Sustaining Your Lean Journey With WHY

As Lean grows in popularity it seems to me that the tools are getting most of the spotlight while the core values and principles of Lean are being either missed or ignored.  At the same time, Lean professionals are struggling with a lack of sustainment.  How do I know this?  I’ve been there myself and frequently hear about other lean professionals having the same challenges I did.  I’ve been on my lean journey for 3 years now and I’ve struggled with kaizen that doesn’t sustain, forgotten training and an underdeveloped problem solving culture.  These challenges have driven me to spend a lot of time reflecting on why I’m not getting the results I want from lean.

The more I reflect on my own lean journey, the more I listen to peers in my lean network, the more I learn from lean leaders like Dr. Jeffrey Liker, Mike Hoseus and John Shook, the more I think about the WHAT, HOW and WHY a.k.a. the Golden Circle of lean.  WHAT are the many tools in the lean arsenal, HOW refers to a problem solving culture and  WHY is the reason for embarking on the lean journey in the first place.

Focusing on these three pieces of the lean puzzle will ensure a valuable and long-lasting lean journey.  However, there’s a catch…  The order of what, how and why can’t be changed, but the piece you can choose is which end you start from.  Your choice of starting point, with what or why, will be a big (if not the biggest) factor in determining how far you travel along your lean journey.   Do you choose the "what" starting point for the quick hits and fast results that eventually fade?  Or do you want long lasting and continuously improving results that come from starting with why?

The Golden Circle

Companies that start with WHAT…  Companies that start with what are not hard to spot, they generally put most of their lean focus on use of the lean tools.  These lean tools I’m talking about are things like 5S, value stream mapping and Ishikawa diagrams.  For example, someone (usually an owner/leader) in a company hears about the wins achieved from another company who used 5S, and then tells his or her team to go learn 5S and apply it at their company.  The problem with the “what” approach is that without knowing the “why” and “how” to use them the tools will never work effectively, and if they do work it will be short-lived.  You don’t just use the lean tools as standalone projects, you use them to help solve a problem and if you don’t know how to solve a problem then you shouldn’t be using the tools.  Moreover, you can’t solve a problem unless you know why you’re looking for the problem in the first place.  As a side note, “because my boss told me to” is not a good answer to why…  Sadly, use of the lean tools is what more and more companies believe what lean is.  You may achieve some initial wins/savings but will lack sustainment.  By starting with what lean becomes the flavour of the month and eventually looses its momentum.  Typically, the root cause of starting with “what” often turns out to be a misunderstanding of the true principles of lean and/or a bottom line focus of leadership where employees are told to “go do lean” in the hopes to cut costs.  Starting with what will not produce a sustainable a lean journey.

Companies that start with WHY…  These are the companies that “get” lean and ultimately how to achieve great things with it, not only for their customers but also for their employees, suppliers and all other stakeholders.  Starting with why aligns the lean journey to the already established values/vision/purpose of your company.  Alignment is crucial when answering why, because lean has values/vision/principles just like your company and if they don’t align then lean may not be the right thing for you.  Companies that start their lean journey with why start with purpose; they see the value in positive employee engagement, increasing customer value and creating a culture that embraces change (if they don’t already have one), and then allow these things to happen organically.  When employees know why their company is on a lean journey and have been included from the beginning they connect and feel part of it, not thrown to the wolves. The biggest benefit of starting with why will allow the lean champions within your business to bubble to the surface.  These lean champions are the change agents, facilitators and leaders without titles who will drive your lean journey forward.  Just to be clear, to save money is not why you should embark on a lean journey.  Don't get me wrong though, cutting costs is a positive side effect of lean but if your only focus is the bottom line then you won't have the patience needed to let your culture evolve and a solid foundation for lean to grow and sustain.

Don’t forget HOW…   Whether you start with what or why, and I strongly recommend you start with why, knowing how you’re going to succeed is extremely important to the lean journey.  When defining how to go lean your first priority should be to build a problem solving culture within your organization; do this through people development, regular training and creating a lean mindset.  Remember that training is not a one-time event and it needs to be constantly reinforced.  Moreover, if someone isn’t “getting it”, then look to the trainer and their process not the trainee.  I have a belief that people come to work to do a good job and that no one really wants to make a mistake.  By having this belief I am able to always look to the process for the source of the problem, not the individual.  A focus on process rather than people allows a no-blame environment to take root, which is integral to how the lean journey will succeed.  As hard as it can be in the beginning, don’t blame people for mistakes, rather allow people to make mistakes and then learn from it.  Many regard failing as the source for success and in my opinion it is the only way to grow.  The key to a no-blame environment is having the entire leadership and management team (supervisors too) on board with no-blame.  If the leaders aren’t on board then you need to go back to WHY.

The best part of why, how and what (that’s the order we should be approaching a lean journey) is that it’s not too late to change.  If you’ve started your journey with WHAT, then stop, reflect and start thinking about your why.  While doing this don’t hide, keep the entire company in-the-loop, communicate openly and involve everyone in the rebirth of your lean journey.

A lean journey is continuous, it takes time to build a foundation and it can't be rushed.  What’s most important to understand is that you’ll never get to lean, it’s a process not a destination.  It could take years to build the foundation for a culture to accept, adopt and thrive with lean.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was lean, in any company.  Have patience.  Toyota has been at it for decades and they're still learning.  Start with why and only when you can answer that as a company you can start to work on how.  Once you know why and how the what almost takes care of itself.

Inspiration for this article and the idea of what, how and why (also known as the Golden Circle) comes from a TED talk I watched and book I read.  The TED talk was titled “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”, the book is titled “Start With Why” and they’re both by Simon Sinek.  When you think a little outside of the box the Golden Circle can be applied to almost anything personally and professionally; I’ve even applied it to my hiring practice where why is talent, how is knowledge and what are skills.  When you start with WHY you start with purpose, meaning and something for others to believe in.  If you haven’t discovered any of Simon’s work I definitely recommend you do. 

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