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We Thought We Solved That: The Art and Judgment Calls in the PDSA Cycle A Bending Column, a Bad Answer, and the Real Test of a Speak-Up Culture What the First Twelve Years of Writing About Sports Taught Me About Leadership
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What the First Twelve Years of Writing About Sports Taught Me About Leadership

ByMark Graban July 17, 2026 Comment (0) 104
I've been pulling together a slightly updated edition of my eBook collecting the sports-related...
20 year anniversary lean blog interviews podcast

20 Years Of Lean Podcasting, Thanks to Norman Bodek

ByMark Graban July 16, 2026 Comments (4) 698
Lean Blog Cover (8)

A Bending Column, a Bad Answer, and the Real Test of a Speak-Up Culture

ByMark Graban July 15, 2026 Comment (0) 204
we thought we solved that

We Thought We Solved That: The Art and Judgment Calls in the PDSA Cycle

ByMark Graban July 14, 2026 Comment (0) 235

Mark Graban

Welcome to my blog!

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 (3)

Lean Blog Interviews Podcast

Dale Lucht on Leadership Habits That Sustain Lean Transformations

Dale Lucht on Leadership Habits That Sustain Lean Transformations

ByMark Graban September 3, 2025 2779
In this episode of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast, Dale Lucht reflects on the leadership habits that separate short-lived Lean gains from lasting cultural transformation–and the mistakes...
Building Independent, Empowered Teams Through 6 Transformational Leadership Habits, with Cheryl Jekiel

Building Independent, Empowered Teams Through 6 Transformational Leadership Habits, with Cheryl Jekiel

ByMark Graban August 20, 2025 3353
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #533 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Cheryl Jekiel, founder of the Lean Leadership Center and a longtime advocate for...
Coaching Relentless Problem Solvers and Building a Culture of Lean Thinking — Anne Frewin’s Leadership Approach

Coaching Relentless Problem Solvers and Building a Culture of Lean Thinking — Anne Frewin’s Leadership Approach

ByMark Graban August 6, 2025 3076
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #532 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Anne Frewin, a seasoned Lean leader with over 12 years of improvement experience...
Melisa Buie on Lean Culture, Scientific Thinking, and Empowering Engineers

Melisa Buie on Lean Culture, Scientific Thinking, and Empowering Engineers

ByMark Graban July 23, 2025 3149
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #531 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Dr. Melisa Buie, a seasoned operations and engineering leader with decades of...

More Blog Posts

Cartoon illustration of a royal Burger King–style mascot holding up the back of a smartphone while looking confused and frustrated, with a no-signal icon in a speech bubble and a question mark beside him.

Admitting Mistakes Is Not Enough: The Leadership Lesson Behind the Burger King and Domino’s Ads

Mark GrabanByMark Graban June 4, 2026 907
TL;DR: Burger King, T-Mobile, and Domino's have all built ad campaigns around the same confession: our product was bad, but it's better now. The marketing is interesting. The leadership lesson is...
Lean Blog Post Cover Image - 2026-06-02T170331.956

You’re Not Hiring Talent. You’re Renting It.

Mark GrabanByMark Graban June 2, 2026 466
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What Toyota’s 1992 Booklet Says About Stopping the Line, and What It Leaves to You

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Ohba Toyota palms up palms down improvement

First, We Develop the People

Mark GrabanByMark Graban June 1, 2026 507
lean blog mixtape

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: May 29, 2026

Ryan McCormackByRyan McCormack May 29, 2026 4052

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

First Printed Proof Copy of The Mistakes That Make Us (Video)

First Printed Proof Copy of The Mistakes That Make Us (Video)

ByMark Graban June 14, 2023 Comments (3) 1235
I'm excited to share the first printed proof copy of The Mistakes That Make Us, my new (upcoming)...
View Now: Panel Discussion Webinar on the Proposed National Patient Safety Board

View Now: Panel Discussion Webinar on the Proposed National Patient Safety Board

ByMark Graban January 18, 2023 Comment (0) 1059
I'm happy to have hosted and moderated a panel discussion format webinar that was sponsored by Value...
Lucy and the Chocolate Factory–Reimagined With Sushi: A Lean Lesson from Drake & Josh

