John Shook

Lean Enterprise Institute

October 1, 2012

Learning Lean Collaboratively

First, What is Lean

Thinking & Practice?

Systemically develop people and

continuously improve processes

to provide value and prosperity

while consuming the fewest

possible resources

Second, Why Learn Lean Collaboratively?

• Lean = learning

• Successful change requires dispersing learning through an organization quickly and effectively

• Learning collaboratively is a way to scale learning – in an organization and beyond

• So, let’s borrow the learning curve of Lean thinkers who are succeeding through collaborative learning groups

Third, What is Collaborative Learning?

Two or more individuals –

learning partners – intent on

learning something together

Collaboration is more than

sharing physical space

Learning Collaboratively is more than learning while occupying shared space

Learning collaboratively means more than

learning while occupying shared space

Learning collaboratively means more than

learning while occupying shared space

Fourth, What is Collaborative Lean Learning

Learning partners actively endeavor to learn

together through shared experience...

t

P-D-S-A

LEARNING CYCLES

Collaborative Lean Learning

Knowledge is not only shared but

created within a group where members

actively endeavor to learn lean together

through shared experience.

t

Collaborative Lean Learning

Individuals working together…

– capitalizing on one another’s knowledge

and skill,

• both technically and socially,

•recognizing that learning is not just an

individual but also a social act,

• to solve a problem, complete a task, or

create a product, or answer a question.

• All learner partners actively participate

• Mutual Respect:

Openness in sharing experience, knowledge,

challenges, struggles;

• Teachers are learners; learners are

teachers

• Problems to be addressed are important

and challenging to all partners:

“What problem are we trying to solve?”

Elements of successful

Collaborative Lean Learning

Back to Lean Thinking and Practice: Every Organization Must Address…

• Purpose – Provide value to customers

(cost-effectively to thrive).

• Process – Through value streams that

are designed, operated, and improved.

• People – By engaging and respecting

employees and other stakeholders.

Aligning purpose, process, and

people is the central task of management.

13

Lean Transformation

14

Social and Technical

Lean Transformations:

People and Process

Social

Lean Transformations:

People and Process

Technical

People & Process – aligned by

management to achieve purpose

17

Where Do You Start – Either? Both at once?

Change Culture

First Change System

First

Lean Transformation

•Know your demand

•Know your true capability (capacity)

•Create flexibility to get them to match

Capability

MURA (Instability)

Management

TIME

MUDA (Excess)

Demand MURI (Overburden)

19

The Challenge of Any Organization

20

Total System Efficiency

and Effectiveness

21

Lean Thinking & Practice:

Problems, Challenges, Opportunities

MUDA (Excess)

Demand MURI (Overburden)

In the face of a reality

that’s like this:

Challenge to make

steady progress:

It’s easier to act

your way to a

new way of

thinking than to

think your way

to a new way of

acting.

Lean Transformation

Lean Leaders

Develop people THROUGH getting the work done…

23

People & Process: People learning

process – process developing people

Typical thinking observes that people develop processes. True

Also true is that processes develop people.

People enter situations (a company) and learn the processes.

Before they develop processes, they learn processes. That

learning process develops them.

People are a product of the processes that they work.

Those processes, in turn, have people dimensions

that entail individual and collaborative learning.

Lean Capability Development

“It’s easier to act your way to a new

way of thinking than to think your

way to a new way of acting.”

Therefore:

Build processes that develop

people as they do their work.

Manage and lead accordingly.

Lean Enterprise

– the ultimate “social-technical system”

• The process of doing the work

is integrated with the process of

improving the work

• And…

26

Lean Enterprise

– the ultimate “social-technical system”

• The process of doing the work

is integrated with the process of

improving the work, and

• The operating processes ARE

people development processes!

27

Actual

Value Creating Worker -

Signal the Problem

Manager - Immediate Response

Together – GTS, ID root causes,

decide on countermeasures

Apply tools as needed

Standard

Andon

STANDARD CURRENT

CONDITION

Lean managers establish systems to engage

everyone to work together in identifying,

signaling, and responding to problems.

