This episode looks at how GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp grounds Lean leadership in two fundamentals: safety and respect for people. Drawing on his recent appearance on the Gray Matter podcast, we explore how Culp applies the core habits of the Toyota Production System—not as slogans, but as daily practice.
Culp traces his Lean development back to Danaher, where he learned kaizen directly from consultants trained by Toyota’s Shingijutsu pioneers. That early exposure shaped his belief that improvement is a behavior, not a program. He still invites those same advisers, including Yukio Katahira, onto GE Aerospace’s shop floors—reinforcing that the real expertise lives with the people doing the work.
He describes how he “kaizens himself” after board meetings and plant visits, using the same PDSA cycle expected throughout the organization. His message is blunt: Lean fails when leaders try to drive improvement from conference rooms instead of going to the work.
The conversation also highlights GE’s SQDC focus—Safety and Quality before Delivery and Cost—and why Culp begins every leadership meeting with a safety moment. Given that three billion passengers fly each year on GE-powered aircraft, he frames safety as a responsibility, not a dashboard metric.
Culp’s turnaround work emphasizes cultural change as much as operational results. He’s pushing GE from a finger-pointing culture toward a problem-solving culture, where issues are surfaced early and treated without blame. Psychological safety is essential to that shift.
The throughline is simple and consistent: continuous improvement requires humble leadership, curiosity at every level, and a commitment to getting closer to the work. Culp’s approach is a reminder that Lean endures not because of its tools, but because of the behaviors it cultivates.
In this episode of Lean Blog Audio, Mark Graban reads and reflects on his post “Fred Noe of Jim Beam: Leadership Lessons on Mistakes, Innovation, and Long-Term Thinking.”
What can a seventh-generation master distiller teach us about leadership, experimentation, and learning from mistakes? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Drawing on two in-person encounters with Fred Noe—at the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, Kentucky, and at a Bourbon Society event—Mark shares timeless lessons from a leader who practices Lean principles without ever using the jargon.
Fred’s stories about 4,000-gallon “small batch” experiments, revisiting brown rice Bourbon years later, and guiding his son Freddie through failed blends show how humility, patience, and long-term vision create both great whiskey and great organizations.
🎧 In this episode, you’ll hear insights on:
How to design systems for learning, not perfection
Why small-scale experiments fuel large-scale innovation
How psychological safety allows teams to take smart risks
Why Suntory’s decade-long mindset echoes Toyota’s long-term philosophy
How legacy leadership means passing on curiosity, not certainty
Whether you’re leading a distillery, a hospital, or a startup, Fred Noe’s approach reminds us that the best results come from respecting the process—and the people—behind it.
Hashtags:
#Leadership #LeanThinking #Innovation #Mistakes #PsychologicalSafety #ContinuousImprovement #Bourbon #JimBeam #Suntory #LearningCulture
In this episode of the Lean Blog Audio podcast, Mark Graban reads and reflects on one of his classic posts: “The Biggest Lean Six Sigma Myth: ‘Lean Is Just About Speed.’”
Far too often, consultants and trainers claim that “Lean is for speed” while “Six Sigma is for quality.” Mark calls out this false dichotomy and explains why both Lean and Six Sigma—when properly understood—aim to improve quality, flow, safety, cost, and morale together.
Drawing on his own experience in manufacturing and healthcare, Mark reminds listeners what Toyota has always taught: quality and productivity go hand in hand. If someone tells you Lean is about “making bad stuff faster,” that’s your cue to run the other way.
🎧 Listen to learn:
Why the “Lean = speed” narrative misrepresents Toyota’s intent
How “quality at the source” and “flow” reinforce one another
Why misunderstanding Lean leads to failed transformations
How to correct common Lean Six Sigma misconceptions
Lean is not about efficiency alone—it’s about building systems where people, quality, and improvement are inseparable.
Hashtags:
#Lean #SixSigma #ToyotaProductionSystem #ContinuousImprovement #QualityAtTheSource #PsychologicalSafety #LeanThinking
In this episode of Lean Blog Audio, Mark Graban reads his reflection, “I’m Still Dreaming About My Meal at Sukiyabashi Jiro’s Sushi in Tokyo.”
Join Mark as he shares a rare dining experience at the legendary Sukiyabashi Jiro — the Michelin-starred Tokyo restaurant made famous by Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Beyond the extraordinary craftsmanship and taste, Mark explores what this meal revealed about efficiency, flow, and the subtle trade-offs between speed and hospitality.
Was the meal a marvel of Lean precision, or a reminder that even the best systems can become too efficient for the human experience?
This thoughtful story connects sushi-making to leadership, quality, and the meaning of service in any industry — from restaurants to hospitals to manufacturing floors.
Listen for insights on:
The difference between cycle time and takt time — and how it shapes customer experience
Why optimizing for efficiency can unintentionally reduce satisfaction
The balance between process excellence and personal connection
What Jiro’s disciplined craftsmanship can teach us about Lean thinking
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? Nothing will change.”) combine to silence ideas, suppress learning, and stall continuous improvement.
