The Leadership Challenge, part 2 – What’s in it for Them?

How will you motivate your team, Pascal-san? 

A cherished mentor asked me this question decades ago. I was a young engineer & manager trying to absorb the legendary Toyota Production System. A lot has happened since those days, but his wisdom still informs me. The leader’s job one today is ambidexterity. How will we both protect the core business, and ignite new Growth? These entail very different mindsets and ways of working. How do we motivate our team members to make such extraordinary efforts?

How will you motivate your team, Pascal-san? 

Ambidexterity entails the ability to both 1) Protect the core business with the proven methods of OpEx/Lean, and 2) Ignite new Growth using Digital methods. It’s an immense challenge, and I’ve described blockers in earlier blogs. So, how do leaders motivate team members to take it on?  Here’s how I would answer the question.

We’re asking you all to help us transform our business. Why? Because it's a big challenge and we can't do it without you.

It's a big ask - life is hard nowadays and many of us are just hanging on, doing our best in a sea of seemingly endless change & turmoil. So, why should you put your backs to the wheel, why should you go the extra mile to help this organization get to the next level, and prosper in the long term? Bluntly stated, what’s in it for you?

First, the bad news.  I cannot guarantee that your jobs will not change.  And it’s likely some positions will be eliminated. As ever, we will do everything within our power to maintain employment stability.

If your job disappears, you’ll have every opportunity to apply for the new jobs we create. If you chose to seek other opportunities, or to retire, we'll be fair & generous.

Regardless, all of you will have the opportunity to grow and to learn. We’re going to invest in you so that you’re multi-skilled & invaluable to our organization.  We’re going to strengthen your capabilities in Operational Excellence and give you the opportunity to learn cutting-edge Innovation skills.

Why? Because we want you to help us continually improve our processes, and to share your innovation ideas so that we can continue to surprise our competitors and delight both existing and new customers.

You’ll have the opportunity to learn by doing through bootcamps, hackathons, our Shark Tank program and other interesting channels. We want you to become ‘employable for life’. We hope you choose to stay with us.

What about AI, you ask? Isn't it going to obsolesce the human & take our jobs?

I believe AI is going to be a tremendous enabler for us. I believe the teams of the future will comprise both people and AI agents, the latter doing specific tasks that free up people for higher level work, especially oversight to ensure our AI agents don't hallucinate and destroy value. But AI will never replace people. AI without acumen equals garbage at the speed of light. We will always need capable, committed people, and that's why we want to invest in you.

So, what's in it for you? Fun, growth, opportunity and being a part of kick-ass team in a kick-ass organization committed to doing the right thing, in the right way.

Best wishes,

Pascal

We Do Not Understand the Customer, Part 1

 I thought I understood the customer. I was a Toyota-trained engineer & entrepreneur who immersed in creating Value & eliminating Waste. I’d launched companies, and written books on Strategy execution and Operational Excellence (aka Lean). I travelled the world advising C-suites & Boards.

Framing is everything.

My illusions were shattered in Singapore, where my colleague & Innovation sensei, Laurent Simon, helped me up a steep learning curve. We worked together in the Financial Services & Consumer Goods industries and eventually built an Innovation practice. We even wrote a book about our adventures & ideas.

Framing is everything. Our Toyota senseis taught us that a) Value is what ‘customers are willing to pay for,’ and b) Waste is everything else. Toyota senseis, famously, like to draw a circle on the shop floor, and ask the deshi (student) to closely observe the process. After an hour or more, the students report back on what they’ve seen, with an emphasis on the 3 M’s - Muda, Mura, and Muri (Waste, Unevenness, and Strain).

As a deshi, my Job One was learning how to identify, diagnose & eliminate the ‘Seven + One’ wastes. It’s a skill I practice to this day (to the consternation of my family). When I encounter a process in day-to-day life, I instinctively note bottlenecks, count WIP & calculate cycle times (while my wife rolls her eyes).

In addition to my Toyota training, I was lucky enough to grow up working in our family diner, the Imperial Grill, (which features prominently in the Andy & Me novels). There, wasted motion meant sore feet; delay meant the food arrives cold, defects meant the wrong food arrives, and so on. Waste is something I understand in my core, and OpEx/Lean provides an excellent framing and solid foundation.

But is the OpEx/Lean framing sufficient in a world of exponential technology? Does OpEx/Lean provide the methods & mindset needed to delight customers in the 21^st century and thereby ignite new Growth?

Here’s a different framing, courtesy of the late, great Clayton Christensen: Customers ‘hire’ a product or service to do a job for them. Customers don’t really care what we’re doing in the factory or supply chain, as long as they get cool stuff quick, that does the job at a fair price. To be sure, customers expect us to behave ethically and to do right by our employees, community & environment. But most of all, they want us to solve their problem.

Here's the really tricky part – often customers do not recognize that they have a given problem. In the hurly-burly of 21^st century life, many people are just hanging, trying to get through the day intact, having little time to reflect deeply about their experience. People put up with a great deal of hassle without much thought. But when they’re offered a remedy in a compelling, funny, and/or charming way they react, often very strongly.

And so, we have two different framings: one is the key to protecting the core business. The other shows the way to growth and sustained prosperity. More to come.

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis, E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

In case you missed earlier blogs... please feel free to have another look….

Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win - Ignorance
Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win