The Senior Team

     Out here on the front line of Lean implementation is an exciting place to reside.  The objectives are clear cut.  The results are grand.  The people so willingly embrace each and every idea we have as gospel truth.  Senior management worships the ground we walk on. Yeah, if it were only that easy and we as implementers lived in utopia.  Alas, we live in the real world and our results are sometimes not so obvious.  They take time to germinate, grow, flower, and then bear fruit.
     Today's post will be the art of upward mentoring and coaching.  Some of you who are reading this may look at me in utter confusion when I speak of upward mentoring.  Well buckaroo's I'm here to tell you that sometimes we as individuals on the front line, need to help those who are in roles above us see the bigger picture.  My team and I are just infants in our Lean journey and we do not claim to be experts, jedi knights, masters of waste removal, etc.  Yet, we are making forward and demonstrable progress that has been noticed by senior leadership of my current organization.
     One of the biggest obstacles we are finding is that senior leadership wants instant results.  I believe we all want instant results, but that is not always possible.  What we have to do as Lean leaders, in my humble opinion, is bring the Senior leadership to gemba.  Ohhh... there I go once again using words that make me appear as if I'm some expert.  It is our responsibility, meaning myself and my team, to demonstrate to the senior team we are seeing results.  The icing on the cake is that these results we are seeing due to change, they are sustainable.  This is what makes me smile.  My team demonstrating their improvements that they have implemented to upper management.  Walking the senior leadership over to our pick board, showing them how we on the floor generate ideas, how I as a leader discuss these ideas with them.  Then we decide on a plan and implement.  Followed by the recording of our results to demonstrate this adjustment in standard work etc. is valid.
     These are the lessons my team and I learned this week out on the shop floor.  We are learning that when individuals can't see instant results we are obligated to show them our processes and help them learn to see.  The added benefit to this interpersonal communication would be that my team has face time with senior leadership and in doing so, bonds are formed.  Once again it goes back to People, Processes and Culture.
     Our journey this week was one of upwardly "mentoring" and "coaching" those above us to see how our processes work, how our people respect not only each other but the standard work, and how building a Lean culture is an evolutionary process that just doesn't happen overnight.

Thanks for stopping by,
Cowboy