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.

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...

Facilitating Learning While Learning Myself: Mistakes, Music, and Moving Forward

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Yesterday morning, I drove to a local client to facilitate a lunch-and-learn workshop featuring the Deming "Red Bead Game" and "Process Behavior Charts." Read...

Lost My iPhone in Tokyo–And Gained a Lesson in Kindness and...

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I'm thrilled to be back in Japan for the first time in five years. Today is the start of Katie Anderson's Japan Study Trip...

Why Labeling Mistakes as ‘Stupid’ Is the Real Mistake: Turning Errors...

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When discussing mistakes, it's common to hear terms like "stupid mistake" or "dumb mistake" thrown around, especially when reflecting on our own errors. However,...

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...

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...

Learning from Mistakes in Healthcare: Lean Leadership Lessons from Lean Hospitals...

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Learning from mistakes is not optional in healthcare--it's essential for patient safety, staff engagement, and long-term performance. For years, I've written and spoken about...

The 5 Most Controversial Ideas in The Mistakes That Make Us

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In writing The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, I wanted to challenge the way we think about mistakes,...

Flow Engineering in Action: Insights from Authors Steve Pereira and Andrew...

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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 Steve Pereira and Andrew...

My Shingo Webinar Recording on Learning from Mistakes and More

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TL;DR: Learning from mistakes requires more than problem-solving tools -- it requires psychological safety.In this Shingo Institute webinar, Mark Graban explains why fear and...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: June 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...
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