“Our lean transformation failed because the workforce resisted our efforts to implement changes that were necessary to succeed. They were the problem.”

Have you heard this explanation used to describe why a lean adoption failed? Have you perhaps used these words, or something similar, to explain away a bad outcome?

This perspective is popular enough to garner its own spot on the list of lean myths created by the hosts of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement. But while it may be easy to blame the failure of a lean or Six Sigma transformation on a workforce’s resistance to change, the truth is more complicated.

In this episode of Behind the Curtain, hosts John Dyer and Dr. Mohamed Saleh dive into those complications.

The duo begin by dismissing the idea that people are inherently resistant to change, and they outline a bevy of examples to bolster the claim. Instead, they explore the idea that workforce resistance to lean isn’t the problem; instead, the problem may lie with the communication efforts/information flow of the people trying to implement the change.

Dyer and Saleh discuss several rational reasons for resistance. For example, it may be a symptom of fear and a lack of trust, according to Dyer.

“Trust is a big component,” he says. “Fear of the unknown, the fear of the future, the fear that all of a sudden I might be thrust into a new job that I don't know anything about or how to do, the fear of becoming the new bottleneck for the process, the fear of not having the capabilities of doing what I'm being asked to change to do.”

Which is why training is so important in any continuous improvement transformation effort, he added.

Another rational reason: If long-time workers have seen many different continuous improvement programs come and go, they may see little to get excited about with yet another transformation program, Saleh says. “I wouldn't call that resistance. I would call that a lack of trust,” he says.

The two outline a host of other scenarios that can be mistaken for resistance to change.

Saleh and Dyer also discuss:

• How resistance to lean adoption can extend across all levels of an organization. From a leader standpoint, for example, the thinking may be, “I'm going to be asked to give up control, I'm going to be asked to probably stop solving everything when I was the hero. I'm going to be asked to get out of my desk and be at the gemba,” Saleh says. “I'm going to be asked to expose red metrics, which goes against every fiber of my being.”
• Why lean can’t be thrust upon people. “People close to the work should actually be the ones that help shape that change.”
• Why slowly building capability reduces pushback.

“I would say to our listeners, ask whether they resist the destination itself, or the way you're trying to take them to that destination,” Saleh says.