by Lee Fried, on 31 Jan 2007 06:00 pm
The Journey
Role Change
My role over the last couple of weeks has evolved, on purpose, from one of doing work to one of coaching and teaching. It is a difficult transition for me to make and for those that I am working with. Why is it so difficult? Well mainly because I love to solve problems and so does those that I am coaching and teaching. When we first started out in the Model Line area in order to jump start the work we often assumed leadership since those they we are working with had little to no Lean experience. Over time we have gradually handed back over leadership to the line managers. Still I often catch myself leading and solving problems as opposed to supporting and coaching the line managers so they can effectively lead and help others solve problems. Overall, I am getting more disciplined and better at stepping back . It has been interesting to see that the line managers struggle with much the same challenges that I do, just in a different context. They too have a difficult time allowing others to make decisions and to solve problems. In the current management system it the norm for line-managers to make most decisions, which has been a real bottleneck for improvement. This problem is compounded when you consider that they are unable to track at the detail level. The Vice President that is leading the Model Line has been working very hard at changing his behavior to reflect this new system we are trying to create and it shows. He is now asking more questions then making statements. It has been very tough for him, yet in many ways rewarding. Yesterday he commented that he has been catching himself forty to fifty times a day giving people answers, which was down from more then a hundred. Moving forward the success of our transformation is contingent on our ability to teach managers how to teach. This means having the discipline to break old habits and the support to build new skills.