AnexcerptfromthebookPracticingLean

Chapter15byMikeLeigh

ToPurchasetheentirebook,pleasevisitwww.PracticingLean.com

100%ofproceedsarebeingdonatedtothenon-profitLouiseH.BatzPatientSafetyFoundation

PracticingLeanChaptersWrittenby:

MarkGraban AuthorofthebooksLeanHospitalsandHealthcareKaizen,bloggeratLeanBlog.orgNickRuhmann DirectorofOperationalExcellenceforAonNationalFloodServices,Inc.

MichaelLombard ChiefExecutiveOfficerofCornerstoneCriticalCareSpecialtyHospitalofSouthwestLouisiana

PaulAkers PresidentofFastCap,authorof2-SecondLeanandLeanHealthJamieParker 15years'experienceinoperationsmanagement/leadershipinretail,service,andmanufacturing

HarryKenworthy ExpertinLeangovernmentafteralongcareerinmanufacturing

BobRush LeanManufacturingGroupLeaderforTeslaMotors

SamuelSelay ContinuousImprovementManagerfortheMarineCorpsatCampPendleton

DavidHaigh DavidworksatJohnson&JohnsonCanada,thelargestconsumerhealthcarecompanyinCanada

JoeSwartz AdministrativeDirector,BusinessTransformation,FranciscanAlliance,co-authorofHealthcareKaizen

CameronStark PhysicianandLeanimprovementleaderinScotland

HarveyLeach PrincipalConsultantwithTheConsultancyCompanybasednearOxford,England

AndySheppard Author,TheIncredibleTransformationofGregoryTodd:aNovelaboutLeadershipandManagingChangeMikeLeigh PresidentandFounderofOpXSolutions,LLCandformerLeanleaderatGeneralElectric

JamieFlinchbaugh Leanadvisor,speaker,andauthor,whohasadvisedover300companiesontheirLeanjourney

LesaNichols Founder,LesaNicholsConsultingandformerToyotaleader

Welcome to the Book!This book is a collaborative project that has been taking shape overtime, with different authors contributing chapters and essays aboutthe early days of their Lean journeys. That includes people withexperiences in Leanmanufacturing, Lean healthcare, Lean Startups,and other settings.

As the editor, I wrote Chapters 1 and 2 as a way to inspire othersto share their stories and their honest reflections about their ownpersonal Lean journeys. As the subtitle says, this is all about“Learning How to Learn How to get Better, Better.” How have welearned about Lean through our own practice? Have we gottenbetter at how we help others get better? This is a book of thosestories and reflections.

I asked people to contribute chapters that are first-person stories,with the emphasis on mistakes and honest reflections, not a chapterabout how great they are with Lean.

This book evolved over the course of a year, with submissions beingadded to the electronic book through the LeanPub.com¹ platform.Those who bought the book early received updates as chapters wereadded over time.

Now, as of December 2016, the book has been released as a KindleeBook and a paperback book.

I’m really excited that this book now contains chapters by 14 au-thors from different industries (healthcare, manufacturing, services,government, and consulting) and from different countries (the U.S.,England, Canada, and Scotland). Some contributors are publishedauthors of books and some are sharing reflections for the first timein this form.

¹http://www.leanpub.com

Welcome to the Book! ii

All author royalty proceeds are being donated to the Louise H.Batz Patient Safety Foundation², a Texas-based non-profit that doesexcellent work in educating patients and hospitals about patientsafety improvement. Their publications, like the Batz Guide forBedside Advocacy³ are really making a difference in the lives ofpatients and staff. Over $1000 has been donated, as of December2016.

If you’d like to donate, please visit their website⁴.

Thank you for reading! If you reflections you’d like to share, pleaseemail Mark@MarkGraban.com

Mark Graban⁵

July 29, 2015 Updated December 20, 2016

²http://www.louisebatz.org/Home.aspx³http://www.louisebatz.org/patient-education/the-batz-guide.aspx⁴http://www.louisebatz.org/⁵http://www.MarkGraban.com

Chapter Fifteen – MikeLeigh

Bio:Mike Leigh is the President and Founder of OpX Solutions, LLC,a consulting company that specializes in helping manufacturersand other organizations pursue Operational Excellence throughleadership development and process improvement.

Mike has spent most of his 30-year career in various operationalleadership roles. Prior to starting his own business, he worked asa manufacturing leader and a Lean leader for General Electric,building industrial gas turbines and wind turbines for the energyindustry. Before that, Mike served 10 years on active duty in the USNavy, specializing in surface warfare and nuclear propulsion. Heeventually retired from the Navy Reserve as a Commander.

