Difficulty in Sustainment

Howdy folks, yes it has been awhile hasn't it?  Sixty hour plus weeks are still the norm, yes I still am known by name at the airport, my favorite baristas at Starbucks in my town in AZ still shout my name when I show up, and yes I still am a Lean zealot and implementer.  This cowboy has not given up.  My focus has been on implementation and driving out waste this past month.  Once again what a month it has been.

Grab that hammered copper cup and fill it with coffee while I discuss difficulty in sustainment in this blog posting.  Yes that is right I'm talking about difficulty here.  The nuts and bolts of our job as leaders teaching our team and following up with the plans we have implemented.

We all read of stories of win.  Why?  Well, wins make us feel good.  Feeling good about something usually will reinforce a repeat of that behavior or performance.  I'm not going to give out a win today.  Let's look at the sustainment of a win.

I have a team of +/- 45 individuals.  Yes, I have a bonafide team complete with early adopters, superstars, those who do the job great, and finally a few who would tell you the sky is purple just to be contrary.  The best part of my job, I get to work with people.  The most challenging part of my job, I get to work with people.

The area I'm going to discuss today has been one to cause this old cowboy to have a conniption fit of hopping mad proportions.  So as the engineering student in me asks, "What problem are we trying to solve here cowboy?"  I scope the problem.  The area in question has poor 6S habits, the individual is disengaged, his work is of marginal quality, his adherence to standard work is something one would see mending a fence without tools circa 1885.  So what do I do?  I do what I do best and that is solve the problem on my own, implement the solution, issue an individual audit sheet, and wait for magic to happen.  Wow, was I wrong.

Becoming frustrated with this I had to bring the problem to Yoda.  She is my rock, and all knowing eye in the sky when it comes to the People, Process, Culture of Lean.    She sat me down and within fifteen minutes I felt sheepish for I knew what the problem was.  Yup, you guessed it folks.  The problems wasn't with the individual the problem was with me.  Though my process control was solid, the audit sheet and visual management of the area good, I pushed the solution onto this individual.  He was not allowed any input into the solution, hence he took it as an invasion upon his work area. Yoda asked me to put myself in this individuals shoes.  How would I feel?  Then she hit me with her barrage of questions which all led back to, "What are you going to do to solve the root cause cowboy?"  That is something I could answer and knew what to do.

I approached the individual about ten days later, and had to apologize for intruding into his area and forcing ideas and solutions upon him in which he had no input.  Yeah, I started to feel his frustration as I too have been in this individuals situation before and here I was doing something that I so much despised.

Once I whipped out the A3 form, I carry those with me at work as I am quite passionate about teaching Lean to my team as they can attest, involved everyone pertinent to the situation. BOOM!!!! It happened, my individuals started to solve their own problem and implement their sustainment methods based on the requirement set forth.  Yeah buddy, this is what Lean is about.  Teaching, People, Process, Culture, Leading with Respect, Improvement.  Yes this could be called a win, yet it is a teaching tool in sustainment.

The gold nugget of information here I'd like people to walk away with is this.  To sustain true change,  I'm talking about a lasting testament of PDCA and culture shift.  We as leaders must lead from the inside out.  We must know how to "show up" at various situations and not force our solutions or alter the creativity of our workforce.  Yes it sounds easy and at times it is.  Then there are times that we as leaders become myopic and ultra focused scoping the specific issue and not addressing the actual problem or root cause thereof.  Give the vision and work WITH your people, TEACH your people, and LISTEN to your people.   When you stick with these guidelines, I'm sure you will achieve a more desired outcome.

Wait, am I just issuing orders again without consulting my customer to scope their needs?  I'll be traveling this week, and I am going to make an honest attempt to post from the aircraft and effectively utilize my time instead of reading the latest issue of Western Horseman.  Thank you for dropping by and as always may the sun warm your face and may you never loose sight of what true north is.

Cowboy