Don’t do what many companies do and underestimate the time required for leaders—at all levels—to lead lean.
If you try to lead others in continuous improvement before first budgeting and protecting leaders’ time to support the effort, you are destined to fail.
Management attention must be focused and effective.
So if something is killing your ability to function effectively—personally or as an organization—you must deal with it so you have the capacity to develop people and promote lean.
Consider asking yourself the following questions after watching episode 4 of the Lean Donut Shop:
- Are you free enough to adequately lead and support lean?
- Do you have enough leaders (even team leaders) in your organization?
- Do your leaders possess the knowledge, skill, and available time to lead lean and develop others?
- If your answer is “no” to any of these questions, what must change to enable your leaders to lead lean?