I have been on my lean journey for ten years now. While I still consider myself to be something of a novice, I have begun to ask some sharper questions of the body of knowledge that we all call lean.
One development in my understanding is the notion that organisational systems, such as lean, only begin to live when they populated by living, breathing people.
Without the organic input of people, these business systems are merely frameworks at best or abstract, potentially non-existent constructs at worst.
It seemed, to me at least, prudent to think more about the people. I began to get interested in psychology.
I must, at this stage, point out that my studies are only at a very preliminary standing. However, my enthusiasm for what I am learning is such that I would like to share some initial ideas with you now.
I hope that this will become a series of articles, perhaps that I will eventually pull together into a book. I am sure that other, more qualified thinkers are doing similar work, but here, at least is my own input into the debate.
During this series, I will be drawing almost exclusively from one text. I include the appropriate referencing throughout. The book in question was suggested at the end of an online Neuro-Linguistic-Programming (NLP) course that I did a year or so ago. It is the remarkable “A Road Less Travelled” by M.Scott Peck. Early on, Peck states:
“Life is difficult.” (p.3)
Such a quote is a wonderful starting point for our articles. How easy would it be to paraphrase and conclude that “lean is difficult?!”
Our job, in both cases, is to attempt to rise above that difficulty through constant examination and growth. As Peck says, “Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure.”(p.4) Successful lean systems are reliant upon how well we develop the people that give life to that system.
“It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually.” (p.4)
And herein lies the real meaning of lean. When we fundamentally respect the people that work around us, we create an environment where we all strive to learn, improve and solve problems. As we individually grow, the group grows, and the system and the business grow. But this requires real effort and commitment. Peck calls it out in one word, which is the title for the entire first section of the book – discipline.
“Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems.” (p.3)
Whether it be a waste that we see in our process, a quality or time issue that we are aware of, we must draw upon discipline. This discipline requires that we create the time and space to look the problem square in the eye. However, this is where the difficulty arises.
Without discipline, we will seek to delay the hard work of reflection and problem solving and settle with the instant gratification of continuing where we find comfort. Typically, this lies in continuing to deliver the work that we like to do, irrespective of outcome. We apply the sticking plaster, in the hope that we will never have to explore the real reason of why we got cut. Peck illustrates this paradox with a case study from a patient:
“The solution of the problem represented gratification to her, but she was unable to delay this gratification for more than a minute or two, with the result her problems were usually inappropriate.” (p.17)
The example sounds very much how we seem to work. We can lack the discipline to stop and solve our issues once, at their root cause. We keep going in the pursuit of a target, unwilling to delay our gratification in achieving that target. Let’s feel good today and solve the problem tomorrow. Maybe it will even go away by itself.
We reassure ourselves by stating that “this is business” that “the target must be reached.” But tomorrow, we will climb that mountain all over again, and find the same boulders on the way up.
When we were children, we learned that if we did our homework first, the joy of our play was all the greater. As a collective group, under the umbrella of the lean enterprise, we still find the notion of delaying gratification difficult. It is this difficulty that leads to a fire-fighting culture.
In this sense, lean becomes a people system charged with holding up the mirror and doing so in an environment of respect and constant learning. Where we work around problems, we are not showing ourselves respect, nor working in a way in which we will know the joy of improvement.
Discipline, both personal and organisational, it seems, is the necessary starting point.
This post is the first in a series. I hope you will join me for the others.
Bibliography:
PECK, M Scott: “The Road Less Travelled” Penguin Random House UK (1978.)