Leading by Example is a Trait of a True Lean Leader

One of the most important qualities of a good leader is for you to lead by example, to be a role model, to be the kind of person that everyone else looks up to and wants to be like. One of the characteristics of leaders is that they carry themselves at all times, even when no one is watching, as if everyone was watching.

For an organization to grow, the people within it also must grow. The way for leaders to bring a team to a higher standard is by committing to a greater challenge themselves. The abilities, talents and characteristics of leaders provide a larger foundation on which those around them can grow, both as individuals and as a group. By being the example of greater discipline and greater drive, a leader encourages those who follow him to adopt a higher standard as well.

Leading by example sounds easy, but few leaders are consistent with this one. Successful leaders practice what they preach and are mindful of their actions. They know everyone is watching them and therefore are incredibly intuitive about detecting those who are observing their every move, waiting to detect a performance shortfall.

All managers are teachers, and their actions determine company capability. Whether consciously or not, with their everyday words and actions all managers are teaching their people a mindset and approach.

Leaders must lead with their actions as well as their words. Leaders can effectively translate intention into reality by acting on the concepts and messages they teach and the things they say to those around them. Leadership is the act of setting the right example for those who follow. Leadership is about actively demonstrating your belief, not just talking about it. People who say one thing but do another eventually lose credibility.

Leaders are not afraid to jump into the ‘trenches’ and do some of the work themselves. They also encourage team members to take risks and support them when they do. Being a hands on manager will inspire and motivate the team to achieve greater things.

The level of involvement in Lean by the management team often shapes the Lean implementation and those who may lead it. In my experience the less knowledgeable the management about REAL Lean (Bob Emiliani’s term) the more they think of it as a set of tools the more they want you to just do it. These are the managers that are usually hands-off with Lean and want to see the short term gains to demonstrate they are improving the process. They are focused on the results and outcomes and not the means by which we achieve them. This task oriented approach to management unfortunately is only sustainable while the doer is doing.

When you “walk the talk,” your behavior becomes a catalyst for people’s trust and faith in you. And it also emphasizes what you stand for. Leading by example shows people exactly what you expect and gives them living proof that it can be done. On a deeper level, leading by example and being as good as your words builds trust. It’s a sign that you take what you say seriously so they can, too.

Lean is Not a Hunt for Waste it is a Journey to Add Value

Courtesy: http://www.allaboutlean.com/muda/

Undoubtedly, you have seen the narrow minded definition of Lean as a waste elimination tool. If you search the internet for a definition of Lean you will find many different suggestions, ranging from a few sentences to others that run many pages. Most miss the main point of Lean; they on the whole define lean as being a process of waste elimination. Unfortunately, this misses some of the major and most important parts of Lean.

It is difficult to define Lean in just a few sentences as Lean encompasses so much. To me it is:

Lean is all about respecting people while eliminating Muri (overburdening), Mura (unevenness), and Muda (non value added activity) in all business processes. It is a philosophy which embodies a culture of continuous improvement based on setting standards aimed at providing value through participation of all employees.

Lean Thinking is comprised of five fundamental principles:

1) Specify Value – End-use customer view
2) Indentify Value Stream – Activities that create value
3) Flow – Make value flow
4) Pull – Respond to customer demand
5) Perfection – Zero waste

Lean is Customer First, what is value in the eyes of the customer? What features and services does the customer want? When do they want them and what price do they want to pay? Without this information how can you design your ideal system?

This value needs to be made to flow from raw materials through to the consumer, this value stream needs to produce product at the pull of the customer. This is Just In Time manufacturing (JIT), producing what the customer wants when they want it!

Once you have the customer defined value flowing at the pull of the customer you strive for perfection, improving everything that you can about the product and process.

This is done by all within your organization, Lean values respect for people, involves everyone in the company to help meet customer value.

In some ways is could be said that Lean is more about preventing waste. By implementing the Lean principles above you identify those actions that add value and make them flow at the pull of the customer, this prevents the waste from occurring.

Lean follows a set of rules to provide value what I refer to as “Lean Rules-in-Use”:

1) Activity Rule – Specify all work to content, sequence, timing, and outcome.
2) Connection Rule – Customer-supplier connections must be direct & unambiguous.
3) Pathway Rule – Pathways for product/service must be simple & direct.
4) Improvement Rule – Improvements are made using scientific method (PDCA) at place of activity (Gemba) under the guidance of a teacher (Sensei)

If you follow this process you will not be going through a process of waste elimination and reduction but a more important process of waste prevention! So if you want to implement Lean manufacturing you must not just focus internally to impress your shareholders and make short term gains, but focus on the customer to make sustainable changes that will help your company flourish in today's world, not just struggle to survive.

