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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

Innovation, Noise, and Strategy: A Conversation with Ryan McCormack

Innovation, Noise, and Strategy: A Conversation with Ryan McCormack

ByMark Graban August 4, 2021 1851
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more We've been on hiatus over the summer here, but I did a live-streaming video the other day with my friend Ryan McCormack, who regular readers of...
In Memoriam: “Lean Blog Interviews” Podcast Guests Who Have Passed Away

In Memoriam: “Lean Blog Interviews” Podcast Guests Who Have Passed Away

ByMark Graban July 27, 2021 1485
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more During our summer hiatus from releasing new podcast episodes, we're looking back at previous episodes of the podcast. Today, sadly, we're taking...
Katie Anderson: ‘Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn’ Audiobook Launch & 1st Anniversary

Katie Anderson: ‘Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn’ Audiobook Launch & 1st Anniversary

ByMark Graban July 13, 2021 2708
Scroll down for video, how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #420 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Katie Anderson, appearing for the sixth time and the first time as a...
From Freight Trains to Beauty Pageants: Allison Greco’s Lean Six Sigma Journey

From Freight Trains to Beauty Pageants: Allison Greco’s Lean Six Sigma Journey

ByMark Graban June 22, 2021 1952
Scroll down for video, how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #419 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Allison Greco, an industrial engineer, a Six Sigma Black Belt, and the...

More Blog Posts

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: January 9, 2026

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: January 9, 2026

Ryan McCormackByRyan McCormack January 9, 2026 4622
Summary: Today's “mixtape” post brings together timely ideas on continuous improvement, leadership, productivity, and workplace culture. From avoiding “blank slate” metrics and...
1. Smiling cartoon men in suits with coffee background, discussing Lean Coffee Talk podcast.

Lean Coffee Talk #6: System Design, Higher Ed Innovation, and Navigating Improvement Quotas

Mark GrabanByMark Graban January 9, 2026 9155
jeff liker lean toyota way

“Toyota Culture” 20 Years Later: Why Liker’s Lessons Still Matter in 2026

Mark GrabanByMark Graban January 7, 2026 3014
kathy miller lean blog interviews more is better

Kathy Miller on “MORE Is Better”: Meaning, Optimism, and Relationships in Operations Leadership

Mark GrabanByMark Graban January 7, 2026 2602
Doctor in a white coat with stethoscope, hands in pockets, against plain background.

From “White Coat Leadership” to Lean Leadership: John Toussaint’s Message Still Matters

Mark GrabanByMark Graban January 6, 2026 2692

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

KaiNexus Education Video #7 – No Countermeasure? That’s OK

KaiNexus Education Video #7 – No Countermeasure? That’s OK

ByMark Graban November 5, 2012 Comments (10) 1189
Here is the seventh in our series of short, simple Kaizen education videos from KaiNexus, a software...
Getting to the Root Cause on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy

Getting to the Root Cause on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy

ByMark Graban November 3, 2012 Comments (3) 1407
Last week, my wife was watching ABC's show “Grey's Anatomy,” as she always does. Again...
Kaizen vs. the Suggestion Box: Why Employee Engagement Requires Leadership, Not a Tool

Kaizen vs. the Suggestion Box: Why Employee Engagement Requires Leadership, Not a Tool

ByMark Graban October 29, 2012 Comment (1) 2216
Suggestion boxes collect ideas–but Kaizen builds capability. In this short video, I explain...

Mark Graban on YouTube

Strategy deployment -- hoshin kanri -- is supposed to work like a game of catch. Goals flow down from leadership, ideas and feedback flow back up from the people doing the work, and both sides adjust. The ball goes back and forth. A lot of organizations are playing dodgeball instead. The ball only goes one direction, it's thrown hard, and the people on the receiving end are just trying not to get hit. The cost isn't the meeting time you save by skipping the conversation. It's the year you lose executing against metrics that don't match the work. In this short, I share what happened when a hospital cascaded a patient falls target to a labor and delivery unit whose patients don't fall -- and the dashboard that would have looked perfect while the real risks went unmeasured. More on Lean leadership, psychological safety, and continuous improvement at LeanBlog.org. #StrategyDeployment #HoshinKanri #Lean #LeanLeadership #ContinuousImprovement #Leadership #CatchBall #OperationalExcellence #Kaizen #ProcessImprovement
Catch Ball or Dodgeball? How Goals Really Flow
An ICU nurse was asked to run a hospital laboratory she knew nothing about, right as consultants arrived to cut costs. Four months in, she was sure saying yes had been a mistake. Stephanie Mitchell explains what changed her mind, and what she learned about leading people whose work you could never do yourself. 🔵 Why leading experts starts with admitting you are not one 🔵 What separates real cost reduction from an across-the-board 10 percent cut 🔵 Why a written no-layoff commitment was a condition of the consulting contract 🔵 How faster lab turnaround times helped the hospital avoid building an ER expansion 🔵 The five separate checks that stop one human error from reaching a patient 🔵 What David Mann meant by embracing a mistake instead of looking away from it 🔵 Why the people who never ask questions were the ones she worried about Chapters (approximate, pending verification against the published video): 00:00 Meeting again 20 years later 01:43 The favorite mistake: saying yes to the lab 05:01 Leading people who know more than you 09:48 Cutting costs the right way 13:54 The no-layoff promise 16:52 Turnaround times and the ER expansion they skipped 21:15 Convincing a skeptical CEO 24:35 Building the lean team 28:34 Five checks in the blood bank 33:18 Embracing the mistake Stephanie Mitchell, RN, BSN, MBA, retired as Director of Lean Process Improvement and Laboratory Services at Riverside Medical Center in Kankakee, Illinois, where she led the laboratory for 20 years. Full episode page: https://markgraban.com/mistake367 Host Mark Graban is a consultant, speaker, and the author of The Mistakes That Make Us. Subscribe for new episodes of My Favorite Mistake every week. #MyFavoriteMistake #Leadership #Healthcare #Lean #ContinuousImprovement #PsychologicalSafety
They Asked a Nurse to Run the Hospital Lab | Stephanie Mitchell
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
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