Lean Blog Audio: Practical Lean Thinking, Psychological Safety, and Continuous Improvement

The blog post In this Lean Blog Audio episode, Mark Graban explores two silent killers of improvement— fear and futility —and how leaders can dismantle both to unleash the full potential of their teams. Drawing from his book Lean Hospitals and more recent research by organizational psychologist Ethan Burris, Mark explains how fear (“What will happen if I speak up?”) and futility (“Why bother? Noth...

The blog post In this episode of the Lean Blog Audio podcast, Mark Graban shares a story that perfectly captures the human side of Lean leadership—how a CEO’s shaved head became a powerful symbol of trust, empowerment, and respect for people. At IU Health Goshen Hospital, Lean wasn’t just a set of tools; it was a cultural transformation. Starting in 1998, their staff-driven improvement program gen...

The blog post Halloween might be about ghosts, zombies, and monsters -- but those same creatures sometimes show up in our organizations all year long. They lurk in old processes, mindless routines, and fear-based management habits. Here's how to spot the spooky stuff in your systems -- and how Lean thinking helps us drive the fear out of improvement. Halloween monsters are fun when they stay i...

The blog post Too many organizations treat Leader Standard Work (LSW) as a scheduling tool — a calendar filled with Gemba walks, meetings, and routines. But Lean leadership isn’t about how you plan your time — it’s about how you show up . In this episode, Mark reads and reflects on his LeanBlog.org article, “Leader Standard Work Is About Behavior, Not Just Your Calendar.” He explores what it means...

In this episode, I revisit a classic post— Coaching vs. Berating: Lessons from Football for Better Leadership. ⁠The blog post⁠ With Brian Kelly recently fired as LSU’s head coach, it’s worth contrasting his sideline outbursts with the calmer, teaching-oriented approach of Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald. Years ago, Kelly’s tirades at Notre Dame raised questions about what real coaching looks like—an...

The blog post In this solo episode, I explore the contrast between two powerful management cycles — PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) and its dysfunctional cousin, PDCYA (Plan, Do, Cover Your A**) . Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s PDCA framework was meant to bring the scientific method into management — to help teams learn, experiment, and improve. But in too many organizations, fear and blame have quietly repl...

The blog post In this audio edition of the Lean Blog, Mark Graban revisits a 2014 case study co-authored with Gregory Clancy about Allina Health’s early Kaizen journey. What began as four pilot units became a model for engaging everyone in improvement—from nurses to leaders. Mark reflects on concrete examples that still resonate today: reducing wasted motion, improving safety, and building psychol...

The blog post In this episode of Lean Blog Audio , Mark Graban reads and expands on his article, Leader Standard Work Is About Behavior, Not Just Your Calendar. Too many organizations treat “Leader Standard Work” (LSW) as a scheduling exercise—a calendar full of gemba walks, huddles, and recurring meetings. But true Lean leadership isn’t about where you go or how often you show up—it’s about how y...

The blog post In this episode of Lean Blog Audio , Mark Graban reads and reflects on his recent article, From Know-It-All to Learn-It-All: Leadership Lessons from Mistakes. Drawing from themes in his Shingo Award–winning book The Mistakes That Make Us and interviews with leaders Phillip Cantrell and Damon Lembi on My Favorite Mistake , Mark explores the transformative shift from being a leader who...

The blog post In this episode, Mark Graban shares a small but revealing story from a local post office — and what it teaches us about bad metrics and broken systems. When a clerk tapped the “green smiley face” on a customer feedback device for the customer , it raised an important question: was this about genuine service, or just gaming the system? Mark explains why the issue isn’t the clerk, but...

The blog post In this episode, Mark Graban shares a powerful story from an operating room that highlights the importance of culture, leadership, and psychological safety in healthcare. A nurse noticed a small break in sterility, spoke up, and apologized. The surgeon’s response? “Don’t be sorry, you’re being safe.” That short exchange changed the tone of the entire room. Instead of discouraging or...

The blog post Are 95% of enterprise AI pilots really “failing”? And how does that compare to the long-repeated claim that 70% of Lean initiatives fail? In this episode of Lean Blog Audio , Mark Graban examines what’s really behind these numbers. He explains why many so-called “failures” stem not from flawed tools or technologies, but from leadership gaps, unrealistic goals, and a lack of psycholog...

