Tag Don Wheeler

Don Wheeler, Process Behavior Charts, and Better Management Decisions

This archive highlights ideas influenced by Don Wheeler’s work on understanding variation, process behavior charts, and better use of data for management decision-making. These posts explore why traditional scorecards, red-yellow-green dashboards, and snapshot comparisons often mislead leaders—and how statistical thinking can replace overreaction with insight.

Drawing from quality management, Lean thinking, and real-world leadership examples, these articles emphasize separating signal from noise, avoiding blame driven by random variation, and improving systems instead of reacting to every data point. The core theme is simple but challenging: better data doesn’t help unless leaders know how to interpret it. Read more about Process Behavior Charts.

All (6519)3 Strategies (5)30 Rock (5)3P (10)5 Whys (18)5 Whys Survey (10)5S (134)A Lean Guy Reads (13)A.I. (1)A3 (47)A3 management process (1)A3 Open Mic (1)A3 thinking (2)Access (1)Accountability (4)Accounting (13)Ackoff (2)Adam_Zak (8)Admin (1)Adult Education (1)Adult Learning (1)Aerospace (1)Africa (2)Agile (15)AI (38)AI Lean Coach (14)Alaska (3)Alcoa (7)Alfie Kohn (2)Alternate History (1)Amazon (30)AME (6)American Airlines (7)Andon (43)Ankit_Patel (3)Apple (30)April Fool (12)Artificial Intelligence (3)ASQ (8)Auction (2)Audio (196)Audiobook (2)Australia (3)Authentic Conversations (1)Auto Industry (1)Autoliv (1)Automation (6)Automotive (15)Aviation (121)Backlog (10)Bad Systems in the News (8)Bahri (4)Baker (1)Baldrige (7)Balle (9)Banking (3)Bar (2)Bar Rescue (2)Baran (7)Barnas (3)Barnes Jewish (5)Baseball (26)Basketball (3)Batching (2)Batz Foundation (5)Beer Game (1)Being_The_Change (1)Benchmarking (4)Berwick (24)BIDMC (3)Billion Dollar Company (1)biofuels (1)Birth of Lean (2)Blame (160)Bliss (8)Blog Admin (88)Blog_Admin (2)blur (1)BMW (3)Board (1)Bob Emiliani (4)Bodek (76)Boeing (51)Bonini (9)Books (281)Boston (7)Brain (1)Brazil (5)Brophy (1)Buck (2)Burnout (7)business (1)Business Leadership (1)Bussell (1)Byrne (2)C-Suite Leadership (1)Cable (1)Calendar (1)Call Centers (2)Canada (101)Cancer (1)Capacity (1)Cardinal Health (13)Careers (36)Carnival (16)Carrie Schurman (9)Cartoon (7)Castle (5)Catalysis (22)Catchball (2)Cath Lab (1)Cats (1)CEO (184)Certification (1)CFO (1)Challenge (1)Change (57)Change Management (72)Changeover (1)ChangeThis (3)Charity (1)Charts (3)Charts and Graphs (3)ChatGPT (10)Checklist (14)Checklists (60)chemicals (1)Chick-fil-A (3)China (75)China Trip 2016 (6)Chrysler (33)Cincinnati (1)Cleveland Clinic (21)Clinic (1)CMS (1)CNN (1)Coaches (1)Coaching (101)Coffee (7)Collaboration (1)Comedy (5)Command and Control (12)Comments of the Week (1)Communication (2)Communications (8)Community (1)compassion (1)Compliance (1)Condo (4)Conference (1)Conner (1)Construction (6)Consulting (6)Contest (23)Continuous Deployment (1)Continuous Improvement (58)Convis (17)Cooking (3)Corrections (4)Cost (34)cost reduction (1)Costco (1)Countermeasures (1)Covey (7)Covid-19 (54)Covid-19 Pandemic (2)Creative Safety Supply (1)Creative Thinkers (1)Creativity (2)Crisis (1)Critical Strategic Decisions (1)Cross Training (2)Culbert (1)Culture (436)Culture Clash (1)Culture Of Improvement (1)Cunningham (6)Customer (1)Customer Experience (5)Customer Focus (59)Customer Satisfaction (8)Customer Service (12)Cycle Time (1)Dager (2)Daily Management System (5)Dallas (4)Dan Pink (12)Dan_Jones (8)Dan_Pink (13)Danaher (14)Data (1)DC Lean Tour (5)Defect (4)Defects (11)DEI (4)Dell (43)Delphi (13)Demand (1)Deming (490)Denmark (1)Dentist (1)Denver (6)Denver Health (3)Design (11)Design Thinking (5)Detroit (3)Detroit 3 (1)Detroit Three (27)developing solutions (1)DFW (1)Digital (1)DirecTV (3)DMAIC (3)Doctor (180)Don Wheeler (49)Doofus (5)dr (1)Dr. Muda (6)Drucker (2)Dynamic Environment (1)Earthquake (1)Ebola (5)Economics (1)Edmondson (21)Education (34)Efficiency (4)Electric Car (1)Elon Musk (4)Email (2)Emergency (29)Emergency Dept (61)Emil (1)Emiliani (23)Emoji (1)empathy (1)Employee Engagement (17)Employee Voice (1)Empowerment (2)EMR (9)Enabling Bureaucracy (1)Energy (3)Engagement (2)Engand (1)England (47)Entrepreneurship (5)Ephlin (12)Equity (1)Ergonomics (3)Eric Ries (40)Errors (7)Events (6)Everyday Lean (108)Evidence-Based Medicine (1)Excuses (1)Exercise (3)ExperienceChange (7)Experiment (3)Experimentation (3)Eytan (1)Facebook (2)Factory Physics (2)Facts (1)Fail (3)Failure (18)Family (1)Family Guy (1)FastCap (8)Fear (28)Fearless Organization (1)Finland (1)Fire Fighting (5)Fitness (1)Flashback (5)Flexing (2)Flinchbaugh (187)Flow (27)FMEA (4)Fol (1)Food (6)Football (10)Forces Of Destruction (1)Ford (102)Fort Worth (1)FORTUNE (3)Fox News (2)Franciscan (46)Franciscan Videos (8)Fujio Cho (3)Fun (2)Funny (75)Futility (4)Galsworth (10)Gaming the Numbers (43)Garrison Brothers (3)Gas Station (1)Gawande (31)Geisinger (1)Gem (1)Gemba (167)Gemba Academy (8)Genchi Genbutsu (4)General Electric (76)General Motors (10)Germany (3)Gert (2)Gets it Wrong (4)Gilbreth (6)Glover (3)GM (180)Go To Market (1)Goals (1)good jobs (1)Good Jobs Strategy (1)Google (10)Government (139)Green (37)Grey's Anatomy (3)Grocery (2)Group Health (8)Growth Mindset (1)Grunden (16)Gruner (9)Guest (106)Guest Post (29)Guthridge (7)Habit (4)Hajek (1)Hamel (1)Hamilton (3)Hand Hygiene (7)Hanover (7)Hansei (8)Harada (2)Hawaii (1)HBR (2)Health (3)Healthcare (2015)Healthcare Kaien (1)Healthcare Kaizen (99)Healthcare Reform (1)Healthcare Value Network (1)Hebert (1)Heijunka (17)Henry Ford (5)Heparin (3)Hershfield (1)HIMSS (2)hiring (1)Hoeft (1)Honda (6)Honesty (1)Honeywell (2)Honsha Trip (5)Hopkins (1)Hoshin (15)Hoshin Kanri (4)Hospitalist (2)Hotel (5)HP (1)Huddle (13)Huddles (1)Human Error (7)Human Resources (1)Humane (1)Humility (23)Hunmtz (1)Huntzinger (4)Hyundai (1)IBM (2)ICU (1)If Japan Can (3)IHI (6)IIE Blog (1)IKEA (1)Imai (34)Improvement (5)Incentives (7)India (3)Industrial Engineering (1)Industry Week (7)Infections (12)Innovation (46)Inspection (7)Intel (1)Interview Process (1)Interviews (5)Inventory (45)investing in employees (1)Iowa (17)iPad (1)Ireland (2)Irony (1)Israel (1)IT (7)Italy (1)Jaben (4)Jackson (1)Jacobson (5)James (2)Japan (118)Japan Tour (62)Japanese (1)Jidoka (8)Jimmerson (1)Jobs Bank (11)Joiner (2)Joint Commission (3)Jon Miller (5)Jones (2)JPS (4)Just Culture (11)Just in Time (2)Just-In-Time (68)Kach (11)Kaikaku (1)KaiNexus (242)Kaizen (721)Kaizen Event (20)Kaizen Kickoff (1)Kaizen Live (12)Kanban (52)Kaplan (6)Karen Martin (10)Karyn Ross (7)Kata (28)Katie Anderson (26)kind leadership (2)Kindle (2)Kindness (6)Kitchen Nightmares (4)Knowledge Management (1)Kodak (1)Krafcik (2)L.A.M.E. (6)Lab (10)Laboratory (55)Laedership (1)LAME (109)Larry Culp (29)LaSorda (6)Law (4)Layoffs (92)Layout (12)Leader Standard Work (4)Leadershihp (1)Leadership (912)leadership lessons (1)leading with humility (1)Leadreship (1)Leadrship (2)Lean (22)Lean Accounting (1)Lean and