Leadership isn’t about titles, charisma, or quick decisions—it’s about creating systems where people can do their best work and continuously improve. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on leadership through a Lean lens, drawing on ideas from Deming, Toyota, healthcare, and real-world management practice. The common theme: leaders shape culture, influence behavior, and own the systems that produce results—for better or worse.
Today’s episode of “My Favorite Mistake” is another one that Lean practitioners will especially like. My guest, Sabrina Moon, talks about how she (unfortunately) learned “command and control” management in her early days at General Motors. She talks eloquently about…
Here, I wanted to share a few thoughts and ideas from yesterday’s inauguration ceremony… First off, stealing the show was poet Amanda Gorman. I was really impressed with her words, her poise, and her delivery. It’s a masterclass for any…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! One more note from Mark: Check out Episode 32 of “My Favorite Mistake” with consultant Michele Parrish as our…
My guest for Episode #396 is Patrick Adams, the author of the new book (released as a paperback today!), titled Avoiding the Continuous Appearance Trap: 12 Questions to Understand What’s Truly Underneath Your Culture. You can learn more about the…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! 2020 was an unusual year. As much as I look forward to seeing it in the rearview mirror, I…
I post here a lot about my most recent podcast series, “My Favorite Mistake,” but my first pandemic podcast project was a collaboration with the firm Value Capture. It’s a podcast series called “Habitual Excellence,” using a phrase from Paul…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! One more note from Mark: Check out Episode 26 of “My Favorite Mistake” with singer and radio host Yaya…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Healthcare — Creating Value for Patients It’s exciting to see that Covid vaccines are on the way. But the…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Healthcare — Creating Value for Patients Kaiser Permanente has been trialing an Advanced Alert Monitor where electronic data is…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… Healthcare — Creating Value for Patients How Virginia Mason is using lessons learned from Covid-19 The proliferation of Electronic Health Records means more data is available to clinicians and administrators than ever…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… Healthcare — Creating Value for Patients A nurse who was disciplined for using Facebook to criticize a health care system that cared for her grandfather has won an appeal after a 5-year…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… Healthcare — Creating Value for Patients Why did Covid overwhelm hospitals? By trying to “over-optimize” for years. The Wall Street Journal reports on the years-long drive for efficiency that made our systems vulnerable…