Promoting a lean culture can be difficult to say the least. People are naturally against change. Change feels uncomfortable. But change, often times, is for the best. We know it in instances in our personal life, we know it also in our business lives. It’s often uncomfortable to point out things that could be better. You seem like the asshole for sticking your neck out and criticizing something that may have been the ‘way things have been done’ for a long time.
Often when things are talked about and decided to change, the change is fraught with criticism from detractors when the first pilot run of the new way is tested out. You often know its the better way forward, you just have to work out the kinks.
So what do I we do? We just continue to let things go as they are, or, maybe, you try doing things on your own, try to drum up some success, and then convince the others that it has merit.
The other issue with lean is that it takes away the ‘fluff’ that keeps everything on a even keel. Lean is all about eliminating waste, and most operations rely on inventory waste to keep them comfortable and to ‘make up’ for shortcomings in their process. Lean exposes these areas where inventory is covering up inefficiencies or root problems. Stuff that has been swept under the rug suddenly is visible for everyone to see, and that’s no fun for most people involved.
So, the key to getting people on board with lean is to change their mentalities towards improvement. To me, this means to have some kind of detachment from the results that you are seeking. If you mess or break some things in route to something better for the long term, to me, that’s a net gain. As they say, you have to ‘break an egg in order to make an omelet.’
The team has to be OK with some of their work dirty laundry getting put out to dry, or put under the microscope, in the sake of continuous improvement. It’s not anyone’s fault that things were done a certain way, it’s just time to examine WHY they were don’t that way and how they can be improved.
Debate is a big part of the lean journey also. There are more than one way to skin a cat, and so there are also a lot of good-to-great ideas for how to do processes differently. Many people have different learning styles and that changes how they interact with their environment. No one technically has the right answer. That’s why it’s important for EVERYONE (and I mean EVERYONE) on the team to supply their perspective on key issues in order to find the best solution (for everyone). People have to feel encouraged to voice, and even argue, their opinions, without any sort of negative recourse for saying something that is on their chest.
This type of open communication keeps things lively and constantly adjusting on the shop floor, as they should. Lean is a tough pill to swallow when it is first introduced, but ultimately, its like ripping a bandaid off on your organization that will keep things competitive and on the cutting edge of productivity.
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