Lean Continuous Impoverishment

What you don’t improve, decays.

If your Lean Continuous Improvement program’s sole focus is to increase bottom-line growth without reinvesting capital into your team’s professional development you should be ashamed of yourself. Bringing in outside consultants to run a week program to reduce takt and wait times just so your team can churn out 100 widgets instead of 50 in their eight hour shift is cruel and demoralizing. After the group picture is taken, they get a certificate and some pizza then back to the line to achieve the new normal. No additional time to use the skills they just learned. No time to develop new skills. No opportunities to advance. Just keep producing and hope supply and/or demand hold out. Sure, they’re getting paid but if the only benefit is monetary, people will work only hard enough not to get fired.

The best talent will leave in disgust… and probably poach your other A players.

What if your Continuous Improvement was dual purpose? Use some of that time saved in production to reinvest into the team in a real and meaningful way. Instead of 100 widgets in eight hours, how about 75 in six? Giving your team members the time to build transferrable skills that could be used across the organization, opening up new opportunities. Allowing them the agency to add more value while feeling more fulfilled. Maximizing talent is the best route to success.

Organizations are made world-class by Continuously Improving People, not processes.

Invest in your team, develop the A-Players into Leaders and keep your Lean Continuous Improvement in-house. You’ll spend less money on consultants and you can afford better pizza.