by Ted Eytan, on 18 Aug 2006 05:53 am
The Journey
Is “respect” the key word?
Yesterday, our organization was visited by leaders from one of our “partner-suppliers,” from an organization that we have had a long and productive relationship with.
We demonstrated some of the work we are doing in the information technology space, and of course, or work on our LEAN transformation came up. Because the visit was short, I found myself weaving LEAN concepts into the conversation throughout.
It was brought to my attention that the word “respect” kept coming up in my descriptions. In my thumbnail description of “5S” in the workplace, I talked about respecting the work environment. I my description of process improvement, I talked about respecting staff by supporting them in examining the way they do work and changing it to reduce waste.
Since I read and hear again and again that LEAN is not about what you do, it’s how you think, would “respect” be the one word used to describe the way of thinking if there were only a few seconds to describe it? I know I didn’t use this word as much before we started on this journey. It was interesting to get the feedback that this was a recurring theme in the conversation.
One thing I have enjoyed throughout this process is talking with other people who are innovators about LEAN, whether they know a lot or don’t know a lot about it. They are the best sounding boards because most of them are already there in terms of “how you think.”
on 19 Aug 2006 at 5:15 am 1.Mark Graban said …
Respect is absolutely a recurring theme in the Toyota Way mindset. Norman Bodek always talks about how Toyota has two pillars 1) elimination of waste and 2) respect for people. “Respect for people” is much harder to institutionalize, so most “lean” companies are really just going after #1, the waste.
I hate to just plug the podcast, but the first two LeanBlog podcasts that I did with Norman talk quite a bit about this respect for people aspect. I certainly recommend that you look at his writings and maybe even talk with him (he’s in Vancouver WA and would love to talk with you, I’m sure).
http://www.leanblogpodcast.org
on 19 Aug 2006 at 5:19 am 2.Mark Graban said …
I’ll give an example that’s just one way that TPS is about respect for people. With TPS, you always take the time to explain “why”. You don’t just tell someone to do something just because or because you’re “the boss”, you explain why the change needs to occur. I saw this at a Toyota plant where a box of parts said “DO NOT USE”. At GM, that’s all the sign would have said. But at Toyota, someone took the time to write on the sign “Using these parts could lead to a customer accident and injury.” That’s very powerful. Instead of “DO NOT USE, I said so”, they explained why. Someone is less likely to feel pressured to make their production numbers and then dip into the box, figuring that someone will catch the defective part down the line. You have respect for people, you allow them to do the right thing.
Respect for people also includes things like listening to employee suggestions, using lean as a way to grow people’s professional lives and careers, focusing on safety and quality (pride in work), etc. I’d also recommend reading Deming as his ideas were very influential in the Toyota mindset.
on 19 Aug 2006 at 9:27 pm 3.Jon Miller said …
You’ve got it right Ted. Toyota explains their philosophy simply as “kaizen” and “respect for people”.
on 21 Aug 2006 at 6:53 am 4.Ted Eytan said …
Thanks very much for the insight - I am glad I brought this up as a discussion point. This feels like the right starting place for innovation.