Mark Graban – Lean Healthcare Author & Improvement Leader
About Mark Graban
Mark Graban is a globally recognized author, speaker, and consultant specializing in Lean healthcare, continuous improvement, and patient safety. He is best known as the author of Lean Hospitals, the first healthcare book to receive the Shingo Research Award. Mark helps healthcare organizations worldwide apply Lean principles to improve quality, reduce waste, and engage employees.
Highlights:
Author of 5 influential books, including Lean Hospitals and Measures of Success
Shingo Award winner for two books on Lean healthcare
Founder of LeanBlog.org and host of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast
Consultant to hospitals, health systems, and startups worldwide
Recognized speaker and educator across the U.S., Europe, and Asia
Mark is a consultant, author, professional speaker, and blogger — also serving as a Senior Advisor to the technology and software company KaiNexus.
Books and Awards
He is the author of the book Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Engagement (Productivity Press), which was selected for a 2009 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award, the first healthcare book to win this award, and is being translated into eight languages. A 3rd edition was released in June 2016.
Mark has also co-authored a second book, Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements, released in June 2012, and is a Shingo Research Award recipient in 2013. A newly revised and condensed edition, The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen: Leadership for a Continuously Learning and Improving Organization, was released in August 2013.
His book on performance management is Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, a management book about using simple, yet practical statistical methods that help leaders at all levels overreact less to their metrics, which frees up time for real, focused, sustainable improvement.
Mark’s latest book (June 2023) is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. It was named a recipient of the Shingo Publication Award in February 2025.
He also edited and contributed to an anthology titled Practicing Lean: Learning How to Learn How to Get Better… Better, a book of reflections and lessons learned about change, growth, and Lean management, written by Mark and 15 other authors from various industries.
He is the founder and lead blogger and podcaster at LeanBlog.org, which he started in January 2005.
Education
Mark earned a BS in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University, an MS in Mechanical Engineering, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan Leaders for Global Operations Program (previously known as Leaders for Manufacturing). Mark started his career and learned Lean and other operational excellence methods at General Motors and Dell. While later working at Honeywell, Mark was certified as a “Lean Expert” (Lean Black Belt).
Consulting and Speaking
Since August 2005, Mark has worked exclusively in healthcare, coaching leaders, staff, and teams at client sites around the world, including medical laboratories, hospitals, and primary care clinics.
From 2005 to 2009, Mark was a senior consultant with ValuMetrix Services, a division of Johnson & Johnson, where he led projects in the United States, Canada, and England. He currently consults independently for healthcare organizations.
Mark’s motivation is to apply Lean and Toyota Production System principles to improve the quality of care and patient safety, to improve the customer/patient experience, to help the development of medical professionals and employees, and to help build strong organizations for the long term.
From June 2009 to June 2011, Mark was a Senior Fellow with the Lean Enterprise Institute, a not-for-profit educational organization that is a leading voice in the Lean world. Mark served as the LEI’s “Chief Engineer” for healthcare activities, including workshops, web & social media, and other publications.
Mark also served as the Director of Communication & Technology for the Healthcare Value Network, a collaboration of healthcare organizations from across North America, a partnership between LEI and Catalysis.
Mark is a popular speaker at conferences and private healthcare meetings. Mark has spoken and coached organizations across the U.S., in multiple provinces across Canada, and in other countries, including Finland, Holland, Sweden, Japan, Thailand, and China.
Teaching and Media Contributions
He has guest lectured at schools including MIT, Wharton, the UT Health Science Center Clinical Safety and Effectiveness course, and Ohio State University, and has served as a faculty member for the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. He has been quoted and interviewed in many publications, including Health Affairs and the New York Times.
Mark and his wife live in the Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas area. He serves on the board of the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation, the AME Southwest Region, and the Michigan Lean Consortium advisory board.
