Lean Reflections: Leadership Support

The thoughts and ideas that emerged from the participants of our Lean Executive Morning were so valuable we have consolidated the notes into a 3-Part Series for the benefit of our participants and online community.

Q. What is the Ideal Role of the Senior Leadership group in terms of engaging and supporting a Continuous Improvement/ Lean Transformation? What must a Lean Team do to achieve, sustain and grow Senior Leadership support?

Challenge:  

Not all senior leaders have the vision, understanding and/or have "bought in" to making Lean a priority.

This is one of the critical steps and foundation blocks that must be in place to ensure the success of any Lean Transformation and Organizational Culture Change.  

Causes: 

In our brainstorming sessions, the following were identified as some of the possible reasons this occurs.

• Lack of Knowledge/Education about what lean truly is and its benefits.

• Not aligned with Strategic Goals

• No clear metrics or goals associated  

• Unclear about the Return on Investment

• Lack of ongoing communication

• Cultural issues internally

• Conflicting priorities

• Control

• Trust

• Resources to support and sustain lean 

• Fear of this being just another "flavour of the month"

Each root cause listed above impacts leadership support and each one requires an investigation to determine what strategy would need to be in place to most effectively address them.

Solutions:

To see some of the possible solutions or ideas that emerged from our session that could help to begin to address the challenge of achieving Senior Leadership support and buy in....Read More

Email us if you would like to learn more about the topics covered in our last session, or to find out about upcoming Lean Executive Days.