SIMPLE is not the same as EASY

Congratulations! You’ve completed your first Lean boot camp, and – BONUS – everything made complete sense! You walked out of the room with enthusiasm and a vision for how your project is going to work – collaboration, respect for everyone, and a constant drive toward continuous improvement and innovation. “Why didn’t I think of all this on my own?” you think. “It’s so SIMPLE!”

Then you go back to your jobsite, tell your team how excited you are about this new project management system, and sit down at your computer to start putting a plan together to immediately begin implementation of the tools and philosophies you just learned. You look at your keyboard. You type a little. You backspace. You type a little more. You schedule a meeting. You type a little more. You backspace… Maybe some stickie notes would help…

This is the moment when you realize that, although the concepts and tools of Lean Construction seem simple, or even obvious, making them a reality in your organization or on your jobsite isn’t easy. Fortunately, realizing you have a problem is the first step in solving that problem.

What I’d like to do with today’s post is talk through some of the main principles of Lean Construction, and discuss what makes them simple to understand, yet challenging to put into practice. I’m not writing this to discourage you. Quite the opposite! The more you understand about the challenges you’ll face, the less likely you will be to give up at the first sign of a struggle. Remember, it takes work to change practices, mindsets, and behaviors, but it is so worth it!

 RESPECT FOR PEOPLE

Why it’s SIMPLE: Well… duh, it’s just having respect for people. We are, for the most part, good people that care about the well-being of our coworkers and fellow human beings. We were brought up to treat everyone with kindness, and to respect everyone’s differences and contributions. It only makes sense that we would behave this way at work, as well.

Why it isn’t EASY: In the design and construction industry, we have spent decades creating silos of responsibility, levels of authority, and chains of communication. All of these create invisible barriers between the participants on a project. “Respect for People,” in the Lean sense, means that we value the time, ideas, and experience of each individual, and this is illustrated in deliberate actions. For example, meetings begin to look completely different when truly showing respect for the attendees. First, they get smaller, because you only invite those that actually need to be there. Each meeting has an agenda, a desired outcome, and a time limit. Finally, the meeting organizer takes the time to prepare, so the meeting runs quickly and efficiently. Wasting people’s time is disrespectful.

Respect for People is actually at the center of most of the basic Lean principles. Imagine how respect for all can drive you toward the next couple of principles, as well.

 MANAGING FOR FLOW

Why it’s SIMPLE: You can see the benefits of flow everywhere in life. Highways run more smoothly when everyone follows the rules of the road and flow around each other like a well-oiled machine. Look at a manufacturing assembly line that has been perfectly timed and balanced to allow each station’s work to complete in a similar amount of time, in the most efficient sequence. It’s a thing of beauty! (OK. Maybe that’s just me.) In your own kitchen: wife clears > husband washes > daughter dries > son puts the dishes away. Flow works, and that idea is so simple.

Why it isn’t EASY: Achieving true flow requires a lot of WORK – collaboration to truly understand the process and everyone’s part in it, analysis to identify and eliminate wasteful activities, a willingness to depart from the status quo, and investment in new equipment, training, and facility arrangement. And, after you’ve accepted all of that, you need to monitor your success and drive toward continuously improving the new process. Let’s face it. Most of our traditional processes have been bloated by decades of quick fixes, work-arounds, and risk management. Building reliable flow into any existing process requires a ground-up approach. This is further complicated in design and construction, where the processes aren’t on a constantly repeating loop. In this environment, the flow of work is between different trades, in different areas, with different materials. The entire project team must commit to a continuous focus on flow to achieve the best outcome.

 PLANNING AND IMPROVEMENTS BY THE PEOPLE DOING THE WORK

Why it’s SIMPLE: It’s really not hard to convince anyone that the person closest to the work has the best understanding of said work. From there, it is very simple to understand that they would provide the most useful input to plan the work and collaborate on improvements and resolution of challenges.

Why it isn’t EASY: I don’t think you really need me to explain this one, but I will anyway. This is simply not the way the world works. We have companies. Those companies have employees that are hired, and then work very hard to move up the ranks of MANAGEMENT. How do you move up the ranks of management? You do that by showing that you can effectively tell those below you how to better do their jobs, and (oh, this is my favorite) hold them accountable to meeting corporate goals. You must admit, there isn’t a lot of incentive for sharing the responsibility with those you manage, and even less for giving them credit for their contributions. If the right people are going to be involved in improving your organization and projects, it will typically require a shift in the corporate understanding of what a LEADER should be and how they are assessed.

The three principles that I’ve discussed are but a small sampling of the ideals of Lean Design and Construction. Fortunately, as your organization transforms, each new change is easier than the last, because each new change generates new behaviors, habits, and understanding. Again, none of this should discourage you from beginning, or continuing, your Lean Journey. Notice that the difficulties of a lean implementation are typically born of the traditional ways of doing business, and the necessity to shift to a new mindset. (That is never easy.) But, there is an elegance in the simplicity of lean, and, once you’ve taken the hard steps of reshaping your organization, you are left with that simplicity of operation and continuous growth, and that is totally worth it.

PS – I’m on Twitter, and I am just tickled every time I get a new follower! Please follow me @G3C_Consulting. 

Julie Glassmeyer is the Owner of Glassmeyer Construction Consulting & Coaching, LLC (G3C). Julie applies her 25 years of commercial construction management and planning experience to support individuals and organizations in their efforts to reach the next level of performance excellence. G3C, LLC, specializes in Lean Construction, Construction Safety, Leadership Training & Mentoring, Owner Guidance & Mentoring, and Professional Writing. For more information, please visit www.glassmeyerconsulting.com, or contact Julie at [email protected] or 513.635.2730. Follow her on Twitter - @G3C_Consulting!