One Full-Day Workshop | Two Practical Sessions | One Powerful Transformation
Join internationally recognized author and consultant Mark Graban—recipient of the 2025 Shingo Publication Award—for a full-day executive workshop focused on elevating your organization’s approach to leadership, culture, and performance improvement.
This interactive workshop is designed for executives and improvement professionals who want to lead more effectively, react less, and create the conditions for sustainable success.
Most improvement efforts fail not because of bad strategy or weak tools, but because people don’t feel safe enough to speak up.
In this eye-opening and practical morning session, you’ll explore how psychological safety fuels innovation, quality, and engagement—especially in environments striving for continuous improvement.
You’ll learn:
This session is grounded in real business outcomes, not theory. You’ll participate in anonymous polling, guided discussion, and peer exchange to explore how to build cultures where people speak up, share ideas, and drive improvement forward.
In the second half of the day, we shift to data and decision-making. Are you tired of chasing every red dot on a dashboard? Frustrated by arbitrary targets and knee-jerk reactions?
This session introduces concepts from Mark’s acclaimed book Measures of Success, including a live hands-on facilitation of Deming’s Red Bead Experiment—a fun and revealing way to uncover the flaws in traditional performance management.
You’ll leave with practical skills to:
This isn’t about dashboards. It’s about leading with clarity in the face of complexity.
As an added bonus, each class has been specifically scheduled to join a group (led by Mark) to enjoy a Cincinnati Reds home game at nearby Great American Ballpark, providing for a relaxed setting to continue valuable conversations with the facilitators and attendees after the workshop.
Free Copies of Measures of Success and The Mistakes That Make Us.
Each attendee will receive a signed copies of Mark's two latest books, Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More and The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation.
Possible Bourbon Distillery Visits
For those willing and able to stay over for Wednesday, June 18th, we have possibilities of arranging a tour of the nearby New Riff Distillery in Newport, KY — or to possibly take a group trip further south to famed distilleries such as Buffalo Trace or Woodford Reserve.
If you have any questions about the aim of the workshop, the agenda, or expected outcomes, please contact Mark Graban.
Location Details
The location will be announced soon. It will be held in downtown Cincinnati, or one of the two Kentucky towns that are directly across the river — Newport or Covington.
If you're attending from out of town, everything is walkable or a short Uber ride away once you arrive from the CVG airport.
Coffee and Tea provided
Welcome and Introductions - Why are we here?
As the foundation for continuous improvement -- what is it?
How do we foster this as leaders?
Provided
A fun, interactive, and meaningful session.PDSA and Management as Prediction
How to create and use PBCs
Networking Continues (Optional)
(Optional)
Cincinnati Reds vs. Minnesota Twins (7:10 start)
Mark Graban is an internationally recognized consultant, published author, and sought-after speaker who blends deep engineering and management education with extensive hands-on experience across diverse industries. With a strong foundation in Lean management, continuous improvement, and people-centered leadership, Mark has consistently helped organizations—from healthcare to manufacturing—enhance quality, safety, and employee engagement while reducing costs.
His influential work, including Shingo Award-winning books like The Mistakes That Make Us and Measures of Success, provides practical frameworks for turning metrics into meaningful improvement opportunities. A seasoned change agent, Mark has collaborated with executives and frontline teams alike, and he now extends his expertise as a Senior Advisor to KaiNexus.
As the founder of LeanBlog.org and a recognized “LinkedIn Top Voice,” Mark continues to inspire leaders around the globe to build more adaptive, resilient, and performance-driven organizations.
See Mark on LinkedIn
After the workshop, both Mark and Chris will be available for a follow-up call to discuss your progress, address any lingering questions, and help you integrate the strategies into your organization.
They are passionate about creating a vibrant learning community where participants can continue to share insights, challenges, and successes. This community is designed to extend the value of the workshop far beyond the event itself, providing ongoing support and peer-to-peer learning that reinforces the concepts discussed.
Whether you’re looking to fine-tune your strategies or simply stay connected with like-minded leaders, this follow-up and community initiative ensures that the journey toward operational excellence is a shared and continuous process.
After registering, if you learn you cannot attend, you are able to transfer your ticket to another person. If you cancel prior to 30 days before the event, you will receive a full refund. If you cancel prior to 14 days before the event, you can receive a 50% refund.
Feedback from a recent session facilitated by Mark (survey responses were all 5 out of 5):
"Fun and engaging session!"
"The bead exercise helped solidify the concept. Mark is always engaging, thoughtful and relatable."
"Very engaging and interesting session. Loved the demonstration of the game and using it to learn lessons. Mark did a great job presenting."
"Highly recommend this session to a colleague! Great hands-on demonstration and approach about process improvement and statistical analysis. Loved how he demo-ed in real time statistical significance and how things that appear on the surface to be outliers can be statistically insignificant."
The photos below are from Mark's experience facilitating the Red Bead Experiment at events, including Lean Startup Week and the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit.
Early Bird Pricing Before April 15th
Groups of 3 or More
Standard Price
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