by Lee Fried, on 24 Mar 2008 10:31 pm
The Journey
Developing Lean Executives
I am currently in the process of working with a team to develop a series of Lean Learning sessions for our executive team. It has been a challenging and educational process for me as it is the first time that I have worked with a top level executive team that is committed to transformation. Over the last couple of years we have conducted several “Lean trainings” with this team, but is was completely different then our current approach. Lacking the current commitment levels it was typically information only and it lacked connection to specific, strategic need and results. Thus the overall effectiveness was never very solid. With our new organizational focus this has completely changed and we have the opportunity to work for twelve full days over the next year to begin the deep and applied development process.
There are a total of four sessions that we will teach this year:
- Make problems visible (waste, visual management, standards, 5S)
- Reliable process through reliable methods (PDCA, Point Improvement and Daily Mgt/Std work)
- Make Value Flow (Value stream improvement)
- System Improvement
Our approach this time is to learn by doing and to spend more time in the gemba then in the classroom. Thus our training will be based out of a medical center. The following is a general outline of how we will conduct these sessions:
- Define the overall organizational improvement system and supporting framework.
- Teach a technical skill/principles of Lean (Flow, Standard work, etc.)
- Practice skill/principle through case study
- Go to the Gemba to see skill or principle in action or to determine how it could be applied
- Reflect on how skill/principle fits into broader improvement system and framework
Additionally, each executive will have to take the learnings and apply them in their own functional areas. At the beginning of each session each executive will report out in a standard format their improvement projects, results and learnings. Our goal is to use this process not only as a primary driver of learning, but also as a mechanism to begin to build out and improve our management system. For example, during the first session we will teach visual management and then each executive will for their homework develop a functional dashboard to display target/actual.
I would welcome feedback!
on 25 Mar 2008 at 1:30 am 1.Jon Miller said …
Hi Lee,
Great to see you taking the lean education to the highest level at GHC. I am curious about how you have distinguished between value stream improvement and system improvement. They would seem to be the same, unless systems were discrete and not linked in to the value streams they were supporting.
Can you explain a bit more at some point in the future perhaps?
Jon
on 25 Mar 2008 at 10:51 am 2.Brian said …
It is great that you teach the technical skills to executives.
I think it is just as important to teach the soft skills of “respect for people” as well as reinforcing how management supports the floor workers.
If executives do not embrace the image of the floor leader running to help a worker with yellow-lit andon, your Lean transformation will never reach its potential.
I am sure you are covering this but I didn’t see it listed!
on 26 Mar 2008 at 12:04 am 3.Troy said …
Congrats on your new initiative, Lee, and kudos on luring the suits to the Gemba. They must be committed. It sounds exciting. Good luck!
on 29 Mar 2008 at 4:28 pm 4.Lee Fried said …
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the comments.
Jon, to answer your question you are 100% correct. The reason we are breaking them up is simply a question of the speed our leaders can learn. The Value Stream session will focus on teaching them to understand how patients flow our systems. The System thinking will bring this same view, but add in our human, quality, management and other supporting systems.
Brian, I could not agree more about teaching Respect for People. Our goal is to teach this and the other principles of Lean throughout the sessions and during our 1:1 coaching of executives. We hope to do it within the work as opposed to sepearte. Our experience is that unless the theory is tied to action it is often missed.
Take care,
Lee
on 01 Apr 2008 at 7:18 pm 5.Phil said …
Hi Lee,
Very interesting to hear what you are doing. Picking up on some other comments I believe the teaching needs to focus on end to end value for the customer, as per TPS, but also on a more human level ‘treat others only as you would like to be treated yourself’. Lets also think about PPS as they say in Toyota (Practical Problem Solving), which in my view is just an extension of TOC problem solving. I’m sure you will convert the ex’ecs. Keeep it going.