STOP DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD! A Discussion About Lean Six Sigma Culture.

• Changing to a Continuous Improvement culture within your company is an investment and requires years of dedication and support from the leadership
• The most significant risk when standing up a Lean Six Sigma program within your company is that is can appear to conflict with your current way of working
• Do not underestimate the power of internal communication when building a continuous improvement culture

You probably don’t think about it much, but the reason we drive on the right side of the road has no benefit. It is culturally imposed. Some historians have shown that before cars, riding horseback on the left side of the road might have been advantageous as most of us are right-handed. This would allow two people to shake hands as they passed each other.  

When the United States Civil Administration ran post World War II Okinawa, driving was changed to the right side of the road. When the island was returned to Japan in 1972, it took six years before it converted back to left-handed drive found in the rest of Japan.

A fellow Lean Six Sigma professional, Keiko Fuchioka, who grew up in Japan, said that “The worst is when you are in the rotary as the flow of the cars in the rotary is counterclockwise. Which way do I enter? This can be seriously confusing & dangerous! Even inside the car, the wipers and turn signal are on opposite sides of the steering column. Your muscle memory will fail you!”

Think of that for a minute. You drive on a specific side of the road because of cultural norms that were eventually written into law. Drive on the other side of the road in the United States, and you will get a ticket.

One of the great struggles being a Lean Six Sigma Professional is understanding where a company sits culturally in its continuous improvement journey. Some estimates show that over 90% of Lean Six Sigma initiatives fail within five years. There are many reasons why, but the one I have witnessed the most is a lack of cultural understanding.  This is even more pronounced in companies that either (or both) already have a strong culture or have people who have worked in the company for decades who might be uncomfortable making changes in how they work. Think telling someone that their process is imperfect, try telling someone that there are many ways to view a problem.

The problem with any cultural shift is the switching cost. The UK considered a switch to right-handed driving in the late 1960s, but those switching costs were deemed too high so such a developed nation. In business, changing culture is often a matter of survival. Some of it is common sense (less waste), whereas other suggestions (strategy deployment) are far more complex and disrupt the processes that made the company successful decades ago.

One of the most accessible places to start with a cultural shift in thinking is 5S. It is a principle that puts everything in its place, so everyone knows where every item is and can readily see if something is missing or out of place. As simple as it is, it can be challenging to maintain. Why? Cultural differences. My view of order is different from yours. How I label things may differ from how you would do it. Different is okay as long as the group can reach consensus like everyone agreeing to drive the same direction on the road.

Although horribly translated from Japanese to English, the English version of 5S is the following:

• SORT – Get rid of the clutter. Remove the items from the work area, if they can be moved easily, and separate what is needed for the operations and remove the unneeded components.
• SET IN ORDER – Before putting the items back, set in order, or organize the work area. Make it easy to find what is needed. A place for everything, and everything in its place.
• SHINE – Clean the work area.
• STANDARDIZE – Establish schedules and methods of performing the routine tasks of the operation in general and the process of cleaning and sorting.
• SUSTAIN – Implement programs to sustain the gains through the involvement of all employees from every level. Don’t let things revert to how they use to be.

Above all, leadership must actively embrace a continuous improvement culture. If leaders are not practicing what the Lean Six Sigma team is deploying, it’s as if they are okay with supporting the status quo.