If you only focus on an internally focused drive to eliminate waste, a process generally of cost reduction and labor elimination to reduce costs and increase profits, you forget the first and most important part of lean; what is value to the customer? The selfish drive to reduce costs wrongly assumes value on the part of the customer and the organization tends to become not Lean but anorexic! They remove the ability to be able to react to customer changes, to adapt when there are supplier and internal problems. Because of this companies that "have done lean" quickly revert to the way they were before the improvements, bringing back old inefficient processes to cover over other issues and rehiring the labor that they removed, Lean being put on the discard pile of management fads.

Lean Manufacturing is a business improvement philosophy that has developed over many years. Whilst Lean has a huge toolbox of tools and techniques you cannot define Lean from those tools. Lean is more than the sum of all of those tools, applying tools in isolation will not necessarily give you the benefits that you would expect and want to see. Lean is a method to better focus your business on the true needs of the customer to help you prevent waste from being built into your system.

Lean is not a hunt for waste it is a journey to add value.

Lean Quote: Kaizen Can’t Exist in State of Fire Fighting

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.

"We are too busy mopping the floor to turn off the faucet." — Author Unknown

Unfortunately, a far too common management style in many companies is the reactionary style commonly referred to as fire fighting. But fire fighting consumes an organization's resources and damages productivity. Fire fighting derives from what seems like a reasonable set of rules--investigate all problems, for example, or assign the most difficult problems to your best troubleshooter. Ultimately, however, fire-fighting organizations fail to solve problems adequately. Fire fighting prevents us from getting to the root cause. And if we don’t get to the root of problem we will be right back to fire fighting soon.

The idea of fire fighting is to let a problem fester until it becomes a crisis, and then swoop in and fix it. Fire fighting is popular because it is exciting. Furthermore, it is a win-win situation for the fire fighter. If the fix works out, the fire fighter is a hero. If it doesn’t, the fire fighter can’t be blamed, because the situation was virtually hopeless to begin with. Notice that it is to the fire fighter’s advantage to actually let the problem become worse, because then there will be less blame if they fail or more praise if they succeed.

But the real problem is the people in charge. Fighting fires instead of developing a plan to stop fire fighting and making sure it will not happen again is the job of management. Most of us deplore the firefighting style, yet many managers and organizations perpetuate it by rewarding firefighters for the miraculous things they do. In fact, it may be the absence of a vision and plan that cause your organization to be so reactive, and spend a lot of time fire-fighting rather than proactively meeting the needs of your customers. This is all easier said than done, of course, but if you get things right the first time, there's usually not much fire-fighting later.

 

8 Benefits of Benchmarking

When organizations want to improve their performance, they often benchmark. Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and/or best practices from other industries. The discussion of whether benchmarking is good or bad is an old one. 

If haven’t bought into benchmarking manufacturing performance, below are 7 reasons why you might want to reconsider that strategy. The process of benchmarking can benefit your organization:

1. Better understand what makes a company successful. Benchmarking can provide a better outlook as to where you are versus where you want to be. The challenge is that successful companies are no doubt working to widen the gap.

2. Opens minds to new opportunities: Comparing key measures to industry targets or even internal targets, can be incentive to drive productivity and innovation needed to exceed those averages. This process usually raises new challenges for businesses.

3. Leads directly to an action plan: Rather than simply highlight problem areas, it undertakes a strong review of processes and metrics.

4. Improving productivity: Businesses following improvement action plans can expect gains in cost, cycle time, productivity, and quality.

5. An holistic approach: It is both qualitative and quantitative, ensuring more accuracy in developing a whole picture of your business.

6. Improve performance. Benchmarking identifies methods of improving operational efficiency and product design.


7. Gain strategic advantage. Benchmarking helps companies focus on capabilities critical to building strategic advantage.


8. Increase the rate of organizational learning. Benchmarking brings new ideas into the company and facilitates experience sharing.

Some feel that benchmarking can limit the true potential of an organization by focusing on how well their competitors are doing. Somewhere I heard the comment that "if you benchmark against your best competitors, your best product will look like your best competitor's crap.” Your competition won’t stand still and you shouldn’t either. Maybe there’s a case then for benchmarking organizations from other industries and not your competition.

