Who Simplify Work Is For
- This is for the manager who just wants to get things done.
- This is for the manager who does not have time for useless bureaucracy and needless jargonizing.
- This is for the manager who doesn’t have the patience to wait for permission, or wait for “leadership” to roll out some complicated efficiency scheme, or strategic initiative, or culture overhaul.
- This is for the self-directed manager who has the ability to learn something and then run with it; to experiment and then learn from the experiments.
- This is for the manager who wants their employees to engage their best talents, their best work, their best selves.
How We Work
The traditional way to implement Lean—the way many people do it—is based on a mid-20th century manufacturing model and a 1980’s consulting model. It’s outdated and ill-fitting for the 21st century office. It’s complicated and time-consuming. It’s tools-based, and ignores basic fundamentals of human behavior.
The success of Lean does not ride on the proper application of dozens of complicated tools. Lean succeeds because people—that means both managers and staff—are motivated by a positive experience with making work better.
Understanding that is the key to avoiding the pitfalls of a conventional implementation.
Conventional Lean Launches Are Flawed
Many people think launching a program like Lean means conducting week-long Lean workshops or implementing a 5-S workplace organization scheme. Sometimes it means creating an overly complicated dashboard or roadmap.
This is a problem.
In an office environment, these are all well-intentioned but misguided launch activities. Misguided because they add to the problems they are intended to resolve:
- Adds more work. Most likely you’re already at capacity. Holding workshops, with all the preparation and follow-up activities, adds to the workload.
- Adds operational overhead. Implementing Lean this way adds one more requirement, adding to the burdens of both managers and staff.
- It’s complicated. Traditional Lean implementation uses lots of tools and methods, many that require learning foreign terms.
- It’s met with resistance. Many managers and staff believe that Lean is just a fad—another flavor of the month. If they resist enough, they will be right.
- It’s hard to maintain the gains. Lean often fails in the long run—about 70% of the time.
There Is a Better Way
These issues can be mitigated or even eliminated by following the two most important rules for launching a successful improvement program:
Motivate Your People. Keep It Simple.
How To Improve Your Programs
So, how do you implement Lean—or any improvement program—while following those two rules?
Successful Lean implementations start with the launch. Successful organizations get the launch right.
If you don’t get the launch right, Lean loses steam. That’s why Lean fails about 70% of the time.
Results Build Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm Builds Results.
That’s why our training programs are designed to get results fast. You don’t need to sequester your people for five days in a Lean workshop. You can have your entire organization practice Lean and get results in just six or seven hours. You can even free up capacity in your entire organization without using even one Lean tool.
Our training programs are simple and immediately effective. They are carefully designed to get results faster and easier. That taps into your people’s enthusiasm and feeds their motivation.
Motivation and Simplicity – That’s the Key.
