Tag: Mistakes

Mistakes, Learning, and Leadership in Lean

Mistakes are inevitable—but how leaders and organizations respond to them determines whether they improve or repeat the same failures. These posts explore mistakes through a Lean lens: system design vs. “human error,” psychological safety, learning cultures, and leadership behaviors that turn errors into improvement rather than blame.

Drawing from healthcare, manufacturing, aviation, sports, and everyday work, this archive focuses less on who failed—and more on what the system made possible.

Mistakes are inevitable; learning is not. These posts align with ideas I expanded on in The Mistakes That Make Us, which examines how leaders, cultures, and systems determine whether errors become liabilities—or catalysts for improvement.

Your Current Estimated Alarm Response Time Is… 13 Hours? A Lesson...

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How long would you expect it to take for the police to respond to a burglar alarm at your home? Why do I bring this...

Avoiding the Dunning-Kruger Trap in Lean: Lessons from Early Mistakes

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The most dangerous moment in Lean is often right after your first belt class--when you think you've mastered it all. You may have seen the...

How a Vineyard “Improvement” Nearly Destroyed European Wine — and What...

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A Word Worth Remembering (But Hard to Say and Spell) You might recall when I first learned about the German word "verschlimmbesserung"--that wonderfully precise term...

Medical Mistakes and Patient Safety: Asking “Why?” Instead of “Who?”

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TL;DR: Medical mistakes are usually system failures--not individual failures. By asking "why did this happen?" instead of "who caused it?", healthcare organizations can strengthen...

Culture Is the Key — Reflections on Leadership, Mistakes, and Building...

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I've always believed that culture isn't just one component of success--it's the foundation everything else is built upon. That belief is central to my...

How Safe Is It to Admit a Mistake at Work? New...

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TL;DR: A new poll shows that psychological safety at work is often fragile--nearly half of respondents say it "depends on the boss." Real improvement...

The Mistake-Smart Leader’s Checklist: 6 Behaviors to Build Trust, Safety, and...

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We all say mistakes are a part of learning. Or at least many of us do, as individuals. But how many organizations actually act that...

What Aviation Teaches Leaders About Mistakes, Humility, and Psychological Safety

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TL;DR: Aviation's safety culture is built on humility: pilots expect mistakes, admit them quickly, and learn without blame. Leaders in any industry can create...

The Danger of Blame-Based Leadership: How Great Leaders Build Psychological Safety

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tl;dr: Blame-based leadership creates fear, silences learning, and erodes trust. Great leaders replace blame with shared accountability, psychological safety, and system-focused improvement. I recently witnessed...

My Upcoming Webinar on Mistake-Proofing Across Industries

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I'm excited to be presenting this webinar on February 12th at 1 pm ET as part of the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement webinar series: Mistake-Proofing in...

Why Blame Fails–and How Learning Cultures Turn Mistakes Into Improvement

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TL;DR: Blame shuts down learning and drives mistakes underground. High-performing organizations move beyond "who's at fault" and focus on understanding systems, building psychological safety,...

Wisdom from a Fortune Cookie: Succeeding via Obstacles and Failures

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Sometimes, wisdom comes wrapped in unexpected packaging--like a fortune cookie. Recently, my friend Alan Wikler, Psy.D., came across one with a simple yet profound...
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