Why Psychological Safety Is Essential to Quality — with C.J. Kaufman
From Lean Blog Interviews: Real-World Lean Leadership Conversations in Healthcare and Beyond by Mark Graban
October 22, 2025 · 15 min · Season 1
About this episode
Mark Graban and C.J. Kaufman discuss the importance of psychological safety in achieving quality and leadership in continuous improvement.
Mark Graban and C.J. Kaufman discuss why quality, leadership, and psychological safety must go hand in hand for sustainable improvement. Using the ASQ Southwest Ohio conference as context, they explore how leaders can build systems where people feel safe to speak up, improve quality, and strengthen continuous improvement. They discuss how the event brings together quality professionals from Cincinnati and Dayton to explore leadership, teamwork, and continuous improvement, with psychological safety as a central theme. C.J. shares how the conference was designed collaboratively and what attendees can expect from the speaker lineup. Listeners will also hear how quality improvement thrives when people feel safe speaking up, learning from mistakes, and challenging the status quo—key ideas that connect Deming’s philosophy, Lean thinking, and modern leadership practices.
People in this episode
Host: Mark Graban
Guest: C.J. Kaufman
Topics covered
- psychological safety
- quality improvement
- leadership
- continuous improvement
- teamwork
- collaborative design
Keywords
- psychological safety
- quality
- leadership
- continuous improvement
- teamwork
- ASQ Southwest Ohio
- Deming
- Lean thinking
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: ASQ Southwest Ohio
Places: Cincinnati, Dayton
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