In this episode, Mark revisits a 2007 conversation with James P. (Jim) Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute and co-author of The Machine That Changed the World . Nearly two decades later, Jim’s reflections on the origins of the word “Lean” remain just as relevant. The blog post The discussion takes us back to MIT in 1987, when Womack and his colleagues were analyzing data from auto pla...

Episode page In this episode, I share a reading of my recent blog post, based on a Catalysis webinar where I explored what we can learn from Lean in Japan. Since 2012, I’ve been fortunate to travel to Japan six times with study groups, including those led by the Kaizen Institute, Honsha, and Katie Anderson. Each trip has reinforced the paradox that Lean is both easier and harder in Japan—and that...

The blog post When Mark applied for a burglar alarm permit, he accidentally sent the form to the wrong Newport — Rhode Island instead of Kentucky. The voicemail he got back was kind, clear, and even funny: pointing out that an 845-mile police response probably wasn’t going to work. In this story, Mark reflects on: Why small mistakes are easier to handle with humility and humor How Toyota’s “expect...

The blog post In this episode, Mark explores how the Dunning-Kruger effect shows up in Lean—especially after a first belt course, workshop, or book. Early enthusiasm can turn into overconfidence, creating blind spots and stalling growth. Drawing from his book Practicing Lean , Mark shares stories (his own and from contributors like Paul Akers and Jamie Flinchbaugh) about mistakes made early on, wh...

The blog post Sometimes an “improvement” makes things worse. The Germans even have a word for it: verschlimmbesserung. In this episode, Mark Graban shares the story of how a well-intentioned fix to Europe’s vineyard fungus problem in the 19th century nearly wiped out the continent’s wine industry. The introduction of American grapevines solved one issue but unleashed a far bigger one: phylloxera,...

The blog post Too often, leaders think that if they simply “get everyone doing Kaizen,” performance will automatically improve. While daily improvement is essential, some problems are too deeply rooted in the system for frontline staff to fix on their own. In this episode, Mark Graban explores why Kaizen is necessary but not sufficient — and why leaders must take responsibility for changing the sy...

The blog post Albert Einstein once called the “cosmological constant” the biggest blunder of his life. But what if that so-called mistake actually holds timeless lessons for leaders today? In this episode, Mark Graban explores Einstein’s “favorite mistake” — why he altered his equations to fit prevailing beliefs, what he missed in the process, and how the story connects directly to Lean thinking,...

the blog post In this episode, Mark Graban previews his upcoming half-day workshop at the AME St. Louis 2025 International Conference : The Deming Red Bead Game and Process Behavior Charts: Practical Applications for Lean Management. If you’ve ever felt stuck in the exhausting cycle of reacting to every up and down in your performance metrics—or frustrated by red/green scorecards that drive pressu...

the blog post What does Lean healthcare really mean? It’s more than tools like 5S, A3s, or huddle boards. Lean is a management system that depends on two pillars: respect for people and continuous improvement . Without both, attempts to copy Lean practices in healthcare fail. In this episode, Mark Graban—author of Lean Hospitals , Healthcare Kaizen , and The Mistakes That Make Us —explores how the...

The blog post Accurate data is essential in any system–for diagnosing problems, guiding decisions, and driving improvement. But when leaders react poorly to uncomfortable data, the message often gets buried, and the system loses its ability to learn. When the truth becomes dangerous to report, people stop sharing it. That's when improvement stops too. Just recently, a senior government statist...

The blog post It's hard to believe, but it's been almost  17 years  since the first edition of  Lean Hospitals  was published–an effort that eventually received the  Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award  and has since reached tens of thousands of healthcare professionals around the world. When I wrote that first edition, Lean in healthcare was still new territory. Many leader...

Read the blog post When I first came across the word  kakorrhaphiophobia , I thought it might be one of those obscure terms you learn once and never use again. But the meaning stopped me in my tracks: an irrational, intense fear of failure or defeat. It turns out, this fear is more common–and more consequential–than we might admit, especially in workplaces that  say  they support continuous improv...

Episode page with links and more During my most recent visit to Japan (as part of  a tour hosted by Katie Anderson ), we spent time in several remarkable organizations where the focus wasn't just on performance or process… but on people. One company in particular introduced me to a word I hadn't encountered in this context before:  kaiteki . Roughly translated,  kaiteki  means “comfort,” “ease,” o...