Achieving Purpose, Solving Problems and Developing Capability -- Collaboratively

Achieving Purpose, Solving Problems and Developing Capability -- Collaboratively

“Stop the Line”

•Design a repeatable routine – provide training

–Make success understandable and do-able

•Make it easy to see problems

–Anything that interrupts the routine

•Make it clear what to do for problems

–Contain and notify (“neither accept nor pass on…”)

•Make it clear what will happen after notification

–Help will come within the cycle of work

•Ensure problem-solving and learning –Through structured routines for problem-solving and

rapid cycles of learning

john shook

31

john shook

32

“Do not interrupt while I am running this play.” •This enables me to perform with

less chance of error,

•We can identify normal from

abnormal and solve problems,

•We can learn – together –

intentionally.

CURRENT

CONDITION

P

D C

A

P

D C

A

P

D C

A

GtS

Tools

NEXT

TARGETED

CONDITION

TARGETED

CONDITION

Tools

Tools

GtS

GtS

Capability Development Through Collaborative Problem Solving

No Problem is

a Problem!

Collaborative Learning

…members actively endeavor to learn

together through shared experience.

t

DO – LEARN – IMPROVE

TRY – FAIL – LEARN

P-D-S-A

LAMDA A3 KATA

LEARNING CYCLES: SPIN THEM FAST

SPIN THEM WILLFULLY

OODA

What pitfalls to avoid when you do.

After all, every yin has its yang.

When (and why) not to pursue

Collaborative Learning or…

• Groupthink

– Everyone follows an attractive thread

– Design by committee

• For example “limiting statements” (S Bahri)

– “Democracy” to the point of lack of

leadership

Collaborative Learner Beware…

• Groupthink

– Everyone follows an attractive thread

– Design by committee

– “Democracy” to the point of lack of leadership

• Brainstorming as a group becomes too

easy; no individual steps up to:

– take ownership

– go through the intense pain of truly thinking

something through deeply

Collaborative Learner Beware…

• Groupthink

– Everyone follows an attractive thread

– Design by committee

– “Democracy” to the point of lack of leadership

• Brainstorming as a group becomes too easy; no individual steps up to:

– take ownership

– go through the intense pain of truly thinking something through deeply

• “Collaboration Fatigue” – Dr. Gigi Hirsch of

MIT

– Beware the trade-off between inclusiveness

versus effectiveness and efficiency

Collaborative Learner Beware…

Collaborative Learning and

Successful Lean Transformation • We are all teachers. We are all teaching all the

time.

• We can teach more effectively, or less

effectively. Whether our teaching is more or less

effective depends on two things: intention and

skill.

• Skill can be acquired, if we simply have the

intention.

• Thus, effective “teaching”, effective “learning”,

effective “leadership” is, more than anything

else, a matter of choice.

How to transform to a lean operating

and management system?

Three things:

1.Intent: manifested in a willful decision

2.Process: a means by which the

decision can be actualized

3.Practice, practice, practice…

– Right practice

– Perhaps with a coach!

john shook

41

Practice, practice, practice… But, right practice,

john shook

42

Practice, practice, practice… But, right practice, perhaps with a coach

Coaching?

Coaching?

One-on-One Collaborative Learning

Manager Team

Member

Manager interacts with Team

Member with Respect:

1)Respects their intellect by

providing challenging

assignments

2) Engages with Team Members

to understand their struggles

2) Supports Team Members

to over come those struggles

3)Ongoing, sustained process

to develop capability

Team Member takes

responsibility for own

Development:

1) Team Member defines own

career objectives

1) Team Member proactively

engages organization and

management with new ideas

2) Team Member takes own

initiative

3) Ongoing, sustained process

to develop capability

Collaborative learning is effective when both mentor and

mentee share nearly equal responsibility

Collaborative Lean Learning Example:

Toyota Supplier Learning Associations

Collaborative Lean Learning Example:

Toyota’s TSSC

TSSC, the Toyota Production System Support Center,

mission: Help North American companies to learn the Toyota

Production System.

•Over 20 years, TSSC has collaborated with more than 150

organizations to learn TPS.

•Organizations demonstrate dramatic improvements in

Productivity, Quality, and Lead Time.

•Through collaboration and learning with organizations in

many sectors, Toyota benefits by bringing this learning back

into its own organization.

Collaborative Lean Learning

PDCA Standardized Work for Collaboration (from BAMA Example)

Participant Participant Participant

Try

Learn

Collaborative activity

at one location

Each participant

takes home

Host

Who is the coach?

Who is the architect?

What is the process

(the Standard Work)?

Focus: xx

Target: xx

Intent is to support deep thinking Self-Learning

Individual, intentional PDCA Learning Cycles

Supported by skillful coaching

t

How do I improve this

situation?