The worst mistake is to simply adopt a best practice without first identifying the problem you are trying to solve. Tools and best practices must be applied in response to a specific, defined problem, not just because it seems like a good idea. Instead as we do in Lean you should learn about waste and value. Then analyze your processes to reduce waste and improve value to your customers. Learning from others can be very powerful, but you must learn to apply the right tools and ideas for your particular situation. The problems of your competition or that of other companies you benchmark may not necessarily be the same as yours.

Benchmarking can be an effective means to learn new skills and to develop your organization. However, it should be a process of continual improvement. Once you have implemented changes, you should benchmark your business again to see the results. This will tell you what is working, and where you can still improve.

While benhmarking is not a perfect process if done properly and consistently it can be the start of improving your business and creating a more optimal learning environment. Avoid using it as a means to judge your competition at the expense of creating customer value or solving someone else’s problems.

Employee Engagement in Lean - Promotional Video

Here is a great video to start your week off about engaged employees in Lean.

Adam Tartt, COO of MyEmployees, encourages you to start the process of Lean manufacturing in this music video.

Music Instrumental | Silento (Watch Me)

Adam attributes Paul Akers' ideas and enthusiasm for Lean manufacturing for the creation of their company culture.

  

Lean Quote: Improvement is Not for the Faint of Heart

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.

"We believe a passion for excellence also carries a price, and we state it simply: the adventure of excellence is not for the faint of heart." — Peters and Austin

Striving for excellence is an ongoing process; it requires a persistent attitude of excellence demonstrated by a continual focus on both the large and small things in our daily work.

It takes special people to lead a company through change. It is not just the direction of action that counts, but sticking to the direction chosen. Effective leaders must keep pushing themselves and others toward the goal. David Glass, CEO of Wal-Mart, says that Sam Walton "has an overriding something in him that causes him to improve every day. . . . As long as I have known him, he has never gotten to the point where he's comfortable with who he is or how we're doing." Walt Disney was described as expecting the best and not relenting until he got it. Ray Kroc, of McDonald's Corporation, was described as a "dynamo who drove the company relentlessly." Kroc posted this inspirational message on his wall:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with great talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence, determination alone are omnipotent.

Persistence, of course, must be used intelligently. Dogged pursuit of an inappropriate strategy can ruin an organization. It is important to persist in the right things. But what are the right things? In today's business climate, they may include the following: satisfying the customer, growth, cost control, innovation, fast response time, and quality. 

Lean excellence is about is about eliminating waste and making the work easier. Lean methods focus on determining ways to improve quality. High quality is essential if lean processes are to function effectively. Lean is also a cultural change and a management system, a transformation that takes time, effort, and persistence. The Lean journey is not an overnight change for any organization. Progress takes persistence and change takes time.

 

Lean Tips Edition #90 (1351 -1365)

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 #1351 - Create and Maintain a Team Spirit

Team is like a family, where mutual support and trust are the most important values. Organize team activities both during working time and after. You will have the half of success by creating and maintaining a powerful team spirit at the workplace.

Lean Tip #1352 - Learn From Each Other

When managing a group of people, it’s crucial to remind your team that it’s made up of individuals who bring diverse skills to the group. This, of course, applies to workplace skills but don’t forget about the perhaps underutilized creative talents of your employees.

Every few weeks, try hosting a rotating “skillshare” where a team member presents an untapped skill to the entire group. Encouraging people to share their talents and interests will not only give them a chance to work on something they’re really excited about, it’ll also help the group to unwind together.

Lean Tip #1353 - Ask More Questions

When an employee comes to you and has an issue with the current status quo, take this opportunity to get curious with them and ask questions about why it’s not working, and what they would do to fix it. Maybe a major overhaul isn’t even in order, and it’s a simple adjustment that can make everyone more engaged. These one-on-one opportunities with your team are great ways to, little by little, shift away from the current state of affairs towards something more meaningful.

Lean Tip #1354 - Challenge Your Employees to Move Out of Their Comfort Zone.

You can’t move forward if you don’t grow and you can’t grow if you never leave your comfort zone. When possible, give your employees challenging assignments. Help them prepare by providing them a safe environment to learn from the mistakes that they are bound to make.

Lean Tip #1355 - Set Motivating Goals

It is incredibly important to get goals right. When goals support key initiatives and are aligned with the department or organization’s strategic goals, they have a lot of power to direct work almost effortlessly. And when work piles up, stress mounts, and we start to lose sight of how to prioritize, goals can refocus our efforts and help keep us on track.

