Lean
Tip #1591 - Make Every Team Member Feel Valued
Success
as a team can only come when each team member is aware of the importance of
their role in the team’s success. Involve all team members by sharing any
available information relevant to the goal/project and any deadlines. Assign
them with responsibility for specific goals/outcomes and reward all members of
the team for achieving them.
Lean
Tip #1592 - Incorporate Team-based Problem Solving into Staff Meetings
At
each team meeting ask every team member to share a project or task they might
feel stuck on, or challenged by, and request that other team members give feedback,
provide some mentoring and share their ideas to help resolve the dilemma or
impasse. Encourage team brainstorming of solutions.
Lean
Tip #1593 - Facilitate Conversation, Idea-sharing and Team Brainstorming
Where
possible, set up work areas where team members can get together to easily share
ideas, brainstorm or discuss progress on goals/projects. Open office
environments don’t always work, so this might mean allocating certain rooms, or
even outdoor spaces in the workplace, where team members can work together.
Lean
Tip #1594 – Provide Ongoing Coaching and Support to Team Members
Giving
team members ongoing learning opportunities and building both individuals’
skills and team skills encourages people to grow and stretch their
capabilities. Assign mentors where possible to team members and encourage leaders
and managers to develop coaching skills to use within their teams. Or, hire an
external professional coach to work with the team leaders, managers, or
individual team members, to further develop specific competencies.
Lean
Tip #1595 - Recognize and Reward Good Teamwork
Look
for ways to acknowledge and consistently reward good teamwork. Also be quick to
discipline any team member who engages in gossiping about, bullying, or
back-stabbing other team members. Let it be known that your organization will
not condone any negative interpersonal behavior.
Lean
Tip #1596 – Leaders Focus on Solutions
Although problems can certainly be interesting to discuss, focusing on solutions is more
useful. If you catch yourself focusing on a problem or the drama in a situation, or even getting bogged down in
detail, refocus your attention on identifying and planning the way
ahead.
Lean
Tip #1597 - Be a Positive Role Model
Good
mentors are respected by their mentees. A mentee can learn a lot from their
mentor simply by watching how their mentor behaves in any particular situation.
Good mentors will also look out for experiences, or even create situations in
which their mentees can become involved to learn new things, for example,
providing a look behind the scenes or a glimpse at how other people live or do
things.
Lean
Tip #1598 – A Mentor Provides a Fresh Perspective
One
of the benefits of working with a mentor is that a good mentor will often
provide their mentee with a fresh perspective on an issue. A good mentor will
often have the clarity of distance from an issue or problem that's needed to
provide objective feedback to their mentee. They can also hold up a 'mirror' to
the mentee to, for example, let the mentee see what their behavior looks like
to others.
Lean
Tip #1599 - Align Around a Shared Vision and Purpose
Collaboration
has the benefit of opening up employees’ eyes to the larger role that they play
within the organization, but the association also goes the other way. When
employees understand the role they play in helping the organization meet its
goals, and the role that collaboration plays to advance this purpose, they are
more likely to make a meaningful contribution in the team setting.
Lean
Tip #1600 - Inspire from the Top Down
The
number one thing that any leader can do to improve workplace collaboration is
to lead by example. Instead of using mass emails, executives should begin using
collaboration tools when communicating with employees. This not only opens up
new lines of communication from the bottom up, but also inspires employees to
follow along and use these tools for their own projects.
Lean
Tip #1601 - Use Kaizen Workshops to Teach and Make Rapid Changes
Use
a talented and experienced facilitator who has a deep understanding of lean
tools and philosophy but keep training focused on a specific problem. This
helps to keep the training relevant to real world situations and ensures that
there are tangible outcomes from training activity. The kaizen might have an
objective to reduce setup time from 80 minutes to 60 minutes in four days, for
instance.
Lean
Tip #1602 - Organize Around Value Streams
In
most organizations, management is organized by process or function. In other
words, managers own certain steps in a process but nobody is responsible for
the entire value stream. In the second edition of Lean Thinking (2003), the
authors recommend a matrix organization where there are still heads of
departments but also value stream managers, similar to Toyota’s chief engineer
system. Someone with real leadership skills and a deep understanding of the
product and process must be responsible for the process of creating value for
customers and must be accountable to the customer.
Lean
Tip #1603 - Keep Leadership Focused on Long-Term Learning
A
crisis may prompt a lean movement, but may not be enough to turn a company
around. Once the crisis has passed it can be all too tempting to go back to
business as usual. Company leadership has to stay focused on Lean for the long
term – not just to solve one problem.
Lean
Tip #1604 - Build on Your Company’s Roots to Develop Your Own "Way"
Toyota
has its way. You need to have your way. When Toyota works with companies to
teach TPS, they insist that the companies develop their own system. Someone did
something right to get you to this point. Build on that. Build on your
company’s heritage to identify what you stand for.
Lean
will cut across functional/departmental boundaries which will eventually lead
to a restructuring of responsibility for the major business processes rather
than the current functional ownership of a department’s activity.
Lean
Tip #1605 - Leaders Must Thoroughly Understand, Believe In, and Live the
Company’s "Way"
All
leaders must understand the work in detail and know how to involve people. If
the top is not driving the transformation, it will not happen. Then, to keep
the results sustainable you must have a system for both result- based and
process based performance measurement including measures for velocity of the
overall business process and the individual business processes.