Mean (9)Lean Coffee Talk (10)lean community (1)Lean Daily Management (14)Lean Dentist (34)Lean Design (37)Lean Edge (1)Lean Enterprise Institute (1)Lean Hospitals (82)lean leadership (2)Lean Management (14)Lean Management System (4)Lean Memes (6)Lean Mindset (8)Lean Nation (1)Lean Office (3)Lean Pathways (2)Lean Principles (1)lean production (1)Lean Sigma (18)Lean Six Sigma (11)Lean Solutions (15)Lean Startup (89)lean startup principles (1)Lean Startup Week (10)Lean thinking (2)Lean Thoughts (2)Lean toolbox (1)Lean transformation (2)Lean UX (1)Lean Whiskey (61)LeanBuzz Poll (1)LeanPub (10)LeanStartupWeek (1)Leantoon (1)Leape (7)Learning (2)LEI (103)Length of Stay (1)Lessons Learned (1)Levy (1)Library (1)Lifehacker (1)Like Lean (29)Liker (51)Linked (1)LinkedIn (29)Lippold (1)Listening (1)Livonia (9)Locher (1)Logistics (1)Lopez (18)Lucid (1)Management (9)Management by Emoji (1)Management System (1)Manufacturing (215)Manufacturing Business (1)Marketing (2)Markovitz (41)Mary Greeley (6)Materials (2)Matt_May (17)Maurer (3)MBA (1)McDuffee (13)McMahon (1)Measures of Success (75)Medical Mistakes (5)Medicare (1)Medium (11)Meier (26)Meijer (1)Memoriam (8)Menlo Innovations (1)Mental Healthcare (1)Mentoring (1)MEP (7)Merck (2)Metrics (57)Mexico (7)Meyer (2)Michigan (16)Micklewright (10)Microsoft (1)Military (46)Mindset (1)Mistake (4)Mistake-Proofing (185)Mistakes (148)MIT (13)MIxtape (183)Model Cell (1)Model Line (1)Moneyball (1)Montreal (1)Moral Injury (1)Morale (3)Motion (4)Motivation (1)Motivational Interviewing (28)Motorola (1)Move (25)Movies (1)Moving (2)MRI (1)MRP (1)Muda (3)Multitasking (1)Mura (1)Muri (3)Music (6)MVP (1)My Favorite Mistake (35)NASA (1)negative bias (1)Nervous System (1)Netflix (1)Netherlands (13)New Zealand (12)NGO (1)NHS (7)NICU (3)Nissan (8)Noble (2)Non-Profit (2)Nonprofit (1)Norval (2)NPR (13)NUMMI (75)NUMMI Tour (6)Nursing (98)NYT (2)NYTimes (85)O.R. (1)Office (8)Ohba (1)Ohio (1)Oil (1)OKRs (2)ONeill (57)Ontario (2)Operating Room (32)operations management (1)Operations Science (1)Organization Building (1)Organizational Behavior (2)organizational development (1)Oscars (6)Outpatient (1)Overburden (3)Overprocessing (14)Overproduction (20)Packaging (2)Par (1)Park Nicollet (14)Parodies (2)Parody (14)Parry (1)Pascal Dennis (16)Patient (5)patient care (1)Patient Experience (4)Patient Flow (79)Patient Focus (4)Patient Safety (392)Patient Satisfaction (10)Patients First Culture (1)Patrick_Anderson (5)Paul Akers (6)PBC Case Studies (38)PBC-Compare (4)PDCA (22)PDSA (71)People Development (1)Perfection (1)performance driver (1)Performance Measures (5)Performance Review (1)Performance Reviews (6)Pharmacy (41)Phlebotomy (1)Phoenix (1)Physician (17)Physicians (1)pink (1)Pittsburgh (2)Pivot (1)Pizza (4)Pod (1)Podcast (536)Podcast - Bodek (15)Podcast - CEO (45)Podcast - Deming (17)Podcast - Docs (45)Podcast - Healthcare (149)Podcast - Kaizen (12)Podcast - Lean Startup (14)Podcast - LEI (15)Podcast - Toyota (23)Podcast - Womack (6)Podcast 20 Years (5)Poka Yoke (5)Politics (2)Poll (2)Porsche (3)Power Of Kata (1)Practice (2)Practicing (1)Practicing Lean (25)Preventative (1)Primary (1)Primary Care (3)Prius (5)Private Equity (1)Problem (1)Problem Solving (175)Problem-Solving Approach (1)Problems (4)Process (4)Process Behavior Charts (116)Process Design (2)Process Improvement (5)Product Development (7)Product Market Fit (1)Productivity (10)Profit = Price - Cost (40)profitability (1)Pronovost (10)Psychological Safety (116)Psychology (2)Publishing (10)Pull (5)Punishment (3)Quaid (11)Quailty (1)Quality (337)Quality Circle (5)Quality Digest (20)Quebec (1)Quick Hits (1)Quotes (1)Radio (8)Radiology (10)Rapid Improvement Event (4)Reader Questions (55)Reading (23)Recruiting (3)Red Bead (16)Red-Green (6)Reflection (2)Remote Work (1)Research (1)Resilience (1)Resistance (7)resp (1)Respect (6)Respect for Business (1)Respect for People (280)Restaurant (55)Results (1)Retail (34)Retaurant (1)Review (3)Rewards (1)Rhode Island (1)Richardson (1)Rivian (1)ROI (3)Root Cause (4)Root Cause Analysis (3)RootCauseRacism (16)Rother (11)Russia (4)Safe Environment (1)Safety (177)Sales (4)San Antonio (1)Saskatchewan (9)Sayer (2)Scholtes (3)Scientific Thinking (1)Scotland (2)Scott & White (2)Searching (4)Seasonality (1)Seattle (25)Seddon (4)Senge (1)Sensei (3)Servant Leadership (2)Service (4)Services (3)Seth Godin (2)Shannon (7)Shewhart (2)Shingo (58)Shingujitsu (5)Shipping (1)Shook (62)SHS (18)Signs (14)Simmer (1)Simpsons (3)Sin (1)Siren Song (14)Six Sigma (102)Small Tests of Change (1)SMED (10)Software (77)Southwest (3)Soviet (2)Space (4)SpaceX (1)Spaghetti Diagrams (1)Spain (1)Spanish (1)SPC (29)Speaking (10)Spear (36)Spearman (1)Sports (179)SQDC (4)Standardization (2)Standardized Work (221)Starbucks (57)Startup (2)Startups (30)Statistics (2)Strategy (19)Strategy Deployment (32)Strong America (2)Struggles (4)Studer (20)Stuff (1)Stupid (2)Suggestion (2)Suggestion Box (29)Suggestions (7)Supervision (1)Supply Chain (55)Surgeon (3)Surgery (6)Sushi (1)sustainability (1)Sustainable Workplace (1)Sutton (1)Swartz (13)Sweden (8)System Dynamics (2)Tacky Advertising (1)Taiichi Ohno (70)Takt (5)Targets (1)Taylor (5)Taylorism (33)Teaching (1)Team (1)Team Building (1)Teamwork (4)Tech Support (3)Technology (10)TechSolve (2)Telecom (1)Tesla (15)Tetreault (1)Texas (5)The Jerk (1)The Mistakes That Make Us (58)The Office (4)The Resident (1)ThedaCare (205)ThedaCare Center (9)Thelen (5)Throwback (59)Tiered Daily Huddles (1)Time (3)TMMTX (3)Toast (6)Tom Peters (12)Toronto (1)Toussaint (127)Toyota (647)Toyota 1992 Booklet (6)Toyota culture (4)Toyota Kata (19)Toyota leadership (1)Toyota management (3)Toyota mentality (2)Toyota Production System (6)Toyota system (1)Toyota Way (2)Toyotas (1)TQM (10)Training (11)Training Within Industry (66)Transformation (3)Transparency (2)Transportation (2)Trash (1)Travel (62)True North (1)Trump (3)Trust (5)TSSC (8)Turgeon (13)Twitter (19)UAW (1)Uber (3)Understanding Variation (4)Unicorn (1)Union (3)Unions (3)United Technologies (1)UPS (8)USA Today (15)User Experience (1)User Interface (1)VA (15)Vaccination (12)Value (29)Value Capture (31)Value Steam (1)Value Stream (9)Value Stream Mapping (39)ValuMetrix (2)Van Dongen (5)Variation (10)Veterinary (7)VetMed (7)VIBCO (21)Video (262)Virginia Mason (114)Virtual (2)Vision (1)Visual Displays (3)Visual Management (52)Voice of the Customer (3)Volkswagen (1)Wachter (5)Wagner (21)Waiting (7)Walgreens (3)Walmart (12)Walters (5)Warning (6)Washington (2)Waste (149)waste elimination (1)Water (2)Webinar (96)Website (1)Weekend (3)Weekend Fun (21)Weight (1)Welch (7)Wellman (4)Wells Fargo (2)Wetzel (1)Wheeler (1)Whiskey (28)Whisky (3)Whole Foods (3)Wine (12)Wiremold (5)Wisconsin (23)Womack (107)women leaders (1)work culture (2)Work Design (1)Workaround (8)Workarounds (1)WorkOut (1)Workplace Culture (2)Workshop (6)Workshops (1)Wrye (3)WSJ (203)Yahoo (1)Yokoten (1)Zappos (1)Zarbo (1)Zero Defects (1)Zero Harm (6)Zoom (2)

