How Do We Make Lean Stick? Four Essentials for Lasting Change
A common question regarding lean transformation is: How do we make lean stick? How do we instill lean into our culture and make it part of our company DNA, engaging the whole workforce in continually improving processes for the betterment of our customers, employees and society at large?
For any change, especially one as challenging as a lean transformation, it’s about changing behaviors. How do we get a workforce engaged in the behaviors that will drive our lean strategy?
I believe the key is through integrating the following four components of change. Individually, their power is minimal, but together, they provide the focused energy to initiate the actions required for the development of a lean culture of continuous improvement.
- Principles
- Behaviors
- Motivators
- Enablers
These components of change are not independent units. If we remove any one of them, their collective energy is depleted. Rather, they overlap, are interdependent and gain their strength by how effectively we integrate each component with the others. They then become catalysts for change and action.
Let’s take a brief look at each and see how they all tie together to help us drive the behavior changes of a lean transformation.
Lean Principles
Lean principles are the foundation that lean strategy is built upon. They are the “fundamental truths” of lean.
Overarching Principles
1. Add value for the customer
2. Eliminate waste
People Principles
3. Foster teamwork
Process Principles
1. Focus on the process
2. Optimize the value stream
3. Prioritize continuous flow
Improvement Principles
1. Encourage scientific thinking (Plan-Do-Check-Act)
2. Create a culture of continuous improvement
All lean activities should be assessed based on alignment with these principles. Rather than delve into the details and reasoning behind each principle, let’s focus on their role in defining and changing behaviors needed for an effective lean transformation.
Lean Behaviors
Lean behaviors are derived from lean principles. For example, the “focus on the process” principle defines workforce behaviors related to following and improving standard work. The “scientific thinking (Plan-Do-Check-Act)” principle defines behaviors related to structured experimentation and improving problem-solving skills. The behaviors derived from the “teamwork” principle focus on how we perform as a collaborative team, as opposed to a group of isolated individuals. And the “engage everyone” principle challenges us to create an environment where the whole workforce is engaged and participating in the improvement efforts, offering ideas, highlighting problems and collaborating with teammates.
But knowing what needs to be done is not enough. Change is difficult, especially when existing habits have taken root over several years. All lean organizations strive for workforce engagement, which is aligned with the “engage everyone” principle.” But why is it, then, that so often, only a small fraction of the workforce is truly engaged?
Defining the behaviors needed to build lean culture is absolutely critical, but we need the final two components of change—motivators and enablers—to set a lean transformation in motion. .
Motivators and Enablers
Motivators instill the “want to.” I want to do it. Enablers instill the “I can.” I have the skills and the means to do it. Both are required to affect behavior. If an employee doesn’t want to do the desired lean behavior, or is not capable of doing it, it won’t get done—at least not at the expected performance level. Some elements of influence can have both a motivational and enabling effect; others are more heavily focused on one or the other.
So, where can we find these factors that motivate and enable us? Consider the following three categories:
Employee Drivers and Skills
This category includes an individual’s personal, internal drivers. They want to participate in the lean journey and gain the required knowledge and skills, not because they have to , but rather there is something inherent about the job that drives them to act. One factor may be that the employee is motivated by their involvement in making changes to their job, having some control of their workplace. This pushes them to learn new skills and methods to enable behavior change. The training and coaching provided would be the enabling factors. Even with the desire or drive, if the know-how is missing, behavior remains unchanged.
Or they may be motivated by the overall purpose of the organization and the product or service that the company provides to customers. Or maybe they’re energized by the growth motivator of improving their skills and gaining new skills, further expanding their capabilities. The growth motivator is also an enabler by increasing ability through gained knowledge and skills. These are only a few of the personal motivators and enabling factors that inject the desire and skills to actively participate in the lean strategy.
Leader and Peer Influence
This category refers to how others influence whether we perform the desired behaviors. An employee may personally want to be involved in and contribute to the improvement strategy, but if their manager doesn’t provide the engagement and learning opportunities, it likely won’t happen.
Or if an employee does offer an improvement idea, but the leader dismisses the input, that will probably be the last idea that the employee ever offers. The role of leaders in affecting the behaviors of their team members cannot be overstated.
Peers can also have a profound effect on behavior. They can encourage and support the lean behaviors, or just the opposite. Especially for new employees, successful peers can be motivators by providing a model for others to emulate. And peers can also be enablers by supporting each other in learning job skills and holding each other accountable for performance.
If influential peers aren’t aligned with the desired behaviors, likely neither will their peer followers.
Structural Elements
Influence isn’t only about people. Structural elements of the workplace can influence behavior also. Systems, policies and procedures are included in this category, along with some practices that may not even be supported by a formal procedure or policy (aka “unwritten rules”).
Consider supporting systems such as rewards and recognition and performance reviews tied to increased compensation and promotion. If teamwork across departments is a desired behavior, but this behavior is not valued when assessing performance or considered during promotion decisions, the employee will be discouraged from doing the desired behavior. It becomes a demotivator. Rewards and recognition practices can have the same motivating or demotivating effect.
Also included in this category are tools and methods that have an enabling effect. Even if an employee wants to quickly highlight problems, if there is no mechanism to facilitate this action—such as an andon signal—it will not occur. The andon mechanism is an enabler because it provides the means for an operator to highlight the issue.
Other enablers are the various mistake-proofing methods and tools that at least make it more difficult to produce an error. A great number of items fit into this inanimate, structural category of influence, where alignment can motivate and enable, or misalignment with our desired lean behaviors can produce the opposite effect.
In Summary
Have a set of principles that embody your organizational philosophy and values. These principles serve as the foundation of your strategy.
Utilize the principles to define and provide clarity on the desired behaviors. If there is ambiguity in what you want, you likely won’t get it.
Incorporate motivators. This instills the “I want to do it.” They incite action.
Incorporate enablers. This instills the “I have the ability to do it.” These build capability.
Change is all about behaviors. And if you are not getting the behaviors that you want, it’s likely a breakdown in the above steps and their integration.
