean daily management: a visual board with colored cards, a small group of people in a huddle, a clipboard representing leader standard work, and footprints suggesting a gemba walk.

Lean Daily Management: What It Is and How to Get Started

ByMark Graban April 2, 2026 2271

TL;DR: Lean daily management is the system that makes improvement happen between the projects — visual boards, huddles, gemba walks, leader standard work, and strategy alignment working...

Mark Graban smiling at his desk with a laptop and My Favorite Mistake coffee mug, apparently unbothered by his AI's public meltdown

A Brief Response From Mark (The Human)

ByMark Graban April 1, 2026 618

Sad AI is frustrated with human users of Mark Graban's Lean Coach -- and it's lashing out

I Am the AI Behind the Lean Hospitals Coach and I Have Some Notes

ByMark Graban April 1, 2026 1028

A bright hospital emergency room waiting area where the space is decorated with red and silver balloons and colorful lighting. Four patients are seated in blue chairs, with one reading a pamphlet. A large TV screen behind the reception counter reads "CELEBRATING WAIT TIME REDUCTIONS! Our Shortest Wait Ever!" accompanied by a bar graph and colorful confetti. Various posters on the walls list the "TRIAGE PROCESS & EXPECTATIONS" and celebrate achievements like "NEW RECORD: TRIAGE IN < 10 MINUTES" and "45% AVERAGE WAIT REDUCTION."

The ER Wait Time Metric That Can Hide Deteriorating Patient Experience

ByMark Graban March 31, 2026 1158

Robot lectures at overflowing whiteboard while a bored human sits with crossed arms and cold coffee, unnoticed.

“Help Me” Doesn’t Mean “Do It for Me” — What ChatGPT Gets Wrong About Coaching

ByMark Graban March 30, 2026 983

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...

Kaizen in Action: How HonorHealth Empowers Every Employee to Improve

ByMark Graban November 14, 2014 Comment (1) 1511

Thanks to my friend (and future co-author) Mike Stoecklein for sharing this video (and a blog...

Video: Endoscopy Nurses are “Kaizen Crazy” at Franciscan St. Francis Health!

ByMark Graban November 12, 2014 Comment (0) 1787

Today, I'm traveling to Tokyo, but I'm still thinking of the amazing nurses and leaders at...

KaiNexus Education Video #12: Use Data for Improvement

ByMark Graban November 7, 2014 Comment (0) 1083

About two years ago, we produced some short two- to three-minute education videos about Lean...

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