Maintaining Productivity and Company Culture in a Newly Remote Workplace

Remote work has long been heralded as one of the greatest perks that an employer can offer their staff. The ability to work from any location, avoid a commute, and maintain flexible hours can all be beneficial.

However, remote work also has its downsides. It can be particularly difficult to maintain communication, community, and productivity. Employees can atrophy if left on their own for too long, as well.

If your company has found itself joining in the unplanned, coronavirus-induced rush to a 100% remote workspace, you might be wondering how to preserve your company’s culture let alone maintain steady productivity. Fortunately, it’s quite possible to do both, even with a staff that has been scattered to the four winds.

Delegate and Empower

One of the first rules of maintaining an efficient remote workforce is enabling a culture of delegation and empowerment. This starts by clearly defining the responsibilities and expectations of each individual so that everyone knows what is expected of them. When employees understand what they’re supposed to do, it can shift responsibilities onto them in a healthy manner that encourages autonomy and individual effort.

Maintain Consistent Communication

The ability to communicate is clearly important for a remote workspace, but the benefits of consistent communication go beyond that. Properly staying in touch with your staff is one of the building blocks of successful group dynamics. It ensures that everyone is on the same page, encourages healthy and fluid collaboration, and can go a long way in maintaining your company culture, even in a virtual workspace.

Check-In, But Don’t Micromanage

Don’t be afraid to check in with your staff regularly. It’s wise to set a precedent with your employees of regular contact with the boss in order to ensure that you stay up to date on your employees’ workload, productivity, and any needs that may arise.

At the same time, it’s important to avoid using these “check-ins” to micromanage an employee’s work. Balancing consistent communication and employee autonomy are essential ingredients for a happy, productive remote workforce.

Make Productivity Recommendations

While you should try to avoid the need to single out an employee, making group productivity recommendations can certainly help to increase the output in a remote work situation. The key is to look for generic productivity recommendations that translate to a huge variety of work-from-home situations.

For instance, stand-up meetings are a great productivity measure that can encourage your employees to leave their desk chairs, get up off of the couch, or even climb out of bed for a few minutes. You can encourage everyone to stand up during a video chat meeting and then dismiss them to return to the comfort of their home offices.

Be Sensitive to Generational Differences

The modern office is juggling as many as five generations at a time as the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, and Gen Zers all rub shoulders in the same space.

While a remote work scenario may put space between these coworkers, it’s still important for management to recognize the different cultures, habits, and expectations interacting in your virtual workspace. Adopting a sensitive attitude towards the cultural differences of your workforce, even from afar, is an excellent way to maintain a positive, healthy company culture.

Measure Success

While empowerment, delegation, and autonomy are all part of the remote work experience, that doesn’t mean you have to surrender productivity to the whims of your workforce.

One of the key elements to maintaining your staff’s forward momentum in a remote situation is to set up clear ways to measure success. Rather than insisting that your employees simply “clock in” and put in the man-hours, look for ways to quantify the results of their labor.

For instance, setting up goals, objectives, and key performance indicators (KPIs) for both your team and individuals is an easy way to keep them accountable and productive without the need to micromanage them. This enables you to provide praise for a job well done and constructive feedback if they fail to meet the level of productivity expected, all of which can be based on cold, hard facts rather than emotion.

Always Be Adapting

Finally, remember to always be ready to adjust your remote work setup when necessary.

The ability to tailor expectations, shift processes, and adapt to you and your staff’s remote work needs are all important aspects to strong remote work leadership.

Remotely Cultivating Productivity and Company Culture

From empowering employees to maintaining communication, being sensitive to the needs of your staff, and establishing benchmarks for success, there are many ways to boost productivity in a remote workspace.

In addition, many of these efforts can serve to help cultivate your company culture, even when everyone is working remotely. Company culture has a critical impact on employee morale, and it should also be prioritized right along with other important metrics such as productivity and efficiency.

When focused on together, productivity and company culture can be easily and effectively maintained, even from within the confines of a remote work environment.

About the Author: Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but technology and business topics are his favorite. When he isn't writing you can find him traveling, hiking, or gaming.

