My dog, Bailey, has a sensei—a dog-obedience trainer. Actually, my wife and I have a sensei to teach us how to train our dog. In fact, my wife and I have used the same dog-obedience trainer for the last three dogs, all German shepherds. No one would mistake us for Mr. and Mrs. Dog Whisperer.
Recently, while I was traveling for business, my wife and Bailey had a lesson with the trainer. Bailey was unfocused and not very successful at executing the new commands from the prior lesson. In short, the trainer was not impressed.
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The trainer astutely noted that the dog was suffering from the effect of inconsistent training. Yes, I was the master at the previous lesson (while my wife was out of town with kid No. 2) and maybe, just maybe, I did not train rigorously enough to help Bailey master the latest technique. And maybe I did not effectively transfer the knowledge to my wife so she could learn the new technique herself and practice it with Bailey.
If you have ever taken your dog to obedience school or done the private lesson thing, it doesn’t take long to figure out that the training has more to do with the master and less about the dog. The dog doesn’t magically absorb Lassie-like obedience and intelligence after a few hours of training.
The master is responsible for learning the techniques and commands through practice—plan-do-check-act (PDCA)—with their animal under the sensei’s tutelage. Then the expectation is that the master will rigorously practice the new techniques and commands (more PDCA) during the following week or weeks until the next class, whereupon they will demonstrate their mastery (sort of) of the new skills and be ready for new lessons. To help, our trainer even hands out a one-page “standard work” document detailing the proper techniques and commands after each lesson.
So, here are the connections to lean leadership, or what my dog-obedience sensei has reinforced for me:
• Lean leaders must learn proper behaviors and techniques from the external sensei so that they in turn can coach others within the organization.
• Lean leaders cannot abdicate their responsibility for transformation to the external sensei.
• The followers in the organization can only absorb so much from the external sensei during the sensei's relatively short time at their gemba. The long-term effect (or lack thereof) is purely up to the lean leaders.
• Lean leaders must be absolutely (and pragmatically) consistent in message, principles, systems, and tools; otherwise, the workforce will become confused and frustrated.
• Even though lean leaders often know what to do, how to do it, and why they should do it, they often don’t do it. A good external sensei will keep them honest.
Dogs really are man’s best friend: They are loyal, loving, obedient, and can prompt useful lean reflection.
Copyright 2009–2010 by Mark R. Hamel
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