My Favorite Mistake is a podcast and learning platform built on a simple idea: mistakes are inevitable, but learning from them is a leadership choice. These posts explore conversations with executives, healthcare leaders, entrepreneurs, engineers, and educators who reflect candidly on mistakes that shaped their thinking, leadership, and approach to improvement.
Rather than blaming individuals, this archive focuses on system design, psychological safety, and the conditions that make it possible—and worthwhile—for people to speak up, experiment, and learn. The goal isn’t failure for its own sake, but better decisions, better leadership, and better outcomes through honest reflection.
For the second week in a row (after this one), my latest episode of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is one with deep Lean content that readers here might likely enjoy: Manufacturing Executive Martina Kuhlmeyer Had Too Many High-Priority Initiatives…
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 a Lean practitioner. I hope you’ll check it out: Within the next month, John is also…
Normally, I like to be the one doing the interviewing. My latest guest on “My Favorite Mistake” was Alisha Wielfaert, who shared her “favorite mistake” story about starting a yoga studio that failed. It’s a favorite mistake because she learned…
Some episodes of “My Favorite Mistake” get into topics that are pretty directly related to Lean, or at least they’re Lean adjacent. Last week’s episode with Ken Segel, CEO of the firm Value Capture (a firm I’m affiliated with), is…
Long-time listeners of my Lean Blog Interviews podcast will remember my interview with the NY Times best-selling author Daniel H. Pink back in 2010: Back then, we talked about his fantastic book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.…
Here’s another recent interview, with the Cincinnati radio station WLW — Ken Broo sitting in as guest host for the Bill Cunningham Show. You can listen to the audio or read the transcript: Full Transcript [background music] Announcer: Now, your…
The other day, I wrote a post that referenced my appearance on The Laura Coates Show. I had a transcript made, so I am putting that into a new post here, which can be found after the streaming audio player,…
I’ve been doing some radio interviews recently (as I blogged about here and here). The firm that helps line these up is very good at connecting topics I’d like to talk about, the “My Favorite Mistake” podcast and data-related topics…
My friend Brian Buck is the most recent guest on the “My Favorite Mistake” podcast series, Episode 112: Coach Brian Buck’s Darkest Moment in a Workplace Turned Toxic In today’s episode, Brian shares his “favorite mistake” story about waiting too…
I’ve recently been interviewed on a number of radio stations on the theme of “learning from mistakes,” as a way to promote my podcast series My Favorite Mistake. I’m sharing two of them here, each of which had a slightly…
My long-standing “Lean Blog Interviews” podcast recently celebrated its 15th birthday. That podcast is a teenager now. And, after a summer hiatus, I’ll start ramping up new episodes again next week. But my most recent venture (I mean hobby) is…
I don’t always share new episodes of the “My Favorite Mistake” podcast with you here, but when I do… it’s a Lean practitioner. Today, that guest is David Meier, a former Toyota team member and leader, author of two books…
