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.
Mark’s note: Here’s the last of three change strategies in a series by a guest blogger, Paul Serafino. You can click here to read earlier posts in this series about leaders who have no one to formally lead. Next week, I’ll publish Paul’s…
Mark’s note: Today’s guest post is by Duke Rohe of the Office of Performance Improvement at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. I’ve met Duke many times at the annual Society for Health Systems conference and he’s always a pleasure…
Mark’s note: Last week, I published a post by Paul Serafino titled “3 Strategies for #Lean Leaders Who Have No One to Lead.” Today, and for the next two Tuesdays, Paul shares each of those strategies. Click here for the…
Mark’s note: Today’s post is by a new guest blogger, Paul Serafino. This initial post will be followed by a series of three posts with strategies that he tees up in this post. By Paul Serafino: The door to the…
Hey everyone… I’m doing a few different webinars or webcasts in the next few weeks. But first, while I’m promoting stuff, Amazon has a GREAT deal on the pre-order of the 3rd edition of my book Lean Hospitals, which is supposed…
Lean leadership isn’t just about asking people how to fix problems–it’s about asking them what problems matter most. When leaders shift from telling to asking, they unlock intrinsic motivation, deeper engagement, and more sustainable improvement. This lesson came through clearly…
TL;DR: Franciscan Health built a lasting culture of continuous improvement by patiently practicing Kaizen every day–not as a program, but as a way of thinking. Over time, consistent leadership behaviors, frontline engagement, and psychological safety led to more than 27,000…
Back in December, I wrote about a method called “Motivational Interviewing” (MI), something I learned about from a social worker who was also at the Lean Startup Conference. It’s funny how these worlds intersect sometimes. I saw parallels between people…
Aviation lessons for patient safety anchor this conversation with Steve Montague, a retired Navy fighter pilot and commercial airline pilot who consults with hospitals on high-reliability practices. We get into checklists done well and done badly, why most hospital mistakes…
TL;DR: Trump’s “if I say do it, they’re going to do it” reflects a command and control leadership style that even the military is moving away from. Toyota, Gen. McChrystal, and decades of evidence point to something better. Command and…
Last year, you might have heard my podcast episode with author Jacob Stoller, talking about his book The Lean CEO. Coming up on March 15, I’m happy to be hosting a KaiNexus webinar with him, where Stoller will be presenting about “The 3…
My guest for Episode #243, Michael Bungay Stanier, takes us a bit outside of the Lean realm… but that’s good. Our topic today, which ties in very nicely to Lean and Kaizen (as you’ll hear in our conversation) is coaching. His…