A D

P

C

Try

Reflect

Struggle to do

-Why?!

What is my

target condition?

Group Learning, Individual learning…

• Early childhood education is largely collaborative

as teachers take young students through group

discovery learning activities.

• By high school, the learning has

become individual-based.

Everything I Know About Lean

I learned in First Grade

– by Robert Martichenko

IBM Collaborates with State to Bring PDCA to Vermont 1-8 Schools

What will you do?

Find someone to learn with:

…NOW

Assignment

What will you do?

Assignment – One Minute

One thing you will do this week about

the one thing you wish to change

“One idea, one person, every day”

Dr. Sami Bahri

Follow the Learner: Dr. Sami Bahri

“Learn at least one “green” thing every day” - Yellow is theory - Red is to avoid - Green is to do

What will you do?

Assignment – One Minute

One thing you will do this week about

the one thing you wish to change

One more minute: share that with

the learning partner sitting beside

you and discuss how your partner

can help you with that problem

The following slides contain

supplemental Information

about the Lean Enterprise

Institute and its mission, basic

approach, and major activities.

Lean Enterprise Institute

• Founded in 1997 by Dr. James Womack,

principle scientist of the MIT research that

resulted in “The Machine That Changed the

World”

• Non-profit education and research institute

• Based in Cambridge MA, with 17 global

affiliates

• Over 230,000 members from all industries

• Mission: Advance Lean Thinking and Practice in

all things, everywhere

Lean Enterprise Institute

Industry

Networking

Education: public and in-

house workshops

Digital books,

courses, social

networking

www.lean.org

community with

over 200,000

members

Publications

Coaching

Since its founding in 1997, LEI has …

•Changed the language of management

•Registered over 230,000 Lean Thinking Practitioners and Leaders to its online Lean Community.

•Sent over 100 e-letters to over 150,000 subscribers

•Trained almost 20,000 people at public workshops

•Moderated eight online Forums with nearly 17,000 subscribers.

•Delivered onsite training to over 2,000 people at over 100 companies.

•Partnered with companies committed to implementing and spreading the methodology for creating a

lean enterprise through experiments and shared learning.

•Collaborated with over 50 independent faculty members.

•Developed over 40 workshops for executives, managers, and technical professionals at every

experience level in manufacturing, service, healthcare, and administrative value streams.

•Produced 20 webinars on a wide range of lean management topics.

•Produced 20 publications and sold over 600,000 books, workbooks, and training aids.

•Hosted eight major Summit conferences with more than 7,000 attendees.

•Created a web site with thousands of pages of resources

•Founded the Lean Educators Academic Network.

•Founded the Healthcare Value Leaders Network, including the first Healthcare Transformation

Summit.

•Formed the Lean Global Network, a network of 17 not-for-profit institutes on six continents. And

supported over 40 world-wide events since LGN was officially formed in 2007.

Lean Production, Lean Thinking, Lean Practice, Lean Learning

Co-Learning

Hands-on Collaboration

Lean Community

Management Systems

Operating Systems

Publish

books, web,

apps

Develop

Education

programs

Share

learning with

community

Lean Enterprise Institute

Individuals,

Organizations

Individuals,

Organizations

LEI

Lean Thinking Everywhere

LEI establishes a limited number of collaborative learning partnerships

with organizations committed to lean transformation.

Lean Transformation Model

PROCESS

IMPROVEMENT

Continuous,

real, practical

changes to

improve the way

the work is done

CAPABILITY

DEVELOPMENT

Sustainable

improvement

capability

in all people

at all levels

SITUATIONAL APPROACH - Value-Driven Purpose -

“WHAT PROBLEM ARE WE TRYING TO SOLVE?”

Lean Thinking and Practice

Clear Roles and

Responsibilities

LEADERSHIP

MANAGEMENT

LEI High-Level Transformation Model

• Basic Approach in all cases: PDCA – The art and craft of science

• Specific Approach in each case: Situational, determined by asking

– “What problem are we trying to solve?” What business need?

– “Where can we run initial trials?” - even when going big

• TWO Pillars: Process Improvement and Capability Development

– Process Improvement Change

• Start with the work – find problems, gaps, obstacles

– Individual level, system level

– Capability Development

• Problem-solving, improvement capability

• At all levels

• Ownership clarity: Clear Roles and Responsibilities

– Internal: executive sponsor, improvement leader, team members

– External: project coach, mentor, architect

Transformation Model Questions

1. What problem are we trying to solve? What is the

purpose of this transformation?

