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

Lauren Hisey on Bridging the Gap Between People, Process, and Technology

Lauren Hisey on Bridging the Gap Between People, Process, and Technology

ByMark Graban May 10, 2022 1315
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #447 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Lauren Hisey. Lauren is a Continuous Business Process Improvement consultant...
Sumitra Vig on Lean & Quality: First Time Right or Next Time Right?

Sumitra Vig on Lean & Quality: First Time Right or Next Time Right?

ByMark Graban April 26, 2022 2016
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #446 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Sumitra Vig. She is a partner with her advisory firm Svakarma Advisory, LLP...
Michael Parent on “The Lean Innovation Cycle” — Human-Centered Design and More

Michael Parent on “The Lean Innovation Cycle” — Human-Centered Design and More

ByMark Graban April 12, 2022 1384
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #445 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Michael Parent. He is the Managing Director of Michael Parent Consulting...
Michele Smith on Winning the People Side of Lean Transformation

Michele Smith on Winning the People Side of Lean Transformation

ByMark Graban March 29, 2022 1729
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #444 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Michele Smith. She is CEO and an Executive Coach with her firm Better...

More Blog Posts

Illustration of a laptop on a desk showing an AI coaching chat interface with a question from the user and a follow-up coaching response ending with a reflective question, representing the Lean Hospitals Coach tool

Watch the Lean Hospitals Coach in Action — Live, Unscripted, With Your Questions

Mark GrabanByMark Graban March 4, 2026 806
Here's something I've learned over many years of consulting: giving people advice they haven't asked for is a reliable way to get ignored, no matter how correct the advice is. This is also...
A man reflects on how overreaction impacts organizational culture, with icons illustrating blame, impact, and reactions in a professional setting.

Leadership Overreaction: The Hidden Cause of Organizational Failure

Mark GrabanByMark Graban March 4, 2026 894
Cross-sectional CT scan image of spine showing disc degeneration, shared via patient portal because physical CD had not yet arrived

Healthcare in 2026: Still Faxing, Already Talking About AI

Mark GrabanByMark Graban March 3, 2026 1208
Two speech bubbles side by side: one contains a bulleted list, the other contains a question mark.

Why a Lean Coach Asks Questions Instead of Giving Answers

Mark GrabanByMark Graban March 1, 2026 784
A split illustration of two open books on a wooden desk with a stethoscope. The left book shows a cloud of random floating letters forming a cloud, with diffuse light. The right book shows structured bulleted text flowing through a mechanical spine into an organized outline with a light beam. A bookshelf is in the blurred background. Modern digital style with teal and warm tones.

Why I Built My Own AI Instead of Telling You to Use ChatGPT

Mark GrabanByMark Graban February 28, 2026 786

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

Weekend Fun: Lean in a British Hospital Soap Opera

Weekend Fun: Lean in a British Hospital Soap Opera

ByMark Graban February 9, 2014 Comments (3) 1216
Hat tip to Paul Levy for sharing this video originally in his blog post. Here is the video (you just...
Super Bowl Commercial: American Factories? You Can’t Do That! Really?

Super Bowl Commercial: American Factories? You Can’t Do That! Really?

ByMark Graban February 4, 2014 Comments (8) 1318
I'm a bit of a counter-culturalist when it comes to the hype about Super Bowl commercials being...
Parody Video – Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together

Parody Video – Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together

ByMark Graban January 31, 2014 Comment (1) 899
Next class: Boston, May 20, 2015 I was thinking yesterday about the “Lean for Knowledge...

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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