Lean Leadership and Culture Archives - Page 3 of 3

Lean Evolution: Experiencing the Effects of Lean

Over the last year I have worked with a client on introducing, developing and securing Lean Management on various locations in the Netherlands and abroad. Recently, a more formal evaluation with top management and the management of the involved locations took place. It’s always interesting then, to hear how Lean Management is actually experienced across an organization. Through this blog post I thought it would be nice to share some of these experiences with my readers. Lean Management is sometimes interpreted as only a technique, although I think that in the end it involves a complete turnaround in the way people think and act with consequences for the associates, managers, the mutual relations and collaboration, processes and problem-solving, performance and customers. (more…)

The Failing “Undercover Boss”

The “Undercover Boss” which is also televised in the Netherlands is an interesting show: the managing director or CEO of an organization goes onto the shop floor in disguise to find out what actually is going on in his or her organization. And in some matters the “undercover boss” immediately takes action. What a feeling of power that must give… At the end of the show the surprised associates meet with the real person behind the person in disguise: their boss. By the way, it is interesting to see that even without disguise, the boss is not always recognized… The “undercover boss” then solves the problems that were surfaced and rewards the employees for their efforts. All very desirable and worthwhile, but the question that arises is of course: “Why in fact only in such a TV show?” (more…)

Seeing with a Mission: the Visual isn’t the Solution

Ah, but we can do that as well! We can see the solution in front of our eyes – we think – and we can just copy that what we have seen! Back in our own organization we’re ready to go and clean up our mess, change our lay out, paint some nicely colored lines on the floor, put some whiteboards up, put some markings on our machines, and install some of these fancy heijunka-boards and kanban-launchers, and off we go! Easy! Or is it really? After a while it seems that our results are lagging behind what management expected from all this Lean stuff. And that it doesn’t “feel” the way it felt while we were visiting that other company. It is because in fact, that what you can see, the visual, isn’t the solution. It’s only a symptom… (more…)

Resp-Act, for a Trust-Based Lean Organization

Respect is the foundation for trust and productive collaboration between team members, team members and their leaders, as well as between teams and organizations. However, I sometimes feel that respect and trust are seen as a non-tangible concept that should be discussed between people and when done, “we’ll see whether it improves”. An open atmosphere is being created to enable people to put their concerns on the table, on why they feel trust among the team is lacking. But generally these meetings do not seem to be very productive in building trust, as no action is being built in. I always feel that Lean, however, can often provide the concrete vehicles, processes and behavior that can actually build trust through what I call resp-act… (more…)

The Trust Formula: T = (C x I) / R

Lean transformations typically require interventions on both content (technical) and cultural aspects (attitude and behavior) and these together initiate and drive the required change. When assisting clients on their Lean journeys, my focus is on this triangle of content, culture and change. However, this change does not happen just because you intend it. As many have learned, people don’t change because you want them to change. But they don’t dislike change either. They just don’t like being changed. For a successful and sustainable Lean transformation, Trust (T) needs to be built between leadership, managers and the workforce, but also between any support staff or consultant and line management. Trust is required in order to be accepted as leader, coach or Lean guide. (more…)