What Larry Culp’s Leaders Are Doing at GE (HINT: It’s Not Anything Other Leaders Do)
Jim Hudson??Lean Veteran
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Lean leaders lead their organizations differently than conventional managers, and Larry Culp is working diligently to produce an Army of Lean leaders at GE. No easy feat considering GE’s history and the front position it has held on conventional management for decades, if not its entire existence.
GE’s Lean leaders — those who are accountable both strategically and operationally (not the Lean professionals coaching them) — are actively building the company’s culture by pursuing three main principles.?
They’re Pursuing Flow
Larry’s leaders diligently pursue flow, by asking questions about the connection between silos. They are looking for signs that the breaks between silos are explicitly mitigated using visual tools like pull systems and signals. Since this is where the seven wastes tend to be greatest, they are also asking about steps teams are taking to mitigate or eliminate any breaks in flow.
NOTE: Get a free tool from me showing you exactly how to do this - connect with me and IM your email.
Lean management is all about system optimization and it starts by treating the entire value stream as a connected whole, usually viewed through a value stream map to identify gaps in flow, and then actively driven through daily attention.
They’re Pursuing Alignment
Larry’s leaders also actively drive intense alignment with the company vision. While these may seem like trite words (what organization?does not want or espouse alignment?), GE’s leadership chunks the vision down from lofty goals, to specific events using visually dispersed policy deployment as the backbone to do so. With a focus on safety, quality, delivery and cost as their prioritized metrics, they ask questions from the customer’s point-of-view to insure there is contact alignment with the vision of the company.
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Systems management (aka Lean) is useless if the vision of the company is not clear to all, and actively pursued on a daily basis through leadership attention. This is no small deal — it’s a big part of the Lean puzzle.
They’re Pursuing Active Problem Solving
Finally, Larry’s leaders very actively see their jobs as coaches, building the problem solving muscles of each and every person within their sphere of influence. They build those muscles by constantly asking questions (the Socratic approach to teaching other leaders “GE’s Way”), and by focusing keenly on variation control through process thinking. With intense emphasis on operational procedures (using tools like standard work and daily improvement), the GE leader is able to get regular plan-do-check-act cycles to act as “action pumps” that put pressure on the system, driving everyone to see where improvements are needed.
Lean management is a way of thinking that revolves around seeing problems within the process, fixing them immediately, and pursuing targets every day using the scientific method of PDCA to experimentally test the system against those targets.
Great teams always outperform great individuals (by miles, not inches), and GE’s leaders are out to produce excellent cross-functional teams that are focused on process management, standardization and visual management; all of which serve as action pumps to highlight the problems that need solving.
If you want to learn how to do this yourself, you can. Here’s the exact model I’ve been talking about, laid out as a six module course to show you exactly how to achieve each one of these. Check it out at?https://bit.ly/leanwins
About the Author:
I'm?Jim Hudson,?founder of the?Lean Expert Academy and?former partner in the?Lean Leadership Institute?with Jeff Liker (The Toyota Way), Paul Akers (Two Second Lean) and the recently departed, but hugely influential Norm Bodek (Productivity Press Founder). I've worked with some of the earliest Western Lean implementations including the?Danaher Business System?and the?George Group's early efforts?(now part of?Accenture).
I'm also the CEO of a Lean consulting company which trains Lean leaders to implement the exact methodology and techniques that you can learn right here.?Get out of the tactical loop that Lean Management has become & charge ahead with a highly strategic approach to transformational change - click on?https://bit.ly/leanwins
Director at Cox Automotive Inc.
3 年I heard from one of the best Professors I've ever had (Steven Spear who wrote the High Velocity Edge) that most organizations produce an output generated by a pathway of connected activities. If you focus only on activities (standardized work, reduction of motion, etc.) you will sub-optimally improve your operation. The real 'juice' is in the pathway (linear flow of product) and connections (handoffs). Also, he spoke about the DNA of TPS which consist of 4 major capabilities: 1. Design and operate work to see problems. 2. Solve problems. 3. Spread the learnings/knowledge from solving problems. 4. Leaders coach and develop their subordinates on capabilities 1-3. All of what you resonate with what he teaches and what I experienced at Toyota. I think it is easy to say, but harder for organizations to actually shift to systems driven thinking. Many times I see 'process' delegated way down past the level of capability. Managers on up delegating the design of the connections, pathways, activities down to Supervisors who are heads down just trying to meet their daily production targets. Shifting mindsets to where working ON the business and the system is just or more important than the other priorities is a difficult but necessary task for many companies that produce/service products.
Retired American, Proud Veteran
3 年Jim Hudson★Lean Veteran, Amit Raina, Vishnu Thorat, Jose Agustin Gonzalez Ana-Zita ?sz Brent Wong Glenn Warrington. At the time of this post, you have agreed. We are all in different organizations, and I would be very interested in knowing if you could implement this methodology, or do you have this structure/philosophy already in place. Just curious.
Retired American, Proud Veteran
3 年Jim Hudson★Lean Veteran, Very important message here, and valuable insight. Holistically viewed organizational flow, alignment and problem solving, encompasses the indispensable ingredients of building a solid foundation. Cultural development begins with a common vision as stated. This builds a common goal, target and language. Communication strengthens and motivation builds upon itself. Great post!