1. Bacon (and other assorted breakfast meats)
2. Kaizen
3. Rockets

So imagine my delight when a friend on Facebook posted one of the most brilliant minds of our time combining all three.

Now I will warn you. This man’s intellect is so advanced that he doesn’t waste his precious brainpower filtering his words. The language (and the occasional action) are a little course. No f-bombs that I recall, but there is a bit of blasphemy and some crudeness. Be warned…

So why did I post this? First of all, I was amused. Second, it can teach a few lessons about Lean. As perfect as bacon is, this young man wanted to make it better. That’s the spirit of kaizen. It is not just a troubleshooting tool. It should be used to improve outstanding processes to make them world class as well as broken processes that are failing. The key is opportunity.

This visionary saw the potential in propelling bacon at hundreds of miles an hour. What can you see in the future of your company?

(Just a side note: These guys were serious about this experiment. Making molds, setting up multiple cameras, and putting it into song! I’m impressed by the effort…)

Initially, I thought Lean Thinking would make the list. It is one of the most widely known and read Lean books. While it is truly valuable to read it, in terms of bang for the buck of a leader in a company that has already decided to be Lean, the book holds less value. It isn’t as much of a ‘how to’ guide as it is a ‘why to’ guide.

I thought Learning to See would make the list. It teaches a great tool (and way of thinking) to know, but in the end, it is only one tool. If the list is only for three books, I’d rather suggest one that is a little broader.

The Goal was another book that popped into mind. It is an easy read, and it’s entertaining. In the same vein, The Gold Mine also uses a novel approach of teaching Lean in a story format. Neither, though, is a book that you can go back to and get more out of on a second or third or fourth read. I’d still recommend reading both. I just seldom find myself leafing through them or reading them again like I do with the ones that made my list.

So, without further ado, here’s my distilled list. (Cue drum roll, please…)

1. Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean? Building the bridge from job satisfaction to corporate profit by Jeff Hajek. I mean, really. How could I not put my own book at the top of the list? So why would I put it here? Because it focuses on a lot of the problems a new Lean manager might encounter in a Lean leadership role, and gives advice on how to deal with those problems.
2. Toyota Production System: Beyond large-Scale Production by Taiichi Ohno. Toyota’s recent recall woes notwithstanding, the system works. In truth, it has evolved, and parts of it are used in all major automotive manufacturers. Understanding the origin of modern Lean helps practitioners use it better. Plus, the book was written before the advent of a lot of gimmicky software and systems, so it focuses on the core principles.
3. The Sayings of Shigeo Shingo: Key Strategies for Plant Improvement by Shigeo Shingo. This book is really just a series of short articles, so it is easy to digest in small portions. Again, it was written before a lot of modern technology, so it focuses on solving underlying problems, not on finding catalog solutions.

Now, I know that a third of my choices (my book) probably won’t make a lot of your lists, as it is not as mainstream as many others, but I’d love to hear what you think of my other choices. Actually, what I would really love to hear would be the three books you’d recommend (and why) in the comments section. Who knows? Maybe you’ll convince me to change at least two of my choices.

People in these types of organizations hear about documenting processes, and think, “Who am I documenting this for? I work alone.” Or they hear about 5S and think, “Why mark where things go? There’s never anybody else who could put it away in the wrong spot.”

Despite running a small business, I am constantly finding that I am using Lean to keep things going smoothly. In fact, just this weekend, I did a software upgrade to my website. I’ve been putting it off—it takes a lot of effort, and pulls me away from the parts of my job that I find more fun.

So anyway, if you were on my site on Monday, you would have noticed that none of the pictures were displaying properly. I worked until the wee hours of Tuesday morning trying to get things all patched up. In the end, it turns out it was a simple fix. I just spent a lot of time trying to figure out what that simple fix was.

So there I was, dead tired from burning the midnight oil, and had to get my newsletter out. That’s where using Lean really paid off. Every month, I pull out a checklist to publish my newsletter. I make on-the-spot tweaks to it whenever I find a better, more effective way to do something. So, by now, the checklist is rather well defined and easy to follow.

Using Lean over the years really bailed me out yesterday. I was punchy from lack of sleep. Fortunately, I had already written the content for the newsletter (workload management), but still had to get it sent off. Had I not been using Lean efforts regularly, I wouldn’t have had my publishing process documented (checklist and standardization), or I would not have been able to find it on my computer (5S), or I would not have had it streamlined and easy to follow (kaizen and daily improvement).

