2. Lean for Leadership
C N Mohan
Practice Head – Lean &
Kanban, SolutionsIQ India

3. What is Lean?
 Lean = Tools which create efficiencies and
standardize the processes.
 Actual Lean Implementations = Lean Tools +
Lean Thinking
20%
Lean Tools
80%
Lean Thinking
1

4. Where should be the focus??
 Focus should be on Lean Management
• A bridge between the Lean Tools and Lean
Thinking
2

5. What is Lean Thinking?
(Lean Thinking = Set of Leadership Behaviors + Structures)
Lean Thinking helps sustainment
of Lean Implementation through a
“Culture of Leadership”.
3

6. Who is a Leader?
Leader
Views self-development and training others
as the only possible path
strives for continuous improvement in
every aspect of the business
views the company as a total system which
grows through daily improvement or it
deteriorates
Requires that everyone at all levels of
organization possesses deep knowledge
about processes and are able to sense
change and respond appropriately
4

7. What are Leadership Behaviors?
Hoshin-Kanri
Gemba Walks
Continuous
Improvement
Respect
for
People
5

8. What are Leadership Structures??
For Enterprise-wide Lean implementation to succeed
we need Leaders at following levels
Tactical Level
(Managers, Team
Leads)
6

9. Focus Areas for each level
Organizational
Level
Primary
Contribution
Tasks
Secondary
Contributions
Tasks
Strategic (CEO,
Sr. VPs)
Governance –
Steering and
Oversight
Support Crossboundary
perspective
Measure
adherence to
post-project
processes
Monitor
intersection
measures
through
Gemba Walks
Functional
Accountability
(VPs, Directors)
Meet project
commitments
& Manage
intersection
performance
Disciplined
adherence &
commitments
to processes
post-project
Collaborate in
process
management &
Gemba walks
Tactical
(Managers,
Team Leads)
Disciplined
adherence &
Gemba Walks
Associate
engagement
and
Continuous
Improvement
Teach, Practice
Root Cause
Problem
Solving
Tactical Lean
Management
System
7

10. What Leaders do?
 Leaders influence and reinforce Behaviors and
Practices within the Organizations there by
creating a CULTURE.
Q:What is Culture?
A: The Way we do things here
Note: Culture evolves slowly, changing them is even slower!
8

11. How does Culture evolve?
Leaders
Influence
Behaviours
Drives
Culture
Generate
Value to
Customer
Based on
Needs
9

12. How to germinate Culture?
Lean Management
CONSISTS OF
Principles
Value Streams
Process which crosses
many functional
boundaries to aid Flow
of Value
Leaders
Identify and eliminate
interruptions impeding
the Flow of Value
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13. How to make it @ Strategic Level
System Level Intervention for Lean
Governance
Senior Executive governance process
Lean Steering
and Oversight
(LSO) group
Accountability
and Exception
Management
Structures
Project Resource
and
Accountability
(PR&A) panel
11

14. How to make it @ Functional Level
 Meet Commitments to Projects and Measure of
Process Performance consisting of
• Quality
o Refers to defects, errors, rework, 1st time quality and
customer satisfaction
• Delivery
o Refers to total cycle time from beginning to end of the
process across departments
• Costs
o Refers to process time or touch time both within
departments or at between department handoffs.
12

15. How to make it @ Tactical Level
A closed loop system focused on process to
drive improvement
Standardized
Processes
Process
Focus
Daily
Accountability
Visual
Controls
13

16. What Lean demands from Leaders?
 High level of attention to reinforce set of
behaviors that replace our habits
 Being sensitive to abnormalities from
specified operating conditions
 To look at problems as valuable nuggets of
information to be mined for clues to make
improvements
14

17. What Lean demands from Leaders?
 3-step approach
Go to the
place of Action
Look at the
process where
the action
takes place
Talk to people
who are using
the process to
perform those
actions
 Provides templates and practices for leaders
to enable to learn, look for & ask about and
reinforce behaviors that sustain gains!
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18. What should Leaders do?
Leaders
Lead
Innovate
Solve
Collaborate
Win
16

19. What Leaders must be Looking for?





Backsliding
Maneuvering
Going through the Motions of Implementation
Conditions that appear to be in Steady state
Project and Workshop != Continuous
Improvement
 Erosion of Process
 Value Stream != method for process
improvement
17

20. What Leaders must Remember?
"People don't deliberately come to work to do a
bad job - it's broken processes that prevent
people from maximizing their talent and the
business from maximizing efficiency and
optimizing customer experience"
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21. 19

22. Thank You