Topic(s)
- Management systems
Are you and your team stuck in the exhausting cycle of reacting to every up and down in your performance metrics? Do red/green scorecards lead to more pressure and finger-pointing than actual improvement? In this engaging, hands-on workshop, learn how to stop chasing noise in the data and start leading meaningful, sustainable change—using key lessons from "Measures of Success" by Mark Graban.
We’ll explore practical, lean-based strategies for distinguishing between signal and noise using Process Behavior Charts—an approach far more insightful than traditional binary red/green comparisons. These methods support more thoughtful, less reactive decisions, helping your team spend less time firefighting and more time improving.
Through interactive discussion and the eye-opening “Red Bead Game” (as made famous by Dr. W. Edwards Deming), we’ll challenge old habits and reveal better ways to manage performance.
This workshop aligns directly with Lean daily management by helping you interpret daily metrics more effectively, and it reinforces Strategy Deployment (Hoshin Kanri) by enabling you to measure progress toward strategic goals in a way that avoids overreaction and promotes true improvement.
Ideal for any industry or organization size, this session will equip you with tools and thinking that lead to better focus, better conversations, and better results.
- Create and interpret “Process Behavior Charts”
- Distinguish between the signal and the noise in performance metrics
- Evaluate projects and improvement efforts to look for statistically-meaningful and sustained improvement
- Understand the pitfalls of methods including “red/green” analysis and linear trendlines
- Connect these methods to your Lean management system
The Red Bead Game is a very interactive hands-on 45-minutes that's done almost immediately at the start of the workshop. There's a lot of interactive discussion about the use and interpretation of Process Behavior Charts. 50% interactive.
Mark Graban is an internationally recognized consultant, published author, professional speaker, blogger, podcaster, and entrepreneur.
He builds upon a deep education in engineering and management with practical experience working with executives and frontline employees in multiple industries. He synthesizes and practices approaches, including Lean management, continuous improvement, statistical methods, and people-centered leadership, to cultivate psychological safety and employee engagement.
Mark helps others learn how to improve and sustain performance. In his healthcare work, this means improving the quality of care and patient safety while reducing costs and improving the workplace experience. Across multiple sectors, goals also include improving the customer (or patient) experience, helping develop leaders and employees, and building more robust, adaptive organizations for the long term. 