Through real-world healthcare examples—including Virginia Mason Medical Center’s Patient Safety Alert system and Allina Health’s Kaizen program—Mark shows what it looks like when organizations replace fear with trust and futility with action. The results? More engagement, faster problem-solving, and safer care for patients.
Key themes include:
Why “Respect for People” must go beyond posters and become daily practice
How psychological safety grows when leaders respond with curiosity, not criticism
The link between timely follow-up on staff ideas and sustained Kaizen participation
How Lean thinking offers practical antidotes to fear and futility
This episode is a reflection on what’s still holding many organizations back—and how leaders can make it safe and worthwhile for people to speak up, share ideas, and improve the systems around them.
Listen and ask yourself:
What invisible barriers might be silencing improvement in your workplace?
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 generated over $30 million in savings by 2012. But one moment in 2009 stood out: CEO James Dague’s promise to shave his head if employees could achieve $3.5 million in improvement savings. They didn’t just hit the goal—they doubled it.
That public act of humility wasn’t about theatrics. It represented a deep cultural shift where improvement was owned by staff, not dictated from above. For more than 17 years, Goshen avoided layoffs, reinforcing psychological safety and building a workforce that trusted leadership enough to take risks, speak up, and continuously improve.
Mark reflects on what organizations everywhere can learn from Goshen’s story:
How leadership visibility builds credibility
Why psychological safety drives real innovation
And how celebrating small wins every day sustains a culture of improvement
Lean isn’t about tools—it’s about people. And sometimes, it’s about hair.
Listen and reflect on what your leaders might do to show their true commitment to continuous improvement.
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 in movies. They're less fun when they show up in your workplace.
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 to make leadership a daily practice of intentional behaviors — listening, asking, thanking, reflecting — instead of just checking boxes.
You’ll hear about:
Why a color-coded schedule doesn’t make someone a Lean leader
How mindset and presence define real Leader Standard Work
A behavior-based checklist for leaders to use as daily reflection
The connection between psychological safety and consistent leadership habits
Read the full post: leanblog.org/2025/10/leader-standard-work-is-about-behavior-not-just-your-calendar
Learn more about Mark’s work, books, and speaking: MarkGraban.com
#LeanLeadership #LeaderStandardWork #LeanCulture #PsychologicalSafety #ContinuousImprovement
In this episode, I revisit a classic post—Coaching vs. Berating: Lessons from Football for Better Leadership.
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—and those questions still matter today. Whether it’s football or the workplace, leaders who coach build confidence and learning; those who berate only create fear.
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 replaced learning and accountability. That’s when PDCYA takes over.
I share examples from healthcare and beyond that show how psychological safety, not heroics or perfection, determines whether PDCA thrives or dies. Leaders who react to mistakes with curiosity instead of punishment create systems that learn. Those who don’t end up with teams who stay silent and stuck.
If your organization seems to be running on PDCYA, this episode offers a way back — one safer question, one better response, and one small cycle of learning at a time.
📘 Related reading: The Mistakes That Make Us
#Lean #Leadership #PsychologicalSafety #ContinuousImprovement #Deming #PDCA #LearningCulture
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 psychological safety so staff feel safe to speak up with ideas.
Ten years later, the lessons endure: small ideas create big impact, leaders must coach not control, and improvement thrives only where people feel respected and safe to experiment.
Learn how Allina’s story connects to enduring principles from Healthcare Kaizen and The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen, and how psychological safety remains the foundation for continuous improvement in healthcare today.
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 you show up.
Mark explores the deeper intent behind LSW: to make leadership behavior intentional, consistent, and aligned with the principles of respect for people and continuous improvement. He contrasts superficial routines with authentic engagement, drawing on a real complaint from a hospital employee who saw a painful disconnect between a CEO’s Lean rhetoric and their daily behavior.
The episode also introduces Mark’s Behavior-Based Leader Standard Work Checklist—ten daily reflection questions to help leaders practice curiosity, humility, and genuine respect, from “Did I listen without interrupting?” to “Did I follow up on yesterday’s concern?”
Whether you’re a frontline supervisor or a CEO, this reflection-driven view of LSW will challenge you to think less about your calendar and more about your conduct.
Lean leadership isn’t a set of appointments—it’s a set of habits.
Listen now and consider: what does your behavior say about the kind of culture you’re building?
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 must always be right to one who is willing to learn.
You’ll hear stories of humility in action—from Cantrell’s reinvention of Benchmark Realty after the housing collapse to Lembi’s recovery from near-bankruptcy during the dot-com bust. Both leaders learned that progress doesn’t come from certainty, but from curiosity, reflection, and the courage to say, “I might be wrong.”
Mark also connects these lessons to healthcare leader Dr. John Toussaint’s evolution from “all-knowing” executive to facilitator and coach—showing how psychological safety, experimentation, and evidence-based learning drive true continuous improvement.
If you’ve ever felt pressure to have all the answers, this episode is a reminder that the best leaders aren’t know-it-alls—they’re learn-it-alls.
Listen, reflect, and consider: how might humility strengthen your own leadership practice?
