Assumptions

Written by Jason Haines

“…be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let words be few.” -Ecclesiastes 5:1-2 KJV

Over the past few years, I have started a journey to learn and find information rather than jumping to conclusions on many things. I am on a journey that is not always going to be perfect, as not all things I research go deep enough and I do not always find the correct answer to the real problem at hand. But I am a work in progress, as we all are, and I want to learn to develop my mind as well as my body to find the best answers possible. Because you cannot be a good leader if you do not work on yourself and try to develop and find the answers that you need to lead. Years ago, and a lot of this was part of the way things were, I always would jump to conclusions and make assumptions about things rather than trying to find the real answers. This was a lazy, and frustrating way to live life.

Why do people make assumptions? Many times, it is because it is an easy and efficient way to make a decision. And when people are in a hurry, they want to find the fastest answer possible and don’t want to take the time to discover the true in-depth answer. With Lean this is no different. Often, when we are practicing Lean, we talk to people about not firefighting or looking for the quick fix. We talk about finding the root cause of the problem so that those problems do not show up again or are mitigated so the problem is visible through things like poka yoke or visual workplace management. With these tools it helps to reduce the number of assumptions that will be made in the process because it puts the answers into the open. However, many times people do not want to dig this deep and a lot of times that is because many of us are afraid of what we may find for an answer into the real problem.

So why are people afraid of the answers that they may find? Are they afraid of the processes they developed may be wrong? Are they to proud of the systems that they created may be not the best way to do things?

This leads to the questions: How can Lean help reduce your assumptions? What is the best way to show people that you are there to help them through the process?

My findings suggest there are a few answers to these questions. One of those is that the leadership does not know the process or understand the processes as the people doing the work do. It is easier to go out and supply another new leader with leadership training and not find a way to fix the important things in the business such as the processes. Processes are the lifeblood of the company and a bad, messy, inefficient process will kill a great company and cause more headaches than it is worth. These unfixed processes are the cause of many people issues and finding a new leadership course for your supervisors will not fix them. How do we find a way to fix these processes so that we can fix the issues the people working in those processes are having?

Too many times we want to find a leadership program or some assessment to tell us how to lead or how to read the people instead of talking to the frontline and building relationships with them. These leadership courses or assessments are the whiz bang pops of the management world. They sound fancy and give you the motivation for a short period of time and usually fizzle shortly after the idea of using them goes away. But many places assume that they work without doing the research to see what they are about and seeing how long they last. When really all any leader must really do is go to the Gemba, where the real work is done, and help, talk to, and build relationships with their employees. When leaders do this, they will start to eliminate assumptions that have been built up from zero clarity and communication.

What do assumptions create in the workplace and the world? Assumptions create an easy way out where leaders and frontline employees use the “we tried it and it didn’t work” approach. Which in turn gives all involved permission to not take responsibility for any problems that arise now or in the future. This allows all to hide behind their version of what happened and why it failed. Lean on the other hand provides tools to try and keep failure from happening so people don’t have to hide behind narratives. When people start to hide, they start to get into an environment of fear and blame which is toxic and causes stress and a rotten work environment. This no accountability, fear-based work environment lastly creates a lazy workforce at all levels because people are afraid that they will get in trouble or they have no power to make changes that will improve the system.

Where can Lean help with assumption prevention? One way, and the biggest way, is that Lean provides stability and communication to all levels of the workforce so there is no ambiguity. It is a straightforward approach to helping with standardization so people can reduce chaos in their jobs and think of better ways to accomplish tasks leading to solving and reducing issues. It creates communication and empowerment that allows all employees to make decisions and changes when needed rather than waiting for permission from a higher power. Lean frees up much needed time for leaders and workers to become better problem solvers all while creating the future leaders and ambassadors of the organization.

As quoted by Thomas A. Edison, “opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Lean is full of opportunities but the upfront work of implementing and sticking with Lean is going to be hard, I will not sugar coat it for you. And for that reason, many times in many places Lean journeys have failed because of that hard work. Hard work sinks so many things and not just Lean because people want easy. They want to be taken care of rather than putting in the upfront work that will reward and take care of them in the future. When we start to give up on things then the angst of assumptions and lack of responsibility start to creep in, and people stop trying because they think their voice doesn’t matter. To stop the back sliding, we cannot be complacent but must be tenacious and push to stay ahead of the struggle. Always communicating and creating a clear and powerful workforce that has transparency.

Helping grow your business through process improvement!!