Hawthorne Effect and Productivity

The Hawthorne effect is named after a series of experiments that changed the way we think about work and productivity. While previous studies had already focused on individuals and how their performance could be improved, the Hawthorne experiments placed the individual in a social context for the first time.

The experiments, which took place at Western Electric’s Hawthorne factory (a suburb of Chicago) between mid 1920s and early 1930s, showed that workers are influenced by their surroundings more than they are by their individual abilities.

Because the experiments originally sought out to study the effects of physical conditions on productivity, the researchers began the experiments by increasing the lighting in the work area of a group of workers. Another group of workers, whose lighting was not changed, served as a control group. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the productivity of the workers who got more light increased much more than that of the control group. After all, you can assume that a better lit work area is more conducive to productivity. 

But the twist came when the researchers noticed that no matter what changes they’re implementing, the workers’ productivity continued to go up.

Not only did the researchers change other working conditions, like working hours, rest breaks, and so on. They even dimmed the lights back down to the initial level. Productivity improved in each and every situation – even when the lights were dimmed!

By the time all the changes were reverted to their initial state, productivity was at its highest level, and absenteeism had plummeted.

So the researchers concluded that it wasn’t the actual changes in the working conditions that increased productivity. The workers increased output simply because they were aware that they were under observation from researchers and supervisors.

The Hawthorne Effect is largely about managing employees so they feel more like an integral part of your business. Encouraging employee input into workplace decisions and operational decisions tends to make employees feel more like part of a cohesive team striving to achieve the common goal of making the business more profitable.

The most effective changes are likely to be those that result from employee input. Boosting productivity from your employees is as simple as paying more attention to them and their needs and concerns. Making employees feel more appreciated encourages them to improve their performance.

If companies make an effort to invest in their workers' happiness and well being, they will improve productivity. Investing in better benefits, increased employee support, and improved workplace conditions rather than simply handing out raises yields a bigger return on investment, because time and time again, studies prove that happy employees are more productive employees.

5 Ways to Keep Focused on Lean Productivity Improvement

Admit it or not, all companies face challenges. In today's competitive market, Lean is turning out to be "the solution" to manufacturing industries across the spectrum for survival and success.

Lean manufacturing helps organizations to achieve targeted productivity and more by introduction of easy-to-apply and maintainable techniques and tools. Its focus on waste reduction and elimination enables it to be engrained into organization culture and turns every process into a profit center.

In a nutshell, lean manufacturing is all about driving toward achieving profitability and productivity through continuous improvement and resource waste elimination. With all of the day-to-day tasks folks need to take care of, it is common that productivity improvement takes a backseat despite great intentions. To avoid that, consider some of these methods to spotlight Lean productivity improvement.

Goal alignment: Perhaps the most powerful aspect of goal setting is its potential use in building an aligned workforce, equipped, empowered, and motivated at all levels to work together to achieve its vision for the future. Setting goals can provide purpose and challenge to energize people to apply their efforts in a specific, planned direction. Well-set and monitored goals that are aligned holistically can put your organization on track for increased employee engagement, productivity, and progress toward achieving its vision.

Visual data management: Use visual boards to display its goals, targets, and performance metrics. The look and feel of the visual board should be standard across your system, with each board including the standard metrics as a designated space for discussion and prioritization of improvement ideas. The visual board in each department should be located in an accessible area in the Gemba so that the data and metrics stay in front of everyone.

Daily huddles: Daily huddles take place at the department level and last for about 10 to 15 minutes. Huddles are led by the staff and are attended by all members of the department Huddles take place directly in front of the visual board so that the metrics that are displayed on the board can be discussed and updated as needed.

Problem-solving: It is recognized that staff cannot implement all solutions or process improvement ideas alone and that process changes often involve other departments or functions. For this reason, part of the daily huddles should be dedicated to problem-solving. This portion of the huddle includes a review of improvement ideas submitted by staff, a progress update on ideas that have been selected for implementation, and feedback received from senior leaders on ideas that have been submitted to senior levels for implementation and/or resourcing. Accountability is achieved through review of progress on implemented ideas with use of a simple WWW (What, Who, and When) form. This process of problem-solving (idea generation), reviewing progress, and providing feedback is key to sustaining team engagement.

