A Better Way: Leadership, Development, and Engagement - Northeast Lean Conference Recap Day 2

Yesterday I shared a couple highlights from Day 1 of the 11^th Annual Northeast Lean Conference. Today we’ll continue with a recap of learnings from day 2. The morning kicked off with a presentation from Norman Bodek who discovered and published many of the original Toyota works and an initiator of the Shingo Prize in 1988. His presentation was about how to be a great leader/coach and how to have a wonderful life.

It is amazing what people are capable of doing if they can just believe in themselves and have a strong coach to support and guide them. The Harada Method teaches self-reliance, how to “stand on your own two feet." People pick a success goal, develop a time frame and plan out how to go about achieving the goal. This in itself is not easy, for most people are reluctant to pick a goal. They do not want to fail. But, using the Harada Method, people see the advantage of having a personal success goal that is linked to the corporation's vision. They then can see the purpose and value of their new goal and, with your help as coach/mentor, they work on a process to achieve it. Much like athletes striving to win a championship, employees write down their goals, write out a step-by-step plan to attain their goals, measure themselves against their goals and receive guidance and feedback. If people follow this plan, they will be absolutely successful.

The Harada Method is now recognized as one of the most systematic ways to enhance human resource development. With the Harada Method, you think of the purpose whenever you set a goal and you align these by setting target dates, measuring progress, sustaining efforts through written purpose and value statements, analyzing past successes and failures, establishing new routines to break past habits, preparing a daily journal to schedule your work life and keep you focused on your growth goals. You grow enormously and you learn how to be a great leader to coach others to improve both their lives and to their work performance.

The presentation was by Mike Martyn, a Shingo Award-Winning Author of “Own the Gap.”  At the heart of a leader's role in creating a CI culture is their ability to coach and develop their people. But the role management systems play in creating opportunities for leaders to connect with their people on a daily basis is frequently overlooked. He introduced principle-based management systems that create an environment of team-based problem solving and daily kaizen. He shared examples of how successful implementation of the “4-Key Systems" by leaders can bring about ideal behaviors, increased buy in and heightened engagement by their people in the change process to take their culture of daily kaizen to the next level.  

The four key systems of management that engage people to improve:

·        Strategy (Hoshin Kanri) – alignment is key

o   What does it mean to win?

·        Gaps – visual gaps, coaching for improvement

o   Are we winning?

·        Problem solving – system to solve problems routinely, improvement teams

o   What are we doing about it?

·        Standard follow-up – management support teams, make sure first 3 are working well

o   How can I help you win?

o    

It boils down to creating actionable gaps and systemically closing the gaps. The “experience” you create matters so engage everyone in the transformation.

The last presentation was team effort by Jamie Bonini, VP of Toyota Production System Support Center, and Bruce Watkins, GM of Karl Storz. They shared the story of transforming a complex endoscope production line to true single piece flow. The process not only involved a great deal of analysis and process improvement, but also a sea change in leadership at every level and department. A key to creating a problem-solving culture of continuous improvement at KARL STORZ Endovision (KSE) was the intense engagement of senior leaders under the guidance of coaches to learn and practice a new way of managing. Leaders should adopt TPS as a way to strengthen the quality, safety and productivity of their production system.

Bruce Hamilton closed the conference as he usually does by inspiring all of us to action.  He said we need to share within our community.  I took that to heart sharing my learning at the conference last week over these past 2 days.  I hope you’ll find some gold (value) in these nuggets that will help you put the pieces together.

Next year’s conference will be in Worcester, MA so get ready for another wonderful event by GBMP!