How “Lean Thinking” can make your Business more Resilient ...pmcb.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PCB-Lean... · change, vs. protecting turf. Best ideas from within. Lean provides

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How “Lean Thinking” can make your Business more

Resilient

in Volatile and Uncertain Times

PCB Lean Forum

13th March 2018

Tanya Hulse


CONTEXT FOR TODAY’S LEAN FORUM

Our world is changing at an ever faster pace. Businesses,

more than any other societal institution, have to be able to

adapt, or become irrelevant and cease to exist.

1The Need

Often we focus on specific Lean tools and techniques in this Forum. Today, we take a step back, to reflect on

the bigger picture, the world in which we operate and how we can prepare to adapt to it.

Business strategies have to consider both ‘Where to Play’,

and ‘How to Win’. How can organisations build the requisite

flexibility and agility to keep up with changing strategies?

2The

Strategy

Often the hardest question, whether you’re a business owner

or a departmental manager, is ‘Where to Start?’ So many

priorities compete for immediate attention.

3Starting

Point

Today I hope to help you ‘re-discover’ a compelling approach

to building the capabilities our businesses need to survive

and even thrive in these times, that may help convince you –

and the boss – that you can achieve those audacious goals.

4Goals


Our World is

Experiencing

VUCA Times

1

Thriving through

uncertainty – the

role of Resilience

2

How Lean

Thinking links to

Organisational

Resilience

3

CONTENTS


Our world is experiencing exponential change“Never in human history has the present been so temporary.” Gerd Leonhard, Futurist

Protests

Climate Change

Politics

Governance


“Did You Know – Shift Happens (2014)”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcZg51Il9no

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcZg51Il9no


VUKA! It’s a VUCA World out there…

• The nature, speed, volume, and magnitude of change that is not in a predictable pattern

• ‘Turbulence’Volatile

• Lack of predictability in issues and events

• Past events can’t predict future outcomesUncertain

• Numerous and often interdependent causes and mitigating factors involved in any given problem

• Risk of ‘unintended consequences’Complex

• Lack of clarity about the meaning of an event

• ‘Who, what, where, how, and why’ are unclearAmbiguous


Future Trends – what to prepare for

Technological Transformation

Expectation Economy

Data Explosion

Transparency, Values and Ethics

Millennials

Sou

rce:

Inn

ova

tio

n P

eop

le L

imit

ed, “

Lea

din

g in

Co

mp

lex

an

d U

nce

rta

in T

imes

”, 2

01

3

Consumer / Product

Process / Business

Power of Fast Info

Brand Engagement

“Big Data” impacts

Consumer backlash

Low Tolerance

Ethical consumerism

Consumers

Employees


The 4th Industrial Revolution – WEF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko2esJeGsrI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko2esJeGsrI


How do you feel when faced with this VUCA world?


By establishing and communicating a clear sense of Purpose and Vision, ensuring focus on the destination amidst the turbulence

We can prepare ourselves for VUCA times…

… thereby cultivating our abilities to be more resilient…

By developing a wider and differentiated perspective on the current circumstances and the world as a whole, in order to gain new

understanding, spot patterns, opportunities and hazards.

By being focused and flexible and getting creative in complex environments, seeking collaboration and ‘connect the dots’ of opportunity

By practising agility: Bring innovation to your decision making, manage risk and develop resilient behaviours in the face of ambiguity.

Volatile

Uncertain

Complex

Ambiguous


Our World is

Experiencing

VUCA Times

1

Thriving through

uncertainty – the

role of Resilience

2

How Lean

Thinking links to

Organisational

Resilience

3

CONTENTS


Resilience – What is it?

“The inner strength to live a life in which one

is able to find happiness, feel worth, cope with

change and respond to adversity,

strengthened and more resourceful.”

(SAB, 2004)

“Resilient people derive meaning from failure and use this

information to climb higher than they otherwise would.”

(Reivich and Shatte, 2003)

“The process and experience of being disrupted by change,

opportunities, stressors and adversity, and, after introspection,

accessing gifts and strengths to grow stronger through disruption.” (Journal of Health, 1990)

“Resilience enables “bouncing back” after stressful

organisational and life events and incorporates the

intriguing concept of emerging from the adversity

stronger and more resourceful.”(Rod Warner, 2009)


Resilience – What is it?


Why is it important

to us?

