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)

John Dyer on Working with W. Edwards Deming, the Facade of Management Commitment, and Firefighting in Healthcare

ByMark Graban September 8, 2015 2318

In this 2015 conversation, John Dyer reflects on his career at General Electric — including attending Dr. W. Edwards Deming's four-day seminar and a smaller follow-on course — and what...

The Good Jobs Strategy: Zeynep Ton on Investing in People for Performance

ByMark Graban September 3, 2015 4026

This conversation with Zeynep Ton explores why treating labor as a cost creates operational failure — and how the Good Jobs Strategy offers a Lean-aligned alternative built on stable schedules...

Podcast #227 – Ruthie Davis & Steve Cook on “Do The Right Thing”

ByMark Graban August 14, 2015 1447

Joining me for episode #227 are Ruthie Davis and Stephen Cook, talking about the book that they edited, Do the Right Thing: Real Life Stories of Leaders Facing Tough Choices. While this episode...

The Power of Ideas to Transform Healthcare with Steve Hoeft & Dr. Bob Pryor

ByMark Graban July 29, 2015 2347

My guests for episode #226 are Steve Hoeft and Dr. Robert (Bob) Pryor from Baylor Scott & White Health in Texas. Bob serves as President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Medical...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: August 9, 2024

ByRyan McCormack August 9, 2024 5511

Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts...

Flow Engineering in Action: Insights from Authors Steve Pereira and Andrew Davis

ByMark Graban August 7, 2024 5555

fans watching the olympics on TV waving US and Canadian flags

Why Two (or Four) Data Points Aren’t a Trend: Olympic TV Viewership Explained

ByMark Graban July 31, 2024 3777

Looking for Feedback on the Portuguese (Brazil) Version of The Mistakes That Make Us

ByMark Graban July 31, 2024 1858

Image showing two signs on a centrifuge. The left sign is handwritten and reads "DO NOT CHANGE SPIN TIME. Should be 6 Min." The right sign is printed and reads "Centrifuges now need to be set for 6 MINUTES. Why? This is the required time for plasma tubes. Please do not set the timer back to 10 minutes or any other time." The right sign provides context and reasoning for the instruction, while the left sign is a direct command without explanation.

From Commands to Collaboration: Lessons in Respectful and Effective Workplace Signage

ByMark Graban July 29, 2024 2813

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 MD Office on NM TV

ByMark Graban January 8, 2009 Comment (0) 687

Local doctors cut stress Below is a video from an Albuquerque TV news station, visiting a doctor's...

Dr. Berwick and Lean in Business Week

ByMark Graban January 3, 2009 Comments (4) 910

Donald Berwick: Curing the Healthcare System – BusinessWeek Good exposure for the...

Videos with Mike Micklewright

ByMark Graban November 10, 2008 Comment (0) 775

You might know Mike from my podcast with him (performing as Dr. W. Edward Deming). Here are three...

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"