Leadership and a Lean Transformation

By Al Norval,

As I work with various organizations on their Lean transformation, it amazes me how many organizations start out believing that Lean is all about implementing a set of tools. They believe that if we only implement these tools, then we’ll be Lean. Often times, I see this develop into implementation lists and audits which check to see how well the tools have been implemented. Sometimes companies carry this one step forward to sending out “Corporate Auditors” with the goal of having a standard set of people to calibrate the audits so the audit scores are valid.

What these organizations miss is that only 10% of Lean is about the tools. The remaining 90% is about people and culture. It’s about engaging people at all levels of the organization to solve problems so that every day we get a little bit better and drive more value to our Customers.



What does this have to do with Leaders?

Tools can be managed but people need Leadership if they are going to change their behaviours and truly start to change the culture.

Leaders need to exhibit these new behaviours. This follows the old adage “What you do is what you get.” What Leaders do is amplified many times over in the organization. Small changes in Leadership behaviour can have an enormous impact on changes in Team Member behaviour in the Value Stream.

But how do Leaders know how to behave in a Lean world?

Their behaviour needs to be based on Lean Leadership Thinking which is based on Lean Mental Models. There are six primary Lean Mental Models:

- Leader as a Sensei

- Go to Gemba to see for yourself

- Problems are gold, make them visible

- Don’t pass junk down the Value Stream

- Simple, visual standards for all important things

- Everyone solves problems using simple methods

As Leaders begin to change their behaviours based on these Mental Models, the rest of the organization picks up on it and more and more people become engaged in solving problems to root cause rather developing work arounds. Business results start to accelerate and Lean becomes locked into the culture of the organization.

For more on Lean Leadership and Lean Mental Models, please see Lean Thinking and Lean Leadership Brain Boosters at www.leansystems.org

Lean Laughs

Root Cause of Health Care Crisis?

By Pascal Dennis,



Health Care is a disaster North & South of the border.

Neither Americans, nor Canadians can look on their situation with any satisfaction.

Costs are exploding -- and crowding out other critical expenditures like education, R & D and infrastructure.
Health care outcomes are disappointing. Miracles occur within the silos, catastrophe across them.

What's the root cause of this sorry state of affairs?

Why can't smart, skilled and caring medical professionals do what they're trying to do?

Deming taught us that the problem is in the system -- and he's right again.

Mis-medication, wrong site surgery, infection and other nosocomial calamities occur despite the heroics of nurses, doctors, pharmacists and the many other specialists who keep hospitals going. Indeed, things would likely be much worse but for their heroics.

So what's the root cause of our health care crisis?

Tom Papas, the protagonist of the business novel, The Remedy, tries to answer this question in chapter 13.

He is in rough shape -- he might be losing his father to a mis-medication.

Tom's conclusion: the customer is not the customer.

Only patients, he concludes, can arbitrate the millions of daily decisions that comprise the provision of medical care.

Yet the patient is not the customer in these transactions.

As evidence he reflects on how difficult it has been for his family to get Safety, Quality or Cost information from hospitals.

"And why should they give me info?" he laments. "I'm not the customer."

I've gotten a lot of mail about this chapter!

So what do ya'll think? Is Tom right, or is he not thinking clearly because of his desperate situation?

Are there other root causes that are more important? Any other thoughts or insights?

I'd be pleased to hear from you.

Cheerfulness & Kaizen Spirit

By Pascal Dennis,

In an earlier post on kaizen spirit has generated fine comments.

I'd like to expound on the related concept: cheerfulness.

I'm not referring to the Pollyanna variety -- shallow, rootless, Ill-informed by life...

I mean the real deal: deeply rooted cheerfulness, fully informed of life's ups and downs -- and showing a sunny smile to life regardless.

Cheerfulness is a statement:

"Yes, life is tough. There are plenty of reasons to be depressed. But here I am -- in spite of everything."

In spite of everything -- I'd suggest this humble phrase summarizes the spirit of kaizen.

We ain't got much money, we're in an old plant, in a mature industry -- but we're making things a little better every day...

I see that same spirit now in Japan; have no doubt they'll meet their troubles with resolve -- and cheerfulness.

I remember an old, esteemed aikido sensei (in my martial arts days).

"You must have a big heart, Pascal-san."

Then he cupped his hands on his chest -- an expanding heart.

(See chapter 13 of Andy & Me )

I've never forgotten the lesson.

The Biggest Weakness is Contemporary Business Culture?

By Pascal Dennis,

Last time I talked about Big Heart.

In my view, the biggest weakness in contemporary business culture is just that -- an absence of heart.

McKinsey-Gupta scandal exemplifies it -- "achievatrons" at the trough, gorging themselves at the expense of the public.

I wouldn't go as far Barry Ritholtz.  But I'd agree with CNBC -- it could be bigger than Madoff.

If Gupta did tip off his hedge fund manager friend, it was something darker than greed. Was it sociopathic narcissism?

Did Gupta, like Madoff, believe he was somehow above the law, immune to the rules that govern the rest of us?

By contrast, the sensei who taught me about big heart spent hours with me and my chums -- at no cost.

He had dedicated his life to teaching Aikido -- the "way of harmony of the spirit".

And Big Heart was its foundation.

