This past week I was fortunate to be able to attend one of my favorite annual activities, the Northeast Lean Conference. The theme of the conference this year was centered around amplifying lean, the collaborative effect. I presented with a colleague on collaboration within new product development at the conference. I’ll get to that in a moment but for now I want to take the opportunity to share some insights from my experience at the conference that we can all learn and reflect on.
The conference kicked off with Lee Dickenson, MD, SVP & CQO
of Tufts Medicin with a discussion on collaboration in complex adaptive systems.
As we have advanced in society from the concept of the master builder of the
cathedral to teams of teams for the modern skyscrapers so too is the time for command-and-control
styles to be over. No one person or group can know all disciplines in a
business. We can break down our silos through collaborative management. We must
work together for the best solutions.
Mike Holender, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt at Zoll Medical Corp discussed using A3 as a collaboration method. Our role is to improve the way we do our work as Freddy and Michael Balle illustrate in Lead with Respect with a simple formula:
A3 is a simple, one page problem solving methodology based
on lean principles. It provides a structured and collaborative PDCA methodology
for problem solving.
Shifting the company culture using A3 thinking starts with the
vision. Here’s a roadmap to instill A3.
- Use A3 language within existing work
- Start writing A3s for existing work
- Find promoters
- Work with management to ask for A3s
- Teach and coach on A3
- Find more promoters
- Continue to spread and scale (leverage promoters)
At Karl Storz the workplace culture has dramatically
impacted employee turnover with their continuous improvement journey. Steve
Escott, Sr Mgr. Warehousing & Order Fulfillment, shared their journey
started with an idea board launched (from Northeast Lean presenter in 2017) to
allow employees to have a voice with the company. Employees became the biggest
advocate to solve problems and improve the business.
Comtran’s Lean journey transited from tools focused
implementation to a strategy focused on people. They had to acknowledge the
human side of change management. People development is based on the premise of what
they called know, show, and grow. They built alignment to company
vision/mission through individual development plans and goals. This team approach
to policy deployment created collaboration from top-level business objectives
to bottom-up improvement efforts.
Mike Matryn, Founder & President of SISU shared his approach
to developing successful leaders and building world-class cultures. The primary
purpose of management is to maximize the passion, purpose, and contribution of
the people to help the organization be better every day.
Purpose – feeling connected to our vision
Passion – reason for being
Performance – accomplishing meaningful challenges
Mike introduced a Japanese concept called Omotenashi, which
means hospitality. “Omote” means public face – an image you wish to present to
outsiders. “Nashi” means nothing. Combining them means every service is from
the bottom of the heart – honest, no hiding, no pretending. Omotenashi is about
exceptional service and memorable experiences.
There are three elements of management for omotenashi:
· Environment – management systems
· Host – leaders
· Guest – employees
- Adopt a management philosophy that places people before profit and embraces the role of creating the opportunity for passion through work.
- Design a daily management system which aligns people through strategy, encourages growth through challenge, and engages leaders as coaches.
- Commit to a kaizen environment where each person strives to improve the organization everyday and takes pride in their accomplishments.
Bruce Watkins, President & General Manager at Karl Storz,
ended the first day with discussion on bad collaboration, no collaboration, and
good collaboration. We have all seen bad collaboration. The best outcomes come
from collaboration and decentralized teams. Leader can inspire teams with “why”
before “how or what” as Simon
Sinek’s TEDtalk shows.
Build connections and collaboration in your organization
changing your view to an outward mindset.
The 5 most important words are “How can I help you?”
The 2nd day at the Northeast Lean Conference
started with a wonderful presentation from Kevin Hancock, CEO of Hancock
Lumber. He described how losing the partial use of his voice to a rare
neurological disorder led him to a remote Indian reservation on the northern
plains, where he discovered an entire community that did not feel heard. The
two events combined to help Kevin realize there were lots of ways for humans to
lose their authentic voice in this world. Furthermore, Kevin concludes leaders
across time have done more to restrict the voices of others than to honor them.
Leaders create change by becoming the change…
There were a number of great presenters at the conference
and I only shared a small sampling. Beyond the presentations there is wonderful
networking opportunity with like minded practitioners across a number of
industries and businesses. GBMP is already working on the next conference.
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