Lean Tip #3106 – Think Differently
Ideas for change can come from a process or policy that you have come
across that may be improved or appears to be no longer fit for purpose. Choose
something you and others genuinely care about. Keep it simple; you are testing
small scale change not trying to do ten things at the same time. You may decide
to do a project against a known standard; but this will be a real-time, dynamic
audit with the real possibility of making a difference in a short space of time
rather than the traditional approach we have become used to.
Lean Tip #3107 – Be Clear and Focused
Have a clear vision and objectives so everyone understands what you are
doing and why. Using SMART goals (which are specific, measurable, achievable,
relevant, time-bound) should help you achieve this.
Articulate your vision and try to find the hook that makes them want to
get involved as well. For example, what new skills they may acquire and the
rewards for participating, such as team recognition or leadership.
Lean Tip #3108 – Make a Change and Evaluate it to See if it Worked
Use a straightforward measuring process so there is no doubting the
improvements made. It's important to know the baseline activity before you
start so you have a number of points of comparison and keep measuring little
and often. Two data points are not enough. Record your results on a run chart
so you can see the changes taking place over time.
Lean Tip #3109 – Engage Your Team
Improvement is a team activity. Therefore, an essential step in getting
started is to engage in dialogue with your team. Make time to talk about what
matters to people and involve them in solutions. No one person has the skills
or knowledge to come up with a solution on their own. Identify the benefits to
the team, customers, and employees, which will help with buy-in. If you don’t
have buy-in from your team, you will likely fail, no matter how good your idea
is.
Leaders must actively support and make time for improvement processes,
in order for it to take hold and flourish. Enable your team to openly share
information and encourage people to take action where it’s needed. As a leader,
you can create a culture where your team feels connected and empowered.
Lean Tip #3110 – Commit to Change
Most importantly, you need to enjoy the experience. Lean makes change a
real possibility, which is both empowering and satisfying for everyone. Finally,
don’t worry about what you don’t know or it being perfect the first time. You
will learn by doing and your skills will be developed as you go. Celebrate your successes and your failures,
as there is valuable learning in both.
Lean Tip #3111 – Take a Tour
Sometimes we learn best by first witnessing the success of others. See
the benefits of lean in action. It is not difficult to find organizations that
will allow you to see their lean implementations (referred to as the Gemba
walk). Take detailed notes of what is highly effective in their Lean
implementations, ask questions, and get as much valuable information as you can
in order to help you formulate you own Lean strategy for implementation.
Lean Tip #3112 – Discard Conventional Fixed Ideas
Part of problem solving is thinking “outside of the box.” Encourage
fresh perspectives and ingenuity in your team in order to develop innovative
ways to forward Lean manufacturing without changing what is already efficient
and successful. With such a rapidly evolving climate in manufacturing,
sometimes conventional thought is what leads to the problem in the first place!
Lean Tip #3113 – Provide the Right Supplies, Tools, and Training
Although it’s often taken for granted that a shop floor has what it
needs, I’ve seen facilities where employees have to rummage through dumpsters
to get simple supplies like grinding discs. From bad documents to missing
parts, dropped balls are rampant in almost every industry. By correcting this
problem with the right materials, tools, information, training, and work
environment, a wide array of inefficiencies will simply evaporate. Your
employees will jump to support any good-faith efforts that eliminate the
inconveniences they experience.
Lean Tip #3114 – Enlist Believers.
A system-wide change must be powered by team members at all levels of
the organization, not just upper level leaders.
The best lean implementations are mandated and supported top-down and
put in place bottom-up by enabling the people who do the work to redesign and
improve their work.
Find and enlist an army of recruits who will work under the guidance of
your leadership team. They will establish the systems and processes that enable
both structural and behavioral change.
Lean Tip #3115 – Leave a legacy
Many executives are passionate about what they do and care about making
a lasting impact on their organization.
Implementing a process improvement culture can make a real difference
to business teams and to the success of an organization. Execs are
well-positioned to leave a legacy with the support of engaged teams who are
executing processes aligned to the business strategy.
Lean Tip #3116 – Encourage Peer Recognition
Encouraging peer recognition is an effective way to ensure that your
employees feel recognized and appreciated for their contributions. Instead of
an annual, top-down approach, peer recognition programs empower employees to
recognize and reward one another on a much more frequent basis.
Crowdsourcing employee recognition makes celebrating the myriad
achievements and contributions of all the members of your team much easier,
more organic, more genuine, and much more realistic to accomplish.
Although peer recognition is one of the most effective methods to
ensure employees know they're appreciated, there are many other complementary
initiatives you can implement that dovetail nicely with it.
Lean Tip #3117 – Highlight Employees When You Can
Whenever you get a chance, highlight your employees. There are a few
different ways you can do this. Many companies use social media to highlight
employees who are doing something special. Those employees then share that
information with their friends and family, so you’ll get more eyes on your
brand. This is a win-win for you and your employees. You can also highlight an
“employee of the week,” which allows you to recognize employees more often than
an employee of the month.
Lean Tip #3118 – Never Underestimate the Value of Sharing Your Time and
Building a Relationship With Your Team
They appreciate your genuine interest in their ideas and thoughts about
their jobs. They like bouncing ideas back and forth with you and look for your
sincere input on their projects and goals.
The role of mentor and coach is powerful in training your
organization’s culture and expectations. It is also a significant source of
experiential knowledge, history, work approaches, and on-the-job training.
Lean Tip #3119 – Provide Opportunities for Contributing Employees
Opportunities can take many forms. But, all of them are outside of the
normal day-to-day requirements of their job plan.
Employees appreciate chances for training and cross-training. They want
to participate in a special committee where their talents are noticed. They’d
like to lead a team that is pursuing an important objective.
They are happy to attend professional association meetings and proud to
represent your organization at civic and philanthropic events. They’d appreciate
the green light relative to implementing an idea they have for increasing
morale in your workplace.
They are eager to stop doing portions of their job that have become
rote in favor of new goals and assignments that stretch their skills and build
on their abilities.
Lean Tip #3120 – Recognize the Person, Not Just Their Performance
When we think about the content of a recognition message, we usually
associate it with praising an employee's performance. For example: "Great
job on exceeding our targets for the quarter!"
But, the problem with only praising performance and productivity is
that it can make your message's content feel impersonal.
Ultimately, to boost the impact of appreciation, a recognition message
should add a few words about the soft skills they brought to the table. In
short, be specific.
"Amazing job exceeding your targets for the quarter! We are so
impressed by your creative problem-solving and work ethic."
As you can see, recognition and appreciation messages at work are most
impactful when leaders highlight what the employee did differently. When
someone sees you and understands you as a person, it's a great feeling.
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