All episodes
The Toyota Andon System in South Africa: Two Buttons Instead of a Cord
Fear-Based Leadership Worked at Volkswagen. Until It Didn't.
We Thought We Solved That: The Art and Judgment Calls in the PDSA Cycle
A Bending Column, a Bad Answer, and the Real Test of a Speak-Up Culture
Calling Someone a "Process Coach" Doesn't Make Them One
Still Learning: A Live Event with Elisabeth Swan on May 7
Watch the Lean Hospitals Coach in Action -- Live, Unscripted, With Your Questions
What a Brandi Carlile Concert Teaches About Practicing Continuous Improvement
What Deming and Fujio Cho Agreed On: Stop Demotivating People
Create Your Own Lean System — But Don’t Lose Sight of These Three Things
Building an AI Chat Assistant From My Lean Hospitals Book
Inside the 1987 NUMMI Management Practices Executive Summary: Why Leadership Mattered More Than Lean Tools
Safety First Isn't a Slogan: What GE Aerospace's CEO Gets Right About Respect for People
When a CEO Talks About the Work: Larry Culp, GE Aerospace, and Real Lean Leadership
Psychological Safety, Learning from Mistakes, and Continuous Improvement
What Ford and the UAW Really Learned from Japan: Listening, Respect, and a Better System
“Toyota Culture” 20 Years Later: Why Liker’s Lessons Still Matter in 2026
AI as a Thought Partner in Kaizen: Small PDSA Tests and Real Learning
You Can’t Cherry-Pick Lean: Why Pull, Heijunka, and CI Don’t Stick
Unlearning Old Habits: What a Pickleball Mistake Taught Me About Feedback and Learning
Five NUMMI Tour Lessons That Still Define Lean Thinking
‘The Rock’ Says Getting Lean is Something Anybody Can Do… If You Work At It
5 Big Lean Questions with Mark Graban: Purpose, Misconceptions, and the Path Forward
Lean Without Layoffs: The Commitment That Makes Continuous Improvement Work
Stop Forcing Change: Use These Motivational Interviewing Questions Instead
GE’s Larry Culp: Why Lean Thinking Starts with Safety and Respect for People
Fred Noe of Jim Beam: Leadership Lessons on Mistakes, Innovation, and Long-Term Thinking
The Biggest Lean Six Sigma Myth: "Lean Is Just About Speed"
I’m Still Dreaming About My Meal at Sukiyabashi Jiro’s Sushi in Tokyo
Fear and Futility: Two Barriers to Improvement (and How Leaders Can Remove Them)
Leadership, Laughter, and Lean: How a CEO’s Shaved Head Symbolized $7 Million in Improvement
Ghosts, Zombies, and Frankenstein Processes: A Lean Halloween Reflection
Leader Standard Work Is About Behavior, Not Just Your Calendar
Coaching vs. Berating: Lessons from Football for Better Leadership
Plan, Do, Check, Act… or Plan, Do, Cover Your A**? Leadership Makes the Difference
A Look Back at Continuous Improvement at the Bedside: Allina Health Case Study
Leader Standard Work Is About Behavior, Not Just Your Calendar
From Know-It-All to Learn-It-All: Leadership Lessons from Mistakes
Gaming the System: What a USPS Smiley Face Teaches Us About Bad Metrics
Why "You're Being Safe" Should Be the Norm in Every Operating Room
95% of Enterprise AI Pilots “Fail”–Just Like Lean? Not So Fast
Jim Womack on the Origins of ‘Lean’ and Why It’s Often Misunderstood
Lean Lessons from Japan: Mindsets, Culture, and the Challenge of Speaking Up
Your Current Estimated Alarm Response Time Is... 13 Hours?
