How You Treat People…

CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character

I bet there is a corollary, I’ll propose it:

“Blogger says how CEO’s treat hourly assembly personnel can predict a lot about lean success.”

I agree with the crux of the article…. character is defined by how you treat those at the “bottom of the ladder”, if you will.

Remember to be respectful to all you work with. I’m always reminded of the comments of Gary Convis, from Toyota, who seems to express a genuine respect for all of their employees.

Companies where leaders (CEO’s, plant managers, supervisors) respect all employees are going to do better with lean than those companies where assembly associates are considered heads, warm bodies, dummies, or worse by “leadership.”

Great quote here from the CEO of Sara Lee:

“Sitting in the chair of CEO makes me no better of a person than the forklift operator in our plant,” she says. “If you treat the waiter, or a subordinate, like garbage, guess what? Are they going to give it their all? I don’t think so.”

Amen to that.

About LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “lean healthcare” methodology, focused on improving quality and patient safety, improving access, reducing costs, and fully engaging healthcare professionals. He is also the Chief Improvement Officer for KaiNexus.