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.

A Bartending Mistake That Stuck: The Story of the Negroni Sbagliato

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TL;DR: The Negroni shows how clear standards make variation visible--and how unnamed variation shuts down learning. The Negroni Sbagliato proves that when mistakes aren't...

We all make make mistakes

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I don't do things like this on purpose just to create illustrations and examples. But last week, as I was writing away on my...

Mistake Proofing Expert John Grout’s Favorite Mistake and How to Prevent...

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This week's episode of the My Favorite Mistake podcast has a guest and a conversation that will be very directly relevant to you as...

Oops! Another Mistake During a Webinar About Mistakes

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It seems ironic. Maybe this is my fate in life. Or, I'm tempting fate by podcasting, writing (my book project), and presenting so much...

We All Make Mistkaes, Especially Me

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I use the word "mistake" a lot, so I end up typing the word a lot (including as part of the book project that I'm...

Free Webinar Recording About Learning From Mistakes (as Individuals & Organizations)

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Updated to include a 5-minute audio preview and the recording. I presented free webinar on June 27th, as part of the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Webinars...

Discussing Our “Favorite Mistakes” — Mark Graban and Alisha Wielfaert Podcast...

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Normally, I like to be the one doing the interviewing. My latest guest on "My Favorite Mistake" was Alisha Wielfaert, who shared her "favorite...

Taylor Swift on the Inevitability of Mistakes and the Positive Outcomes...

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Since I host a podcast about mistakes ("My Favorite Mistake"), this is a topic I think about a lot. I hear about people's "favorite"...

Just a Few of the Mistakes I’ve Made Today… How About...

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I've interviewed over 180 people over the past 18 months for my podcast series, asking them all the SAME question: "What's your favorite mistake?" Everybody makes...

Sumitra Vig on Lean & Quality: First Time Right or Next...

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Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #446 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Sumitra Vig. She is...

Bad Easter Bunny? Going From a Big Vague Concern to Grasping...

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One lesson I've learned from Toyota people about problem solving is that you have to work to "grasp the situation." This is true whether you're...

If Mistakes Are Expected, We Can React Appropriately and Constructively (and...

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Recently, I re-shared a LinkedIn post by Maryam Najafi PhD, a clinical scientist from Germany. I re-posted it and that drove even more visibility...
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