No Time To Waste

by LeanTeams

On Purpose: Make purpose part of onboarding and induction

Make purpose part of onboarding and induction by building it into the first 30 days.

Start with a one-sentence “why we exist” in the offer/Welcome Pack.

On day one, the manager links the new hire’s role to customer outcomes for the team – this should be clearly visible and easy to understand.

Consider pairing the new hire with a learning buddy to see the purpose in action.

Clarity of expectations is perhaps the most basic of employee needs and is vital to performance

Gallup, Workplace article (2015)

On Process: 5S: The foundation of workplace organisation

5S means creating a clean, obvious place for everything so work flows without searching, waiting, or rework.

Sort – remove what is not needed
Set in Order – a place for everything needed and everything in its place
Shine – clean to inspect as you go
Standardise – checklists, photos, and “how-to” guides)
Sustain – daily/weekly/monthly routines

Apply 5S to the virtual workspace as well. (email management, master data maintenance, CRM field order, template naming).

Daily 3S—popularised after visits to Hoks in Japan—starts each day with Sort, Sweep, and Standardise, making cleanliness and clarity the norm and helping the other S’s stick.

Daily Morning 3S: Sweep, Sort and Standardize.

Paul Akers, 2 Second Lean checklist

On People: Role clarity: Why it matters in a Lean environment

Role clarity matters in Lean because flow depends on clean handoffs, fast decisions, and ownership of outcomes.

When people know why their role exists, what good looks like (measures), what they own (tasks + decisions), and how they interact with upstream suppliers and downstream customers, variation reduces, rework is eliminated through regular communication and problems surface sooner.

Clear roles shift accountability from personalities to process.

Issues experienced in the process have a defined escalation path, and improvement ideas have a natural home.

All work shall be highly specified as to content, sequence, timing, and outcome

Steven Spear & H. Kent Bowen, HBR “Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System

Leader’s Task of the Week

Clarify one critical handoff. Select a handoff that causes most delay/rework (e.g., Sales → Ops). Ask the teams to: Collect relevant data and invite representatives from both functions to discuss the supplier / customer handoff. Outline detailed process maps for clarity of understanding. Establish clear customer requirements and supplier process requirements / constraints. Document concerns, causes & countermeasures to reduce delays and minimise rework.

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