"DO YOU SEE THE ONCOMING STORM TOO?" | Identifying the Storm | 1.02
LISTEN TO LEARN | Identifying the storm | LBFF 1.02
WATCH TO TRY | Identifying the Storm with Craig Johnson | LBTT 1.02
READ TO APPLY | Identifying the Storm | LBCC 1.02
My years as a facilitator for change taught me both good and bad practices. I watched good leaders struggle in getting the buy-In from their teams while the bad leaders succeeded by instilling fear. I saw the Lean journey be abandoned by good people because the change was too great for them to accept. It is true that people leave bad managers or leadership, but sometimes the abandonment was because the change came too fast, too early, was too great, or too hard. In my experience, Humans always choose the path of least resistance where possible.
From these experiences, I realized that the Lean Journey can be over-Complicated. If you have been involved in Industry for any length of time, you’ve more than likely been introduced to the concept of “Continuous Improvement” or the “Toyota Production System”. You may have been certified as a “Green Belt” or some other color of the rainbow. I always felt that this idea was too harsh, complicated, or bureaucratized for most individuals to relate to. Making it more of a status or elitist concept rather than a human concept. That doesn’t mean that none of us have gone through a Karate program, many of us have. But I would venture to say that the majority of individuals have not. From this realization, I decided to focus on what most people relate to…STORMS or BAD WEATHER. As a practice, I strive to include all perspectives into a Continuous Improvement or Lean Journey. This is something anyone can do. it is not limited to one specific group or industry. Many of these principles or concepts can be utilized in our personal lives also.
Leanbrella’s three phased approach to continuous improvement has been simplified to:
Before we can start to make a plan for change, we need to understand “what problems we are trying to solve?”. Identifying the storm is the first phase of a continuous improvement or lean journey. What is the storm that is coming? Is it a drizzle of rain? or a torrential downpour? Once we understand what we are facing, then we can plan for the storm’s arrival.
regardless of whether or not you have been involved in a formal Continuous Improvement Journey, the practices of Identifying the storm can be useful for an individual or family. The more we know about the problem at hand, the better chance we have at overcoming or diminishing its impact. Thus having an increased chance at survival. If a storm has been properly identified, we can then be deliberate in the tools we choose to overcome or withstand the oncoming winds. Listen or watch this month’s Five Minute Forecast or Tempest Talk to learn more…Next month we will review how to prepare for the storm.