Ten Common Lean Lies

Those wobbly statements that undermine credibility and competency

Mon, 09/26/2011 - 15:49

Some lies you can see a mile away: “The check is in the mail.” “Your table will be ready in a few minutes.” “I didn’t say that.” “This won’t hurt a bit.” Add to this rather long list some lies of the lean variety. I’ve heard more than my fair share.

ADVERTISEMENT

Often, I just shake off the falsehoods and chalk it up to a case of the utterer not knowing what they don’t know. This means that the “lies” are not truly a conscious effort to deceive. Of course, this would mean that they’re really not lies, but then a post about common ignorant lean statements doesn’t seem quite as snappy.

In any event, effective leadership requires both credibility and competency. The following “lean lies,” and so many others, undermine both characteristics.

This situation is totally abnormal; I’ve never see this before. Translation: Dear Mr. or Ms. Observer, do not believe your eyes… please, oh please.

We will dedicate resources to the kaizen promotion office. The unsaid caveat: Yup, 100-percent dedicated… when they’re not working on other stuff.

 …

Want to continue?
Log in or create a FREE account.
By logging in you agree to receive communication from Quality Digest. Privacy Policy.

Comments

Submitted by rgobeille on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 09:57

I think one of the strangest things I've encountered is when people think they will embark on a continuous improvement initiative, be it Lean or whatever aspect of the process they engage in and they ask "how long will this take?".  I always wonder what part of "continuous" don't they understand?"

Submitted by pfriedkin on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 10:58

Nice article. I've heard them all and then some. To me there is nothing more wasteful than pretend lean. I have seen far to many lean event report outs where we are given a glowing report of the time saved, the steps saved and after I find out that the work activity is still there. It was just moved to another area that was not part of the event. If the only way that an organization can implement lean is through "events" they just don't get it. If lean isn't how day to day activities are accomplished, you are either at the very beginning of the journey or you are practicing pretend lean.

Add new comment