Lean Leadership
Co-creating sustainable change
Co-creating sustainable change
The story
Fouryears ago, LEAN had been successfully introduced at a Dutch site of a global industry.Product group managers were offered personal LEAN coaching. This coincided witha reorganization creating new management team with new groups of team leaders.The objective of the re-shuffle was to increase efficiency by delegating responsibilitiesto lower echelons of the organization. After the reorganization there was theneed to train the group a new team leaders to improve their communicationskills.
To maximize learning, a radical approach wastaken. Instead of offering a regular skills training, design teams were formed,consisting of mangers and team leaders, to create a custom-made 3-day'sworkshop for their team leaders. Not only did the mangers help to design theworkshop, they were also trained to facilitate the workshop themselves. Whileanother design team created a prototype Lean Leadership profile to fit thelearning objectives to existing leadership competences, managers were trainedto become 'workshop facilitators'!
During this 6 months process, new levels of trust were found, 'walls' betweenproduction groups and between production managers and team leaders broke down.Also, a dialogue was started about redefining responsibilities. Team leadersstarted up change initiatives were set-up within the LEAN objectives to reducewaste and create new ways of working. This co-creating process proved to be sosuccessful that it was decided to extend the use of designteams to deal withproduction floor behavior.
Now, programs are being designed on production group level for workers to have courageousconversations about safety, cleanliness and helping each other. Also dialoguesare started about cross production groups issues. Finally, a strategy team isset up as well as a group that is designing workshop about standardization ofthe design process as part of the LEAN program.
The approach
The results
Within half a year managers and team leaders
Next steps
For the next year design teams will be formed for a variety of changeinitiatives.
Fouryears ago, LEAN had been successfully introduced at a Dutch site of a global industry.Product group managers were offered personal LEAN coaching. This coincided witha reorganization creating new management team with new groups of team leaders.The objective of the re-shuffle was to increase efficiency by delegating responsibilitiesto lower echelons of the organization. After the reorganization there was theneed to train the group a new team leaders to improve their communicationskills.
To maximize learning, a radical approach wastaken. Instead of offering a regular skills training, design teams were formed,consisting of mangers and team leaders, to create a custom-made 3-day'sworkshop for their team leaders. Not only did the mangers help to design theworkshop, they were also trained to facilitate the workshop themselves. Whileanother design team created a prototype Lean Leadership profile to fit thelearning objectives to existing leadership competences, managers were trainedto become 'workshop facilitators'!
During this 6 months process, new levels of trust were found, 'walls' betweenproduction groups and between production managers and team leaders broke down.Also, a dialogue was started about redefining responsibilities. Team leadersstarted up change initiatives were set-up within the LEAN objectives to reducewaste and create new ways of working. This co-creating process proved to be sosuccessful that it was decided to extend the use of designteams to deal withproduction floor behavior.
Now, programs are being designed on production group level for workers to have courageousconversations about safety, cleanliness and helping each other. Also dialoguesare started about cross production groups issues. Finally, a strategy team isset up as well as a group that is designing workshop about standardization ofthe design process as part of the LEAN program.
The approach
The results
Within half a year managers and team leaders
Next steps
For the next year design teams will be formed for a variety of changeinitiatives.
The story. Instead of organising a regular training for the teamleaders, a design process was developed where the teamleaders's mangers were helping to design and facilitate a workshop. This design process was then repeated on many other levels to increase learning.
The approach. The designteam consists of a varied team. In the example here: managers, teamleaders and teammembers. The teamleaders are facilitating the workshop for their teammembers. The teammembers generate salient issues. Together they design a suitable program. The teamleaders are coached by their managers in the entire process.
Other design teams (themes, stategy and standard) follow the same pattern.
Other design teams (themes, stategy and standard) follow the same pattern.
One of the final building blocks of the Workshop consisted of group exercise.
Objective: "Internalise" the Lean Leadership profile by creating a group painting.
Preparation:
Objective: "Internalise" the Lean Leadership profile by creating a group painting.
Preparation:
Co-creating a artistic rendering of the Lean Leadership Profile
Steps:
The painting (90 x 160 cm) was framed and is presently decorating the meetingroom's wall
