Can you have an organization full of people who understand lean, but still have a terrible lean culture?

“The answer is absolutely,” says Dr. Mohamed Saleh. “I've seen it and it's one of the things why I resist just pushing training for the sake of training, because knowing lean isn't the same as living lean.”

In this episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement, cohosts Saleh and John Dyer address the myth that lean training creates a lean culture. It’s a continuation of their series of episodes on lean myths.

To be clear, neither host downplays the importance of training. Indeed, Dyer believes it’s an imperative for the entire organization.

“Everyone in the entire organization should know the basics. Should know the basics of what lean is and what it's not. Should know what plan, do, check, act means. Should know some of the basic tools, some of the basic problem-solving tools,” he says.

The reason is twofold:

• It builds trust: “People that don't know what's going on become very distrustful, right? So if I don't know what lean is, if I don't know what that means, maybe I think that lean is equal to laying people off,” Dyer points out.
• It’s important to build a common language. Otherwise you build a build a workforce of the informed and uninformed, and leave people “bewildered about what’s going on.”

But the duo says that training is not enough. What’s important is what happens after the training.

Training gives people capabilities, asserts Saleh. However, it’s repeated behaviors—and especially those from leadership—that build and reinforce culture, he says.

“Do leaders go to the gemba? Do teams huddle routinely?” asks Saleh. “Do leaders coach instead of always giving the answer? Do employees solve their problems? Is standard work followed, but also improved? Are improvements recognized? Training teaches these behaviors, but it's really our leader standard work that reinforces that.”

Dyer also issued a training warning.

“If the culture is not ready to embrace the lean principles that include the … empowerment and the teamwork and the softer things as well as the harder things of the tools, then the training could actually make things worse,” he points out.

The podcast hosts also discuss:

• How to tie leadership promotions to lean knowledge transfer and problem-solving abilities.
• Why it is imperative for top leaders to participate in training for a successful transformation.
• Why a fire-fighting mentality puts a lean transformation at risk.