Lucy and the Chocolate Factory–Reimagined With Sushi: A Lean Lesson from Drake & Josh

ByMark Graban January 11, 2023 Comment (0) 5160
Many Lean practitioners know the famous Lucy and the Chocolate Factory Lean example from I Love...
The Video From the Toyota Museum in Nagoya, Japan

The Video From the Toyota Museum in Nagoya, Japan

ByMark Graban December 12, 2022 Comment (0) 6257
When I visited the Toyota Museum in Nagoya, Japan (see my previous blog posts about it), they had a...
Why Process Behavior Charts Beat Red-Green Metrics in Lean Management

Why Process Behavior Charts Beat Red-Green Metrics in Lean Management

ByMark Graban May 10, 2021 Comments (6) 11650
tl;dr: Red/green metrics encourage snap judgments and overreaction. Process Behavior Charts provide...

Mark Graban on YouTube

"Lean is for speed, Six Sigma is for quality." You've heard it in training classes, certification courses, and all over LinkedIn. It's tidy, it's memorable -- and it's wrong about both. Toyota's system rests on two pillars: flow AND quality built in at the source. Quality isn't a side effect of Lean. It's half the structure. In this short, I break down where the myth comes from, why "making bad stuff faster" was never the goal, and the lesson a Toyota-trained plant manager taught me in 1996 that's stuck with me for 30 years. Speed and quality were never enemies. In a well-designed system, they're two sides of the same coin. More on Lean leadership, psychological safety, and continuous improvement at LeanBlog.org. #Lean #LeanManufacturing #SixSigma #ContinuousImprovement #Leadership #LeanSixSigma #OperationalExcellence #Toyota #ProcessImprovement #Kaizen
Lean Is NOT About Speed (Here's What Toyota Actually Says)
Toyota once paid employees $20 for every improvement idea. Employees quickly learned how to maximize the incentive—including one person who reportedly earned enough for a swimming pool. Norman Bodek explains why the answer was not to abandon employee ideas, but to fix the poorly designed reward system. People respond to the incentives leaders create. Watch the full episode: https://leanblog.org/1 #Shorts #Kaizen #Toyota #Lean #ContinuousImprovement #Incentives #NormanBodek
Toyota Paid $20 Per Idea—It Didn't Go Well
Most people want their idea to get an enthusiastic yes. Larry Kasanoff has learned to distrust it. When he pitches a movie and the room says "great idea, easy, no problem," he gets a little nervous -- because an idea everyone instantly approves is usually one that's been done before. When people tell him he's crazy and it'll never work, he feels something closer to calm. That reaction, to him, is a sign he might be onto something. There's a useful distinction buried in this, and Mark draws it out in the clip: being told an idea is a little crazy might actually be a warning -- a signal you've wandered into a bad bet. But being told it's really crazy, the kind that makes people worry about your career, can mean you've found something genuinely new. The easy, comfortable yes is the one to watch. This is worth holding loosely rather than as a rule. Plenty of bad ideas also get called crazy. The point isn't that resistance proves you're right -- it's that universal, instant agreement should make you ask whether you're actually doing anything new, or just reaching for everyone's safe second choice. 🔵 Why an enthusiastic yes can be a warning sign 🔵 The difference between "a little crazy" and "really crazy" 🔵 What strong resistance might be telling you 🔵 Why instant agreement often means the idea isn't new Larry Kasanoff is a film producer and studio head behind Terminator 2, True Lies, Mortal Kombat, and Platoon, and the author of A Touch of the Madness. From the My Favorite Mistake podcast with Mark Graban. Full video: https://youtu.be/Zx9IuIB2m0g #Leadership #Innovation #DecisionMaking #LarryKasanoff #MyFavoriteMistake #Shorts
When Everyone Loves Your Idea, Get Nervous | Larry Kasanoff
