The blog post

It's interesting to observe a hospital process (or lack thereof) when a family member needs surgery. I had the opportunity to do so one day last week. I originally shared this on LinkedIn as a post and real-time updates.

Thankfully, the clinical care seemed to be good, and that family member is recovering well from the outpatient procedure.

But, the experience could have been better. I'm critiquing the process and the apparent culture, not the individuals involved. They are part of a system, which includes their job role design, training, and supervision.

Blog post with links

The other day, I read about the passing of Donald E. Peterson, who was a key CEO for Ford Motor Company in the 1980s (from 1985 to 1990).

From the Detroit Free Press:

Former Ford CEO Don Petersen, who spent 41 years with automaker, dies at 97

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How often do you hear executives blaming employees, including frontline workers, for different problems or poor performance?

I don't think that's a good look when leaders do that.

Leaders are responsible for the system, especially senior leaders. Even though they are part of a system, they have more freedom and more ability to change systems that ultimately drive most performance.

A blaming leader looks at low productivity numbers and blames “lazy workers.”

A blaming leader sees mistakes and blames “careless workers.”

A blaming leader sees employees choosing not to speak up about problems and blames “cowardly workers.”

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I recently spoke and facilitated at a health system's quarterly leadership forum event on the topic of “Psychological Safety as a Pre-Condition for Continuous Improvement.” It was very well received, and I'm very passionate about the need for leaders to help every team member believe that it's both safe and effective to speak up in the workplace.

Psychological Safety plus Problem Solving is a very powerful combination.

Let me know if you'd be open to a brief conversation on collaborating for your next leadership forum or another executive event. I'm keen to share insights that can further empower your team and take your improvement journey to the next level.

Learn more here and let me know if this would help your healthcare organization (or any organization outside of healthcare):

Transforming Healthcare Leadership: Cultivate Psychological Safety for Unprecedented Continuous Improvement

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I have been really enjoying this book, released in 2021, by Kiyoshi “Nate” Furuta, a retired Toyota executive: Welcome Problems, Find Success: Creating Toyota Cultures Around the World. I bought it a year ago and wish I had started reading it sooner!

Furuta is the retired former chair and CEO of Toyota Boshoku America, Inc. — an automotive parts supplier to companies including Toyota and General Motors. 

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There was a fascinating article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek about GE doing its final spinoff of GE Vernova (ticker symbol: GEV) and the remaining business that Larry Culp remains CEO of, GE Aerospace (formerly GE Aviation, ticker symbol: GE).

The inside story of how GE CEO Larry Culp dismantled a 131-year-old American giant.

AN EMPIRE DIVIDED

The blog post and video

Embracing Imperfections and Learning from Mistakes: A Leadership Insight from the 2022 AME Annual Conference...

In a riveting conversation between Larry Culp (at the time, CEO of GE and now CEO of GE Aerospace) and my good friend Katie Anderson at the 2022 Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) Annual Conference, valuable lessons on leadership, transparency, and fostering a culture where challenges and imperfections are openly shared were illuminated.

Come join AME at their 2024 Conference in Atlanta later this year.

Here's a short clip:

The blog post

As we sit in seat 26A, mindlessly watching a movie, we take for granted that our cell phone (or the shirt off our back) won't be suddenly sucked out through a gaping hole in the side of a plane. That's because the odds of this happening are unimaginably low. Until now, that is. Are we entering a new era where shoddy manufacturing (or maintenance) exposes us to more risk, reversing a decades-old trend of greatly improved aviation safety?

On January 5th, an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX-9, designed and assembled by Boeing, safely executed an emergency landing after a “door plug” blew out of the plane's left side. Thankfully, the resulting hole and loss of pressure didn't suck out any passengers or crew. 

Now, the window and middle seats next to the door plug were thankfully empty. That raises questions about what Alaska knew and what chances they were taking by continuing to fly the plane after previous complaints about “whistling sound” and alerts about cabin pressures on previous flights that plane took.

The crew performed valiantly in these circumstances, and we should celebrate them. This incident creates an opportunity for the aviation industry (including regulators) to learn how to ensure this sort of door plug failure never happens again.

Instead of blaming human error, people should ask why the company didn't have better systems to prevent or detect the mistake or mistakes that led to this incident. Some leaders throw up their hands and lament,

“It's human error… we'll never be perfect… so what can we do?”

Instead of leaving that as an unanswered rhetorical question, we need to work at it seriously. What can we do to prevent mistakes and protect ourselves from human error?

The blog post

Does it Feel Better to Be Vulnerable or Candid in a Workplace?

I've learned so much from Timothy R. Clark of the firm LeaderFactor, author of the excellent book, The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety. I can't recommend his work enough--including his free podcasts, webinars, and more. I was fortunate to go through a formal certification course with him on Psychological Safety.

He was a guest on my podcast, "My Favorite Mistake." He was kind enough to write a blurb about my book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation.

Clark defines "Psychological Safety" using language that's similar to Harvard Prof. Amy Edmondson's definition. To synthesize them, Psychological Safety means a person:

Feels or believes it is safe to speak "without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished in some way" in a given situation.

The part in quotes is from Clark's definition. Edmondson says it's a belief that "one will not be punished or humiliated" for speaking up about things like "ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes."

The blog post

Recently, I've heard an idea a few times that I'd like to share and discuss in this post. As I'm writing this, I can't remember who to cite. That's my mistake. I'll happily correct the post if I remember or somebody lets me know who to credit. Because I love this idea... but it's not my idea.

It's pretty common for a speaker to ask the audience, at the end of a talk:

"Do you have any questions?"

I'm quite certain I've done that. Sometimes, the answer is yes. But the framing of the question is closed-ended. And the question, whether at a talk or during a meeting, might be intimidating. People might wonder, "Is it OK to have questions? Should I be embarrassed if there was something I didn't quite understand?"

That's why it seems a better question is the open-ended version of that:

"What questions do you have?"