You don’t have to call it Lean – it can just be your JOB

(Just Our Behavior)

As two folks that were blessed to be part of the start-up phase at Toyota Motor

Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK), we are often asked to reveal the “true meaning” of various

words that have become part of the Lean vocabulary. The truth is, those particular words weren’t

all used at Toyota. In fact, when we were there, the term “Lean” had barely been coined, and the

TPS (Gen 3 – Thinking People System) tools that are so familiar to us today were still being

developed and also translated to use from Japanese to English. Six Sigma was also never used

internally at Toyota as a “label”, it was coined later as well, but the thinking behind Six Sigma

was definitely used if we needed specific data, or further analysis of the process. We wanted

ALL people to think deeply so the entire organization of people were deep problem solvers –

starting with the Andon on the line for initial signaling of problem awareness by our front line

seeing abnormality from standard.

Therefore, when it came to describing the Toyoda family (percepts) approach to doing

business, we didn’t call it anything like “lean”. It was just understood that this was our J-O-B.

I’m going to coin a new phrase for JOB as – “Just Our Behavior”- it literally was with high

expectations. It wasn't until Toyota Motor Corporation began to document and share the Toyota

Way in 2001 that words, labels and so forth surfaced—and surged – but Lean was never used

internally and to this day isn’t part of the vocabulary there daily. It really was never needed

based on how we were taught to think – it was so action-based and all levels of leadership were

just expected to behave, (as Mr. Cho would often reference) in a way that served all team
members at any level in any functional area vertically and horizontally. I think it’s important to

remember that labels have limitations, particularly when it comes to creating something as

dynamic as Toyota’s work culture. The danger here is falling into the “tools only” approach

that’s all too common in organizations that seek to emulate Toyota- what they don’t realize is the

complex infrastructure of cultural expectations that is people-centric which totally steers the

ship. In all honesty Ernie and I reference Toyota because its “where” we learned the thinking,

but as far as making cars or the manufacturing approach none of that really has anything to do

with the thinking behind our JOB each day.

So, what are some JOB’s (Just our Behaviors) we should display each day in our work.

Well I would start with determining what hiring competencies become part of your onboarding

process. If you set expectations for your (JOB) – Just our Behavior then we can at least have a

grounding wire around tangible actions:

• Listening Skills

• Problem Awareness/Problem Solving

• Teamwork (across the functional areas)

• Leadership capabilities/qualities (hourly/salary)

• Personal Initiatives

• Communication Skills/Differentiating Learning styles/preferences

If we can start to expect some level of these competencies it gives us a springboard to create

accountability for executives, leadership and hourly team members. Part of an executives JOB

(Just our behavior) is to serve the people in the organization – removing barriers and constraints
and providing resources for everyone to be successful. Success can be defined as knowing what

the internal and external customer needs us to provide and doing it with the most value we can

add, using the least resources by developing people so see the gaps to improve those processes

each day.

So, if we have the competencies in place to hire by then what should we as leaders be developing

to in our JOB’s (Just our Behaviors)? Basically, how do we bring to life the competencies in

order to create a work climate/culture that is “self-managing” as much as possible. In all reality

if we set expectations or scope of work duties (standards), it should allow us to set a baseline for

that process if the customer needs it to provide “X” to the next process or the ultimate end

customer. If I create – the best-known method at this moment we have accountability to follow

with consensus and buy-in, until we change and improve it together then it should be self-

managing (one would think?) It seems very simple but somehow, we make it complex by not

involving the people who do the work to help create the standardized work. We have found that

ALL tools or thinking is grounding wire behavior around standardization. If this isn’t created,

shared, and known as the current best-known method then I challenge you to tell me how any

tool you can think of will be success if you truly want to measure success of our JOB. So many

of the tools fail because no one knows why or the importance of it much less that it can help

them – 5S fits that category well. 90% of most 5S implementations do not sustain (it is

standardization 101 in all honesty), it was the glue that held everything together at Toyota

believe it or not. Not just the tool, but the people “living” the tool knew why they were doing it

and without it chaos occurred. Someone actually stopped and explained the JOB around 5S –
Sifting, Sorting, Sweeping, Standardizing and Sustaining. It’s so basic no one wants to do it,

because keeping something in order doesn’t “sound” like it has a great ROI to it, but quite the

opposite if you know your JOB.

If we all take a little time to realize that implementing “something” is often the countermeasure

to some problem that you are having, that if you haven’t frame what is the current state and what

that “something” is counter-measuring, then it becomes a reactivity festival each day and that

conditioned norm is difficult to break, if we aren’t willing to stop or slow down to go faster. In

their minds at that moment – they can’t, the result trumps the process unfortunately. So I hope

by realizing all the labels and terms that have been created today boil down to JOB(s) – Just our

behaviors we “choose” to put priority on in regard to people and their personal and professional

development, you invest in their JOB and that is a return no one can say isn’t worth it – as

Sakichi Toyoda said – “Before you say you can’t do anything – TRY IT.” As Tracey would like

to say, “Let’s just all do our JOB effectively!”

Tracey Richardson

#TEEitUp