The phrase that became Larry Kasanoff's whole philosophy came from Oliver Stone, at a bar in New York. "Kid, I like you," Stone said. "You have a touch of the madness." Larry wasn't sure whether to take it as a compliment, until he looked at what had just happened around Platoon. His boss had a touch of the madness, handing an 80-picture slate to a 25-year-old with no track record. Oliver had it, insisting on a Vietnam movie when no one had made one that way. And Larry had it, gambling the best job he'd ever had on a single film. Then the bigger idea landed. The current of the river of life, as Larry puts it, always pulls you toward the middle -- toward the safe, the tried, the comfortable. Companies and people drift there without noticing. The trouble is that audiences, customers, the people you're trying to reach, want what's new and different, and the ones who keep swimming to the middle get eclipsed by the ones who don't. The way you fight that pull is by taking a real swing -- which takes a little bit of crazy. Not recklessness, but the willingness to back an unusual idea instead of settling for everyone's safe second choice. 🔵 Where the phrase "a touch of the madness" actually came from 🔵 Why people and organizations drift toward the middle without noticing 🔵 What that drift costs you when audiences want new and different 🔵 Why taking a big swing requires a little bit of crazy Larry Kasanoff is a film producer and studio head behind Terminator 2, True Lies, Mortal Kombat, and Platoon, and the author of A Touch of the Madness. From the My Favorite Mistake podcast with Mark Graban. Full video: https://youtu.be/Zx9IuIB2m0g #Leadership #Innovation #Creativity #LarryKasanoff #MyFavoriteMistake #Shorts
What Oliver Stone Meant by "A Touch of the Madness" | Larry Kasanoff
The Lean Blog Podcast began on July 16, 2006, with a conversation featuring my friend and mentor, Norman Bodek. To celebrate the podcast’s 20th anniversary, I’m revisiting highlights from that first episode. Norman explains why Quick and Easy Kaizen is different from a kaizen event, how employee ideas can generate substantial results, and why managers should ask questions instead of assuming they have all the answers. Norman also discusses: • Kaizen versus kaikaku • Employee suggestion systems • Trust and respect for people • Giving employees the freedom to improve their own work • A Gulfstream idea that saved thousands of hours • How poorly designed incentives encourage gaming • How one dismissive response can discourage future ideas • Why organizations overlook the knowledge of their own employees Norman passed away in 2020, but his influence continues through the people he taught, the books he wrote and published, and the ideas he helped introduce to a much wider audience. I remain incredibly grateful that he encouraged me to start this podcast and agreed to become its first guest. Listen to the complete original episode: https://leanblog.org/1 Learn more and explore additional episodes: https://www.leanblog.org/podcast #Lean #Kaizen #ContinuousImprovement #NormanBodek #Leadership #ToyotaProductionSystem #RespectForPeople #EmployeeEngagement #LeanManagement
20 Years of the Lean Blog Podcast: Norman Bodek on Kaizen and Employee Ideas
When Terminator 2 was made, it was the most expensive movie ever produced. The effects that defined it -- the liquid-metal T-1000 -- were theoretically possible, and James Cameron had proven the idea on a smaller scale, but nothing like it had ever been done at this size. The film became the dawn of the CGI era. Here is the part Larry Kasanoff finds most interesting, looking back. The studio didn't fully grasp the risk sitting inside those effects. The team was confident, but confidence is not the same as certainty -- and they genuinely did not know whether the effects would work until they saw the first finished shot, halfway through production. A record budget was already committed before anyone could confirm the thing it was riding on. That gap between confidence and certainty is worth sitting with. Bold work often means moving before the proof is in. The skill isn't eliminating the risk -- it's knowing it's there, naming it honestly, and deciding to take the shot anyway, eyes open. 🔵 Why T2 was the most expensive movie ever made at the time 🔵 The liquid-metal effects that launched the age of CGI 🔵 The risk the studio didn't fully see 🔵 The difference between being confident and actually knowing Larry Kasanoff is a film producer and studio head behind Terminator 2, True Lies, Mortal Kombat, and Platoon, and the author of A Touch of the Madness. From the My Favorite Mistake podcast with Mark Graban. Full video: https://youtu.be/Zx9IuIB2m0g #Leadership #Innovation #RiskTaking #LarryKasanoff #MyFavoriteMistake #Shorts
