Although the official percentage is debatable, on average well over 60% of lean transformation efforts fail. With so many resources available today, from books to articles to consulting firm after consulting firm, how could this be? Many would say inadequate training, limited internal resources, lack of understanding of the tools associated with lean, not enough time, or inadequate funding, among other reasons. While each of these is valid, many years of experience in driving lean initiatives and observing first-hand the pitfalls, learnings and the "dos and don'ts," of many lean journeys, I believe it comes down to one key element that must be present above all others: strong leadership.

What do I mean by strong leadership within a lean organization? In an organization attempting to transform itself into a true lean enterprise, this means strong, passionate leaders at the top of the organization who either innately possess or have learned a series of foundational behaviors and values, and who role model these every day. So what are these values and behaviors, and how does a leader go about teaching and applying them to the broader organization?

Key Qualities of a Lean Leader

Although great leaders possess a host of values and qualities that set them apart, leaders within an organization striving to become lean display a series of very specific and necessary qualities. Among these, discipline and humility form the foundation. Why discipline (and by this I really mean personal or self-discipline)? Because lean transformations and change management efforts are difficult, draining, often thankless undertakings. While the rewards pay off for years to come, a very regimented, highly disciplined approach to daily work is required to reinforce the focus on standardization and to ensure the organization remains optimistic about the future.

The most powerful yet often overlooked aspect of a lean enterprise is standardization (See "Standardization: The key to building a learning organization"). If the people within the organization are being asked to structure and standardize their activities to learn and improve, it must start with the leaders' own work and business processes. In addition, the only way to drive improvement is through a methodical application of the scientific method/Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) process to problems and opportunities. Thus, due to the ongoing, daily focus on standardization and application of PDCA by "everyone, everywhere, every day," long-term efforts are destined to fail without a strong sense of personal discipline from the leaders of the organization. If leaders role model discipline, others closely follow from sheer example.

When we think of strong leaders, we often think of tough, dynamic, assertive, command-and-control-type of people. Yet, why is it important for leaders within a lean organization to be humble? Before we answer this, let's start with another question: What is the ultimate goal or "holy grail" of a lean enterprise? Opinions vary, but in it's most simple form, the ultimate destination is to become a learning organization; that is, the emphasis shifts from a pure results orientation to constantly asking the question, in both good and bad outcomes, "What did we learn from this?" This then leads to the question, "What can we change or improve next time?"

So how does humility play into this concept of a learning organization? We can probably answer this ourselves by reflecting back on our own experiences with no-so-humble leaders. Is an arrogant or proud leader open-minded and in a position to learn from his or her successes and mistakes? Unlikely. A humble person is in a much better position to be open to new ways, new ideas, and improvements. The dangers of becoming too proud or satisfied with our current performance can be noted through many examples –- the Roman and British empires, the Soviet Union, not to mention GM, IBM, Delphi, and Enron, to name a few. But for a lean organization, the greatest threat of all is the re-emergence of waste. One of the most significant benefits of going lean is the reduction of waste. Complacency and a state of satisfaction are completely contrary to what we are trying to build within a lean enterprise because they allow waste to creep back into the system. It's much easier to maintain low levels of waste than to remove it all over again. Hence, humility is an essential quality of a leader and forms the foundation for developing a learning organization.

Key Roles of a Lean Leader

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