The following is an excerpt from the book The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. And this post also includes some material that was cut from the book. Get a free preview of the formatted…
My new book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, is still only in a draft state before final proofreading (actually, the proofreading is taking place now). UPDATE — the paperback and hardcover books are…
tl;dr: Psychological safety is the foundation of continuous improvement. When leaders respond to mistakes with curiosity instead of blame, people speak up, learn faster, and improve systems–making improvement sustainable rather than superficial. I hope you were able to join me…
I am saddened to hear of the death of Ritsuo Shingo (1947-2023), as announced by the Shingo Institute. He was the son of Shigeo Shingo, for whom the Shingo Prize and Shingo Institute were named. I want to express my…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #473 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Elisabeth Swan, author of the new book Picture Yourself a Leader: Illustrated Micro-Lessons for Navigating Change. It’s currently the…
TL;DR: Punishing people for mistakes does not reduce mistakes — it suppresses reporting, drives fear, and blocks learning. Evidence from healthcare, safety science, and organizations like Alcoa shows that improvement comes from systems thinking, transparency, and psychological safety, not blame.…
I don’t do things like this on purpose just to create illustrations and examples. But last week, as I was writing away on my new book project about learning from mistakes, I make this small mistake, a “slip” as they…
For the second week in a row (after this one), my latest episode of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is one with deep Lean content that readers here might likely enjoy: Manufacturing Executive Martina Kuhlmeyer Had Too Many High-Priority Initiatives…
Gerald Harris spent 25 years leading lean transformations in automotive manufacturing before shifting into healthcare consulting, and his origin story starts with a Toyota supplier in crisis that went from shipping 250 door sets per shift to 2,400. In this…
Recently, I re-shared a LinkedIn post by Maryam Najafi PhD, a clinical scientist from Germany. I re-posted it and that drove even more visibility (over 100,000 views) and more discussion. You might need to click through to LinkedIn to see…
Scroll down for video, how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guests for Episode #418 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast both work for Munson Healthcare in northern Michigan. They are Kaleb Foss, Continuous Improvement department manager, and Butch Bowlby,…
Scroll down for video, how to subscribe, video, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #417 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is John W. Kenagy, MD, MPA, ScD, FACS, of his firm Kenagy & Associates based in Washington state.…
