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)

Why Caring Cultures Matter in Lean: Psychological Safety, Respect for People, and Sustainable Improvement

ByMark Graban October 15, 2025 2634

Caring cultures are not “soft” extras in Lean–they are foundational. Caroline Greenlee and Chris Butterworth explain how psychological safety, respect for people, and wellbeing...

Lean Healthcare Leadership: Humility, Psychological Safety, and Sustainable Improvement (with Carlos Scholz)

ByMark Graban October 2, 2025 3218

In this episode of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast, Carlos Scholz discusses Lean healthcare leadership, psychological safety, and humility–why improvement depends on leadership behaviors, not...

Previewing the LPPDE 2025 Conference with Geoff Neiley & Andrew Wagner

ByMark Graban September 20, 2025 2789

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guests for this bonus episode of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Geoff Neiley and Andrew Wagner, talking about the Lean Product & Process...

Profitable at Any Price: Lessons from Toyota, Daily Kaizen, and Safer Workplaces with Gregg Stocker

ByMark Graban September 17, 2025 3294

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #535 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gregg Stocker, a seasoned Lean practitioner, consultant, and author. Over the...

Alt text: A yellow pull cord hangs untouched above an automotive assembly line while workers continue building vehicles in the background.

Thirty Years Later, “Keep the Line Running” Is Still the Message

ByMark Graban August 6, 2026 565

When I was a young engineer at GM's Livonia Engine Plant in the mid-1990s, I wrote down some of the things production workers said to me. One of them stuck, a worker in a machining department:...

mark graban lean blog interviews karen martin highlights

Highlights From Five Conversations With Karen Martin

ByMark Graban August 5, 2026 352

Eight identical glass medication vials standing together on a hospital counter, with one vial lying on its side beside them.

Outcome Bias, Near Misses, and Two Vials of Vecuronium

ByMark Graban August 4, 2026 374

Where Was Toyota’s First Andon Cord?

ByMark Graban August 3, 2026 442

Hyundai’s Humanoid Robots, GM Layoffs, Jim Farley’s Ford Quality Turnaround, and Toyota Kaizen for Coffee Farmers

ByMark Graban July 31, 2026 8641

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...

Don’t Digitize the Suggestion Box: Build Real Kaizen with KaiNexus

ByMark Graban June 26, 2024 Comment (0) 1805

TL;DR: Digitizing a suggestion box doesn't fix what's broken. Real Kaizen requires fast feedback...

Flashback Friday: My First Video Podcast with Jamie Flinchbaugh in 2009

ByMark Graban June 7, 2024 Comment (0) 2574

Wow, time flies! 15 years ago, Jamie Flinchbaugh and I embarked on our first-ever video podcast...

Mistake-Proofing That Builds Learning: A New Course on Preventing Errors Without Blame

ByMark Graban May 27, 2024 Comment (0) 2809

Over the years, I've seen how often organizations respond to mistakes with blame, punishment, or...

Mark Graban on YouTube

Airline captain and retired Navy pilot Steve Montague describes what he did to make speaking up more likely on his flights, and none of it was a poster or a training module.

He shook hands and made eye contact with every flight attendant before the flight, walking to the back of the aircraft if he had not met them yet. In his briefing he told them to bring anything that did not look right to him or to the purser immediately. With the other pilots he was more direct: if you see anything I am doing that looks wrong, I expect you to speak up.

His point about repetition is the one worth borrowing. If enough people say it to each other on enough flights, it stops being a personal preference and becomes the culture.

He also notes that the closer you sit to the instruments, the less you see. The relief pilot in the jump seat, two feet back and not flying the airplane, misses nothing.

Watch the full conversation: https://youtu.be/vfVTIKqi45I

How a Captain Makes It Safe to Speak Up | Steve Montague

Too many leaders think a gemba walk means going to the floor to look at a metrics board. That's just moving the dashboard closer -- you've changed your location, not your thinking.

Gemba is the real place, where the work actually happens. But going there like an inspector teaches people to tidy up before you arrive and tell you what they think you want to hear. You went to the real place and still didn't see reality.

In this short, I cover what a gemba walk is actually for, the three questions that change everything about how it goes, and why curiosity beats judgment every time.

More on Lean leadership, psychological safety, and continuous improvement at https://LeanBlog.org.

#Gemba #GembaWalk #Lean #LeanManufacturing #ContinuousImprovement #Leadership #LeanLeadership #OperationalExcellence #Kaizen #ProcessImprovement

Notes: I led the hashtags with #Gemba and #GembaWalk rather than the broad #Lean, since this one has real term-specific search intent behind it — someone looking up gemba is closer to your audience than someone browsing #Lean generally. And I pulled the "you went to the real place" line into the description on purpose; it's the strongest line in the script and it does double duty as a hook for anyone reading before watching.

Your Gemba Walk Isn't a Gemba Walk If You Do This

Retired Navy pilot and airline captain Steve "Monty" Montague shares his favorite mistake, though he says that is not quite the right word for it. He calls it his least proud professional moment.

Early in his airline career, he spent a month flying with a captain who dismissed everything he offered. Ask about routing around a thunderstorm: "When I make a decision, I'll tell you what I want to do." Call maintenance about a burned-out light, which he was required by regulation to do: ask me first next time.

Then, descending into Albuquerque, Steve watched the airspeed sit at 300 knots below 10,000 feet, where the limit is 250. He knew it. He said nothing. He was about to speak up when the captain caught it himself.

Steve owns the whole thing plainly. He let his pettiness exceed his professionalism, and what bothered him was not getting chewed out. It was letting himself down. He took two vows from it: never do that again, and never create an environment where somebody wants to undermine the work.

The second half is the useful counterweight. Years later, as a captain, his own first officer challenged his taxi clearance and turned out to be wrong. The first officer started apologizing. Steve's answer: you could have just saved me from a mistake, so next time you see me make one, say something.

We also cover the do-not-pair list, what happened when he flew with that captain again seven or eight years later, Alan Mulally clapping for bad news at Ford, and the four-part assertive statement that starts with a person's name and the words "I'm concerned."

Chapters
0:00 The favorite mistake question
0:28 A month with a captain who dismissed everything
2:16 300 knots below 10,000 feet
3:24 Pettiness exceeding professionalism
4:09 The do-not-pair list, and flying with him again
5:22 When his first officer challenged him
6:45 Alan Mulally and clapping for bad news
7:16 "I'm concerned" and why you cannot argue with it

Watch the full conversation: https://youtu.be/vfVTIKqi45I

What a Month of Being Shut Down Does to a First Officer