Who is the Lean Staff's Customer?

© Mike Rother THE LEAN ARMY

Who IS THE LEAN STAFF’S CUSTOMER?

FOR DISCUSSION

Mike Rother July 2013

Copyright © 2013

© Mike Rother THE LEAN ARMY 2

Focusing on managers may be a prerequisite for ge;ng con<nuous improvement, adapta<on and even innova<on integrated into the opera<on of organiza<ons. If the Lean Army doesn't make this shiG then either (1) organiza<ons may con<nue having difficulty seeing that improvement is a manager's role, or (2) some group other than the Lean community may bring it in.

Will the Lean Army move beyond the “Lean” space and into general management?


Over the past 15 years, organizaGons worldwide have built an army of internal Lean staff persons to support Lean transformaGon. This Lean army has extensive knowledge of Lean pracGces and can apply them to all sorts of work processes and value streams.

However, there’s also a growing consensus that the Lean effort isn’t working as planned. In short, Lean has tended to remain a task-‐force acGvity rather than being integrated into how organizaGons manage themselves day-‐to-‐day.

Background


This may be a good Gme for some PDCA; to reflect and adjust. With that in mind, this SlideShare raises the quesGons… What role should the Lean staff play? Whom should the Lean army be serving?

It’s a good Gme for the Lean Community to reflect


Lean Staff Value-‐Stream Manager

One view is that the Lean army’s customer is Value-‐Stream Managers

VS Map

Unfortunately, this would help create a Lean organizaGon only if Lean were purely a technical implementaGon issue. Today we know that Lean is as much an issue of mindset and culture change, which requires daily pracGce across the organizaGon. A value-‐stream manager can lead the design of a future-‐state value stream and help ensure that improvement efforts align to that challenge, but a value-‐stream manager (if that posiGon even exists) can’t coach and guide daily pracGce throughout a value stream. Change will not happen.

© Mike Rother THE LEAN ARMY

Lean Staff

6

Process

Supervisor and Team

External Customer

Another view is that the Lean army's customer is the Work Processes

Here too, it’s a similar problem. The Lean staff cannot be at every process every day. Furthermore, the work processes report to the organizaGon’s managers, not the Lean staff. Change will not happen.


Yet another view is that we should get Senior Managers to do more to lead the Lean charge

Of course senior leaders should iniGate adopGon of Lean, provide strategic direcGon and model the behaviors. However, this viewpoint is a kind of “let’s not change anything” stance, i.e., the Lean army can keep doing what it's doing and senior managers need to get behind it more. The idea seems to be to use senior managers to force change among managers who should be doing Lean but aren't.


Here’s another viewpoint: Maybe managers are thinking of Lean as an episodic side acGvity that isn’t their job because it's not seen by them as something that helps them reach their goals. If we take this viewpoint, then an adjustment for the Lean army is to reposiGon itself as a service and support funcGon to middle managers; to help those managers be successful!

ANOTHER WAY TO LOOK AT IT


Proposal for discussion: THE LEAN ARMY SHOULD SERVE MIDDLE MANAGERS

Building on achievements of the last 15 years, Lean staff departments should posiGon themselves to more directly help middle managers achieve goals and be successful. This has a beier chance of integraGng Lean into the fabric of an organizaGon, because middle managers may have more influence on an organizaGon's capability than any other group. Since managers are teachers every day, they are the primary actors who create and perpetuate an organizaGon's culture. Managers are also the link between the strategic policy level of senior leaders and execuGon in the rest of the organizaGon. Managers drive what and how the operaGonal level executes.


STRUCTURED PRACTICE TO DEVELOP NEW HABITS

The Improvement Kata paiern is a fundamental way of working at Toyota and there are several acGviGes where this paiern gets uGlized and reinforced. These include daily management, daily problem solving, quality circles, improvement events, standard work, ‘Toyota Business PracGces’ and A3s. However, the Improvement Kata paiern is actually lodged in Toyota's people; specifically in its seasoned coaches who guide learners in repeaGng this way of thinking and acGng. Just copying those visible Toyota acGviGes – such as A3s – without bringing along the underlying coaching is unlikely to change much. Mindset change and skill development come from correct pracGce of a paiern, not just from parGcipaGng in Toyota-‐style acGviGes. Teams and organizaGons outside Toyota will require more structured rouGnes for beginners to pracGce, and for turning their middle managers into coaches.


