Tag: Culture

Organizational Culture: Leadership, Behavior, and How Work Really Gets Done

Organizational culture isn’t what leaders say—it’s what people experience every day based on management behaviors, systems, and priorities. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on culture through a Lean lens, exploring how leadership decisions shape trust, psychological safety, learning, and performance. Many of these posts draw on lessons from Deming, Toyota, healthcare, and real organizations to show that culture is not a program to roll out, but an outcome leaders create—intentionally or not.

How Blame-Free Leadership Builds Psychological Safety: Lessons from Japan and Toyota

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Blame-based cultures kill improvement. Leaders must resolve to build trust and safety if they want innovation and engagement. During Katie Anderson's Japan Study Trip this...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: December 13, 2024

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Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: November 15, 2024

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Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: November 1, 2024

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Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly...

Lean Failure Explained: How Command-and-Control Leadership Undermines Lean

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TL;DR: Lean doesn't fail because of the tools--it fails when leaders keep command-and-control habits. Without respect for people, psychological safety, and leaders who change...

Jacob Stoller on Productivity Reimagined, Lean Thinking, and Sustainable Growth

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Jacob Stoller challenges common productivity myths and explains why true productivity growth comes from improving processes, quality, and culture--not just cutting costs or adding...

Leadership Failure: How Refusing to Be Wrong Hurts Teams and Innovation

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"I am never, ever wrong." That's a statement that should disqualify an applicant from ANY leadership position. True leadership isn't about projecting infallibility--it's about fostering a...

Jenn Christison: Lessons in Even Better Leadership, Lean Thinking, and Organizational...

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Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #516 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jenn Christison, founder and...

When Going to the Gemba Goes Wrong: How to Avoid an...

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In the Lean methodology, we often talk about the importance of "going to the gemba" (or "genba"-- the place where the real work happens....

Insights from ‘Leading Excellence’: Brad Jevons and Stephen Dargan on Adaptive...

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Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guests for Episode #512 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are two of three co-authors...

View Our “Ask Us Anything” Event on Psychological Safety and Lean

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Psychological safety is often described as "feeling safe to speak up." In Lean organizations, that idea matters -- but only if leaders understand what makes...

We’ve Stopped Punishing People for Mistakes. Now What?

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In many organizations, moving away from a culture of punishment when mistakes are made is a significant leap forward. It signals a shift toward...
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