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 system around him — a system that encourages scoring over substance, compliance over improvement. Drawing on Lean thinking and Deming’s philosophy, he explores how poorly designed metrics push people to protect themselves instead of serving customers.
You’ll hear why:
Metrics without context mislead more than they inform
People naturally adapt to meet incentives, even if it means gaming the numbers
Most performance is a function of the system, not individual effort
If you’ve ever wondered why “customer satisfaction scores” or other simplistic measures don’t always match reality, this episode will resonate. Leaders everywhere — in healthcare, government, and business — need to ask not “why did they do that?” but “what about the system made that behavior the best option?”
Because when we fix the system, we don’t need people to game it.
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 shaming, the surgeon encouraged and reinforced the nurse’s action — preserving not only sterility, but also trust.
Mark unpacks why moments like this matter so much, how leaders’ real-time reactions shape culture, and why “you’re being safe” should be the norm in every hospital. He connects the story to key themes from The Mistakes That Make Us and Lean Hospitals, emphasizing that safety and respect for people aren’t abstract ideals — they’re daily practices that save lives and build better systems.
Whether you work in healthcare, manufacturing, or any high-stakes environment, this episode challenges you to reflect: How do you respond when someone speaks up? Do you reward their courage — or risk silencing it?
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 psychological safety.
Drawing lessons from Lean practice and his book The Mistakes That Make Us, Mark highlights the importance of experimentation, learning from setbacks, and creating an environment where people feel safe to try, adjust, and improve. Whether you’re implementing AI, Lean, or any transformation, the key is shifting from fear of failure to a culture of continuous learning.
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 discussion takes us back to MIT in 1987, when Womack and his colleagues were analyzing data from auto plants around the world. Toyota and Honda were clearly operating in a fundamentally different way—faster design cycles, fewer errors, less capital, less space, and more value. But they needed a name for this system. That’s when researcher John Krafcik suggested a term that captured the essence of “less”: Lean.
Womack reflects on how the word solved one problem—it shifted attention away from “Japanese manufacturing” or “the Toyota Production System” to something more universal. But the name also created challenges: because Lean rhymes with “mean,” too many managers misused it as shorthand for cutting jobs rather than creating more value while respecting people.
Mark reads Womack’s timeless warnings and lessons: Lean was never about headcount reduction; it was always about eliminating waste, improving flow, and engaging people in problem-solving. And while the term has traveled in many directions since that 1987 “naming moment,” its underlying principles—value for customers, respect for people, and continuous improvement—remain as important in 2025 as ever.
Listen in to hear Jim’s words from that original 2007 interview, plus Mark’s reflections on why this conversation still matters today.
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 deepest lessons are not about tools, but about mindsets, culture, and leadership.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Why Lean in Japan isn’t about “being Japanese,” but about cultivating long-term thinking and respect for people.
How Ina Food practices “tree-ring management” and why profit is seen as a byproduct, not the goal.
How Toyota reinforces its role as a “people development company” through problem-solving and Kaizen.
The double-edged role of Japanese culture: precision and standardization on one hand, but reluctance to speak up on the other.
How mechanisms like the andon cord create safer ways to surface problems.
What Japanese hospitals are learning from American health systems—and vice versa.
Why Kaizen isn’t about cost savings alone, but about making work easier and building capability.
Memorable lessons from leaders like Dr. Shuhei Iida of Nerima General Hospital: “If you keep doing Kaizen, you will get innovation.”
Key Quotes from the Episode
“Profit is like excrement produced by a healthy body. Nobody’s goal is to wake up and produce excrement — it’s just the natural result of living and doing things well.” — Chairman of Ina Food
“The role of the leader is to set the vision — that cannot be delegated.” — Japanese executive
“If you keep doing Kaizen, you will get innovation.” — Dr. Shuhei Iida, Nerima General Hospital
Why It Matters
Lean is not a set of tools to copy, but a system of beliefs and practices rooted in respect, learning, and long-term thinking. Speaking up about problems isn’t easy—whether in Japan or elsewhere—which is why leaders must create psychological safety and model improvement themselves.
Resources & Links
Catalysis webinar recording (available soon)
Learn more about upcoming Lean Healthcare Accelerator Experience in Japan
Work With Me
If you’re a leader aiming for lasting cultural change—not just more projects—I help organizations:
Engage people at all levels in sustainable improvement
Shift from fear of mistakes to learning from them
Apply Lean thinking in practical, people-centered ways
📩 Let’s talk: mark@leanblog.org
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 “expected vs. actual” lens helps frame errors
Why psychological safety and kindness matter more than blame
How to turn a minor error into a “favorite mistake” — one you can laugh about and learn from
It’s a reminder that even harmless slip-ups can reinforce bigger lessons about improvement, culture, and how we respond to mistakes.
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, what they taught us, and why Lean should be treated as a practice, not a project.
Key themes:
Why certifications are a starting point, not the finish line
How psychological safety helps keep overconfidence in check
Lessons learned from early Lean missteps
Practical tips for avoiding common training pitfalls
All royalties from Practicing Lean benefit the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation, supporting safer care for patients and families.