Going ‘Lean’ is About People

A while back I posted the article, “Four Signs Your Lean Initiative is Promoting Fear” as a commentary to a popular piece on workplace fear.  Fear is the last thing that should come from going lean–however, from what I have seen, poorly implemented lean efforts can be a major contributor to workplace fear.

Why do I say this? I have spoken with many people who will not speak up about basic problems with their organizations’ lean implementation. Many are concerned that lean is being implemented in a way that isn’t really helping.  They become frustrated when they take time away from work to adjust processes that they feel have only limited impact on the business. Results aren’t reaching the customer or the bottom line. And many early gains end up backsliding. Most often they are angry that no one seems to be interested in attacking the real “waste” that will require making deeper changes that cross functional lines–efforts that are clearly harder, but offer the potential to dramatically improve their business.

After hearing what lean can really do, it is natural for people to become troubled when they see it implemented as a series of narrowly-defined projects that seem focused on shaving costs by stretching existing methods a little further. This is compounded by the negative reaction they face when they raise concerns. It is not hard to see how this contributes to a belief that that real feedback is not valued–that any negative comments will be seen as a challenge to what they perceive to be top-down driven initiative. The result is mistrust and fear.

These are generally not problem employees, as those who question lean are often portrayed. Instead, they appear to be smart individuals who truly seem to want to help their organization succeed. They simply don’t see lean as a meaningful path to creating the substantial change they know is possible.

Lean is about valuing people across the workforce–breaking down barriers that lets them create tremendous value for the customer and the corporation. Toyota demonstrates this, as do all other benchmarks for lean success. So if the workforce says lean isn’t working, it probably isn’t working!

Let me emphasize that going lean is not the problem; the problem is implementing poorly conceived waste reduction projects in the name of lean.  In contrast, I have written about a number of organizations that clearly see the need for creating real excitement in the workforce, which appears to be a key reason for their success.

To learn more, visit www.goinglean.net