Six Sigma Greenbelt, yep that was all it took for me to start delving into the concepts of LEAN, by accident I will admit. I first thought it was a new martial art and at the time I was spending more time in the gym and in the arts than I was with the computer. I had over 15 years experience with being an efficiency expert in restaurants and used the concepts unknowingly already in my life in a manner of speaking, but could always improve … and the lights to the dojo came on!

You hear LEAN thrown out all over these days like it is a new concept. Some use it as a noun, some as an adjective and some don’t know how or why they use it, but they use it just to make them look like they understand the concept. Some say they will use it in part of their company but it wouldn’t work in others, that’s when I know they don’t know what LEAN is, but it sounds like they like the concept.

Developed by Toyota many decades ago, when talking LEAN you will hear words like muri, muda, kaizen, genchi and my favorite and the one that helped rope me in in the beginning, genjitsu  …. now you tell me that doesn’t sound like a new class of judo?? You see how I got confused in the beginning? Don’t be scared by the words themselves, knowing the exact words is less important than understanding the meanings and concepts they represent.

For those who have common sense and logical efficiency naturally flowing through their being, they may look at this and think “What’s the big deal, it’s logical!” or “I have been doing that for years!” For others the concept seems big and scary, so lets take a simple look.

LEAN – What it isn’t, what it is

• LEAN isn’t a quick fix – it’s a lifestyle change that affects an ecosystem (a balancing of resources living in harmony, each relying on the other).
• LEAN isn’t something you will ever know everything about – it is based on Continual Improvement, so once you know the best way to do everything, evaluate them all again so you can evaluate how they can be improved for the betterment of you, a direct player in your ecosystem or an indirect player.
• LEAN is not a place for egos or attitudes – to be truly effective you need to be able to look at resources, yourself and your company with unbiased and humble eyes even when (and maybe especially when) you know what you may see is not flattering and makes you or someone else look bad.
• LEAN isn’t about firing a bunch of people and getting rid of resources – it’s about recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of each resource you have and utilizing them to their best potential.
  Remember: LEAN and Downsizing are not synonyms like many seem to believe
• LEAN is a set of tools that strives to sustain the value with less work

It’s a lifestyle, it is about slowly changing to create a healthier environment. Some changes may not work, but you should learn from them. People and companies often know they need a change, but they are scared of making the wrong change and so they stand still and become stagnant, which will surely bring death. A movement in any direction is better than standing still because you may not fix it right off but you may just learn what doesn’t work and you may need to move in another direction. Simple stuff eh?

LEAN is about Continuous Improvement and that doesn’t mean that HUGE changes have to be made constantly (and in my opinion try to avoid HUGE changes if you can). Think about continual motion. Think of it this way, when Terry Fox began his journey across Canada, it may have been daunting to think of the HUGE distance, but what he did before he started was:

• set a starting point,
• set the direction he was going (with a destination in mind) and started forward in that direction
• every day he just put one shoe in front of the next, trusting that the resources he had and assumed he needed would allow him to be one step closer to his targeted destination
• and he moved forward

Did Terry make his targeted destination? Unfortunately he passed away before he reach that destination, but with the simple plan he set in motion, it took on a life of it’s own, look at what has become of what he started.

So growing, moving (in some direction), remembering to look at where you are and where you are going then trying to improve in at least a small way is vital to LEAN being alive in your organization.

I don’t need change, what I do is fine, no one can do it better … I think we have all heard these comments, or maybe said them ourselves. That attitude will leave you wanting. I remember a conversation where a CEO was praising me as ‘one of the best at what they do’ to a colleague, at which the colleague smiled and said, “Oh, so you aren’t the best” and he was right, I could always be better. He knew something I didn’t know, or should I say, didn’t see. Becoming complacent and ‘settling’ for ‘that’s how we always did it’ is not LEAN thinking. LEAN thinking is, ’that was good, but how can I improve’, and ‘will that work better for them?’. You won’t have all the answers, so listening and observing is key, but listen with empathy so you understand.

Now I have seen employees getting stressed by hearing the word LEAN and the first thought is “Who is getting fired?”. For LEAN leaders, taking the time to look at what needs to be done, how it’s done now, what resources you have and how they are utilized can give you incite into ‘tweaking’ the process. Often asking the employees that do the job think will improve the process will give you ideas you never thought of. Often the Sensi, or Master, teaches the student but often the Student will teach the teacher and other students as well, so be open to ideas.

Now respecting the resources, the employees, the concepts and the ideas is part of any LEAN team, but don’t misconstrue ‘respect’ with agreeing with everything they want or ‘not rocking the boat’. In any dojo, sometimes the Master will feel the need to teach by more aggressive actions, but that may also be why when you enter a Judo Dojo the first thing you learn is how to fall. Once you know how to fall, getting beaten doesn’t hurt near as much, it merely helps you see an area of improvement, while teaching you how to pick yourself up off the mats when you do fall.

Don’t be scared of failure. You may learn more by fixing your or another’s mistakes than you will if you are never wrong. LEAN is about learning and an always-evolving process of Continuous Improvement in an effort to be better. Like the martial arts, LEAN is a discipline; something to be respected and used when and where needed. Unlike the martial arts there are no Katas, where being perfect is everything, with LEAN you strive to do things better than the last time and if you miss the Katas you can still gain your belts and strive for perfection through certifications, which, like the belts in martial arts, indicate your level of knowledge, training and discipline. Pretty simple concept eh?

In LEAN, as it is in the martial arts, there are many different variations and disciplines involved, but often the concept behind them and the purpose of implementation or reason for using them is similar.

Welcome to the dojo!