by Lee Fried, on 05 Aug 2007 02:02 pm
The Journey
Quote of the Week
Over the past couple of years we have invested a lot of time and effort in Lean education. We have trained more then thirty project managers, consultants, and analysts. In addition, we have had hundreds of staff and line-managers from all parts of the organization, clinical and non-clinical participate. This last week I had the opportunity to co-lead a week long training of a group of new consultants and line-managers. It was the first time in a long time that I had the opportunity to participate in an intensive training program and it was about time I polished up my skills.
What was exciting for me and reflected in the training was how much our knowledge base and competency in Lean has advanced over the last two years. As an organization we have learned a lot! Two years ago our training was almost entirely focused on the “tools and methods” of Lean. We had very little experience in implementing Lean based management system. We had not yet tangled with the challenges of traditional human resource, accounting, financial or supply chain systems.
Wow, how things changed. During the entire week last week our discussions were rich with the reality of our current state as an organization grappling with change. We spent many hours going to the actual place work takes place, talking to the actual people doing the work and observing the actual work being done. We would the return to the classroom and talk not only about where the technical modules of Lean could be applied, but also about why the processes were broken in the first place. While learning the technical aspects of Lean are required by every leader that wants to be an effective change agent it is only part of what needs to be learned. Equally important is understanding the root cause of why 95% of the problems exist in the first place: the current management system At the end of the fourth day one of the new consultants commented they were excited, yet overwhelmed by just how much there was to know. Walking out of the room that night this comment stuck in my mind and it reminded me of the following quote from Art Byrne:
“Everything has to change. Are you willing to do that?”
Over tim
on 07 Aug 2007 at 12:44 am 1.Chris Lyons said …
I teach personal development and peak performance in the form of seminars and in-house programmes and I implement the Kaizen principle in everything I do.
I think one of the main points to remember is that the lean approach and Kaizen in general is something to be implemented into the individual’s lives as well as the business itself. Imai, one of the most knowledgeable authorities on Kaizen and lean, has stated the importance of this.
I believe that the most overlooked aspect of business is most often the people. If you can make any principle, including Kaizen, a part of the way of life for all concerned then not only will the business be more profitable and efficient, but the lives of the employees will be richer. This has a compound effect that runs much further than immediate gain, it sets everything in motion for life-long results.
One of the strategies I use when I teach Kaizen is “setting the standard”. Before embarking on anything I teach that you should set up a “code of conduct” or a standard that you wish to meet. If you set the standard to an elite level then the daily implementation of Kaizen and lean become much more efficient because there is a certain conduct expected of yourself and the business. All of this works for the individual separate from the business also.
It’s great to see the western world beginning to realise that we need to “pull our finger out” and raise our standards by applying something that is responsible for most of Japan’s competetive success.
Regards,
Chris Lyons.
http://www.endlesshumanpotential.com