- And, you should know that our 5S workshops were no success either – told me my coachee as we were having one of our discussions.
- What was the problem ? – I asked. I have seen many engaged people working in the workshop and actually thought that things got started pretty well.
- Well the activity was all right I guess, but they were disappointed by you .
- How come ?
- You have to know that we have already had some 5S workshops in the past and the lean consultants acted very differently. People even showed me videos about how those guys went around and directed people to remove this and move that. They found you very passive in comparison.
- And what happened to those 5S initiatives from the past? I don’t seem to recall any signs of sustained 5S activities at the shop-floor as we did our Gemba rounds.
- Well … things relapsed pretty quickly to business as usual after the workshop, that is true.
- And in the Gemba-walks we saw that people like our Lean initiative but are worried or even convinced that it will be a straw-fire as in the past. If someone from outside comes in and tells the team how to do things and then leaves – what will happen ?
- Yes, I know what you mean, but how do we tell that all those disappointed people?
After the discussion I recalled an episode from the book “Lean Thinking” describing how the first Lean consultant from Toyota arrived to an American plant . The whole management team received him reverently. The consultant asked them to immediately go to the shop-floor and as they arrived he asked them to move a pretty dirty machine from one corner of the area to the other. All the management team in their fine suits had to just go and do as the Guru told them to (and ruin their suits in the process).
At that time this was probably a good way to demonstrate that in order to introduce Lean, management has to give up all traces of traditional thinking (like, you do not move heavy machinery dressed in a suit). But those times are long over. Today we go to plants that have some tradition of Lean implementation or at least people who learned about Lean at school. Also, our way of thinking about Lean changed a lot over the years. Acting as the Japanese guru of old is not acceptable any more.
Today, I think it is best if we start with a common vision of the future state (the North Star in the Lean terminology) . Once we have that, we will agree that the responsibility of acting in rational way to move towards the North Star is with the local middle management. Higher ups can (and must) set the direction and even the pace but how, through which steps, the future state will be reached must be the decision of the area managers. Obviously they are entitled to any help they need, and this is why we have Lean coaches in the implementation. But any coach (as opposed to the Guru) would overstep his limits by a LOT if he/she gave advice about technical content. Also, in Lean terms, this would be wholly disrespectful of the people working in the given area.
Why, then, people would want a Guru to tell them what to do, instead of taking the responsibility to adapt and shape the implementation and to make it last? I think, the question pretty much contains the answer. If someone sees Lean only as the newest company folly forced on a gullible upper management by smart parasitic consultants ( a view that is not as rare as one might think) then taking the extra responsibility is just an extra, unwelcome burden. In this case a Guru is more than welcome – “I just did what I was told” would be the mild formulation of this attitude. Having a Guru, also, pretty much guarantees that the initiative will die of natural causes as the Guru leaves and everybody will happily return to the previous state of affairs, having gained the comfortable reassurance that “Lean does not work in our plant (or country)”
On the other hand if an area manager understands the goal of the Toyota Kata implementation, develops her/his own North Star vision and just needs help in moving towards it, that person will not want a Guru on her back. “This is MY initiative and I want to do it in MY way” is how I heard this formulated and this is fully acceptable as long as the person is open for advice and discussion, not accepting everything but moving in a sensible way towards OUR common North Star, in her own rhythm.
This person will make sure that the initiative will stay alive long after the coach and indeed the initiative is gone, simply because it is the solution she and her team developed to make their life easier.
In contrast, those expecting to be told what to do will keep up with the initiative for as long as they get told to do it – and that is a limited period of time indeed.
The image was generated with hotpot.ai
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