MANAGERS TEACH LEAN HABITS, OR NOT


THE NATURE OF WORK MAY BE CHANGING

Many management pracGces of the 20th Century evolved to ensure that repeGGve tasks got done efficiently and equipment uGlizaGon was maximized. Not much creaGvity is needed in the organizaGon in that case, and our workplaces are full of managers who have been trained and are pracGced in a command-‐and-‐control model. Today many companies are valuing skills, mindset and organizaGonal culture that's characterized by goal-‐oriented creaBvity -‐-‐ just like the capability that's developed by pracGcing the Improvement Kata -‐-‐ as they deal with disrupGve technologies and fast-‐moving compeGGon.


THE ROLE OF MANAGERS MAY BE CHANGING And they can use our help

There was a Gme when a managerʼs job was to organize the work, assign the right people to the necessary tasks, monitor the results and ensure the job got done as ordered. A main focus was task efficiency.

Todayʼs more complex and dynamic environment means managers have to work with their people not just to maximize task efficiency, but to develop and apply skills for achieving new goals and meeGng challenges along unpredictable paths.


QUESTIONS FOR THE LEAN ARMY

What does it mean to think of middle managers as our customers? What is their perspecGve? What are their needs and responsibiliGes? What is important to them? What should be the focus of coaching that middle managers get from lean staff?

Following are some thought starters…


Let's start changing our mental picture about the role of Lean staff departments The Lean staff’s role is not to do Lean, but to support the manager in doing Lean as appropriate for achieving the manager's and the organizaGon's goals. Start thinking of the primary role of Lean staff as guiding and coaching managers.

"We rise by li+ing others” ~ Robert Ingersoll

FIRST

An important element of how organizaGons deliver value is through managers achieving the necessary performance in their operaGonal teams. Excellent results are a result of excellent management.


Lean shouldn’t be a separate acGvity

Vice President

COACH to D

COACH to C

COACH to B

COACH to A

LEARNER to E

LEARNER to D

LEARNER to C

Value-‐Stream Manager

Department Manager

Process Supervisor

Process Operator LEARNER

to B

ConGnuous improvement is a manager's job. Each manager is responsible for gepng the process to the next required level of performance, and there is a business imperaGve underlying the effort.*

*Text paraphrased from a blog post by Mark Rosenthal (The Lean Thinker)


In addiGon to its Lean experGse, the Lean army should acquire coaching-‐level proficiency in an Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata In order to effecGvely coach middle managers the Lean army needs more than technical Lean experGse. We also need to be able to coach managers on how to guide their teams through a systemaGc, scienGfic process for achieving challenging goals, which in turn makes the manager successful.

SECOND


It's Coaching the Coach Once a Lean Staff Person develops enough skill themselves with the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata, they observe coaching cycles between a manager and learner and help the manager develop their coaching skill. This role is called the “Second Coach.”


Let’s adjust our terminology to beier align with the language of managers. Some examples:

"Developing People"

This doesn’t excite managers because there’s no connec<on to tangible results. Since employees easily move to other companies it also means we may be training and benefi;ng our compe<tors.

Don’t Say This Why

"Make teams bePer at achieving goals and meeBng challenges"

Say This Instead

"PDCA”

"ExperimenBng”

"Be more accepBng of failures"

These phrases sound bad to managers because it seems like their teams will never reach the goal.

"Iterate rapidly toward a measureable goal with an achieve-‐by date"

THIRD


This is a change in semanGcs, not intent, that can help to evolve the Lean Army's thinking

The idea is to adjust how we express and label the thinking to be]er suit the mindset and experience of our customer.

We're s<ll talking about developing the capabili<es of people (through coaching at all levels) but doing so by saying that using a good process of coaching has the inten<on of making a team be]er at something the manager cares about: Achieving goals.


CONCLUSION

The Lean staff should operate on and through middle managers, not apply Lean to processes separately from them.


Managers

Staff leads Lean ac<vi<es through applying Lean tools and techniques in periodic workshops, projects and training.

Managers verbally support Lean, but keep managing as usual.

Staff develops and supports middle managers through coaching: -‐ Teach middle managers the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata pa]erns through prac<ce. -‐ Provide Lean tools exper<se as needed to reach manager’s goals.

Current Roles Target Roles

Proposed emphasis

Managers coach their teams daily in prac<cing an Improvement Kata and using Lean techniques to achieve goals and meet challenges.

Current emphasis in Lean

The Lean Staff

A SHIFT IN FOCUS


Shiqing focus to coaching managers is a great opportunity and role

for the well-‐trained Lean army to play!

We in the Lean army tell our students that PDCA and Change are difficult but necessary. It will be interesGng to see how we apply that kind of PDCA to our own efforts.

Imagine the potenGal for Lean transformaGon if the Lean army reposiGons to coach middle managers.