by Lee Fried, on 01 Jun 2006 08:54 am
The Journey
Growing Up in the Process
I spent some time yesterday with a group of managers that just finished up a LEAN facilitators course. They are really excited to get started in applying the principles to their work area, but are having a difficult time seeing the opportunities. What was interesting is how easy it was for them to identify opportunities in upstream and downstream processes. I told them not to get frustrated. It is always hard to view work differently and it will take time, especially when it is your own work. Employees that grow up in a process, know the history, thus they have a lot of justification for why things are done a certain way, even if its waste. The more they ask why, the more they will be able to see.