Year-to-date metrics often mislead leaders by hiding meaningful system improvements and exaggerating routine variation–making Process Behavior Charts a far better way to evaluate performance. Why Year-to-Date Numbers Hide What’s Really Happening in the System In my travels, I see many…
Thanks to the Shingo Institute for inviting me to facilitate a half-day workshop at the Shingo Conference, being held this year in Orlando, April 16 and 17 dates to be determined. The workshop covers concepts and methods from my book…
Shout out and hat tip to Dan Markovitz for his excellent blog post: “WHEN LEADERS TORTURE THEIR EMPLOYEES“ He makes a strong case that displaying three months of customer satisfaction this way might lead to a lot of wasted effort…
I try to practice what I preach. I’m not perfect, but I do my best. Writing is fun for me, but I’m also the primary technical administrator for this blog and my other websites. I do a lot of the…
TL;DR: Year-over-year charts look analytical, but they often hide routine variation and invite overreaction. Process Behavior Charts make real improvement–and real risk–visible without guesswork. The main subject of my book Measures of Success is “Process Behavior Charts” (see more in…
In Episode 12 of Lean Whiskey, Mark Graban is back and he’s joined by a friend from the Lean healthcare world, Ryan McCormack. Jamie will be with Mark for our next episode. You might know Ryan as the creator of…
TL;DR: A single-season drop in NFL field goal accuracy does not automatically mean kickers are “regressing.” Using Process Behavior Charts shows whether the change is meaningful or just normal variation–and why year-to-year overreaction often misses the real story. The Claim:…
Real-time feedback isn’t just for younger employees. What people of any generation want is timely, fair information they can learn from. The real risk isn’t fast feedback–it’s overreacting to normal variation. Leaders should provide frequent data and teach people how…
Happy Halloween! I’ll actually be home to hand out treats as a countermeasure for possible tricks. A year ago, I did a KaiNexus webinar on Halloween that was a lot of fun. There were only two complaints about elements of…
A Toyota team applied the Toyota Production System in a Brazilian hospital to improve emergency care, reduce wasted motion, shorten waits, and make work easier for staff–showing TPS can improve healthcare systems, not just factories. When I was in Brazil…
As I’ve shared before, one of my goals with my book Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More was to reach audiences that haven’t heard of “Process Behavior Charts” (aka Control Charts or Statistical Process Control). In December,…
tl;dr: I recently returned from my first visit to Brazil, where I spoke at a Lean Six Sigma conference, led a workshop on Process Behavior Charts, and visited two organizations applying Lean principles. From churrascarias to Gemba walks, this trip…