Books by Mark Graban
Read. Reflect. Improve.
Practical ideas for better leadership, safer workplaces, and meaningful improvement.
Explore books on Lean management, psychological safety, learning from mistakes, and making better use of data.
Forthcoming · Early 2027
The Silence Tax
How Leaders Drive Out Fear and Futility
What does an organization lose when people stop raising concerns, sharing ideas, or questioning a plan?
Mark’s upcoming book explores the leadership behaviors that make speaking up safe and worthwhile—and help people get support to act on what they see.
Get an early excerpt & book updatesLeadership, learning & better decisions
Learning & psychological safety
The Mistakes That Make Us
Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation
Build a culture where people can admit mistakes, learn from them, and turn those lessons into improvement. Inspired by stories from My Favorite Mistake.
Shingo Publication Award recipient · 2025
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Data & better decisions
Measures of Success
React Less, Lead Better, Improve More
Separate meaningful signals from everyday noise. Use Process Behavior Charts to react less to routine variation and focus on changes that matter.
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Learning to improve
Practicing Lean
Learning How to Learn How to Get Better… Better
Sixteen practitioners share honest reflections on their early Lean experiences: what went wrong, what they learned, and what they wish they had known.
Edited by Mark Graban
Explore the book & buying options →Healthcare improvement
Practical guidance for safer care, engaged staff, and continuous improvement. Published by Productivity Press.
Healthcare leadership
Lean Hospitals
Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Engagement
Apply Lean principles to improve patient care, reduce waste, and create better systems for patients and staff. Includes practical examples from healthcare organizations.
3rd edition · Shingo Award recipient, 2009
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Daily improvement
Healthcare Kaizen
Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements
Make improvement part of everyday work. More than 200 full-color examples show how staff can identify problems, test ideas, and build lasting habits.
With Joe Swartz · Shingo Award recipient, 2013
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For senior leaders
The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen
Leadership for a Continuously Learning and Improving Organization
A concise companion to Healthcare Kaizen, focused on the leadership behaviors and management systems that sustain improvement across an organization.
With Joe Swartz
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Find a signed copy, or explore a keynote or workshop to help your team put the ideas into practice.
Contributions to Other Titles
Mark has written the foreword for these books:
- True Kaizen: Management’s Role in Improving Work Climate and Culture
- The Lean Electronic Health Record: A Journey Toward Optimized Care
- Profitable at Any Price: Lean Thinking for Safer, Cheaper, and More Responsible Oil & Gas Production
And has been a contributor to books, including:
- Lean-Led Hospital Design: Creating the Efficient Hospital of the Future (Essay)
- Management Innovations for Healthcare Organizations: Adopt, Abandon or Adapt? (Chapter)