Value of the People and Lean

Written by Jason Haines

“Our prevailing system of management has destroyed our people. The greatest waste… is failure to use the abilities of people… to learn about their frustrations and about the contributions that they are eager to make. People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-respect, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy in learning.” -W. Edwards Deming

Deming understood it, Ohno understood it, Wooden understood it, Bryant and Lombardi understood it, our forefathers understood it. These leaders knew that you needed to value the people; give them their freedoms while having standards for them to live within. They knew to teach their people the direction to go while guiding them, but also understood their people could not be forced to go in that direction. These leaders recognized they could teach their craft to others while caring and respecting all the employees and people who followed them.

As a leader we must show that we value all our people the same, teach them the same. This does not mean that we need to like all the people who are following us, but we must love and value them all the same. Sometimes this can be very difficult, you will have your good days and your bad days. Many have been there and sometimes we want to crawl under a stone. I have had those days and learned from them. Therefore, I decided to move towards Lean Management.

Lean Management provided a way many things to become easier as a leader and valuing the people working for me. Lean Management helped to simplify our processes, ways of doing things, and opened the lines of communication so people always knew where to go. Another thing that Lean Management did for myself was free up time so I could start building relationships with my employees, more than I had done previously. I discovered their needs, used their ideas and implemented them, and could guide them to training that would benefit the furthering of their careers.

Lean has opened many doors for myself and employees that have worked for me over the years because it has showed ways to do things differently. One of those doors was when I met Colin Reed with Industrial Solutions. We built a relationship and decided to open an office in Arizona to provide the benefits of Lean to the Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California areas. With this office we hope to provide value to people and organizations that will grow the Lean Management principles.

When the Japanese first started Toyota Production System (TPS), they found that utilization of their frontline employees was a valuable resource. This was differed from the old command and control, the “do and don’t think” method that was being used in many western factories. These methods were one of many reasons that labor unions arose in the United States and other western countries. Companies looked at their people as just another cog in the wheel that they could easily replace tomorrow. The Japanese on the other hand found that valuing the input and work of the frontline worker was a very rewarding tool. As Ohno once said,” … people don’t go to Toyota to work, they go to think.”

This was one of the big reasons that I gained a lot of respect for Lean Management and its tools. One was the respect for people and two was the use of the tools to help guide people to do the right thing. As it has been said, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot teach it to keep drinking. Lean practitioners enjoy teaching and helping people on solve problems within their organizations. It makes work exciting being able to witness people putting effort while enjoying their jobs. As Toyota did, we Lean practitioners realize that our most important asset is the human resource.

The human resource of any business is what makes most changes within the company. The people that work for you and your organization are those that understand the jobs and what changes need to be made to make the jobs more efficient. They can also, with the help of us leaders, find ways to make the jobs effective when there is high turnover within your organization.

Many times, leaders forget that we must also be there to help, teach, and guide our frontline workers. Be more hands-on when implementing and teaching. This was a big reason that I enjoy the Lean concepts due of the hands-on approach it brings to the workplace. Teaching and learning by doing because we all know that no useful improvement was made from your desk. Leaders must get out on the floor and be part of the change that is going on. Especially when Lean implementation is first starting, as this is the time when employees have the least amount of time to make changes and solve problems on their own. A lot of times we seem to forget that at first employees are too busy, which is why our organization is in the predicament we usually find ourselves in.

Whether it be late orders, high defective, too much inventory, employee turnover, or any other issue that Lean can help with within your organization. But the upfront work must be done by the leaders to start freeing the time for the frontline employees to have time to do the thinking themselves. At first, and part of where problems stem from, your frontline employees are too busy to make improvements. They don’t have time to change the process because they generally don’t have time to stop and understand the new process. That is why leaders need to make the effort, not only to make the appropriate changes, but also to show that we respect and value them as our employees. Leaders need to get their hands dirty, go to the Gemba, and gather input from the employees and then make the changes that will free up employees’ time. As a word of warning, do not add steps to make improvements, because this is counterproductive to Lean. Adding steps only takes more time away from the employees and gives them less time to complete important tasks. Leading to employees taking shortcuts and making more mistakes.

Once we start to free up employee’s time, we can then begin t to teach them how to think and grow their roles within the departments and company. This is where we get to see the value of people. Relationships begin to be built amongst the teams and the whole organization. The communication becomes less siloed and flow of the product becomes easier. The employees begin to gain respect for their leaders and mentors because they are given the opportunity to provide input and grow the company. This gives employees a sense of pride in what they do and a sense of security that their company will be there for them. At the end of the day the employees will realize that there is an appreciation, valuing, of them that they never seen before. Always remember, value your people and they will value your company!!

Helping you grow your business through process improvement!!