“Lean is not delegated. Lean is not a spectator sport,” says co-host Mohamed Saleh in this episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement.
Instead, committed leaders are participative leaders, emphasize Saleh and co-host John Dyer. They engage with their teams in very real ways. But what does that mean?
“I think leaders should, at a minimum, go through every training that they expect their employees to go through, as it relates to teamwork and continuous improvement and lean and Six Sigma,” suggests Dyer. “Ultimately, it would be great if they could commit to train actually doing the training themselves, because you really learn a lot more when you have to be the one up in front of the group explaining these things.”
Dyer’s suggestions are but two examples of leadership participation the co-hosts explore. They talk kaizen, with Dyer relaying a discussion he had had with a Toyota leader who outlined how every person at Toyota, including leaders, was expected to participate in a kaizen event each year.
Saleh gave a nod to kaizens as well: “To attend a kaizen event shows that you respect every individual, but also [that] you yourself are humble enough to be equal to everyone else, and you are not above the other people that have to do this work.”
The continuous improvement experts also discuss:
- daily employee recognition and appreciation
- work observations
- intentional coaching and developing employees, one on one, daily
Daily participation is about building leadership habits and expectations, not checking off a box that you do once “just for the esthetics,” says Saleh.
