Lean IT Leadership by Mike Orzen, Lean IT Summit 2013

Copyright © Institut Lean France 2013

3 & 4 October, 2013 Paris, France

Lean IT Leadership

The essential element of a Lean IT transformation

Mike Orzen, MO & Associates


• What are those things which

enable/disable the effective application of

Lean, Agile, DevOps & ITIL in IT

environments?

Witnessed

Sustained for at least 3 years

Not complete

A Top 10 List…

Lean IT Leadership – Mike Orzen 2


• Leaders

Vision & Strategy

Objectives

Alignment

Creating Systems Innovation

Growth

Risk Mgt.

• Managers

Execution

Tactics

Results

Run/check/adjust

systems of people &

technology

Leaders vs. Managers





“Ultimately, there are no special secret

strategies to the Toyota Production System.

We are just doing the obvious things, thoroughly,

without omission, as a habit. This is simple, but

difficult to do consistently across large

organizations.”


Eiji Toyoda - A Great Leader


• Having the COE or Lean Office lead

• Making it the responsibility of a Director

• Ordering Managers to do it

• Outsourcing

#10 – Delegating Lean



Provide the training, opportunity and support

• Develop internal Lean IT coaches

• Standard Lean IT training

• Improvement projects and Daily Kaizen

• 2 - 4 hours a week expectation

• Min. 3 Kaizens/year

#9 – Support Learn-by-Doing



#9+ – Make it Visual and No-Tech



• Failing to inform people we are “doing Lean”

Not explaining the WHY

Not creating a consistent message

Leading with Humility

Not involving everyone in the organization

Gathering ideas

Respect for the individual

#8 – Believing that Leading =

Command & Control



• Define IT strategy in context of Org’s strategy

• Translate strategy into a thematic goal that “clicks”

• Managers explain work in terms of strategy – daily!

• Making it clear how work contributes to the goals of:

#7 – Having a Strategy and

Communicating It


IT

division

company

community

team

department


Before announcing… Commitment

Time / $, €, £, ¥

Challenges

Culture

Politics

Inertia

Failures and Setbacks

#6 – Not Understanding



• Training

• Hands-on experience with Kaizen & PDCA

• Leading with Questions

• Coaching Skills

• Clear roles and responsibilities/LSW

#5 – Involving Leaders and Managers

before Staff



• Focusing on Silos

• Missing the point with ITIL

• Not involving customers and end users

• Not understanding IT as an enabler of work

processes

• Not managing Information as an asset

#4 – Not Managing IT & Information

as a Integrated Value Stream



#4+ – Not Managing IT & Information

as a Integrated Value Stream



Dual Focus – Leaders & Managers

Leaders develop Managers

Managers develop their People

Dual Focus - Staff

#3 –Developing People



• Being comfortable with uncertainty

• Showing vulnerability

• Acknowledging weaknesses

• Applying PDCA and “failing quickly” without

blame

• First Leadership, then Management, then IT Staff

#2 – Not Proactively Building Trust



Participating in Training, Kaizen, PDCA, Report Outs, Stand Ups Demonstrating ideal behavior Going to Gemba – observing, understanding, asking not telling

Show respect

Lead with questions

Look for: Mura – variability

Muri – overburden

Muda – wasteful, NVA tasks

#1 – Leading By Example



“Even when top management makes a decision, their

role is merely to wave the flag. It is no use if people do

not follow that flag.”

Eiji Toyoda

Simple But Not Easy



• Share this message with your Leadership

team

• Be aware of your circle of influence

• Three key wins On ramp

Quality/speed over cost/functionality

Post-implementation reviews

What Can I Do?



• Reflect, Check, Adjust

What’s working and what is not working?

Adapt this list to your organization

Keep learning, use an A3 and experiment

• Add to this list and share!

Next Steps



Thank You


[email protected]

www.maorzen.com

Mike Orzen

@MikeOrzen

+01 503.313.0023


3 & 4 October, 2013 Paris, France

More lean IT videos and presentations on www.lean-it-summit.com

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Lean IT Leadership by Mike Orzen, Lean IT Summit 2013