BC

G A

dap

tive

Ad

van

tage

Ind

ex r

esea

rch

rep

ort

20

12

: Bo

sto

n C

on

sult

ing

Gro

up


Quotes from Thought Leaders on Resilience

“We cannot adjust the wind,

But we can direct the sails.”Stephanie Voss

“If you can’t plan for everything,You must plan for anything.”

Stephanie Voss


ORGANISATIONAL RESILIENCE – FACTORS FOR SUCCESS

VISION AND PURPOSE1

2

3

5

4

Amongst the noise, a clearly articulated PURPOSE, and aninspiring VISION, gives people meaning, and a sense of direction –both creating feelings of hope and connection.

CULTUREA CULTURE that embodies values such as Respect and Trust is atthe heart of a resilient organization. This creates an environment inwhich problem-solving and innovation are embraced at all levels.

PEOPLEWhile skills are important, good PEOPLE can develop them. Thereis no training course for attitude! Leaders must be resolved to dealwith negative, obstructive individuals who destroy resilience.

PROCESSESThe internal PROCESSES and systems can either enable orhamstring organisations in their resilience. Systems must beenablers for flexibility, not bureaucratic and rigid.

FITNESSLike a human undertaking a marathon, organisations don’t becomeresilient overnight. It takes discipline and practice!


Our World is

Experiencing

VUCA Times

1

How Lean

Thinking links to

Organisational

Resilience

3

Thriving through

uncertainty – the

role of Resilience

2

CONTENTS


Lean has been around for a while – can it cope?


Lean Thinking applied at Toyota


LEAN World-Class – A Working Model

Adapted from John Shook, Lean Enterprise Institute


LEAN THINKING AND ORGANISATIONAL RESILIENCE

VISION AND PURPOSE1

2

3

5

4

CULTURE

PEOPLE

PROCESSES

FITNESS

Lean starts with examining your Purpose – what you need to do to satisfy your

customers, and whether this will enable you to prosper as a business.

Meaning, Direction and Connection through value-add to customers

A Lean culture entails a sustained shift in behaviour patterns and values, based on

Trust and Respect, a pre-requisite for problem-solving and innovation.

A pro-innovation culture is change-ready. “Can-Do” culture primed to adapt.

Lean empowers people to take ownership of their own workplace problems and

solve them, developing both technical and leadership skills.

People feel more in control and hence open to change, vs. protecting turf. Best ideas from within.

Lean provides the tools to re-design your processes to be ‘fit-for-purpose’,

eliminating non-value-add activities, and making a business more responsive.

Streamlined, transparent processes are easier to change -> flexibility and agility

It takes discipline to implement Lean, but successes create momentum to sustain it,

IF there is visible leadership and active support from the top.

Sustained effort creates the fitness to perform when it matters most


Source: Art Byrne, author of “The Lean Turnaround”

LEAN Examples in Action


LEAN Examples in Action

Source: Art Byrne, author of “The Lean Turnaround”


LEAN and VUCA – Final Insights

“Strategy is and always has been about making an integrated set ofchoices that determine where the firm should play and how it shouldwin there. … Making prior choices about where to play and how towin is really hard and uncomfortable.”

Roger L. Martin1

Chinese Proverb:

The best time to plant a tree? 25 years ago.

The next best time to plant a tree? Right now.

“If you don’t try something, no knowledge will visit you.”

Chihiro Nakao, as quoted by Art Byrne2

1. Roger L Martin is the director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and a former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto

2. Art Byrne, author of “The Lean Turnaround”


SUMMARY - KEY TAKEOUTS FROM TODAY

We’re experiencing exponential change, and it is accelerating. Theterm ‘VUCA’ is one way to describe the implications on business andsociety in general.

1

Surviving – and even thriving – in a VUCA world requires bothindividual and organisational resilience.2

Resilient organisations are those that provide clarity of Vision andPurpose, where the culture is founded on trust and respect, wherepeople are valued and empowered, and where processes andsystems are fit-for-purpose and flexible.

3

The philosophy of Lean embodies all of these things, and provides aclear approach and roadmap to achieve and maintain theorganizational resilience needed to thrive in a VUCA world.

4


Reflection…

“The illiterate of the

21st century will not

be those who cannot

read and write, but

those who cannot

learn, unlearn, and

relearn”

~ Alvin Toffler


Tanya HulseManaging Director

+27 (0) 82 921 7539

[email protected]

www.tlc-global.com

[email protected]

0861 852 463

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.tlc-global.com/

mailto:[email protected]

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How “Lean Thinking” can make your Business more Resilient ...pmcb.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PCB-Lean... · change, vs. protecting turf. Best ideas from within. Lean provides