Measures of Success · Workshops with Mark Graban
Less time explaining noise. More time improving performance.
Process Behavior Chart workshops that help your team see when performance has really changed—and choose a better response.
Tell Mark about your team, your metrics, and the format you’re considering. On-site and public workshop inquiries are welcome.
What does reacting to every red metric cost your team?
An explanation for every dip. A new action plan for every missed target. Another meeting about a change that might be routine variation. That effort leaves less time to improve the system.
This interactive workshop gives leaders a practical way to separate signal from noise. Through Deming’s Red Bead Experiment, discussion, and examples, participants learn when to investigate a change and when to focus on improving the underlying process.
Read the evidence
Interpret Process Behavior Charts, recognize meaningful signals, and see the limitations of red/green dashboards, two-point comparisons, and linear trendlines.
Make better decisions
Evaluate whether improvement is meaningful and sustained. Connect your charts to daily management, problem-solving, and better questions about performance.
“Mark Graban connects two things plant leaders need most: a better way to read metrics and a better way to respond when things go wrong. His workshops are practical, grounded, and free of buzzwords. Teams walk out with tools they can use right away.”
William Harvey, Multi-Site Plant Manager, Specialty Chemicals
Choose the depth your team needs
From a shared introduction to a working session with your own data, the format can fit your event and goals.
1 hour · Keynote
Introduce a better way to think about variation, metrics, and management.
2 hours · Red Bead workshop
Experience the Red Bead Experiment and discuss its key lessons for leadership.
4 hours · Go deeper
Explore additional metrics and management topics, without hands-on chart creation.
8 hours · Work with your data
Create charts using your own data, with Mark’s coaching. A customized, hands-on session for supervisors through executives.
Need a broader working session? An expanded two-day format includes Lean Daily Management, Strategy Deployment, and Change Management.
Practical methods. Active participation.
The workshop builds on the work of W. Edwards Deming and Donald J. Wheeler, Mark’s experience with healthcare organizations, and his book Measures of Success. Process Behavior Charts—also known as control charts or SPC charts—help put management metrics in context, from frontline huddles to executive reviews.
Mark has led these workshops across the United States and in Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Ireland.
Explore the full-day agenda
- Deming’s Red Bead Experiment, debrief, and lessons for today
- Why data needs context: two-point comparisons, tables, charts, and trendlines
- How to create and interpret Process Behavior Charts
- Connecting charts to improvement activities
- Creating and discussing charts with your own data
- Deciding what to do next in your organization
What participants say
“Great session and presenter. I’ve already started using what I learned and have been sharing with my team.”
2017 Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit participant
“Made a dry subject (data) engaging. I wasn’t ready for the class to be over at the end of the day.”
2017 Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit participant
See more workshop feedback
“Having us (the learners) create control charts was very effective.” — 2017 participant
“Mark made complex ideas simple to understand” — June 2018 participant
