DailyKaizen

I met with a manager today to talk about changes that are going to happen over the next two years in the department she works in.  I was warned that she may be resistant before going into the meeting.  Her only knowledge about LEAN came from a copy of LEAN Thinking I gave her a couple of months back.  I could tell she was nervous, yet excited.  The first question she asked was “what do I anticipate will change?”  I took a deep breath and then told her “everything.”  I then asked her “if she was prepared for this major a change.”  She smiled and told me that she wanted to hear more about what “everything” means, but that wherever we are going she is ready to help us get there.  We spoke for another hour about some of the details and we agreed to meet again in a week so I could answer more questions. 

I remember hearing an interview with Art Byrne a couple of years back where he made a comment that people don’t fear change, they fear the unknown.  That comment has always stuck with me and as result I have always tried to provide people with as much information as possible upfront in the process.  On the way out of the meeting I thanked her for open mindedness and she thanked me for being transparent.   I told her that I was a little apprehensive about the meeting, because I had been warned that she did not typically support change.  She smiled and said that she doesn’t have a problem with change as long as she doesn’t have to find out about it after it has already happened. 

I guess Art was right.

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