The Most Expensive Movie Ever, and Nobody Knew If It Would Work | Larry Kasanoff
What happens when you pay employees $20 for every improvement idea? Norman Bodek shares a funny Toyota story about an incentive that worked exactly as designed—and not at all as intended. Employees quickly realized that even trivial changes could earn the same reward, allowing one particularly prolific employee to pay for a swimming pool. Toyota stopped the payment program, but Norman’s larger point was not to abandon employee ideas because one incentive was poorly designed. His simpler approach: • Pay $20 when an idea is worth $20 • Thank employees for smaller ideas • Use drawings or modest recognition instead of paying the same amount for every suggestion • Fix the incentive without discarding the improvement system The lesson extends well beyond kaizen: people respond rationally to the systems and incentives leaders create. Watch the full 20th-anniversary episode: https://leanblog.org/1 #Kaizen #Lean #Toyota #ContinuousImprovement #NormanBodek #Leadership #EmployeeIdeas #Incentives #LeanManagement
Toyota Paid $20 Per Idea—Then Employees Gamed the System
A studio once came to Larry Kasanoff wanting content for a new 3D network. He asked the obvious questions -- what do you want, who is it for, why are you doing this? The answers were "we don't know" and "everyone's doing it." Larry passed. The network was gone in six months. He gets the same calls today, except now it's about AI. People tell him what the technology can do and ask what he wants to use it for. His answer is the same every time: he won't build a movie around what the tech can do. The tech has to serve the story, not the other way around. That is the whole principle, and it travels well beyond Hollywood. Adopting a tool because it's the hot thing -- with no clear problem it solves and no idea who it serves -- is a red flag, not a strategy. The question that actually matters isn't "what can this do?" It's "what are we trying to accomplish, and does this help?" 🔵 The 3D network that launched with no idea and folded in six months 🔵 Why "everyone's doing it" is a warning sign, not a reason 🔵 The same trap playing out right now with AI 🔵 Making technology serve the goal instead of driving it Larry Kasanoff is a film producer and studio head behind Terminator 2, True Lies, Mortal Kombat, and Platoon, and the author of A Touch of the Madness. From the My Favorite Mistake podcast with Mark Graban. Full video: https://youtu.be/Zx9IuIB2m0g #Leadership #Innovation #AI #LarryKasanoff #MyFavoriteMistake #Shorts
Tech for Its Own Sake Is a Red Flag | Larry Kasanoff
Early in his career, Larry Kasanoff ran production at a studio that made low-budget horror, sci-fi, and action films. Then a script came across his desk called Platoon. Nobody in it was famous yet. The director's previous film was good but hadn't been a hit. By the studio's formula, there was no reason to make it. Larry had an instinct, and he fought for it. His boss -- a sharp entrepreneur who fired people all the time and wasn't bluffing -- gave him the green light with one condition: if it fails, you're fired. Larry made the call anyway, on the logic that he didn't get into the movie business to play it safe. Platoon won the Academy Award for Best Picture. There are two leadership lessons sitting inside this story, and they pull against each other. A boss gave a young executive room to take a real swing, which is rare and worth studying. But he tied that freedom to the threat of getting fired -- the opposite of a culture where it is safe to take a risk and have it not work out. It is worth asking which part actually produced the result: the trust, or the fear. 🔵 Why the studio's formula said no to Platoon 🔵 What it means to back an instinct when the data disagrees 🔵 The difference between empowering a bet and threatening a firing 🔵 Why playing it safe is its own kind of risk Larry Kasanoff is a film producer and studio head behind Terminator 2, True Lies, Mortal Kombat, and Platoon, and the author of A Touch of the Madness. From the My Favorite Mistake podcast with Mark Graban. Subscribe: [SUBSCRIBE LINK] #Leadership #DecisionMaking #PsychologicalSafety #LarryKasanoff #MyFavoriteMistake #Shorts
Betting My Job on Platoon | Larry Kasanoff #myfavoritemistake
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