Employee recognition: The impact of recognizing employees who engage in Lean productivity improvement can't be understated. It is essential for the individual employee and helps cement a culture that values improvement and signals to the entire organization that leaders care deeply about efforts to implement positive change.

Each organization is different and so are the productivity challenges for your company. You’ll find, however, that even the most basic tools can really hone in your organization’s ability to eliminate waste and focus on continuous improvement.

Using Your Smartphone as Productivity Tool

When people talk about productivity and smartphones the conversation is usually about being able to stay connected or some app touting productivity.  Both of these are true and are much of the reason people get a smartphone.  They are wonderfully powerful devices that continue to transform the way we do things. 

In a recent post about my digital personal kanban system I mentioned that I use a number of Google products in my productivity system.  I use Google Calendar to sync all my work appoints and personal appoints in one convenient place.  Google Tasks is a simple To-Do list I use to manage my short duration tasks.  I also keep track of smaller tasks like phone calls or conversations that I my do that day.

These tools by themselves are not unique and can easily be done with paper and pencil.  The simplicity of these tools make them appealing.  I have been able to combine the simplicity of these digital tools and powerfully portable handheld device into a productivity tool.   Here is a screen shot of my system:

The top left is where my calendar resides showing me my next 3 appointments. In the upper right corner is a digital post-it note that allows me to quickly type a note or list of things that I must do today.   On the bottom of the screen is my To-Do list sorted by date.  The tasks are colored coded as I mentioned before by category. This is my home screen on my phone so that it is first and foremost easily accessed.

This is my own portable visual productivity board right in the palm of my hand.  How do you use your phone to increase your productivity?  Share your experience in the comments of this posts.


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Lean Tips Edition #298 (#3496 - #3510)

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey.  Another great reason to like A Lean Journey on Facebook.

Click this link for A Lean Journey's Facebook Page Notes Feed.

Here is the next addition of tips from the Facebook page:

Lean Tip #3496 – Enhance Cross-Functional Collaboration

Many organizations find that most waste occurs at the points in a process where different functions intersect. Breakdowns that result in waiting, wasted motion, and unnecessary movement are common when handoffs occur. That's why getting all departments on one system to manage improvement and problem-solving is critical. When everyone is on a single platform, communication flows smoothly, and improvement gains momentum. Everyone speaks the same language and follows a standard procedure for planning, implementing, and evaluating their improvements.

Lean Tip #3497 – Conduct a Waste Audit

A waste audit involves analyzing each area of your startup to identify specific instances of waste. This can be done by observing workflows, talking to employees, and reviewing data. For instance, if you notice that your sales team spends a significant amount of time on manual data entry, this could be considered a waste of their time and skills. Similarly, if you find that your manufacturing process results in a high rate of defective products, it's important to address this waste to minimize costs and improve quality.

Lean Tip #3498 – Monitor and Measure Progress

To ensure that your efforts to eliminate waste are effective, it's crucial to monitor and measure your progress. Set key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect your waste reduction goals and regularly track and analyze the data. For example, you can measure the reduction in defects, the decrease in inventory levels, or the improvement in lead times. 

By monitoring and measuring progress, you can identify areas that still require improvement and make necessary adjustments to your lean initiatives. Celebrate success along the way to keep your team motivated and engaged in the waste elimination process.

Lean Tip #3499 – Streamline Processes

One of the most effective ways to identify waste is by analyzing your business processes. Look for inefficiencies, redundancies, or bottlenecks that may be causing unnecessary delays or expenses. For example, if your production line requires excessive manual handling or frequent rework, it might be time to invest in automation or process optimization. By streamlining your processes, you can reduce labor costs, improve productivity, and minimize waste.

Lean Tip #3500 – Eliminating Non-Value-Added Activities

Non-value-added activities refer to tasks that do not contribute to the final product or service. These activities consume resources without adding any value for the customer. Take a critical look at your operations and identify any activities that can be eliminated or streamlined. For instance, excessive paperwork, unnecessary meetings, or redundant approvals can be streamlined or eliminated altogether. By focusing on value-added activities, you can enhance efficiency and reduce unnecessary expenses.

