by Lee Fried, on 21 Aug 2006 06:57 am
The Journey
Leadership Education
As I have discussed in recent entries I am about to embark on a major LEAN transformation within one of our business lines where we will be completely reorganizing how work flows from vertical functions to horizontal product lines. To kick off this transformation we are conducting a significant amount of training with the leadership in this area. The leaders will spend several days in the classroom, visit local companies that have been using LEAN as their business strategy, and each leader will be responsible for leading Kaizen events. The leadership group is excited and willing, but I am not sure if they yet grasp just what they are committing to. Most likely they won’t until we really start making changes.
To be successful we know that the leadership cannot delegate LEAN. In fact, commitment to LEAN has to be their number one priority and a major part of their ongoing job responsibility. That is why it is so important that we start off by preparing the group properly for this level of responsibility. I wonder if others that have done this before can offer some tips to ensure that we are successful?
on 22 Aug 2006 at 8:22 pm 1.James Hereford said …
I wonder if we set ourselves up for failure when we think about LEAN as a “number one priority”. It seems to me LEAN is less about something that is on the list that needs to be prioritized, and more about the thinking that informs how we think about the list itself. It makes me think differently about what is important, and it informs how I think about how I approach what I believe to be important.
LEAN isn’t part of a zero sum game that competes for the bandwidth of our attention. It redefines the game, changes the rules, the roles of the participants, and the moves that can and should be made.
on 23 Aug 2006 at 7:10 am 2.Lee Fried said …
James,
Looking back on my entry I would say that your perspective is correct and what I should have said is learning and not LEAN itself should be the number one priority of this leadership group. The next couple of months will be tough for this team. They will be challenged as you point out to think very differently about their roles, the work itself and what is important. At the same time they are responsible for very real outcomes that can only be achieved by approaching work differently and through extraordinary leadership that needs to set the example of their staff. Thus, without an openness; a willingness to learn new approaches and consider new perspectives they will not be successful.
Thanks for your feedback,
Lee
on 24 Aug 2006 at 7:03 am 3.Ted Eytan said …
I agree with both of you, and offer up my own experience.
When I read Art Byrne’s story, I interpreted it as the idea that Art saw that the bias in business was toward inaction and waste. He committed to be biased toward eliminating waste, and action, so that he could commit to his customer and employees in the most respectful and compassionate way. I think of the story where he worked the line at one of his plants, with the blessing of organized labor. That was commitment.
I committed to think about how to do things better, and luckily received support in doing so.
The exercise reminds me of something a friend once told me when I said, “I’m not at that stage yet.” He said, “change your stage.”