Lean Mantras
July 5, 2022
Being a student of lean is a bit like studying martial arts. I learned many concepts from my mentor in a way that a sensei would guide their pupil. Aside from practicing what he preaches, my mentor loves evoking mantras, to remind everyone to stay humble, to ground our decisions on facts, and be steadfast in our continuous improvement efforts. Over the years, these simple but powerful words have stayed with me and become the foundation of how I approach problems.
GTS^2: Grasp The Situation, Go To See
Understanding a problem thoroughly is prerequisite to attempting to come up with countermeasures to address it. This means going to the “gemba”, or where the work is taking place, and seeing it with your own eyes. Simple, right? You’d be surprised by how often leaders jump to conclusions and immediately enter problem-solving mode upon hearing about an issue. Trying to solve a problem without seeing the whole picture, and without understanding the root cause is dangerous - with only partial information, you may end up implementing something that only partially addresses the problem, or even worse, completely misses the root cause.
Imagine a scene that occurs far too often:
A roomful of people are in a meeting going over slides and discussing a problem
A leader, upon hearing about the problem for the first time in the meeting, gives directions on what to do next to solve the problem.
Somebody writes the directions down in their notebook and dutifully implements the direction after the meeting.
That is what we don’t want to have - rushing to “solutions” based on slides, without walking the floor and understanding the problem first-hand. This is especially important when the problem is hands-on, complex, and new. Would you want your doctor to diagnose your condition based on second- or third-hand information, without actually seeing and speaking to you?
Walk over, physically, to the work area to see the problem yourself. Talk to the team involved. Ask “why” as many times as you need. Look at the workpieces. Rally the team for their input and “see together, learn together”.
Focus on the process, not the people
Before we improve, we must first recognize that something can be improved. Pointing out and acknowledging problems publicly isn’t easy. After all, most people go to work with the intention of doing a good job.
When something doesn’t go right, be deliberate and separate the process from the people involved. Focus on the process. It’s not that somebody messed up - it’s simply that the process needs improvement. Was the training content confusing or missing details? Was the work area missing the right tools to do the job correctly? Were the machine settings accidentally changed? If so, why? How do we prevent the problem from happening again?
Why, how, what, and when are the questions we should ask when problems arise, not who.
Shifting the focus from the people to the process goes a long way in fostering an open, improvement-driven culture. Once it’s clear how the process failed, we can improve it so that everyone can perform the process well, all the time.
It is very important that leaders model this when working with their teams. Lead by example. If leaders don’t believe in and practice it, no one else in the organization will.
“No problem” is a problem
Problems are opportunities in disguise. It is a signal that something needs to change. If we make effective improvements, we will reduce the gap between our “current state” and “ideal state”, and capture performance gains. In this sense, problems are vital in driving our learning and pushing us to raise the bar. Encourage your team members to bring up problems and address them together.
There will never be a shortage of problems when your team takes ownership of their work and is excited to make improvements. On the contrary, if you stop hearing about problems, don’t ignore the silence - your team may be disengaged.
Go slow to go fast
Building a robust and scalable process is an effort that requires constant learning, discipline, and vigilance. There is a need to deliver a level of performance over and over again, and each time is a chance for Murphy’s Law to rear its ugly head. To be successful in the long run, be methodical and build a firm foundation by:
Taking time to ensure the resources and time allocated are well-aligned with your high level goals, and that your team members are clear how their work contributes to those goals.
Taking time to plan before you execute, and reflect on the outcome before launching into your next iteration (Plan-Do-Check-Act will be covered in a separate article). Capture the “lessons learned” for future use.
Taking time to deeply understand the relationship between your key input and output parameters. Leverage this fundamental knowledge to refine your process.
Never stop improving.