As 2024 comes
to an end and we look toward 2025 I wanted to revisit some tips. The Lean Tips
published daily are meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and
some knowledgeable tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey. Here are
the top 10 Lean tips from this past year:
Lean Tip
#3595 – Communicate the Excitement
Many people
resist change. Even when things are not going well, given a choice between the
status quo and trying something new, many will choose the path of least
resistance. Communication is key to getting employees excited and engaged in
the workplace. To feel part of the company culture, people need to understand
it. There is no doubt about it—onboarding drives employee engagement.
Communicate your company mission and values through a fun promotional campaign
that helps reinforce your company’s mission and values to employees throughout
the year.
Lean Tip
#3607 – Ensure Staff Psychological Safety
This is a
crucial element to get right. After all, employees don’t want to feel like
attempts at innovation could threaten their jobs if it goes wrong.
Your staff
members need to be able to be honest and forthright about new product and
systems suggestions, without fear of recrimination or adverse effects on their
jobs.
So, one of the
first things you should do when encouraging innovation is to set clear ground
rules and let people know that their positions won’t be at risk if the
innovation exercise isn’t a success.
Lean Tip
#3608 – Be Open to Change
The first step
in becoming more innovative is to develop a mindset that is open to change.
Innovation involves coming up with new ideas or new systems for completing
tasks. Being overly connected to the way things are done presently may limit
your creativity. You can practice being open to change by participating in
newly implemented processes or by attending a new work event or professional
outing. You can also improve your mindset by telling yourself that change is
good and that you can adjust to new circumstances.
Lean Tip
#3639 – Improve Your Process with Time Studies
One of the most
significant resources wasted within a business is time. Being able to
accurately measure and gauge how much time a process takes on behalf of your
employees can offer insight into where you can optimize a process. It’s as
simple as using software to time a process. Then, you can analyze how long
processes take and find ways to eliminate wasted time. This could be in the
form of automating approvals and reducing touch-points, thereby preventing
potential bottlenecks and delays from occurring.
Lean Tip
#3645 – Create Your Own Kaizen Guidelines
While there are
many resources available to guide you through your kaizen efforts, it’s
important to personally understand your company’s kaizen journey. Reflecting on
your kaizen efforts after improvements have been implemented is an important
part of the continuous improvement cycle.
As you reflect
on your efforts, develop your own kaizen guidelines. Start by creating
guidelines based on your own experiences improving the workplace. Keep in mind
that these guidelines should be for your colleagues, your successors, and
yourself to understand the problems you have overcome. These guidelines will
ultimately help you as you approach your next challenge.
Lean Tip
#3646 – Focus on the Process, Not the Goal
Process focus
might be the most significant difference between kaizen management and
traditional management styles. Kaizen is based on a philosophy of slight,
incremental, continuous improvement. When this style is fully operational, it
creates a self-sustaining cycle of opportunities and solutions to reduce waste
of time, money, and resources. Goal-oriented management focuses on control with
a limited definition of success, while kaizen is flexible and adaptive. It uses
metrics for evaluation rather than to measure the improvements and meet a
predefined number. Finally, process-oriented management looks at the big
picture, while goal-oriented management is more narrowly focused on the short
term.
Lean Tip
#3655 – Never Give Up
Whenever
thinking about Kaizen continuous improvement you need to recognize that the
‘continuous’ part of the strategy is extremely important. This is a strategy
that should be implemented as soon as possible and then continued indefinitely
into the future. As soon as one improvement is made, it is time to start
looking at what the next improvement opportunity will be.
It is also
important to remember that there will be failures along the way. Some ideas
will be tried and found to not produce the results that are needed. When this
happens make sure you and your team don’t get discouraged or give up. Instead,
start the process of finding and implementing improvements over and you’ll soon
achieve the results you were hoping for.
Lean Tip
#3656 – Leverage Influential Employees
Every
organization has leaders and employees who seem to automatically understand and
buy into new initiatives. If any of these team members are looked up to by the
rest of the team, leverage their credibility to help create buy-in. When
speaking about the upcoming change during meetings, ask these leaders and
employees to speak up and give their opinions in front of the team.
Lean Tip
#3658 – Provide Support, Training and Development
Sometimes it’s
not that employees don’t want to embrace new changes – it’s simply that they
don’t have the skills or knowledge to adapt to them. Provide them with training
and development programs as part of the change process to invest in their
growth and ensure they’re adequately prepared for the changes ahead. Allow
sufficient time for your team to become prepared for any new responsibilities
as far ahead of the change implementation as possible.
Lean Tip
#3662 – Involve your Staff in the Life of the Company
Usually, your
staff knows more than anyone else where the operational wastes are. They know
the opportunities for improvement, and they often even know the solutions. It’s
not necessary to make any large capital investments to tackle improvements.
Involving your
staff will improve their well-being and the performance of your business.
Make visible
the standards reached by the work teams. Share the goals with regular meetings
and internal publications: boards, magazines, mailings, etc.
These 10 Lean
tips can help you with your journey in 2025. What advice would you share for
the New Year?
