News of Lean’s death are greatly exaggerated...

There are many lamentations of the demise of Lean, or increasingly, its irrelevance in the new world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Industry 5.0.

The question is, are we really in a post-Lean world?

The fact is that many Lean Transformations have, and continue to, fail and this is an ongoing problem regardless of industry, which is the subject of many practical and academic assessments; one of the most insightful writers on this subject being Bob Emiliani (https://bobemiliani.com ).

I'm not going to dive too deeply into the failure rates, as they are a hornets nest of conflicting data and opinion. However, suffice it to say that I believe that being successful in any transformational activity, including a Lean Transformation, is a matter of choice and, as I wrote in this article , we might as well say that the Fitness movement is also a failure and predict its demise, as the failure rate of people who start a fitness programme and fail to meet their goals is upwards of 73%.

However, regardless of the high degree of failure in both the Lean and Fitness movements, there are enough success stories in both to warrant them to continue to thrive, and to be useful elements of societal improvement.

In both cases, when failure occurs it has similar roots...

A lack of Long-Term thinking, of discipline, and of falling too easily into the trap of short-term gains that provide them with the 'fix' that they need but are deleterious to their long-term objectives.

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A long-term commitment to engagement

The key to a successful Lean Transformation is a long-term commitment to the objectives of the transformation and the agreement on a set of values, principles and behaviours that will guide the people in the organisation, at all levels, in the decisions that they make everyday.

It's become a cliché in Lean circles to say that "it's all about people" but it really is and the issue is not so much in the sentiment behind the statement but in the reality of the degree by which it's lived and respected in tough times.

For the organisation to have a sustainable and healthy culture, the people in the organisation, from the C-Suite to the Team Members, must be engaged with the organisation and their leaders. Despite a slight increase since 2009 globally, the Gallup Employee Engagement survey consistently reminds us that the levels of engagement remain low at just 23%, or rather 77% are disengaged and 18% are actively disengaged!

This infographic from Gallup demonstrates the level of challenge that organisations face, globally, and is even more concerning in Europe, where just 13% are engaged:

It is my experience that engagement can be dramatically increased when the organisation's leadership adopts a people-centric approach to running the business, something that must be authentic and lived by the leadership, even in times of challenge or crisis. The irony is that, whilst a crisis can be the 'burning platform' for a transformation, a subsequent crisis can also be the event that derails it. I am therefore avidly watching GE's transformation under Larry Culp , with the optimism that he and his team are making a sustainable and enduring change.

Gallup collects and analyses an immense amount of data from its employee engagement surveys and the following image demonstrates that many of the changes that employees would like to see, in order that they could become more engaged, are addressed by real Lean Leadership:

• Recognition
• Approachable, open managers
• Working autonomy
• Learning and development
• Respect
• Fair opportunity for advancement
• Clearer goals and stronger guidance
• Better communication
• Less overtime
• More flexible working
• Taking health and life seriously
• A better environment

I didn't include the pay and benefits, because it can be more abstract. However, there's no doubt that companies able to increase cashflow and profitability, which true Lean Leadership will avail, are in a better position when it comes to pay and benefits. Unfortunately, companies which are run badly tend to focus on their people as a focus of cost reduction.

Who knew that well run companies have more engaged employees?

What is interesting is that Gallup can also demonstrate that engagement is significantly higher in what they consider 'best-practice' organisations and, whilst I don't claim that every best-practice organisation has achieved this through Lean Leadership, what I will posit is that the best route for a company that wants to get there is through Lean Leadership.

Imagine having 72% of your workforce engaged in the vision and mission of the organisation?

Well, Gallup have demonstrated that a highly engaged workforce:

• Increases Profitability by 21%
• Are 2.6 times less likely to seek alternative employment
• Have 17% higher productivity

This means that transforming a business through Lean Leadership can deliver dramatic business results; far more than the multiple investments that companies are considering spending millions of ￡€$ on.

Further, the investments that the organisation will make, especially in terms of future industry or Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be bolstered and far more likely to be a success when the workforce is mostly engaged, as opposed to mostly disengaged (and significantly actively disengaged).

What is Lean Leadership?

I've written extensively about this in my books, Leading with Lean , The Simplicity of Lean , and Leading Lean by Living Lean , but let's take it to first principles and talk about the Toyota Way 14 Principles.

What you will hopefully notice about them is that they're not about the application of Lean tools, although you will need to apply some of the tools if you are to make them a reality, but they are focussed on the thinking and behaviours that are required to be a Lean Leader and to make an organisation a success.

The words respect occur twice overtly in Respect for People and Respect for your partner and suppliers, but also covertly in the practice of Hansei (respecting yourself), Leaders are teachers (respecting team members' development), and Stop and Fix the problem (respecting the customer). In fact you can make a good argument for respect being the mainstay of all of the 14 principles.

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Lean Leadership is thriving

I would therefore argue that, despite the well documented criticisms of Lean, and talk of its demise, it's really about seeing Lean as Lean Leadership and accepting that it's successful, not when the tools of TPS are labelled Lean and implemented, but when the tenets of what made Toyota, and others, a success are truly engrained and applied to the Leadership and the way that the organisation is led.

With Employee Engagement continuing to be a major problem for the majority of organisations, and the traditional organisation being consigned to the past as a result of hybrid working and AI, I would argue that Lean Leadership is thriving and, just like the analogy I made earlier to the fitness industry, for those who choose to do it right and with a long-term commitment, it's even more important than it's ever been!

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