Main Constraint to Lean Follow-Up & Basic Logic

The recent experiment where I asked, “What is the MAIN constraint to the implementation of Lean?” was quite insightful. I got a lot of feedback and many opinions.

What I wanted was a list of assumptions that are true*, which are shown in blue in the above chart. Examples are “The Japanese Culture is built on Consensus” and “The US Culture is built on Contention.” ?These lead to some insights that hopefully are logical and will be drawn on for clarity in the future. The logic leads to:

“A CI method will be used as long as leadership ensures that Consensus overcomes Contention.”

But if we accept the assumption that “Leadership constantly changes," we must also conclude that:

“The method of Consensus must survive leadership changes to ensure the CI process continues to be successful.”

Here is the Link to the original Post.

If the new leader agrees with the former leader that this CI method is the proper direction, the CI process stays in place. However, if the new leader does not, for any reason, disagree that this is a personal or organizational benefit, the CI method may come to an end.

Lean has been around for a long time, and the leadership in its companies constantly changes. You can extrapolate the results.

It brings us to the method used to ensure that consensus is created in a contentious environment. How are the people below the leader motivated to take on this new CI method? Chances are a “carrot and stick” method is used in a contentious environment. We use Contentious methods to gain Consensus in a Contention environment. I’m dizzy.

We keep returning to the conflict in our environment and ways to overcome it. Methods like Lean show signs of success when strong leaders bring it to play, holding their management teams accountable for success, then it falls into disuse after they leave. There are exceptions, but we must conclude that that is not the likely result.

As a result, we need:

“A CI method that creates Consensus over Contention that does not rely on Leadership in the long-term.”

Basically, it must be running on its own before s/he leaves.

Indeed, “Leadership” was the main constraint that a significant percentage of you wrote down. ?A solution that avoids relying on them as a long-term method of success may not have been what you had in mind.

What is this method that creates Consensus over Contention? If you are not busy writing opinions contrary to this conclusion, this is the challenge for those who are passionate about Lean but cannot look to a TPS solution for an answer.

We must do the research ourselves.

Note: When I use the word "true" in this case, I mean what I can say "Meteor true," which means you can always find exceptions, like when a meteor strikes the earth. It has happened, but I wouldn't plan on it.

Kevin Kohls is an author, speaker, and consultant with a proven track record of over $ 1 billion in improvements. Go to https://linktr.ee/kevinkohls for more information.

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