Securing the Elusive Lean Buy-In
My latest column for IndustryWeek, Lessons from the Road, titled Securing the Elusive Lean Buy-In has been posted. Here is an excerpt:
You have passion about making lean work in your organization. You have ideas, and you are ready to realize them. You have experience and are willing to share it. You have a plan and are ready to execute. You’re just missing one element: buy-in.
Despite widespread support for lean, I am frequently engaged to overcome a lack of buy-in at organizations. In the lean journey for DTE Energy, for example, buy-in was a major challenge. It was the first utility to begin lean, and it was a highly regulated industry, not known for fast-moving change.
You can read the entire post here.
Here are my previous Lessons from the Road columns:
Building Manager Standard Work
Standardization can help you free up time and use it more proactively.
11/16/2011
Going to the Gemba
Far from a stroll on the plant floor, a gemba represents a purposeful attempt to learn what is really going on.
9/14/2011
How to Train Without Training
When training dollars are scarce, there are still good ways to develop your workforce. Try these three strategies.
7/20/2011
Lessons From the Road: Sustaining Your 5S Efforts
5S too often is short-lived, but these six steps can help keep it running smoothly.
5/17/2011
Lessons From the Road: Surfacing Problems Daily
Advice for building a problem-solving culture.
3/16/2011
James – I like what you have to say about buy-in. Allow me to add a couple of things which are entirely consistent with your recommendations. I found that people resist change (or buy-in) for three possible reasons:
1. they don’t get it
2. they don’t like it
3. they don’t like you
In order to get people’s attention and interest, the opposite side of those three need to be present: people need to understand what you are talking about. In other words, without getting lost in the minutia of LEAN, they need to understand what its all about. 2. They need to “feel” like this is a good thing to do. 3. They need to trust the people who are advocating LEAN. Will these people follow through? Is it merely a flavor of the month? etc.
Too often LEAN places way too much emphasis on the Level 1 stuff – give people lots of information, and the leaders forget that people need to believe that this process is good for them personally and the organization, and the leaders and consultants just assume that they can take trust for granted.
James – I like what you have to say about buy-in. Allow me to add a couple of things which are entirely consistent with your recommendations. I found that people resist change (or buy-in) for three possible reasons:
1. they don’t get it
2. they don’t like it
3. they don’t like you
In order to get people’s attention and interest, the opposite side of those three need to be present: people need to understand what you are talking about. In other words, without getting lost in the minutia of LEAN, they need to understand what its all about. 2. They need to “feel” like this is a good thing to do. 3. They need to trust the people who are advocating LEAN. Will these people follow through? Is it merely a flavor of the month? etc.
Too often LEAN places way too much emphasis on the Level 1 stuff – give people lots of information, and the leaders forget that people need to believe that this process is good for them personally and the organization, and the leaders and consultants just assume that they can take trust for granted.
James – I like what you have to say about buy-in. Allow me to add a couple of things which are entirely consistent with your recommendations. I found that people resist change (or buy-in) for three possible reasons:
1. they don’t get it
2. they don’t like it
3. they don’t like you
In order to get people’s attention and interest, the opposite side of those three need to be present: people need to understand what you are talking about. In other words, without getting lost in the minutia of LEAN, they need to understand what its all about. 2. They need to “feel” like this is a good thing to do. 3. They need to trust the people who are advocating LEAN. Will these people follow through? Is it merely a flavor of the month? etc.
Too often LEAN places way too much emphasis on the Level 1 stuff – give people lots of information, and the leaders forget that people need to believe that this process is good for them personally and the organization, and the leaders and consultants just assume that they can take trust for granted.
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