– At both macro and micro levels

2. What specific process improvements are being

implemented? How is the actual work being

improved?

3. What capability enhancements are required and

being achieved?

4. What role is leadership taking? Is ownership clear?

5. What basic philosophy or thinking underlies this

transformation?

External Support for Lean Transformations

• “The value of external support of any Lean Transformation is

determined by happens after the support ends” – Dan Jones

So: Define what should ideally happen when support

ceases.

Then: Determine what needs to happen for that to

happen?

• LEI engagement with any organization is defined by the answer

to those questions.

Define (together with the organization) the ideal and target

conditions

Then provide support:

As little as possible

As much as necessary

FOCUS

Sr.

Mgmt.

Front

Lines

Middle

Mgmt.

System Kaizen Eliminate

Muri and Mura

Point Kaizen Eliminate Muda

67

Different Responsibilities at Different Levels

VALUE-CREATING FRONT LINES

SENIOR

MANAGEMENT

MIDDLE

MANAGEMENT

MUST PROVIDE VISION

AND MOTIVATION

MUST “DO”

MUST LEAD THE ACTUAL

OPERATIONAL CHANGE

Likes the

involvement

Likes the results

Often left battered

and confused…

Role Impact

68

Lean Transformation: Impact and Roles

of Different Organizational Levels

The right focus and process at the right level

VALUE-CREATING FRONT LINES

SENIOR

MANAGEMENT

MIDDLE

MANAGEMENT

MUST PROVIDE VISION

AND INCENTIVE

MUST “DO”

MUST LEAD THE ACTUAL

OPERATIONAL CHANGE

Likes the

involvement

Likes the results

Needs the right tools

and skills to be

successful

Role Impact

Problem:

MUDA

Problem:

MURA & MURI

Problem:

MURI & MURA

69

Muri: overburden

Mura: variation

Muda: waste

The right focus and process at the right level

VALUE-CREATING FRONT LINES

SENIOR

MANAGEMENT

MIDDLE

MANAGEMENT

MUST PROVIDE VISION

AND INCENTIVE

MUST “DO”

MUST LEAD THE ACTUAL

OPERATIONAL CHANGE

Likes the

involvement

Likes the results

Needs the right tools

and skills to be

successful

Role Impact

Problem:

MUDA

PDCA process:

Hoshin Kanri

PDCA process

VSM and A3

PDCA process:

Standardized Work

Problem:

MURA & MURI

Problem:

MURI & MURA

70

Muri: overburden

Mura: variation

Muda: waste

Purpose (Why)

People

(How)

Process

(What)

•Horizontal flow of value at

the pull of the customer

•Workplace Management

through Standardization &

Visualization

•Relentless elimination of

waste, overburden and

unevenness

•Lean Tools and Practices

• Make People Before

Making Products

• Engaged and Involved

• Challenging & Coaching

• Teamwork

Mission/Values

Vision/True North

Line of Sight

Strategy Development and Deployment

Lean Enterprise

Capability to ID & Solve

Problems

PDCA Thinking

Plan-Do-Check-Act Improvement Cycle

Plan-Do-Check-Act Learning Cycle

Study

Adapt

Fast

Cycles

P

D C

A

P

D C

A

P

D C

A

P

D C

A

LEI has sponsored the founding of three

organizations to promote lean thinking

through a collaborative process

•Lean Global Network to advance the application

of lean thinking in every endeavor, everywhere

•Lean Education Academic Network - LEAN - to

advance lean thinking in education

•Healthcare Value Network to advance lean

thinking in healthcare

The Lean Global Network

LGN is a network of non-profit, mission-driven institutes

taking responsibility for bringing lean thinking and

practices to their countries and the world

We believe lean thinking and practice can:

– Improve the performance of organisations and raise living

standards

– Meet growing aspirations while minimising resource use and

environmental impact

– Provide more fulfilling work and continuing development for

everyone

– Enable consumers to create more value in their increasingly

busy lives

Lean Global Network

Lean Global Network

LGN – A Global Network of Lean Enterprise Institutes

Global Collaboration

John Shook

• Currently leader of the Lean Enterprise Institute

• Eleven years with Toyota in Japan and the USA

• Production and management system transfer

• Engineering and PD system transfer

• Toyota Production System dissemination

• U of Michigan – seven years Director of “Japan

Technology Management Program”; created

and taught Industrial Engineering “lean” course

• Consultant for 15 years