Leadership part 1

     Here we are once again out riding the range in the world of Lean Manufacturing, from a Cowboy's perspectivve.  This week I was not at work per se, but doing work.  I was in Broomfield, CO at the Wisdom Disciplines of Leadership workshop.   What on earth would I be doing at a coaching seminar?  Well pour a cup of your favorite coffee, and light the fire.  This is going to be rather interesting.
     Looking at what I've been trying to do with culture transformation by building a Lean Culture from the bottom up, Yoda instructed me that going to a coaching seminar, held by Burke Miller and Sam House, would be just the thing to inspire my "inner coach" and hone my soft skills needed to take good to great.  How could I refuse?  Yoda is not only a Lean guru, she is also a coach among many other things.
     The first day of the seminar was an overview of the class material coupled with a great dynamic between the instructors.  Not being the extrovert by nature, I at first was wondering what I was going to be taught that would allow me to increase thru-put and productivity.  As the seminar progressed on throughout the week, my eyes were opening.  I was learning that I too am a coach.  Teaching, mentoring, asking the right questions and learning new methods of how to bring others into alignment are what I am finding out.  Yes that is right folks, I'm learning how to coach.  A vital and necessary skill that we as change agents must use to get our clients or direct reports to see things in an alternative light.
     Courage and Integrity are two things I find most lacking in an organization desiring to change and travel the path of a Lean journey.  Everyone wants to become Lean, implement Lean, proclaim Lean, yet so many of us and that includes myself fall short.  My current rivers that I'm crossing are going to require Courage and Integrity as cornerstones in my Lean journey.  The courage to do the right thing when doing the right thing isn't right.  Support that with  demonstrating that my team and I have the integrity to follow through with our standard work, even when nobody is watching.
    I'm going to break this up into 3 parts.  The depth of this topic could span from Texas Hill Country all the way to Maricopa County in the great state of Arizona.  Being as this is a holiday week of Thanksgiving I'd like to wish all that read this blog a happy Thanksgiving, and to the brilliant minds who participated at the Wisdom Disciplines Leadership Course, a true and heartfelt thank you for helping me open up rivers of flow that I didn't know were accessible to me.  Then there is my personal Yoda, and without her this here slice of one cowboy's Lean journey would have never started.

Thanks for sittn' around the campfire for this post, until our wagon trains meet again out on the range of PDCA

Cowboy