Popular Posts
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 How Toyota Turned Around Its Kentucky Plant: Darril Wilburn on Leadership
No posts found.

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

Steve Spear on Lessons from Hajime Oba: How Toyota’s Legendary Teacher Looked at Systems and Learning

Steve Spear on Lessons from Hajime Oba: How Toyota’s Legendary Teacher Looked at Systems and Learning

ByMark Graban September 29, 2020 3282
Steve Spear shares lessons from Hajime Oba, who founded Toyota's Supplier Support Center (TSSC) and became one of the most influential teachers of the Toyota Production System in North America. In...
Emily Elrod on What it Means to Work “WISE”

Emily Elrod on What it Means to Work “WISE”

ByMark Graban September 20, 2020 2016
My guest for Episode #385 of the podcast is Emily Elrod, the president of the firm Workzbe, based in Georgia. We have shared interests in Lean, ergonomics, healthcare and creating better workplaces...
Podcast #384 — Craig Gygi on the “Truth About Data”

Podcast #384 — Craig Gygi on the “Truth About Data”

ByMark Graban September 10, 2020 1841
Joining me today for Episode #384 of the podcast is Craig Gygi, co-author of the book Six Sigma for Dummies. He also managing principal and owner of the firm Strategic Productivity. You can read his...
Patrick Anderson Lean Blog Interviews Podcast

Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Lean, and Moving Beyond Command-and-Control Leadership

ByMark Graban August 30, 2020 1874
Joining me today for Episode #383 of the podcast is Patrick Anderson, the CEO of the Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc. (or “RurAL CAP”). Patrick was previously a guest way back...

More Blog Posts

Ghosts, Zombies, and Frankenstein Processes: A Lean Halloween Reflection

Ghosts, Zombies, and Frankenstein Processes: A Lean Halloween Reflection

Mark GrabanByMark Graban October 30, 2025 1712
tl;dr: Halloween might be about ghosts, zombies, and monsters — but those same creatures sometimes show up in our organizations all year long. They lurk in old processes, mindless routines, and...

Why Leaders Get Trapped in Firefighting: Nelson Repenning on Lean, Flow, and Work Design

Mark GrabanByMark Graban October 29, 2025 4713

Delta’s $70,000 Slide Mistake Shows Why “Human Error” Is Really a System Problem

Mark GrabanByMark Graban October 27, 2025 1448

How Great Leaders Prevent Mistakes and Learn from the Ones That Happen

Mark GrabanByMark Graban October 27, 2025 1246

Leadership, Laughter, and Lean: How a CEO’s Shaved Head Symbolized $7 Million in Improvement

Mark GrabanByMark Graban October 23, 2025 1228

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

The Office’s Paper Sales Gimmick–and What It Reveals About Bad Metrics

The Office’s Paper Sales Gimmick–and What It Reveals About Bad Metrics

ByMark Graban January 19, 2012 Comments (6) 2645
A Vivid Example of Gaming the Numbers on “The Office” NBC's “The Office” is...
Kaizen Videos from a Franciscan “Kaizeneer”

Kaizen Videos from a Franciscan “Kaizeneer”

ByMark Graban January 9, 2012 Comments (3) 860
My Healthcare Kaizen  co-author Joe Swartz works in Indianapolis in the Franciscan St. Francis...

This Commercial is Not Exactly the “Five Whys”

ByMark Graban January 7, 2012 Comment (0) 926
If you're watching college football bowls or the NFL playoffs, it's hard not to see this commercial...

