Are you a Lean Manager?

Let me not start with doodlers like “the road is more important than the goal” but really try to give some direction on that. In fact, on April 6, I am hosting a webinar with my colleague Youp Lotgerink about the book “the Lean manager, written by father and son Ballé. Then we will speak further on April 6 to see what the Ballé’s have to say about it.

Put your organization by the yardstick of maturity

At Symbol, we employ the Continuous Improvement Maturity Model (CIMM™) that allows organizations to measure themselves, or work with us, against a measuring stick of maturity. Here we talk about maturity in terms of continuous improvement. Below you can see this model. The crucial axes are people and process.

To me, the crux to being a good Lean Manager is at the Managed level of the model: create a continuous improvement culture. This is Level II and in my opinion the core to becoming a Lean organization and also to becoming a manager. Before one can successfully embark on a continuous improvement culture, it is important to get the basics right. This is tested at Level I: create a solid foundation. Incidentally, also easier said than done. Because just make sure that all colleagues work to an (agreed upon) standard. Just look around you and look at yourself too! Pretty confronting. Because of course you know better than the standard. And yes, so does your colleague! My belief is that working to a standard in an organization only works if you discuss and improve this standard with each other. And exactly there lies the beginning of improving and making your first steps at the Level II level. The starting point at Level II is: discuss with each other the performance you have to achieve and improve it (through the Kaizen methodology, for example). What is important here is that both the dialogue about what must be performed and the improvement itself take place in a structural and structured manner. If you stick to that, then you are a good Lean Manager. It’s as simple as that.

How then?

And how do you do that? During the webinar “Read the book “The Lean Manager in 1½ Hours” on April 6, we’ll be sure to elaborate on that. More information about this webinar and the registration form can be found on the Symbol website. But you may also send a message at any time using the form below or call 053 – 20 30 240. Or take a look at our Lean training courses, for example the Lean Green Belt.