Deming’s Red Bead Experiment Workshop

An interactive workshop with Mark Graban that helps leaders understand variation, stop blaming people, and improve the systems they manage.

Discuss a Workshop

Deming’s Red Bead Experiment is a hands-on simulation that helps leaders understand variation and the effects of system design on performance. Participants work within the same process, yet their results differ. The discussion explores what those differences tell us about performance targets, employee rankings, and improvement.

I facilitate the Red Bead Experiment for executive teams, leadership offsites, conferences, and internal learning events. We connect the experience to participants’ own metrics and management practices.

Organizations bring me in to run this session when they want:

Better conversations about performance and accountability
Fewer reactive decisions driven by noise in the data
A shared understanding of how system design shapes people’s results
A practical foundation for Lean thinking, psychological safety, and continuous improvement

Deming’s Red Bead Experiment Workshop

Lean improvement depends on understanding the system people work within. The Red Bead Experiment exposes a frequently missing piece: understanding variation before judging performance or deciding what to change.

I’ve facilitated this session a number of times at Society for Health Systems conferences, where it’s been well received.

I can also combine the session with my Measures of Success workshop, based on my book of the same name, on using process behavior charts to interpret performance data and guide improvement.

Interested in bringing the Red Bead Experiment to your organization or conference? Contact me to discuss your audience, goals, and available time.

Red and white beads in a tray with a sampling paddle, alongside a participant drawing a sample.

Mark Graban facilitating the Red Bead Experiment with participants at Lean Startup Week 2017. — Facilitating the Red Bead Experiment at Lean Startup Week 2017.

What Leaders Learn from the Red Bead Experiment

The discussion examines how incentives and management behavior affect people working within a system. Leaders consider how to hold people accountable while recognizing the limits of the process they work within.

Misreading variation can lead to reactive decisions and wasted effort. Participants explore how to interpret differences in results before deciding what to change.