Mark Graban on YouTube

Do we want to be right, or help others change? This speaker reel connects psychological safety, problem-solving, and continuous improvement. I’m Mark Graban, an author, speaker, and consultant. In these keynote clips, I discuss stories from Toyota and a comparison with Ford to explore how leadership and culture shape people’s willingness to speak up. The clips cover: - Responding constructively when mistakes happen - Combining psychological safety with practical problem-solving - Modeling vulnerability and rewarding people for speaking up Planning a conference, leadership meeting, or workshop? Let’s discuss your audience and goals. Speaking topics: https://www.markgraban.com/speaking/topics/ Booking inquiries: https://www.markgraban.com/speaking/book-mark/
Mark Graban Speaker Reel | Psychological Safety & Leadership
A patient was supposed to undergo surgery for a right-sided inguinal hernia. But the incision was made on the left side. Dr. David Mayer, then a senior anesthesia resident, recalls how the operating room team moved quickly into the procedure while everyone focused on their own responsibilities. About two minutes after the incision, the attending surgeon entered the room, looked at the patient, and asked: “I thought this was a right-sided inguinal hernia?” That was the moment the team realized what had happened. In this clip from *My Favorite Mistake*, Dr. Mayer describes the wrong-site surgery that became a defining experience in his career—and helped shape his commitment to patient safety, transparency, and learning from medical errors. The larger lesson isn’t simply “be more careful.” It’s to understand how systems, communication, time pressure, teamwork, and culture can allow an error to reach a patient. Full episode: **The Surgical Mistake That Changed a Doctor’s Life: Dr. David Mayer on Honesty and Patient Safety** #PatientSafety #MedicalErrors #Healthcare #Leadership #SurgicalSafety #MyFavoriteMistake
Wrong-Site Surgery: The Mistake Discovered Mid-Procedure
How did Toyota’s Georgetown, Kentucky plant go from needing to build almost 90% of its capacity just to break even, to a much healthier 60%? Former Toyota team member Darril Wilburn, co-author with Hiro Yoshiki of Courage, Humility, Kaizen: The Three Disciplines of Toyota Leadership, tells the inside story. We talk about the andon cord myth, “healthy paranoia,” why Toyota never talked about being number one, sending managers back through jishuken, why every VP’s first A3 was sent back by design, and why doing TPS was never the point. Full episode page, links, show notes, and transcript: https://leanblog.org/551 What you’ll learn: 🔵 What really happens when someone pulls the andon cord 🔵 Why psychological safety at Toyota includes being challenged 🔵 How “healthy paranoia” keeps an organization from getting complacent 🔵 How TMMK cut its break-even point from nearly 90% to 60% 🔵 Why Hiro Yoshiki rejected blame and focused on equipping people to succeed 🔵 How Toyota turned its masters’ know-how into teachable curriculum 🔵 Why humility had to be built into how executives were developed Chapters: 00:00 Introducing Darril Wilburn and Courage, Humility, Kaizen 01:47 How Darril met Hiro Yoshiki 05:52 The andon cord myth 07:59 How andon escalation actually works 11:35 Building psychological safety before line-off 13:23 Respect for humanity includes challenge 15:56 Healthy paranoia 18:36 Why Toyota didn’t talk about being number one 20:03 Toyota’s careful entry into the U.S. 22:36 Rapid expansion and a 90% break-even point 24:47 The turnaround: from 90% to 60% 25:39 No blame 27:00 Pulling wisdom out of the masters 30:36 Why expertise had to be dragged out 33:52 Breaking the cycle of rescue teams 35:11 Jishuken and the humility to relearn 37:04 Straight talk instead of spin 40:35 Hiro, not heroes 42:52 Formal and informal communication 46:08 Can you help someone become more humble? 47:42 Every VP sent back on the first A3 51:07 “Doing TPS was never the point” 52:32 Toyota is a business 53:48 Stop counting kaizens when you’re losing money 54:36 Closing Subscribe to Lean Blog Interviews for more conversations on Lean, leadership, continuous improvement, and psychological safety: http://leancast.org/ #Toyota #LeanManagement #ToyotaWay #Kaizen #Leadership #ContinuousImprovement #PsychologicalSafety
Toyota’s Kentucky Turnaround: Courage, Humility, Kaizen | Darril Wilburn
Subscribe

Trending now

Engineer in business casual standing on top of a CEO's desk holding a blueprint, looking down at a seated executive in a dark suit who looks up at him from his leather chair in a high-rise corner office
Fear-Based Leadership Worked at Volkswagen. Until It Didn’t.
Illustration of three hands with different skin tones cradling a glowing orange heart, surrounded by blue and beige abstract leaf shapes
Peter Pronovost on Leading with Love: What the Checklist Needed All Along
Nick Katko in blue shirt beside chalkboard reading ACCOUNTING with chalk gears labeled Payable, Ledger, Assets, Expenditure, Review
Creating a Continuous Improvement System in Accounting: Nick Katko on PDCA, Culture, and Psychological Safety
Man in light blue shirt standing indoors next to icons indicating conditions for speaking up, safe, and worthwhile.
Why People Stay Silent at Work: My New Psychological Safety Course