W. Edwards Deming’s ideas about leadership, systems, variation, and psychology continue to shape how organizations pursue quality and improvement. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections exploring Deming’s teachings—and how they apply to Lean, healthcare, management, and continuous improvement today. Many of these posts challenge common misinterpretations of Deming’s work, emphasizing that quality cannot be delegated and that improvement starts with leadership.
TL;DR: When leaders apply pressure instead of support, people don’t improve processes–they distort data or hide problems. Real improvement starts when leaders make it safe to report bad news and respond with curiosity, not punishment. Accurate data is essential in…
Recently, I saw someone reference a chapter from Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s book Out of the Crisis on LinkedIn–Chapter 11, titled “Common Causes and Special Causes of Improvement. Stable System.” It was a good nudge for me to revisit a…
TL;DR: The Red Bead Game shows–everywhere in the world–that blaming people for random variation is ineffective. Only system change drives improvement. So far in 2025, I’ve had the opportunity to facilitate the Red Bead Game in a variety of settings–from…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #525 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Christopher R. Chapman. He’s an experienced agile coach and consultant with a background in software development and agile transformation.…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #524 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is John Willis, an accomplished IT management expert with over 45 years of experience. His extensive body of work includes…
Note: The original workshop concept had to be scrubbed because Chris Chapman had to back out. But Mark Graban will now be doing a full-day workshop. Improving the Way We Improve: Psychological Safety, Better Metrics, Smarter Leadership One Full-Day Workshop | Two Practical Sessions | One Powerful Transformation Join internationally…
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be presenting a 90-minute “intensive” session at the 2025 Health Systems Process Improvement (HSPI) conference, organized by the Society for Health Systems. This year’s event will take place in Atlanta, and if you’re passionate…
KaiNexus uses Process Behavior Charts and Deming’s principles to separate signal from noise, helping leaders avoid reactive decisions and focus on improvements that truly matter. When I first began working with KaiNexus a long time ago, I was excited to…
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace…
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace…
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace…
As we celebrate Halloween–a season for all things spooky–it’s a good time to reflect on a different kind of fear that can haunt our workplaces year-round. Yet, in many organizations, fear holds people back from speaking up about problems, sharing…
