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 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…
The Oscars may report a “four-year high” (or now, in 2026, a “four-year low”), but the long-term data tells a very different story. Year-to-year viewership and ratings changes are mostly noise. Using Process Behavior Charts reveals the real trend: decades…
TL;DR: Five years after the print release of Measures of Success, the core lesson still holds: reacting less to data and understanding variation leads to better leadership decisions–yet many organizations still struggle to apply this thinking consistently. Today is the…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make…
Last year, I looked at the free throw statistics of Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons. News headlines talked about how much he had improved his free throws, so I looked at one of his performance metrics (free throw percentage) to see if the increase was "signal" or "noise."
Why write about basketball? Well, there are lessons that we can learn and apply to our own workplace metrics, as I write about in my book Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More.
tl;dr: In the blog post, we delve into MLB’s ongoing struggle with slow and lengthy games, analyzing recent rule changes aimed at reducing game time. Special focus is given to the newly enforced pitch clock for the 2023 season, its…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. Insights about improvement, innovation, and leadership… Operational Excellence, Improvement, and…
tl;dr: Most charts don’t actually show improvement–they show routine variation. Without enough data and without using tools like Process Behavior Charts, it’s easy to mistake noise for meaningful change. Before claiming a trend, get more history, look for statistical signals,…
tl;dr summary: Rare events like MLB perfect games are hard to analyze with simple counts. Process Behavior Charts–especially “days between events”–reveal real signals without overreacting to randomness. In my book Measures of Success, I share what I’ve learned about the…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. Insights about improvement, innovation, and leadership… Operational Excellence, Improvement, and…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Get these directly from Ryan via email. Insights about improvement, innovation, and leadership… Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation Fit…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #452 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Luke Szyrmer. He’s the founder of “Launch Tomorrow.” He helps new technology products get to market faster (even remotely).…
