Lean Blog Audio

The Blog Post I'm excited to share my breakout session at the Michigan Lean Consortium Annual Conference! In this session, I dive into the critical role of Psychological Safety as a Foundation for Continuous Improvement. We explore how fostering an environment where team members feel safe to share ideas, take risks, and learn from mistakes can drive remarkable progress and innovation. Oh, and did I mention that Traverse City is usually gorgeous in August?

Blog post link When writing or speaking, I use the words “mistake” and “error” interchangeably. The definitions in some dictionaries are comically circular. Dictionary.com defines an error as: “a deviation from accuracy or correctness; a MISTAKE, as in action or speech.” It also defines a mistake as: “an ERROR in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.” So, a mistake is an error, and an error is a mistake.

Blog post link I'm excited that the Shingo Institute asked me to present a webinar on June 18th. Click here to register for the webinar They've also published an article that I wrote: Psychological Safety: The Key to Effective Andon Cord Pulls and Continuous Improvement The webinar description: Join us for an engaging webinar as we explore the transformative power of cultivating a culture that learns from mistakes, ultimately driving continuous improvement and innovation, leading to greater success! Renowned author Mark Graban will draw upon examples from a diverse array of companies, including industry titans like Toyota and agile software startups such as KaiNexus. During this session, participants will gain valuable insights into the experiences of CEOs and other leaders, regardless of company size, who have adeptly turned mistakes into opportunities for growth and advancement. While these leaders remain vigilant in error prevention, they recognize the profound value of embracing mistakes as pivotal learning moments, particularly within environments fostering psychological safety and robust problem-solving capabilities. Through compelling narratives, attendees will discover lessons that both educate and inspire, recognizing that in the dynamic landscape of business, mistakes are inevitable — yet it is the process of learning from them that propels us forward!

Blog post I was talking recently with a trusted friend in the Lean community. He told me a story. It's certainly believable, even if it's second or third-hand to me. He had no reason to make up a story like this. A relative of his works in a U.S. factory. Yes, we still have factories here. I'll call this relative of my friend “Guy,” which is pronounced the American way, not the French way. Guy's factory would claim to use Lean methods and might even claim a “Toyota Production System” label as its inspiration.

Blog post link The Big Picture: In the Lean community and beyond, some people mistakenly equate “psychological safety” with being comfortable all the time. This misconception can undermine the true essence of psychological safety in the workplace. Psychological safety is not about constant comfort or shielding managers from discomfort. Synthesizing a few definitions of psychological safety, I say it's a person's belief, feeling, or perception that it's safe enough to speak candidly about things including: Mistakes Problems Ideas Differing views without fearing marginalization or punishment. What Psychological Safety Really Means

The blog post IMAGE: A sign that reads "CAUTION: DON'T OPERATE ON THE WRONG SIDE" It's silly, right? I've never seen a sign like this in an operating room. And I'm not advocating for them. It's not the right approach for quality and patient safety. If warning signs actually prevented mistakes, and given that a vast majority of mistakes are caused by human factors (like fatigue) and systemic factors (like being behind schedule because instruments were delivered late to the O.R.)…1) A sign like this would be posted in every operating room and2) Wrong-site, wrong-side, and wrong-patient surgeries would never occurBut, of course, it's not that simple.What works?Mistake-proofing works.

The blog post TODAY marks the centennial of one of the most significant innovations in quality management: the control chart. 🎂 🎉 🎆 In the early 1920s, Walter A. Shewhart, working at Bell Labs, recognized the need for a statistical method to monitor and control manufacturing processes. On May 16, 1924, Shewhart created the first “control chart,” a tool that distinguished between common cause variation (inherent in the process) and special cause variation (due to specific, identifiable factors). This simple yet powerful distinction laid the foundation for modern statistical process control (SPC). Control charts were dubbed “Process Behavior Charts” by Donald J. Wheeler Ph.D.) The latest and greatest of the control charts is the “XmR Chart” — as Wheeler wrote about in Understanding Variation and I wrote about in Measures of Success (a book that has a foreword written by Wheeler).

The blog post Research by Ethan Burris shows that the top two reasons employees choose to keep quiet in the workplace are:1️⃣ Futility2️⃣ FearFear of getting in trouble is a big problem. But there are also many workplaces where people say, quite literally, “I'm not afraid to speak up, it just isn't worth the effort.”That's the Futility Factor.Please answer this poll question via LinkedIn. And I'd love to hear your thoughts in a comment here on the blog post or LinkedIn. Please check out people's comments and stories that they shared on Linkedin.

Episode page with links and more info I'm very happy to announce the release of my new Mistake-Proofing course, available NOW through Karen Martin and TKMG Academy. You can buy the course individually at TKMGAcademy.com for $129. Volume discounts are available for large teams or your entire workforce (for more information, email info@tkmgacademy.com). The course is also part of the wonderful collection of courses in the all-access annual subscription. The annual price of $529 goes up significantly at 11:59 pm CDT on May 31st, so act now for the best value pricing. Other TKMG Academy instructors in the series include Karen Martin, Elisabeth Swan, Mike Osterling, Tracy O'Rourke, Brent Loescher... and more. And if you subscribe to TKMG Academy, you can participate in Karen's "Community of Practice" meeting with me on Wednesday, June 26th.

Blog post I love Steve Spear‘s emphasis on a Toyota-based Lean model of: “See, Solve, Share” See problems, solve problems, and share what worked as countermeasures. That's the ideal, and it's powerful where it exists. At Toyota, and companies like it, there's an understanding that speaking up about problems leads to a constructive response from leaders.  That's not always true at other companies that are starting or attempting their “Lean Journey.” The Psychological Safety that might be taken for granted at Toyota must be actively cultivated in a company before continuous improvement can really take root, let alone take off. I think the model could also be stated as: “See, Share, Solve, Share”