Lean Interactions! Everyone's "quick win" / "low hanging fruit".

We have come a long, long way with process improvement, automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the like, resulting in massive productivity gains across a range of industries. One area that continues to be a struggle in "Lean" systems is anything having to do with human interactions.

There are a few "root causes" that are not surprising. Human interaction is fundamentally very difficult...remember Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel from the Genesis story of creation? They had dysfunction in their relationships and so do we. Further, each generation must learn human interaction skills on their own. While many of the wasteful practices of poor processes can be permanently eliminated, this is not true with human beings. The skills of good human interaction must be learned by each new set of graduates entering the workplace. A third reason for our human interaction problems grows out of our global connectedness. We have more opportunity for friction with people from other countries, other cultures, and other perspectives than ever before. Likely you can think of a few more reasons why we struggle in our interactions.

So, where are the areas where waste elimination in human interaction is likely easy to do and highly beneficial...a "quick win"? Here are a few places to look.

1. Meetings: Waste in meetings is so common participants often start to believe it can't be avoided. Well, it can! Very simple and easy improvements make a world of difference. For example, how about having a purpose and agenda for every meeting? Or, perhaps, starting and ending on time. Or, making sure only the people who need to be in the meeting are the ones involved. There are a number of terrific resources and ideas for better meetings to be found with a simple search of the internet. Choosing to focus on improving meetings is a decision that is easy to make and easy to implement.
2. Leader communication: Inadequate, incomplete, unclear communication along with unarticulated expectations and no performance feedback creates massive wasted motion and follower frustration. Leader training, observation, and coaching is a continual process as new leaders enter the ranks of management. Fundamentals of leadership codified and provided to new leaders is a great place to start. Clear articulation of the boss's role in organizational communication needs to be a regular reminder to leaders.
3. Underdeveloped work groups: "Team Building" was the focus of attention a few decades ago. We learned not every work group needs to be a "high performance team" when results did not show up in hard metrics. There appears to be less "team building" these days, however the need for work groups to be able to realize the benefits of diversity, to manage conflict, to understand and appreciate complex human interactions remains high. Establishing and sustaining "team-working" eliminates a lot of wasted motion.
4. HR execution: Non-existent (or out of date) HR processes and policies allow for a reactionary environment where firefighting is the norm. For example, a surprising number of organizations have no standard way of hiring, training, promoting, retiring, or firing. It is not hard to imagine how this creates massive problems. Basic HR processes can easily be defined and documented including the process for exceptions and special circumstances.

Waste in the areas above occurs when things don't go well...when the normal course of events creates dysfunction in how people work together.

So, in addition to improvements in group behavior, how can the insight that sometimes the normal course of events causes human interaction problems make your life better? Take a moment to consider where you have waste in your interactions. Make a list of the individuals or situations where excessive time, emotion, or effort is required. Then decide which ones you are going to do something about. Then do it! That is your "low hanging fruit". Making it a habit to focus on "Lean Interactions" is consistent with a continuous improvement culture and will differentiate extraordinary successful individuals, leaders, work groups, and organizations from the mediocre masses.

Tom Stratton is an OD consultant focused on eliminating the waste that is common in human interactions. He has worked internationally across Sales, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, R&D, HR, IS, and Finance and is known as a problem solver and fixer. He can be reached at 336.688.5679 or by email at [email protected]. Please consult Tom's Linkedin profile.