Very early in my lean adventure as a new vice president of operations, when the idea of listening to workers was still a little strange, I returned from a week vacation to find that two of my peer managers had teamed up to convince the company president that I had “turned over the asylum to the inmates” and lost control of the factory.

“It sounds like communism,” the president told me. “What do you think you’re doing? Your managers say you’re ignoring their concerns.” For a minute I was too floored to speak.

My accusers had expressed their concerns to me about “losing control” shortly before my vacation but I had no idea how desperate they were. These managers, call them Bob and Bill, were both what I considered good transactional leaders—give them a set process, and they would dependably lead like field generals. They were good keepers of the status quo. In this case the generals had planned a sneak attack.

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