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)

$Podcast #321 – Mark Hamel on “Lean Math,” Kaizen, People, and More$

Podcast #321 – Mark Hamel on “Lean Math,” Kaizen, People, and More

ByMark Graban October 16, 2018 1515

My guest for episode #321 of the podcast is Mark Hamel, He is a partner and COO with The Murli Group. Mark is a two-time recipient of the Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award for his...

Skip Steward on Deming’s Lessons, Don Wheeler, Process Behavior Charts, and Respect for People

ByMark Graban October 9, 2018 1911

Skip Steward, the Chief Improvement Officer at Baptist Memorial Health Care in Tennessee, was a guest on Episode #314 of the podcast talking about TWI and Toyota Kata in healthcare (he was joined by...

Karen Martin on Clarity First and Why Leaders Must Confront Ambiguity

ByMark Graban October 1, 2018 2485

My guest for Episode #319 is Karen Martin, whose most recent book is Clarity First: How Smart Leaders and Organizations Achieve Outstanding Performance. She was previously a guest on Episodes #151...

Podcast #318 – Marcus Hammarberg, How Lean & Kanban Saved an Indonesian Hospital

ByMark Graban September 17, 2018 1433

Joining me from Sweden for Episode 318 of the podcast is Marcus Hammarberg, author of the fascinating book Salvation: The Bungsu Story: How Lean and Kanban saved a small hospital in Indonesia. Twice...

Lean Isn’t Just About Cost: Stop Sabotaging Your Own Lean Efforts

ByMark Graban April 24, 2025 2219

TL;DR: Lean isn't just about cost. When leaders prioritize cost first, they undermine safety, quality, and engagement–putting a “stick in the spokes” of Lean itself. Don't Put a...

40 Years of New Coke: What Coca-Cola’s Biggest Mistake Still Teaches Leaders

ByMark Graban April 23, 2025 7892

Join Me (and Friends!) in Montreal This June at the 4th Rendez-vous Kata EVent

ByMark Graban April 21, 2025 1517

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: April 18, 2025

ByRyan McCormack April 18, 2025 5278

The Evidence Against Leadership by Intimidation Keeps Piling Up

ByMark Graban April 17, 2025 3681

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...

Lean Healthcare Design Video Series – Part 2, Open Workspaces and Care Teams

ByMark Graban January 11, 2011 Comment (1) 1737

Here is Part 2 of our video discussion series about Lean Healthcare Design, featuring Miguel...

Weekend Fun: Dr. Atul Gawande on “The Colbert Report”

ByMark Graban January 8, 2011 Comments (2) 1103

Here is a fun clip of Dr. Atul Gawande on Stephen Colbert's Comedy Central show, talking about his...

Lean Healthcare Design Video Series – Home Page

ByMark Graban January 4, 2011 Comments (6) 1984

I'm happy to present a new multi-part video discussion series about Lean Healthcare Design...

Mark Graban on YouTube

Fear is a real reason people stay quiet at work, but it is not the top one. When I poll audiences and groups I work with, futility comes out ahead of fear.

People do not always say they are afraid. Plenty of them say some version of "What's the point? Nothing changes anyway." That is a different problem than fear, and it calls for a different response from leaders.

If someone fears getting in trouble, and especially if they have watched it happen to someone else, staying quiet to protect yourself is a rational calculation. I would not tell anyone to speak up no matter what.

I also take a practical question in this clip: what do you do when you work for a difficult boss and cannot leave right away? One option is to test the waters. Raise a small, specific, fact-based concern rather than a sweeping statement about how nobody here listens, then see what the response tells you.

🔵 Why silence is often a rational cost-benefit decision
🔵 Futility versus fear as the top driver of silence
🔵 What leaders can do about each
🔵 How to test the waters with a tough boss

Watch the full interview: https://youtu.be/b4Z9RdjgTp8

Fear vs Futility: The Real Reason People Stay Silent at Work

The silence tax is what an organization pays when people stop speaking candidly. It never appears as a line on the financial statements, which is exactly what makes it dangerous.

In this clip I explain how the cost compounds. A quality problem nobody mentions gets past the process and reaches a customer. An issue nobody raises while it is small grows into an expensive one. The spending is real even though nothing on the P&L is labeled "silence."

I also reference survey research estimating that poor management costs the U.S. economy more than $500 billion a year through turnover and lost productivity. That is a gut feeling on my part, but I suspect the estimate is low, since most organizations are paying some version of the silence tax right now.

Watch the full interview: https://youtu.be/b4Z9RdjgTp8

🔵 What the silence tax is
🔵 Why it stays invisible to leaders
🔵 How small unspoken problems become costly ones
🔵 What poor management is estimated to cost the U.S. economy

More on psychological safety and Lean leadership: https://www.leanblog.org

The Silence Tax: The Hidden Cost of People Not Speaking Up

Michael Chaleff spent his first week as a restaurant magician learning that things go wrong constantly in that job. Then a stranger said four words that took away his ability to speak for the first time in his adult life.

🔵 The line that stopped him cold
🔵 What actually happened next
🔵 Why he still remembers the shame decades later
🔵 The rule he built from that year: the sin isn't the mistake, it's what you do after

Full episode: https://youtu.be/aHY6w449NZs

"I Don't Have Hands"