Skip Steward on Deming’s Lessons, Don Wheeler, Process Behavior Charts, and Respect for People

Skip Steward, the Chief Improvement Officer at Baptist Memorial Health Care in Tennessee, was a guest on Episode #314 of the podcast talking about TWI and Toyota Kata in healthcare (he was joined by Brandon Brown).

Today, I've asked Skip to come back and chat 1x1, in Episode #320, about his experience with Don Wheeler, learning from W. Edwards Deming, and more. I hope you enjoy his reflections, our discussions about healthcare, and connections to my book Measures of Success (Skip undoubtedly has a book in him too). 

How Process Behavior Charts Explain Baseball Home Run Outliers

Swinging a baseball bat at dusk against a stadium background with a Lean Blog logo.

If you're not a baseball fan, I apologize for a second baseball-themed post this week. Baseball has a lot of historical time-series data to work with and analyze. If you're not interested in "Process Behavior Charts" or similar methods, I guess I will apologize for this post again too. Next, I'll be apologizing for apologizing.

But, I am at Dr. Wheeler's four-day workshop on "Understanding Statistical Process Control" as I blogged about on Monday.

It's great to learn from Dr. Wheeler in person and I'll be sharing reflections on the class in a later post (and I'm posting a few things on LinkedIn along the way).

In Chapter 1 of Understanding Variation, Dr. Wheeler points out how charts or graphs are far superior to tables or lists of numbers. He uses a baseball example:

Ratings for “The Oscars” Were Lower in 2018? Should We Ask Why or Look for Longer-Term Trends?

Downward trending line graphic over gold trophy figures representing decline in success or performance.

As I blogged about yesterday, things went well at the Oscars... or, at least, no errors were made in the announcements. But that thing that didn't go well was the TV ratings.

Two Data Points Are Not a Trend
The headlines I saw had a lot of two-data-point comparisons. Headlines sometimes gave the percentage decrease in viewers or how many million fewer viewers there were. Many talked about "record low" but if you're tracking a metric "record low" or "all-time high" doesn't mean there's a "special cause." That "record low" could still be noise in the system.

Two Data Points Don’t Make a Trend: Why Headlines Mislead Us

Gun pointed downward, hidden behind a tape measure, with a large grey downward arrow overlay.

When looking at data, whether it's the number of homicides in San Antonio or some of our workplace metrics, it's tempting to overreact to a "headline" that says a measure went down in 2017 compared to 2016. But do two data points really help us understand what the real trend is? This blog post explores an approach we can use to make better decisions about our data.

Not All Improvement Ideas Require “Projects”

In this post, I share some thoughts and build upon one of the presentations at last week's Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, where, Tim Pehrson, a regional CEO for Intermountain Healthcare, talked about how they piloted a continuous improvement process in one region... and how they're now spreading it throughout the system. This leads to confusion, in online discussion, about terms like projects, suggestions, ideas, and such...