Lean Tip #3501 – Give Your Team Members Ownership

The best leaders in the business understand the power of ownership. Giving ownership to the team members means nothing but letting them make their own decisions and making them accountable for their work.

Making team members accountable for their work induces a sense of responsibility in them regarding their work can be very helpful in improving team performance. They start to see their work differently so that their decisions can impact the performance of the entire team.

Lean Tip #3502 – Ensure Proper Communication

Communication is one of the critical factors that contribute mainly to team productivity. Without effective communication, businesses fail.

A lot of successful businesses thrive on effective communication. Now, a project manager must ensure effective communication prevails in a team.

Communication plays a significant role in helping team members to understand their job responsibilities. And, if there is any communication gap, it can lead to multiple confusions within a team, which will undoubtedly impact the overall productivity of a team.

Lean Tip #3503 – Give Them Room to Work

Every employee or team member works best when given an environment where they are allowed to do things ‘their way’. Most employees tend to lose interest as soon as they are being micromanaged by their bosses or managers.

One of the many ways that can help you overcome this is to create a kickass team. Define their job responsibilities and your expectations clearly to them. Now, get out of their way and let them work on their own.

At the same time, be approachable so that if someone in your team has a question, they don’t need to think twice to clarify their doubts.

Always trust your team with utmost confidence. This further strengthens their belief in themselves which helps them to perform to their best abilities and contribute positively to team productivity.

Lean Tip #3504 – Praise a Job Well Done

While for different employees, different things work to boost their productivity and efficiency at work. But for many of them, it is something as simple as being acknowledged for their efforts.

Nothing can add to productivity if an employee feels that his contribution isn’t valued enough. Whereas appreciating them in front of the whole team can work wonders.

Instead of virtual congratulatory words, this public act of appreciation inspires others in the group to do their best. This promotes a healthy work culture in an organization which will be an addition to boosting team productivity.

Lean Tip #3505 – Lead With Gratitude

Being thankful can have a major impact on the people you work with within the workplace. Gratitude improves how we interact with others and collaborate. It makes our colleagues feel a sense of belonging and motivates them to work harder. So, don’t ever underestimate the power of a firm handshake, a warm smile, and saying “thank you” to your team members.

Lean Tip #3506 – Provide Help if Needed

Helping your team members at work is critical to fostering and maintaining a stable workplace. As a team leader, you should encourage your team members to approach you in case they have any questions or concerns at work. You should instill confidence in them by taking the initiative. Observe your team, which people are most productive and who are struggling with meeting deadlines.

Here are some ways how to improve team productivity by offering timely help to your team members.

• Practice consistent communication with team members
• Actively listen to people in your team and encourage 2-way communication
• Use your experience to recognize when others are struggling at work
• Build relationships with team members while being aware of professional boundaries
• Practice surprising acts of thoughtfulness such as getting them coffee, leaving personalized “thank you” notes on their desk, etc.
• Ensure a fair and even workload to prevent employee burnout and excessive stress
• Inspire positivity by maintaining a friendly attitude

Lean Tip #3507 – Be Authentic and Vulnerable

Create an environment of trust and honesty within your team so people feel comfortable talking about what's going on for them. Start from the top by being honest and open about where you have opportunities or where you might have trouble. Being publicly vulnerable with your team shows them that admitting when you don't know or need assistance is OK.

Cultivate a team culture that lets people know that it's okay to be human. Asking for help, admitting you were wrong, or having a project go sideways isn't unforgivable. If you position these things as learning opportunities, it will help your team be more productive — they can move forward and try new things without having to worry about being punished for failure.

Lean Tip #3508 – Set a North Star

One of the hallmarks of a good team is working together. But how are you supposed to work together if you don't know where you're trying to go? Imagine a three-legged race where both participants are trying to run in different directions — they wouldn't get very far!

The same goes for your team if they don't have a unifying goal or metric that they are trying to hit. Before you start trying to boost your productivity, identify the big things that would impact your customers' experiences. From there, distill the big-ticket items into achievable goals and metrics.

