I'm looking to offer some workshops in beautiful downtown Orlando. In this post, I describe the workshops and invite you to take a survey if you're interested in doing them here.
Can leaders get some improvement just by asking for it? Does improvement stall out if we don't have a method for doing so? What can "process behavior" charts show us in our work today?
Short Audio Essays on Lean Thinking, Leadership, and Continuous Improvement Lean Blog Audio features short audio versions of articles from LeanBlog.org, written, read, and expanded by Mark Graban. Each episode explores practical applications of Lean thinking, psychological safety, continuous improvement,…
I had a great conversation with my fellow Lean healthcare blogger, Brian Buck, the other day. We talk about once a month or so… Brian claims I am mentoring him, but it’s a great two-way exchange and discussion that I…
TL;DR: Understanding Variation by Donald J. Wheeler is the most influential book in my Lean journey. It taught me how to distinguish signal from noise in data, avoid overreacting to normal variation, and focus leaders on improving systems instead of…
TL;DR: W. Edwards Deming and Toyota each landed on 14 core principles, independently. They overlap most around long-term thinking, leadership responsibility, respect for people, and continuous improvement. The shared lesson holds in 2026: real improvement comes from disciplined, connected management…
The PDSA cycle (Plan, Do, Study, Adjust) is at the heart of Lean problem solving. Most of these mistakes cluster in the Plan phase, where the temptation to skip ahead is strongest. A few live in Study and Adjust, where…
If you’ve searched for “Lean methodology,” you’ve probably seen definitions about waste reduction or efficiency. That’s part of it — but Lean is much more than that. It’s a leadership system for building better organizations. I’ve been studying and practicing…
TL;DR: Data is what gets recorded. Facts are what’s actually happening. Confusing the two is how leaders get fooled by faked reports, broken sensors, and decorated dashboards. Deming and Ohno both warned about this in different ways. The fix is…
Twice in the past two weeks, I have talked with people who want to write a book about Lean. Both were early in the process and trying to figure out what they were signing up for. I’ve had a lot…
My wife and I watched Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing last night. It’s Rory Kennedy’s follow-up to “Downfall,” and it’s built around former Boeing employees, including quality managers and inspectors, describing what they saw on the floor and what happened…
Most Lean programs treat standardized work and kaizen as opposites. Standardized work is the rigid part. Kaizen is the creative part. One constrains, the other improves. Pick whichever side you prefer and argue with the other camp at the next…