Lean: Fitness for Business

I was attending a social event recently, and chatting with some other consultant colleagues about approaches to deploying a philosophy of improvement into the culture of an organization.  

One of the consultants, in an attempt to coach another who was sharing their struggles, said, "Ya know, that CEO of yours just needs to get Lean as his religion!" We all cheered this idea (including me), but after thinking about it, I realized that this isn't quite right. What follows is a distillation of the weeks of thought since then, and what I wish I could have said that day.

Lean as religion? No - I don't agree. In an organization, the "religion" would be the values and beliefs. Things that offer meaning and purpose to the work that they do. Some companies do this really well with awesome "North Star" type of purpose statements: Autoliv airbag manufacturer: "We Save Lives," Southwest Airlines, "THE low cost airline." It also shows up in the values statements of companies, things like, "Balance in Work and Life" or "We Get Further Together." These are things that, as one executive client said, "I'd go down with the ship for." These are things we believe, we fight for; things that make the org unique, give it meaning, and are subjective to each institution. 

Lean is NOT religion. Lean is based on observational science, and the best data we have to date on what makes companies successful. Lean is always improving based on the latest evidence, whereas a companies purpose is most likely to remain constant (if it is a good one). 

So, what is Lean if not religion? I see Lean as "fitness for business." In many ways, this isn't even a metaphor, but a literal explanation of Lean. (...also makes many of the words in Lean have a double meaning that is awesome: waste/waist, lean/Lean, etc) 

What does Lean do for an organization? The goal of Lean is to provide maximum value to the customer with the minimum amount of resources in the most human centered way possible by eliminating waste. 

• Value: defined by the customer - it is what the customer is coming to you for, and (generally) is paying for.
• Resources: time, effort, space, money, systems, steps.
• Human centered: making the easy stuff as simple and straightforward as possible, saving ourselves for the hard stuff that we need to figure out, and make easy.
• Waste: overburden on people, over-processing, re-dos, fixes, over-ordering, wait time, search time, errors, defects, excess movement and transportation of people, products and information, under-utilization of people, to name a few.

Just like a fitness program, many people might say something like this, "You just need to move more and eat less!" Raise your hand if that advice has ever helped anyone lose weight. No? Exactly. Likewise, Lean is an easy concept to grasp - "Just eliminate the waste and focus on the value!" but very hard to implement. 

Just like a fitness program, Lean requires a change in mindset. Lean is NOT a quick-fix. It is a cultural transformation over a long-term that changes how an organization operates. 

Lean is done in little steps, sometimes a millimeter at a time, and these steps are designed to sustain. Lean is designed to facilitate rapid learning and iteration over time, so that a culture of innovation forms that slowly accelerates performance.

At first, Lean is a huge investment, and requires a LOT of coaching. Companies usually resist, preferring to go back to their old ways quite often. In the thick of the struggle of improving, not everyone has the right coach, right approach, or perseverance to succeed.  But for those that do, and have a breakthrough - wow - their transformation is remarkable. 

Just like a fitness program, taking this on can be overwhelming. That is why the right consultant is so important - someone committed to JOY, and who has seen success, and is a stand for the future right along with you. 

Have you ever embarked on a program? How has it gone? What were the factors that contributed to it's success or failure?