Lean Observations of an old guy, WHO really owns lean?

Quick update, I was released from disability back in January and left Tesla the same day. Time to get back to what I stand for, what I want to do, and to work with a system that really is about people and their potential. Nothing against automation but a well-trained, highly respected, and motivated human is an amazing machine. Since I am old enough to remember when we didn’t have Human Resources we had Personnel departments I was taught that people are the assets of the company and not be messed with. Personnel was connected to the people and they were the buffers against management. Notice I said the buffer against, not against bad management. Not so anymore, at least in high tech companies. People are cogs to be bought and sold, and sometimes just discarded when times call for it.

So, what have I been doing since? I have spent a lot of time with my wife and the two sons that live at home still. I have travelled around Tennessee exploring, finding different things to replace my Silicon Valley treasures that I found over 40+ years of living there. And in addition, I have read a lot of books about things not related to lean or to business, I am really pumped up about the sprint car season that is just starting, and a major item on my bucket list that I hope to complete is to be a guitar player, so I am taking guitar lessons twice a week. I will be up to my eyeballs in sprint cars and guitars for a while. Guitar is a big challenge for me because I like to think about things and music is about doing. I have applied my lean experience to my practice space, matching my routine to the flow and therefore the setup of the space.The picture below is what my space looks like today.

If you can guess the flow that I use and in the right order let me know and I will buy the first correct answer a copy of Practicing Lean. Preferably submit in the form of Standard Work! ?? Anyone who has helped me convert work into U shaped cells will know this flow, and maybe someone with some music training will see if it is logical!

So now to the $64,000 question to me and that is who in an organization owns lean? Who gets the pleasure from good results, who gets to lay awake at night thinking about other solutions, and who gets to talk about lean in public? Who takes the walk of shame when things go south? Who gets to stand on the sideline and throw rocks at the people who doing the work? Who goes eyeballs deep into problems and who gets to ignore those findings?

Having sat in meetings where these very questions were discussed, and in one particular case I was brought in by the Board of Directors to make sure people got the right answers to these questions, I can tell you everyone in an organization owns lean and the “no I don’t like that idea” guy, the “no it’s the end of the quarter so push product out the door to meet revenue expectations” guy, and the CEO who “sleeps on the factory floor” own it most dearly.

So, the people who like it least are the people who own it the most. The manager who says I know it is not lean but it’s what the company needs it owns it more the associate who is working their regular job and still trying to make things better. The supervisor more worried about their career track than their associates wellbeing owns it. The President who happily tells Wall Street about the gains while laying people off owns it.

The Board of Directors who abdicate their oversight ownership to watch a “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap type of CEO operate an illegal accounting scheme own it. If you don’t know who Al Dunlap is look him up, it’s a story of the anti-lean leader to the extreme. In something that stunned me Chainsaw was named the 6th worse CEO in a 2009 poll, meaning there were 5 CEO’s worse than him. Here’s the link to that rating: https://www.cnbc.com/2009/04/30/Portfolios-Worst-American-CEOs-of-All-Time.html?slide=16

The consultant who declares themselves an expert or a Sensei yet doesn’t visit the Gemba owns it more than the people living the nightmare at the Gemba. The office politician who spends more time self-promoting than working with their people own it. The CEO who spends 15 minutes on reading a lean book and then announces his organization is lean owns it. The CEO who hires a recognized lean coach and after 90 days announces to Wal Street that they have had a lean transformation owns it. The CEO who continues borrowing money to buy assets not needed owns it more than the people who are breaking their backs to get things done.

Notice a trend in my answers? If not go back and re-read it because it is clear that the concept of who “owns” lean is not a lean thought. Lean is a system and technically everyone in the system owns it BUT really people live in a system and management is responsible for it BUT no one truly owns it. They build on what they have done, they are rewarded for effort as much as results, there is no MVP, or superhero, or firefighter coming to the rescue. People live in the system and make it their own. Every successful lean system is different than the others because it is unique to how it is applied, the corporate culture it is being developed in, and the strength of leadership operation within the system.

A lean system is beneficial to all involved from customers to suppliers and within the entire organization. Not pockets of it, not we really like lean but our CEO is against it, and not lean is so hard so we just cherry pick the projects. It is a full time and a full-on effort. If you are not trying to be the best why bother? If you aren’t actively getting better you are getting worse. So, get off your butt and fix things, even if it is only your guitar practice space. In management? Spend 1 hour a day just talking to people about their issues, and if you want to be a manager than you’d better learn to love people. Lean is simple, but BS makes it complex. Our jobs are to cut through the BS to help people see their way out of the mess they are in. Now get out there and have some fun!