To be motivating, goals should make a difference, be fairly urgent, have a measurable accomplishment tied to them, and sound challenging. There should be a visible difference between the success and failure of a goal, the timeframe for accomplishment should be shorter than one year, and the completion of the goal should evoke a sense of pride.

Lean Tip #1356 - Make Time to Lead.

To be effective, team leaders need to invest time in the role. Too often, this responsibility is simply added onto someone’s already lengthy task list, thus setting the new leader up for failure. As a team leader you need to be visible to the team and available to support them. If you’re predominantly tied up with your own critical hands-on tasks, you won’t be. So, be sure to review and re-negotiate your workload before taking on a leadership role in the first place.

Lean Tip #1357 - Get to Know Your Team.

Leadership is all about how you influence your team to achieve its objectives—something you’ll struggle to do if you don’t get to know your team members and what makes them tick. While it might be tempting to jump in and start making big moves from day one, remember that you’re not there to flex your ego.

Take time to listen to your team members; find out what their issues and aspirations are, gather ideas, and identify potential strengths and weaknesses. Only then can you formulate a leadership approach that stands a chance of success. Getting to know who you’re working with is the first all-important step to bonding with the team and establishing their respect and trust. The old adage of listening twice as much as you speak still holds true.

Lean Tip #1358 - Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.

Once your team is up and running, it’s imperative to keep the communication going to build relationships, assess progress, and identify risks and issues. Plus, you’ll get more engagement from team members if they see you investing time in them and showing interest in their activities. Make expectations and responsibilities clear so that everyone knows who’s doing what, why and by when. This seems obvious but don’t assume everyone has your detailed understanding of the project at hand. Encourage and embrace new ideas. The more your team can contribute to the project, the happier they’ll be.

Lean Tip #1359 - Lead by Example.

Think about the behaviors you want and expect from your team members and be sure to exhibit those traits yourself. You’re the role model, so what you say and do will impact the team’s daily work habits and attitudes. That said, it’s important to be yourself and to believe in yourself. If you fake it, you’ll soon be unmasked and you’ll lose credibility and trust.

Be open, honest and passionate. Treat everyone on the team fairly, with respect and without favoritism and you’ll find those behaviors returned. Extend the same courtesy to the rest of the organization as well. Never undermine or criticize other individuals or departments in front of the team. Make it clear you’re all there to work towards success for the big picture.

Lean Tip #1360 - Reward the Good and Learn from the Bad (and the Ugly).

Be quick to recognize a good performance and reward it where appropriate. You might not be in a position to hand out pay raises and promotions but a little bit of verbal praise goes a long way in showing your team you are both aware of and appreciative of their achievements.

Be equally as timely in tackling poor performance issues. The longer you leave them, the tougher they’ll be to fix. Look for the best in people and understand that mistakes will happen. When they do, learn from them and see how they can be prevented in future. And whatever you do, don’t play the blame game.

If you need to have a challenging conversation, do it in private; no public floggings. And don’t try to win a popularity contest. Not all your feedback and initiatives will be well-received, but if you concentrate more on being everyone’s friend instead of being a strong leader, the work will suffer, as will your integrity.

Lean Tip #1361 - Remove Individual Competition

Competition can kill collaboration. If you want the team to work together, you need to not single out employee’s efforts and instead look at team performance and team metric.

Lean Tip #1362 - Form Common Team Skills.

Be sure everyone has a common skill base for communication, conflict resolution, problem solving, giving and receiving peer feedback. I find that teams who have these common skill sets are much more productive than teams that don't. Technical expertise is only half of the success quotient.

Lean Tip #1363 - Help Your Team See the “Big Picture.”

Take time to explain to your team how their assignments and projects fit into the company’s larger goals and overall objectives. This will help demonstrate how every task they complete can have an impact on the company’s reputation, success, and bottom line.

Lean Tip #1364 - Create an Environment of Constant Learning and Development—Be Sure to Include Yourself in this Process.

Encourage your team to explore new methods for reaching their individual goals and those set by the company. Allow them to make and learn from their mistakes, and be sure to reward new and innovative ideas.

Lean Tip #1365 – Provide Professional Guidance.

A good manager and leader should also be a mentor. Make yourself available to staff members and show interest in their career development within the company. Don’t overlook the motivational power of positive reinforcement because your staff will appreciate your commitment to their progress.