For more, please feel free to read chapter 13 of Andy & Me, or its sequel, The Remedy.

Jacky Fisher -- Transforming the Royal Navy

By Pascal Dennis

Just finished Dreadnought, Robert Massie's splendid account of the years leading up to World War 1.

My favourite character is Admiral John (Jackie) Fisher who transformed the Royal Navy -- just in time. 

Fisher was a Lean thinker, far ahead of his time.  His obsession was improving the speed and accuracy of Royal Navy operations -- in advance of the German High Fleet's challenge.

He used Lean thinking with intuitive flair.  Go see was a favourite technique, as was standardized work.

He famously took a chair and table into the yard where some operation was to be carried out and declared his intention to stay there until the operation was completed.

The dreadnought, Royal Sovereign, was built in two years rather than three.  Changing a barbette gun on a ship was reduced from two days to two hours. His example obliged all shipyards, both navy and private, to reduce waste, making savings in cost and allowing new designs to enter service more rapidly.

He once observed, "When you are told a thing is impossible, then is the time to fight like the devil."

He was also effective politically.  Winston Churchill, First Sea Lord, was an important (on again/off again) ally.

Had Jackie Fisher been less diligent, would the Royal Navy have checkmated the German High Fleet (confining them to their Baltic ports)?

Transformation is a tough business.  At best you partially succeed.  But that can be the difference between poverty & prosperity -- or death and life.

For my image of what transformation looks & feels like, there's The Remedy...

Strategy Deployment & the D-Day Invasion

By Pascal Dennis,

On June 6, 1944 a vast allied army landed on the beaches of Normandy and began the liberation of Europe.

General Eisenhower commanded the attacking force -- five beaches and five attacking armies.
 

General Irwen Rommel, the Desert Fox, commanded the defenders -- (with little support & much interference from Berlin)

D-Day was a triumph of strategy deployment against long odds. It was the biggest amphibious assault ever planned and the failure modes were daunting.

What if the preceding naval bombardment failed to disable the Nazi guns?

What is the sea was rougher, the waves higher, the tide stronger than expected?

What if the cloud cover lifted and the moon lit up the attackers?

What if, what if, what if -- the strategist's eternal question.

How did Eisenhower and his staff deal with these uncertainties? Did they dictate the tactics of each army at each beach?

"Thou shalt..."

For example, did they dictate minute assault details, in advance, to the Canadian Army on Juno beach or the American 1st Army at Omaha beach?

Of course not -- it would be absurd to do so. Only the army in the field can adjust to the conditions on the battlefield -- they see them best.

In my experience, "Command & control" in military circles does not mean "tightly control/limit/inhibit" -- as it does in civilian circles. It simply means Check & Adjust your plan.

Eisenhower provided overall objectives to each army and suggested tactics -- knowing that these would be adjusted in the field of battle.

Rommel, by contrast, was hindered by interference from Hitler and his inner circle -- people remote from the battlefield, who had rarely, if ever, visited Normandy.

What's the lesson for those of us who develop and deploy business strategies?

Follow the recipe laid out in The Remedy and Getting the Right Things Done:

1. Develop the plan

2. Deploy the plan

3. Monitor the plan

4. Improve the system

Deploy the plan does not mean controlling every tactical element. It means providing guidance and support for those in the battlefield.

It means teaching them how to translate overall objectives into meaningful tactics -- and giving them the freedom to do so.

Don't worry -- you're not giving up control. You'll have plenty of chances for input in the Check & Adjust phases.

Think of strategy as a river. Leaders define objectives (getting to the sea) and the banks of the river.

Then they let the water go.

Check out The Remedy or Getting the Right Things Done for more.

Last & most important

Let's honour our D-Day veterans, who put their lives on the line to make a better world.

Thanks for all you did for us.

What is a Team?

By Pascal Dennis

In my view, a team is an organized group of people with a clearly defined goal.

"Organized" means team members have clearly defined & interconnected roles -- which in turn, depends on shared purpose.

In the absence of latter, our discourse inevitably devolves into random opinions, factoids and, often, recrimination.

"If only those bozos in... would do their jobs!"

Shared purpose shifts our thinking. "Just how are we going to achieve that objective?"

(Or that "target condition" -- tip of the hat to Mike Rother)

What sort of objectives are most compelling & effective?

Objectives that are just beyond the capability of the team.

(I've found that it's better to err on the side of too aggressive objectives, than the other way)

These compel collaboration. "We hang together -- or separately."

Teamwork, therefore, entails interdependency.

Lean factories are organized such that team members in adjacent work zones can help one another and communicate freely.

Work thus becomes a relay race -- if need be, the faster runner can help the slower runner in the baton transfer zone.

(It triggers problem solving too. "Why is the team member always behind? Is it our layout, ergonomics, part fit...?)

Lean offices should be laid out this way too.

I've seen finance, insurance, order fulfillment teams achieve remarkable performance levels thereby.

I've described some of the more visible aspects of teamwork.

The invisible is as important.

Teams are connected by values -- shared standards of behaviour.

John Wooden's "sets of three" are good examples:

• Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't steal.
• Don't whine. Don't complain. Don't make excuses.

Tough standards! (For me at least...)

But when a group of people is aligned around values, life becomes more predictable & they can relax.

That's another element of teamwork -- security.


Best regards,
Pascal