A "North Star" metric is a measure that is the most likely to indicate success for a company or team. In the case of support, your North Star metric may be:

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT)
• Customer effort score (CES)
• First contact resolution
• Time to first response

Or, it may be something that funnels up to your company's overall metrics. For example, if your company sets a North Star metric of the number of customers and wants to increase from 10,000 to 30,000 customers in a year, your team would need to set some goals in service to that. Those goals might be closely linked with:

• Customer happiness
• Time to first response
• Churn
• Renewal rate
• Customer satisfaction

Each of those metrics contributes to the company’s North Star by helping to maintain or gain new customers.

Lean Tip #3509 – Prioritize Your Goals

One of the best ways to increase productivity within your team is to prioritize your goals well and to help your team members prioritize theirs. Once you've identified priorities and started to work toward them as a team, check in regularly to see if they need to shift or grow with your team’s abilities and your company's goals.

Lean Tip #3510 – Reward Quality, Not Quantity

Recognition is so important when it comes to the workplace. Any good team lead or manager takes the time to recognize the hard work and effort their team members put in. This recognition can occur at the team level, within stand-ups or meetings, or at the company level during all-hands or annual events.

When you recognize excellent work and contributions, try to focus on quality efforts rather than the quantity of a body of work. For instance, consider if one of your team members answers tons of tickets but has a low customer satisfaction score. You may also have another team member who responds to fewer tickets but has a 100% customer satisfaction rating. In this situation, it's best to target your praise on the team member with higher-quality work.

How Happy Employees Make Your Venture More Productive

Happiness does have a significant impact on the productivity of your employees. It’s not just an empty claim. Science says so.

In collaboration with British Telecom, Oxford University’s Saïd School of Business researched the influence of happiness on productivity in employees.

The researchers have found that when employees felt happier, they did their work faster, made more phone calls per hour, and converted more calls into sales. As a result, researchers reported a 13% increase in productivity.

Work Environment Is a Large Contributor to Employee Happiness

The above-mentioned study proves that the components of employee happiness are not entirely connected to personal life or any other outside-of-work factors. The researchers from Oxford even took into consideration the possible impact of good and bad weather on employee happiness and found no connection.

Thus, the Oxford University study proves that employers should not send their employees seeking for happiness and satisfaction somewhere outside of their workplace.

The workplace environment and personal life of the employees are not mutually exclusive and have a significant impact on each other. While low job satisfaction can have a negative impact on an employee’s personal life, a positive work environment can also significantly improve employee’s health and well-being, thus, contributing to their overall happiness.

Exploring the Connection Between Employee Happiness and Job Productivity

We now know that the work environment has an effect as significant as personal life on an employee’s productivity.

But what does low happiness and satisfaction levels can cost your company?

Harvard Business Review referenced to a study by Queens School of Business and Gallup Organization, which found that disengaged workers had:

●       37% higher absenteeism

●       49% more work-related accidents

●       60% more errors

As a result, the organizations, where these employees worked, after some time had:

●       18% lower overall productivity

●       16% lower profitability

●       37% lower job growth

●       65% lower share price

According to this study, surveyed companies, depending on the size, lost from $100,000 to millions of dollars annually on average from low employee happiness and satisfaction levels.

So, what lies behind employee happiness? What should you do as an employer to contribute to employee happiness?

Let’s take a look.

1. Foster the Atmosphere of Respect

Communication at work is the first thing that you need to take into consideration when it comes to employee happiness.

Unfortunately, whenever there is a disagreement between a supervisor and an employee and among employees as well, people tend to use a passive-aggressive approach to dealing with conflict.

Passive-aggressive communication at work can manifest itself in a variety of ways:

●       ignoring proper direct channels of communication (spreading rumors, using back-handed compliments and other passive-aggressive comments)

●       sabotaging collaboration and healthy communication

●       silent treatment as well as harsh unnecessary criticism, nitpicking

●       complete refusal to praise employees

Furthermore, praise can also be used in a passive-aggressive context. For instance, a supervisor can use the achievements of one employee to shame another employee and their lack of initiative.

That is why the first step on your way to the happiness of your employees would be getting read of passive-aggressive communication and focusing more on a respectful attitude. And in case you need to give a negative comment, do it in a constructive way and offer your solution to the problem.

