PART 4: Leader Standard Work
This leads us to the next way to improve our Lean initiative......Leader Standard Work......what does this mean?
Leader Standard Work is a way of building standard routines into how our leaders behave, so that we are setting the right example for our people.
What behaviours do we need to make our continuous improvement culture sustainable?
We want to have our leaders creating and supporting an “army of problem solvers”.
This is about thinking of our leaders’ roles and behaviour as systemic or a critical element of our management system, and this will lead to having the correct and most useful knowledge in our teams, and this will lead to the right actions and behaviours being demonstrated by team members.
Our businesses are simply people and processes delivering value to customers.
In your organisation, is the customer at the heart of everything we do and every conversation we have?
Leaders should be regularly in the Gemba, leading by example, engaging our frontline people, preferably on some sort of regular schedule each day, teaching our people A3 thinking and PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act), and helping them to expose the waste.
It’s best if we can lock out a set time in the morning (maybe a couple of hours) for all the standup meetings to happen across your business, so that the team level meetings can then cascade up to a daily leadership meeting for your senior leaders. This provides a mechanism for issues that cannot be dealt with locally to be escalated quickly until they reach a level at which they can be resolved.
We are looking for all leaders able to embrace the “I don’t know, but let’s work it out together” approach in the Gemba where the value is being created. This is a difficult skill to learn and probably will not come naturally to most.
Let’s also encourage and support the application of Kaizen on ourselves – how can we improve (using PDCA) the way we lead others, how can we be better leaders, and consequently create better leaders below us?
Is the leadership behavior in your organisation setting the right example?
How could you achieve more comprehensive Leader Standard Work in your organisation?
Please spend some time with your team or colleagues reflecting on your organisation and how you could better use the fourth of our 7 ways to improve your Lean initiative – Leader Standard Work.
Note: This is part 4 of 7 ways to improve the impact of your lean initiative. Stay tuned for part 5 being released next month. Feel free to contact Efficiency Works directly using the links below if you'd like to discuss all things LEAN.
Related Content: 7 Ways to Improve The Impact of Your Lean Initiative (Part 5)
Topic: Process Improvement
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