Over the past thirty-five years I have tried to integrate the knowledge of many different methodologies; beginning with behavioral psychology, to socio-technical systems, TQM and lean manufacturing. Lean culture draws on all previous methodologies to create the best possible work system and culture in each company. Yet, each company is different, and each company must think and design to their own requirements.

My job is to help you to design your best possible lean system and culture, not to promote any one technique or theory, but to improve business performance.

Lean Management and Culture:

Getting to Lean

In a recent survey of lean practitioners, the overwhelming opinion was that the greatest challenge to lean implementation was changing the culture and behavior of managers. It is in the habits of managers, and the systems and structures that support those habits, that lie the greatest opportunity for improvement in performance. Lasting improvement requires the alignment of the behavior of managers and the behavior of employees. And, lean management is not an “event”, it is not Japanese words, and it is not a project or program. It is the daily habits and the routine management practices that make continuous improvement, the elimination of all forms of waste, and dedicated service to customers the priority of every single employee. My job is to help you achieve this culture.

There are two critical sides to changing the culture. One is to design or redesign the systems, structure and symbols of the organization to elicit and reinforce the desired behavior.The second is to provide the training and coaching to alter the daily habits of both managers and employees.

Lean Strategy: Aligning Systems, Structure and Symbols

The current systems of hiring, promotion, compensation, information flow are likely to have been created to promote behavior of a culture that is in the past. You cannot hold on to a system that reinforces only individual effort and behavior when you want to promote teamwork and shared decision making. You cannot expect to optimize engagement or ownership by employees when the information system fail to give them timely and relevant score-keeping on their groups performance. Sooner or later, if you wish to sustain lean culture, these systems must be aligned to lean culture.

I began doing whole-system design in the 1980′s, first at Moody’s Investor Services and then in more than one hundred other companies or locations. These clients included Corning, Shell Oil Company, Merck and others. This was based on socio-technical systems theory that created the first “self-managed” team based plants at Proctor and Gamble and many other companies. This is a strategic rethinking of the organization as a system. My role is to train and facilitate internal design teams to engage in this rethinking and propose new structures, systems and symbols to a steering team of the senior managers. This is a strategic change process, internal strategy that enables the achievement of external strategy.

 

Building the Daily Habits of Lean Culture

Cultures are vertically integrated. In other words, the behavior at one level affects the behavior at the next; just as the behavior of parents affect the behavior of children. Lean culture cannot be achieved unless all levels of management, as well as first level employees, adopt similar patterns of behavior.

Implementing lean culture means developing the habits of continuous improvement within the natural team structure at every level. The plant manager or CEO must model the behavior of process improvement, customer focus, standard work, score-keeping and continuous improvement if they are going to expect the same at the work team level. Changing the daily habits of management is often the most difficult part of a lean implementation. Changing these daily habits is the focus of Lean Team Management.

How do I assist to develop these habits of continuous improvement?

First, I often train and coach the senior leadership team and provide personal coaching to the leaders who serve on that team. It is often very difficult for internal change agents to provide direct feedback to senior leaders. I have done this with the CEOs of major corporations such as American Express, Honeywell and Shell. This has given me opportunities to both empathize with the concerns and stresses on senior leaders, and it has helped me appreciate their need for honest and helpful feedback.

Second, to implement significant change in an organization will require the work of internal change agents. Most often, I provide training and coaching to a group of internal coaches who do the majority of the coaching of the majority of the teams in the organization. It is best if internal resources develop the expertise and take responsibility for changing the culture of their own organization. This is much more likely to result in a sustainable process than one implemented primarily by external consultants.

Assessing the Culture and Leadership

Lean Culture Survey: I have also been helping my clients by providing and interpreting a survey to assess the qualities of lean culture. This lean culture survey can provide feedback on different levels and functions in the organization. When conducting workshops or seminars for leaders of an organization I have found it very helpful to first gather data on the quality of the culture, then ask the leaders to help develop action plans to build on the strengths and improve on the weaknesses.

Lean Leadership Assessment: It has also proven very helpful to conduct a 360 degree assessment of the leadership behavior and use that data as a basis for coaching the leaders to model the attributes of lean culture.

Leadership Coaching

With most clients the process of change includes personal reflection on the part of leaders and effort on their part to “be the change”. This is often the most difficult part of the change process for leaders. It is easy to tell others to change their behavior, it is much more difficult to change one’s own behavior. I have found that most leaders in my client organizations would like to have confidential, honest feedback accompanied with specific suggestions for changing their own behavior. I have worked with executives from the CEO of American Express, Honeywell and other large corporations down to first level employees, union presidents and leaders of non-profit organizations. As a former business owner and CEO I understand the conflicting pressures and demands they face. Working directly and personally with these leaders is one of the most gratifying elements of creating change in client organizations.

Clients

Over the past thirty-five years I have been fortunate to have worked with many of the world’s best organizations, each a learning experience.

Some of the clients I have had the privilege to serve include the following…

• Air Canada
• AIESEC International
• Allina Health Care
• Amoco Oil
• American Express
• Honeywell
• Compass
• Alabama Power Company
• Bell Canada
• Cherokee Pharmaceuticals
• Chick-fil-A
• Clark Schwebel
• Coca-Cola, USA
• Corning
• Delmarva Power & Light
• Dial Corporation
• Eastman Kodak
• Exxon, USA
• Harris Corporation
• Honda America Manufacturing
• Labinal
• Landmark Communications
• Mack Trucks
• McDonald’s Corporation
• Merck
• Met Life
• Murray Ohio Manufacturing
• NationsBank
• NPS Pharmaceuticals
• Plymouth Tube
• Printpack
• QuickTrip
• Roche Labs
• Sara Lee Corporation
• Shell Oil Company
• Scott Paper Company
• Southwestern Bell
• Springs Industries
• Star Tribune
• Tarmac America
• Texaco
• University of Miami
• Upjohn Company
• Varig Airline
• Victorian Order of Nurses (VON Canada)