Process Behavior Charts help leaders distinguish real signals from routine noise in performance data. Instead of reacting to every up or down, these charts—rooted in the work of Shewhart and Deming—show when a system has truly changed and when variation is simply part of normal performance.
These posts explore Process Behavior Charts in practical, leadership-focused ways: avoiding overreaction to red metrics, improving decision-making, building trust in data, and shifting conversations from blame to system improvement. Examples span healthcare, manufacturing, sports, and executive dashboards—where misunderstanding variation often leads to wasted effort and worse outcomes.
Many of the ideas in this archive align with the themes of my book Measures of Success: reacting less to routine variation, leading better through better questions, and improving more by focusing on system change instead of noise.
TL;DR: The Red Bead Game shows–everywhere in the world–that blaming people for random variation is ineffective. Only system change drives improvement. So far in 2025, I’ve had the opportunity to facilitate the Red Bead Game in a variety of settings–from…
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be presenting a 90-minute “intensive” session at the 2025 Health Systems Process Improvement (HSPI) conference, organized by the Society for Health Systems. This year’s event will take place in Atlanta, and if you’re passionate…
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace…
KaiNexus uses Process Behavior Charts and Deming’s principles to separate signal from noise, helping leaders avoid reactive decisions and focus on improvements that truly matter. When I first began working with KaiNexus a long time ago, I was excited to…
tl;dr: Run charts and bar charts can hint at patterns, but they often mislead. A Process Behavior Chart reveals whether a KPI truly changed–or if it’s just fluctuating as systems do. When leaders see variation clearly, they can react less,…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Welcome to this bonus session of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast, originally recorded as a LinkedIn Live event! In this conversation, I partnered with Rebecca Michalik from AME Australia to discuss…
tl;dr Color codes and bar charts answer “Are we hitting the target?” but not “Are we improving?” or “How do we improve?” Process Behavior Charts reveal true signals in the data, so leaders stop overreacting to noise and start improving…
Two data points aren’t a trend–but headlines, executives, and analysts keep treating them like one, whether the topic is Olympic TV viewership or business performance. Two data points are not a trend. Let’s start with an example from a recent…
Two-Year Comparisons in Major League Baseball Stats: A Strikeout, not a Homer tl;dr summary: Year-to-year MLB stat comparisons are misleading. Using long-term data and Process Behavior Charts shows that most 2024 trends–runs, hits, doubles, and home runs–are normal variation, while…
On NPR recently, the hourly news update covered economic indicators: Gas prices are UP 5 cents from a week ago Gas prices are DOWN 10 cents from a month ago So gas prices are both going up and down —…
TODAY marks the centennial of one of the most significant innovations in quality management: the control chart. “A ‘special cause’ for celebration.” Brian Buck, on LinkedIn LOL. Shewhart’s Breakthrough: Understanding Variation In the early 1920s, Walter A. Shewhart, working at…
tl;dr summary: This post examines the trend of Tommy John surgeries in MLB and MiLB using Process Behavior Charts, revealing that the perceived surge in injuries is within historical variation. The data suggests shifts in patterns rather than a sudden…
