No Time To Waste

by LeanTeams

On Purpose: Metrics that reflect your Lean purpose

We often talk about Customer Critical Requirements (CCRs).

What are our Organisation Critical Requirements?

The organisation may already have stated its key values. An interesting exercise is to match these values against the metrics that are reported and reviewed in the organisation. If the story you tell and the numbers you track don’t match, change the numbers—not the story.

What you measure is what you get

Kaplan & Norton, HBR “The Balanced Scorecard—Measures That Drive Performance

Leader’s Task of the Week

Take your stated organisation values (e.g., safety, customer focus, learning, integrity) and map each one to a metric you actually report and review. For every value, define: one outcome, one expected behaviour, and one metric with an owner. Mark gaps where a value has no proof metric, or where you’re measuring activity rather than outcomes

On Process: 5S: Daily management systems and stand-up meetings

A practical model: At FastCap, Paul Akers operates a short morning meeting focused on people, learning, and improvements (e.g., “gratefuls,” product/learning spotlights, and yesterday’s fixes) and follows this with a daily 3S period.

The routine builds capability and alignment every day.

We have the morning meeting every morning. We do not miss it. It is the most important way we build our culture

Paul Akers, 2 Second Lean

On People: Coaching vs. managing in Lean organisations

Lean managers “manage the system” and coach people to improve the system. They are direct when safety/compliance is at stake, teach when skill is low (show → try → feedback), coach when the team can think (ask → listen → challenge), and delegate when capability is proven.

The aim is capability, not dependency.

How to adapt your style

• Keep a live skills matrix
• At the Gemba, ask don’t tell
• stabilise with Standard Work, then encourage improvements.
• Make improvement visible
• Remove barriers fast

In Toyota all managers are expected to be teachers, developing talent in others

Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way (excerpt)

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