2.  Take Care of Your Employee’s Safety

The second contributing factor is making sure that your employees feel safe at work. You might think about the physical safety of your employees right now, but we refer more to safe communication.

While eliminating passive-aggressive attitudes at a workplace is the first step to communication, based on trust, it still isn’t enough to get your employees to feel comfortable enough to share, and this is your end goal.

Trust in a leader is one of the components of employee happiness and job satisfaction. When a leader has their employees’ best interest at heart, it motivates the workers to contribute more.

The research published in the Organization Science journal showed that employees that trusted their leader and safely communicated their issues directly, learned faster, and had better performance.

That’s why trust should be incorporated in the corporate culture and nurtured from the very beginning. Whenever there is a newcomer in your company, you should notify them that your workplace environment should foster empathy and interpersonal kindness, rather than a passive-aggressive attitude and disregard of others.

3. Don’t Encourage Working Overtime

The last tip is concerned more with work ethic than with communication, however, it has a great impact on employee happiness.

There are many companies across the U.S. that have high turnover. While high turnover is not necessarily a bad thing and can be connected to seasonal work and high competition in the industry, in most cases it is caused by overworking and workplace-related stress.

There is a number of high-stress jobs, from insurance advisors to marketers. “After our first marketing campaign, we had a high turnover, which prompted us to hire freelance marketers to help our team cope with large amounts of work,” says Estelle Liotard, senior editor and the head of content marketing at BestWritingAdvisor, a writing services review site, sharing her company’s experience dealing with high turnover.

To help your employees cope with all their tasks within working hours, you can:

●       Reduce the number of daily meetings. Project status updates, for instance, can be unnecessary, if you use project management software, available to all your employees.

●       Introduce flexible work schedules. Different people have different high-performance and low-performance times. Some people work well early in the morning, while others have a performance boost after 4 p.m.

●       Establish an overtime policy. Overtime work should be an exception rather than a rule. Forcing your employees to work overtime almost every day can lead to burnout, which inevitably will have a negative impact on the productivity of your venture.

Your employees may also be forced to work overtime because they don’t have the right tools and resources to complete their tasks within working hours. Encourage your employees to share, which tools they require to do their job best and equip them with everything they need to do their work efficiently.

Wrapping Up

Science confirms that a happy employee is a productive employee. Moreover, it is your task as an employer to contribute to their happiness.

Help your employees work smart, not hard, and encourage open communication in the company, where there is no place for a passive-aggressive attitude. Nurture honesty and interpersonal kindness, and you will see, how the productivity of your employees rises through the roof, making your venture a dream place to work at.

Author bio: Melanie Sovann is a professional writer, a blogger, and editor at EssaySupply, the site which provides best research papers online. She also loves writing about smart business models and facilitating a healthy work environment. 

Daily Lean Tips Edition #37

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey.  Another great reason to like A Lean Journey on Facebook.

Click this link for A Lean Journey's Facebook Page Notes Feed.

Here is the next addition of tips from the Facebook page:

Lean Tip #541 – Productivity Tip: Plan your work, then work your plan.

It is important that you always follow through with what you intend to do, otherwise you are making your plan irrelevant and negating the value of the planning time.

Lean Tip #542 – Productivity Tip: Delete whenever possible.

It is important that you frequently revisit your plan and task list. Always cross off the tasks and projects you have completed, and eliminate or delegate those that are no longer important.

Lean Tip #543 – Productivity Tip: Learn to delegate wisely.

When you delegate a task to another person, make sure the person you are delegating it to has clear instructions on how to complete the task, has enough resources for the task, and has the authority to make any decisions that might affect the outcome of the task.

Lean Tip #544 – Productivity Tip: Identify your high-payoff items.

Make sure that you concentrate on the right tasks, which will generate results for you and your company. Stephen Covey suggests first addressing tasks that are both Important and Urgent. Effective time management is not about being busy, but about getting results.

Lean Tip #545 – Productivity Tip: Work from a prioritized action list.

You need to determine what your work priorities are, both short term and long term. I suggest using a standard method like the Formula for Success to prioritize your action list for the greatest success.

