I heard a great quote at a conference today. I would give attribution, but I'm not sure if I have the OK to cite the person and company (they keep below the radar):
“Lean can make a good manager great. It won't turn a bad manager into a good one.”
I'm paraphrasing, a bit, but I believe the statement 100%. You?
I heard another quote that I remembered reading, but it registered more deeply today. Toyota's Katsuaki Watanabe said in HBR (via The Associated Renewal Blog):
There's no genius in our company. We just do whatever we believe is right, trying every day to improve every little it and piece. But when 70 years of very small improvements accumulate, they become a revolution.
That's a philosophy that's hard to copy!
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Mark's new book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation.
He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean.
Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.
Mark;
Great quotes and I agree. I would input that to transform a culture, leadership seems to be required more than just management. I think Watanabe’s statement is really the definition of lasting lean, “trying every day to improve every little bit and peace.” So many seem to over complicate what lean is and what it can do. Good stuff.