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

Applying Lean and Kaizen at Chick-fil-A: Engaging Every Employee in Continuous Improvement

Applying Lean and Kaizen at Chick-fil-A: Engaging Every Employee in Continuous Improvement

ByMark Graban July 2, 2019 7122
Chick-fil-A is widely known for fast service, high quality, and a strong culture–but behind that reputation is a deliberate approach to Lean and Kaizen that engages every employee in continuous...
Podcast #343 – Amanda Mewborn, Combining Engineering and Nursing

Podcast #343 – Amanda Mewborn, Combining Engineering and Nursing

ByMark Graban June 5, 2019 1622
My guest for Episode #343 of the podcast is Amanda Mewborn, an executive director of project management for Piedmont Health. I've known Amanda through the Society for Health Systems and she's one of...
Adam Ward on Lean Design in Healthcare and Lessons from Honda to Hospitals

Adam Ward on Lean Design in Healthcare and Lessons from Honda to Hospitals

ByMark Graban May 21, 2019 1991
My guest for Episode #342 of the podcast is Adam Ward, the author of Lean Design in Healthcare: A Journey to Improve Quality and Process of Care. Adam is an innovation process expert and independent...
Podcast #341 – Dr. Rob Hackett on the Theatre Cap Challenge & Change in Healthcare

Podcast #341 – Dr. Rob Hackett on the Theatre Cap Challenge & Change in Healthcare

ByMark Graban May 15, 2019 2459
My guest for Episode #341 of the podcast is Dr. Rob Hackett, an anaesthesiologist in Sydney, Australia. Rob has become known around the world for his role in what's now called the “Theatre Cap...

More Blog Posts

Why ‘Red Isn’t Bad’ Is the Wrong Mindset for Performance Metrics

Why ‘Red Isn’t Bad’ Is the Wrong Mindset for Performance Metrics

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 14, 2025 2238
TL;DR: Red metrics aren't “good,” but they shouldn't trigger blame or panic either. The real problem isn't red–it's leaders getting mad instead of curious. Improvement starts with...

Kakorrhaphiophobia: Why Fear of Failure at Work Is Often Rational

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 14, 2025 2628

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: July 11, 2025

Ryan McCormackByRyan McCormack July 11, 2025 4937

Feedback Theater: Going Through the Motions Without Meaning It

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 10, 2025 1019

Ken Segel on Lean Healthcare, Safety, and Building a Comprehensive Operating System

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 9, 2025 3128

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

PDSA Video from IHI

ByMark Graban May 21, 2011 Comments (3) 4045
It's alphabet soup Saturday, as this IHI PDSA video comes from a PhD, Robert Lloyd. A great basic...
Checklists Promoted and Debated on “Grey’s Anatomy”

Checklists Promoted and Debated on “Grey’s Anatomy”

ByMark Graban May 17, 2011 Comments (13) 2014
It's my second post about the TV show Grey's Anatomy, the first being “McDreamy” Fights...
New DVD – “Thinking Lean at ThedaCare: Strategy Deployment”

New DVD – “Thinking Lean at ThedaCare: Strategy Deployment”

ByMark Graban May 6, 2011 Comments (4) 1052
Sorry for what might seem like a very promotional post, but I'm happy to share some details with you...

Mark Graban on YouTube

Psychological safety means everybody can have their say. It doesn’t mean they get their way. The goal is candor, not agreement. Psychological safety also isn’t all or nothing. It varies by team, by who’s in the room, and by topic. Someone might feel safe pointing out a machine that’s been down all week, but not safe saying the project is $50,000 over budget. That’s why it’s a problem when a leader says, “We already have psychological safety.” The people who say that are often the ones who feel safest. This clip is from my new course, Leading with Psychological Safety, from TKMG Academy. 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. Learn more and purchase here: https://tkmgacademy.com/courses/leading-with-psychological-safety/
Psychological Safety Means Everyone Gets Their Say, Not Their Way
Someone sees a problem coming, a wrong assumption, or a risk in the plan. They don’t say anything, and the moment passes. That silence is what this course is about. People speak up when two things are true: it feels safe, and it feels worthwhile. In Leading with Psychological Safety, my new course from TKMG Academy, I explain what leaders can do to create both conditions. The course is 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/ Music used with permission, copyright ID code AA2WMUIT7Z48VWPQ
Why People Stay Silent at Work: Leading with Psychological Safety Preview
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
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