Avoiding the Dunning-Kruger Trap in Lean: Lessons from Early Mistakes
How a Vineyard “Improvement” Nearly Destroyed European Wine — and What We Can Learn from It
Kaizen Alone Isn’t Enough: Why Leaders Must Fix the System for Real Improvement
Einstein’s Favorite Mistake — and What It Teaches Us About Lean Thinking
Join Me at AME St. Louis 2025 for an Interactive Workshop on Better Metrics and Better Management
Beyond Tools: Why Lean Healthcare Depends on Respect and Continuous Improvement
Three Ways Pressure Warps Performance Metrics–and What Leaders Must Do Instead
Almost 17 Years Later: Reflections on Lean Hospitals and the Journey of Improvement
Kakorrhaphiophobia: How Fear of Failure Sabotages Continuous Improvement and Innovation
Kaiteki: The Japanese Philosophy Behind Motivated Employees and Lean Success
How Safe is it to Admit a Mistake at Work? [Poll]
Excited to Facilitate a Workshop at AME 2025: Deming, Red Beads & Process Behavior Charts
A Free Resource for Leaders: The Mistake-Smart Leader's Checklist
40 Years Ago: Just for the Mistake of It… New Coke!
Update on my June 17th Workshop: Improving the Way We Improve (Cincinnati)
Psychological Safety: You get your say, not always your way.
Join Me in Japan: A Lean Healthcare Accelerator Experience This October
Leadership by Fear Doesn’t Work — And Never Really Did
How Psychological Safety Drives Digital Transformation and the Toyota Production System (or Lean)
'The Mistakes That Make Us' Receives the Shingo Publication Award!
My Upcoming Webinar on Mistake-Proofing Across Industries
An Aussie Backpacker’s Workplace Frustration: The Universal Need for Better Leadership
Safety First: GE Aerospace’s Lynn Facility Demonstrates True Lean Leadership
Leadership Gone Wrong: The Cost of Prioritizing a CEO’s Ego Over Effectiveness
Starting the New Year with Global Leadership Resolutions: Building a Foundation of Psychological Safety
Lost My iPhone in Tokyo: A Lesson in Japanese Kindness and Culture on My Japan Study Trip
Ten Years Ago -- In the News Visiting a Japanese Lean Hospital
Surveying the Lean Global Connection Audience on Barriers to Speaking Up
Just Call it “5S Six Sigma” Instead of “Lean Sigma” Please
Lean Failure Explained: When Command-and-Control Leadership Sabotages Success
Whoa! A.I. Podcast Hosts Discuss “The Mistakes That Make Us”
Why Labeling Mistakes as 'Stupid' Is the Real Mistake: Turning Errors into Growth
Leadership Failure: How Refusing to Be Wrong Hurts Teams and Innovation
Why Kindness in Leadership Matters: Lessons from 'The Mistakes That Make Us'
Starbucks Mobile Ordering Chaos Again: Broken Processes, Inconsistent Service, and Misguided Quality Concerns
We’ve Stopped Punishing People for Mistakes. Now What?
A Monthly Bonus for Zero Injuries in the Factory — What Could Go Wrong?
The Power of Learning from Mistakes: Insights from ‘Lean Hospitals’ and ‘The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen’
The 5 Most Controversial Ideas in The Mistakes That Make Us
From Football to Your Workplace: Why a Lone Wolf Can’t Transform An Organization
Understanding Slow Decisions: How "Motivational Interviewing" Can Help at Work
Executive Summary on Cultivating Psychological Safety and Continuous Improvement
Why Two Data Points Don't Show Trends: Understanding the Importance of Comprehensive Data Analysis in Workplaces and News
The Suggestion Box is Dead, with a New Obituary
Demystifying Toyota’s Andon System: How It Works and Common Misconceptions
I’ll Be Speaking, Learning, and Facilitating at the Global Lean Summit
Don't Digitize the Suggestion Box -- Improve a Better Way with Kaizen and KaiNexus
Psychological Safety: Ensuring Every Voice is Heard, Not Necessarily Followed
Join Me on Friday for The Mistakes That Make Us: A Book Birthday Event
Join Me at the Michigan Lean Consortium Annual Conference in August!
Mistakes and Errors: A Circular Definition; Leadership Matters
Upcoming Shingo Webinar on Learning From Mistakes and Psychological Safety
The Pitfalls of Safety Bonuses in Lean Factories: A True Story
Psychological Safety vs. Psychological Comfort: Understanding the Distinction
Preventing Surgical Errors: Effective Strategies Over Warning Signs in Operating Rooms
Celebrating 100 Years of Shewhart’s Control Charts: A Century of Quality Management