Popular Posts
GE Aerospace’s Greenville Plant Proves Larry Culp’s “Safety First” Wasn’t Just Talk An Insulin Error Killed a Hospital Patient. How Does Every Other Hospital Learn From It? “Most People Wouldn’t”: Fear, Gratitude, and Reporting Medical Errors Larry Culp on Success Theater, Embracing Red, and the GE Turnaround What If Every Hospital Learned From Every Other Hospital’s Safety Incidents? Four Patients Got the Wrong Drug in Nashville. Ask a Better Question. Toyota Doesn’t Call It Lean? Its Own Websites Say Otherwise Ten Psychological Safety Outcomes, and What They Do and Don’t Prove The Independent Double Check and the Risk of Human Error
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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

Alan Robinson on Idea-Driven Organizations, Kaizen, and the Pitfalls of Suggestion Boxes

Alan Robinson on Idea-Driven Organizations, Kaizen, and the Pitfalls of Suggestion Boxes

ByMark Graban March 2, 2015 4001
Our guest today is Alan G. Robinson, PhD, an award-winning author, educator, researcher and consultant. He has co-authored six books, including Modern Approaches to Manufacturing Improvement: The...
Dan Jones on Lean Beyond Manufacturing: Public Sector, Healthcare, and Agile Connections

Dan Jones on Lean Beyond Manufacturing: Public Sector, Healthcare, and Agile Connections

ByMark Graban February 20, 2015 2293
Returning to the podcast after his first appearance in Episode #188 is Daniel T. Jones, founder and chairman of the UK-based Lean Enterprise Academy. You can find him on Twitter now as...
Podcast #215 – John Ervin, Lean & Patient Safety in the Operating Room

Podcast #215 – John Ervin, Lean & Patient Safety in the Operating Room

ByMark Graban February 12, 2015 1681
Listen Today's guest is my friend John Ervin and we were able to sit down together here in San Antonio to record this episode. John has about 20 years of healthcare leadership experience, including in...
Podcast #214: Michael Ballé, Lead With Respect, His New Lean Management Novel

Podcast #214: Michael Ballé, Lead With Respect, His New Lean Management Novel

ByMark Graban February 2, 2015 2361
Listen Today's guest is Michael Ballé, an author of many novels about Lean management, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute. He joins us for this episode from Paris (he shares many photos of...

More Blog Posts

My Shingo Webinar Recording on Learning from Mistakes and More

My Shingo Webinar Recording on Learning from Mistakes and More

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 9, 2024 2937
TL;DR: Learning from mistakes requires more than problem-solving tools — it requires psychological safety.In this Shingo Institute webinar, Mark Graban explains why fear and futility prevent...

What Were the 10 Most Read LeanBlog.org Posts of the First Half of 2024?

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 8, 2024 2702

Throwback Thursday: An Independence Day Post

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 4, 2024 1340

Leveraging Lean & AI in Optometry: Ankit Patel’s Journey from Dell to Vision Care

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 3, 2024 3774

Why Two Data Points Don’t Show a Trend — and Why Reacting to Them Makes Things Worse

Mark GrabanByMark Graban July 1, 2024 4074

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

Video — Lean in the UK National Health Service

ByMark Graban June 22, 2007 Comment (0) 732
The positive ER post of the day…. here's a nice video of a news story from the UK. The...

Improving the ER on "ER"

ByMark Graban June 4, 2007 Comment (1) 812
YouTube – Improving the ER on ER I don't always watch the NBC show ER, but this portion caught...

Video: A (Definitely) Crazy (Allegedly) Chinese Press Operation

ByMark Graban May 31, 2007 Comments (4) 803
I don't know the original source of this and I can't vouch for its authenticity, but I can only...

Mark Graban on YouTube

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"
Is the "nice boss era" over? I joined Chris and Amy on KMOX in St. Louis to talk about tough bosses, why employees stay quiet, and what that silence costs. What we covered: - The difference between demanding and cruel, and why "kind" beats "nice" - Why the pendulum swings with the job market, and why both extremes backfire - Two kinds of bad boss: people promoted for the wrong reasons with no leadership training, and founders who never learn to ask - Why futility, not fear, is the most common reason people keep quiet - How to test the waters with one small, fact-based concern instead of a sweeping complaint - Whether it is safe to go to HR - The silence tax: a real cost that never appears on the financial statements 0:00 A bad boss bit, courtesy of Chris and Amy 0:57 Demanding versus cruel: a false trade-off 2:07 Is the nice boss era over? The pendulum and the job market 3:55 How common are cruel managers? 4:39 Two categories of bad boss 6:26 Fear versus futility 7:49 What to do when you cannot leave yet 8:34 Testing the waters with a small, specific issue 9:39 Can you trust HR? 13:06 What the silence tax is and what it costs 14:26 Setting goals without blaming people My next book, The Silence Tax: How Lean Leaders Can Drive Out Fear and Futility, is coming in early 2027. https://thesilencetaxbook.com/ Blog: https://www.leanblog.org Speaking and books: https://www.markgraban.com Podcast: My Favorite Mistake https://myfavoritemistakepodcast.com/
Is the Nice Boss Era Over? Fear, Futility, and the Silence Tax
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