I’d love to hear about your experiences of using Lean in small businesses. What’s worked for you? What hasn’t worked? What have you tailored to suit your needs?

My dad is retired, so has a little free time on his hands. He decided to take his snow blower the quarter mile or so up the sidewalk to keep the kids out of the street.

Good (Lean) Behavior is Contagious

After the next snow, he started to do the same thing. Only this time, as he turned the corner, he saw another person with a snow blower clearing the sidewalk from the other end, coming toward him. And after the most recent snowfall, there was a third good citizen who was clearing snow in the middle of the sidewalk.

In this case, the positive behavior was contagious. When people saw someone else doing a helpful act, they mimicked it.

It is a little more complicated than that in your company, though. Here are seven tips leaders can use to improve their team’s Lean behavior.

1. Define what good, Lean behavior is. People generally want to do the right thing. Unfortunately, the right thing is not always clear. For example, people might think that the right thing is to not ‘rat out’ another employee. Lean wants problems and abnormal conditions exposed. See the disconnect? Leaders have to make sure that doing the right thing doesn’t have a high cost to team members.
2. Set the example. Leaders can’t talk about the virtues of great 5S from a horribly disorganized office. People will do what leaders do, not what the boss says.
3. Reward good, Lean behaviors. If a leader says to pull the andon cord, possibly stopping the line when there is a problem, they should thank people for stopping the line. If they act irritated or stressed, they are sending the wrong message.
4. Stop rewarding wrong behaviors. We love a hero. On the shop floor, that is the person who miraculously pulls a part from a secret stash, or bypasses a process to ‘make things happen.’ As long as leaders reward that sort of heroism, there will be little focus on fixing processes.
5. Make systems support Lean behaviors. Back to that andon cord. If nothing happens when people pull it, they will stop using it. If team members collect data, and the information is never analyzed, they will stop collecting it. If a leader tells his team to log problems, but no help ever comes, do you think they will keep spending time writing issues down?
6. Build the right team. This goes back to the story about my dad. When people see others exhibiting good behavior, they are more likely to continue it. Think of a break room. If it is immaculate, people will be reluctant to leave a mess. If there are crumbs, trash, old magazines and newspapers, and dirty dishes everywhere, people seem to be much less likely to clean up after themselves. The same holds true with jobs like customer service, and with characteristics like commitment to quality. People match the behaviors of those around them.
7. Eliminate problem vendors, customers, and even employees. This is a last resort, but there is a point that fixing a problem gets too costly. If a vendor doesn’t meet quality standards after repeated attempts to work with them to improve, get a new vendor. If a customer has expectations that are unreasonable and is too hard (i.e. unprofitable) to work with, nothing says you have to keep doing business with them. If an employee chooses not to show Lean behavior, they may not be a good match for the team. I want to stress that firing someone should be a last resort. But some people just don’t want to work for a Lean company. As harsh as it sounds, a clean break for those people can be less painful than prolonged conflict.

Here’s the final comment on this subject. Poor employee behavior is seldom the employee’s fault. It is the responsibility of the leader to make the employee want to do what is right for the company. How? By focusing on the ‘What’s In It For Me?’ principle. That means making Lean behavior more desirable to the employee than non-Lean behaviors. It is far easier to lead someone who wants to get to the same destination than someone who has to be dragged along.

Mike Osterling

We’ve got a special treat for today’s podcast. A few weeks back, I had a chance to interview Mike Osterling. He’s one of the co-authors of The Kaizen Event Planner: Achieving Rapid Improvement in Office, Service and Technical Environments, owns his own consulting business, is a frequent speaker at organizations such as AME, ASQ, and APICS. He also helped co-develop the Lean Enterprise Certificate Program at San Diego State University in 1999.

In this 23 minute MP3 audio presentation, we talk about how Lean in the office differs from its implementation on the shop floor. We discuss how to manage changes, the difference in ownership of jobs, how to recognize abnormal conditions, and what to do to manage the pace of work.

I’m going to apologize in advance for the sound quality on my side of the discussion. It is a little tinny. There’s only so much you can do to clean up the problems with a poor recording. I’ve corrected the problem, so the next one will sound better. But since Mike sounds good, and he does the lion’s share of the talking, I’ll go ahead and post it. Plus it’s free, so If you aren’t satisfied, I’ll give you your money back.

Listen to the Interview with Mike Osterling

By the way, my next interview is already recorded. It is an interview with Tim McMahon, a Lean blogger, on Lean leadership. Make sure to sign up to receive my blog so you don’t miss it!