Lean Culture – The Leader’s Guide

I have been quiet on the blog because I have been consumed by a writing project. December is a good time to stay home and get writing done. So… new book! What I have done is to take much of my material from my Lean Team Management workbook and condense it into a book format directed at leaders. I have deleted all the exercises and a lot of the skill building material on facilitation skills, team dynamics, etc. And, I have added a couple chapters directed at the job of leaders to manage the culture. There is a chapter on what I call Broad-slicing: Creating Unity of Energy and Effort in the organization; and, a chapter on Corporate Life Cycles and wealth creation.

Looking at other books on Lean Culture they appear to be largely focused on the tools and techniques of lean, but are not strong on managing the process of culture change. This is where many organizations fall down in their lean implementation. That is where I think this book can be very helpful. I would like to get this in the hands of a lot of corporate leaders!

Lean Culture – The Leader’s Guide will be available in a month or so from all the major distribution outlets, and available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in electronic format for the Kindle or Nook or other reader. It will also be priced at a normal book rate ($24.95) before discounts. It is 240 pages in standard 6″x9″ book format. I don’t know what they will charge for the e-book version. I will provide a link and announcement on my website as soon as it is available.

From the back cover:
Lean Culture – The Leader’s Guide provides a roadmap to implementing lean culture within your organization. This guide represents the knowledge gained through thirty-five years of field experience implementing large scale change in the culture of organizations. Through this guide you will learn the principles and process of changing organization culture to capitalize on the competitive advantages of lean.

Lean culture is a lot more than tools and techniques like JIT, 5S, or value stream mapping. It is the framework of values, daily habits and relationships within which those techniques can succeed and be sustained. Without the support of the culture, those techniques often fail. The sustainable value is in the culture and management process in which continuous improvement becomes a daily habit at every level. The purpose of this book is to help you build this culture.

The Leader’s Guide will show you how to…

… Instill the habits, values and management process of daily life in a lean organization.
…Engage all members of the organization, from top-to-bottom, in a consistent and organized process of improvement.
…Be the change! Model the behavior you expect from others.
…Align systems, structure, skills, style  and symbols to the new culture.