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Friday, February 26, 2010

Lean Quote of the Day, February 26, 2010

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

Feel free to share some of your favorites here as well.

All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won't succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy."
-- Wayne Dyer

 One of the biggest areas of concern is the Behavioral waste and blaming which some leadership utilize on a daily basis.  Blame is a what I call a "fat" behavior.  Bob Emiliani who has studied lean transformations and lean behaviors was the first to use the term “fat” behavior.  Check out this post called No "Fat" Behavior, Please to learn about the difference between lean behaviors and "fat" behaviors.

1 comment:

  1. Eliminating blame from the workplace has to be considered one of the most critical aspects of Lean. Lean just doesn't work unless leaders put a stop to the blame game by insisting that the team attack the problem, not the people.

    Additionally, lean leaders must show that taking personal responsibility for mistakes and learning from them through self-reflection (hansei) is the proper behavior for the team. Leaders must show this by doing it themselves.

    So, at the same time, lean leaders must stop the finger-pointing AND encourage self-reflection. These two aspects of blame are critical to any lean culture.

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