Lean Tip #546 - Set aside time each week to actively and openly nurture the lean journey in your organization.

You must understand that one of your most important jobs as a lean manager is to develop and nurture other lean thinkers and to do this you must be engaged with them on a regular basis and be willing to put a high priority on improvement activities for yourself and others.

Lean Tip #547 - Get out of your office and walk the value stream at least once per week.

There is no better way to experience the flow of value (or lack thereof) than taking the same journey that an order, new product, patient or other takes through your processes. Start where the order, product or person enters your value stream and "go see" all the places they go from start to finish. Look for all forms of the 7 wastes and when you see them, think about "why" they exist. Do this often in order to gain a true understanding of your processes. What happens on Monday is not necessarily what happens on Friday. See if you can discover why on your Gemba walks.

Lean Tip #548 - Use your eyes and ears more than your vocal chords when on the shop floor.

Shigeo Shingo noted that improvements come from the "common sense and experience of the people who do the work". You need to look and listen to what the many intelligent, creative people who make your business run have to say about what goes on in their world each day. If you don't do this regularly how will you have a prayer of knowing how to support their improvement efforts or gain their trust and commitment to change for the long haul?

Lean Tip #549 - Ask 5 different people who work for you "what can be improved" at least once a week.

This may sound simple but if you ask, you must also be prepared to offer support and provide time and resources to allow them to make the improvements they suggest. If you do so, you will very likely see your improvement efforts bloom! If they see you are truly interested in their ideas and are willing to allow them the time and materials needed to change the small things that bug them regularly, you will be surprised how much this will mean to them. And your business will benefit at the same time.

Lean Tip #550 - Participate in an improvement project team meeting, training session or kaizen event at least once per month.

Be a visible, active participant in lean training and improvement efforts. If a manager makes time to participate or attend, it sends the message to employees that the activity is important. The opposite is also true.

Lean Tip #551 - Ask to be shown an implemented improvement idea from all areas reporting to you at least once per month.

Recognition is an important component of all good Lean programs. When you take the time to "go see" some of the ideas that people have implemented and, better yet, thank them in person for a job well done, you are recognizing and reinforcing desired behaviors. You'll also get an important opportunity to learn more about both your employees and your processes. And when you ask to see improvements you are also setting the expectation that there will be some!

Lean Tip #552 - Read at least one new lean article or book a month.

Lean managers recognize that learning is a life-long endeavor that needs to become as natural to employees as breathing. The idea behind reading on lean subjects is to become a sponge, soaking up what others who have been on the journey longer than you have learned, and then think hard about how you and your organization can use this knowledge. Don't be surprised if you begin to accumulate your own lean library very quickly once you commit to becoming a reader!

Lean Tip #553 - Attend a conference, plant tour or participate in a webinar or podcast on lean topics once per quarter.

Better yet, take a few people along for the ride when you participate in these activities. Networking, benchmarking, and seeing and hearing about experiences of other companies and people are not only desirable but are expected in the world of lean practitioners. When a team of people from your company participates together you instantly increase the likelihood that the learning will be more widely shared upon your return and you create a unique way to foster team work and stimulate lean dialogue.

Lean Tip #554 - Visit at least one external customer or supplier each quarter.

The value stream does not stop at your four walls. Instead it extends both to your suppliers on the one end of the value chain and to the customers who pay the bills on the other end. The more you know and understand about these key stakeholders, and vice versa, the greater the chances that you can improve your extended value stream.

Lean Tip #555 - Develop your own "Manager's Standardized Work".

How many of you have a written routine that you follow as you go about your daily work? I imagine if I asked you to list what you do, you would be able to list many things that have to get done in the course of the day, week or month. Why not formalize your list and establish your own set of manager's standardized work? It will help you and the people who work for you more than you know. Write down, in the sequence you will follow, indicating how much time will be devoted to each task and when it will be done each day, the repeatable activities you will undertake on a daily basis, a weekly basis and so forth. It is ok to reserve times for the "unknown" things that invariably come up. After a few weeks of practice you will have a pretty good sense of how much time you need to hold aside for these activities.