The Spirit of lean management

I don t actually have a firm plan for this space. So, I figured, why not use that
condition as a starting point? Keeping an open mind about what this space could
become may not seem to embody the planful aspect of lean management. And yet this
approach is consistent with the critical lean management principle of not jumpin
g to solutions. lean management is not about quick answers, but about going thro
ugh a thinking process to investigate, analyze, and understand. To try, perhaps
to fail, and learn.
In short, lean management is very much about asking questions and trying things,
or encouraging others to try things. lean management itself is not much about p
roviding the right answer but it is very much about asking the right question.
So, what we ll do in this space is just explore. What to expect -- exploring quest
ions. What not to expect -- answers. Here s a great quote that captures the spirit
of what I ll aim for:
The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right q
uestions - Claude Levi-Strauss.
That statement captures the core spirit of lean management just as it also embod
ies the spirit of learning. And unfortunately, traditional management all too of
ten lacks that very spirit. Traditional management places tremendous pressure on
individuals to be right. You must have a Solution, must know The Answer. That s
ounds good enough on the surface. Who wants to be wrong ? But that attitude starts
us down a familiar and dangerous path. Hiding problems is endemic in almost ever
y company I know and is the surest way to absolutely undermine the practice of e
ffective lean management. Exposing problems, developing countermeasures, and lea
rning from them doesn t just support lean management; it is lean management.
Robert McNamara, the Secretary of State for U.S. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson,
has been picked on mercilessly in recent years, and I ll join in the piling on he
re. During a review of the mid-1960s U.S. military effort in Vietnam s Mekong Delt
a, an Army officer attempted to inform McNamara that there were many problems th
at he needed to be aware of. To which the Secretary replied, I don t want to hear a
bout your problems, I want to hear about your progress. Contrast that with a coup
le of his contemporaries, the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss quoted above, a
nd Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz:
You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man i
s wise by his questions. I d say the latter expresses a pretty good lean management
aspiration.
See you next time,
John
John Shook