Mike has a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from the Mil-waukee School of Engineering, and a M.S. degree from Troy StateUniversity in Human Resource Management. He also qualified as aNuclear Engineer in the US Navy.

Mike and his family live in Roanoke, VA. You can contact him atmike@opxsolutionsllc.com, or connect with him on LinkedIn⁹⁵.

A very lucky guy

I am a very lucky guy. Most people would probably describe mycareer as successful. After retiring from the military and doing wellas a manufacturing leader, I’ve been able to build my own businesshelping organizations improve their processes and develop their

⁹⁵https://www.linkedin.com/in/leighmichael1

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leaders. But along the way, I had developed the mindset that I wasa good leader (I must have been because I was getting promoted,right?) I also thought I knew everything I needed to know to startand succeed in my own business.

One day about eight years ago, I walked into my plant manager’soffice and told him I was quitting to start my business. To say hewas shocked would have been an understatement. At the time, Iwas working for General Electric as an operations manager witha team of 180 people. I was on the “fast track” and, unbeknownstto me, I had been selected to attend a corporate leadership coursefor potential future executives. In my new business, I was going toteach others how to be good leaders, but I probably would havefailed because it was the start of the great recession.

My luck started the next day when the general manager of ourbusiness unit visited our factory. His name was Tim, and he wassomeone I had known and respected for several years. I consideredhim a friend andmentor. Hemet withme that day after I announcedmy resignation and said, “Mike, I think you should stay with GE,and let me tell you why.” I won’t bore you with all the details, buthe ultimately convinced me to stay when he offered to get me into acorporate Lean leader role. Although I knew almost nothing aboutLean, the little I did knowwas fascinating to me, and the role wouldallow me to develop “consulting skills” that could prove useful inmy future business. My Lean journey was about to go from 0 to 60overnight.

My introduction to Lean occurred about two years earlier. It wasmyfirst day on the job in the operations manager role. The morning Ishowed up at the factory, the guy who I was replacing (Jim, whowasmoving to a new role himself) metme at the front door and said,“We are having a kaizen event this week and the kickoff meeting isabout to start.” I hadn’t even gone to my new office yet, or set downmy bag, as wewalked into the kickoff meeting with about 60 people.There were five teams ready to go, two corporate Lean leaders, a

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consultant from Shingijutsu, and the entire factory leadership team.“You and I are leading a kaizen team this week”, Jim said.

I had started with GE during their Six Sigma heyday and like almosteveryone else, I was a certified Green Belt. Twice in my GE career, Iwas offered Black Belt roles (considered a career essential role backthen), but I turned them down because I just didn’t like Six Sigma.I had heard of Lean, but I didn’t know anything about it. So for themost part, I was simply along for the ride during this kaizen event.

Our consultant that week was excellent. Every time he talked to ourteam, I thought, “This stuff is great!” But I couldn’t fully enjoy theweek because I was too busy worrying about getting started in mynew role. So as soon as the event was done, I jumped into learningabout all the production processes I was about tomanage, and beganto lead in a way that had brought me success in the past. And for thenext two years, my style continued to work. During my tenure, weconducted four or five more major kaizen events, each one exposingme more to the concepts of Lean. It felt right and natural to me, andI began to form ideas of how Lean could help our processes. Butwhy make changes and take risks when you are already successful?

Somy first bit of luckwas having amentor talkme into stayingwithGE as a Lean leader. My second bit of luck was becoming a memberof a true learning organization with phenomenal mentors. I hadbecome a Lean leader in GE Energy’s corporate Lean office. In total,there were four of us who were led by a GE Executive named Mark.Our team’s function was to help GE Energy factories implementLean. We did this by providing consulting and mentorship to theleadership in each factory on the concepts of Lean, and we hiredShingijutsu consultants to support multi-team kaizen events andmentor us along the way. Mark wanted the four of us to firstand foremost learn from the Shingijutsu consultants so we couldincrease our knowledge and improve our support to the factories.

When I first started, Mark said to me, “It will take you about sixmonths until you become comfortable” to give advice and support

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the business. What!?! I wasn’t expected to have all the answers rightaway? It was the first time in my 20 years of leadership experiencethat I wasn’t expected to jump in and take charge. And Mark wasright. It took about six months before I felt comfortable givingadvice.

Over the next five years, I supported 45 Shingijutsu multi-team,weeklong kaizen events in 15 different factories. Prior to each event,my role was to provide advice and support to the factory to scopethe teams properly, and conduct necessary pre-work. But during theevents, I was with the consultant the entire week (including dinnereach evening). At first, it was humbling, but the more I learned, themore I wanted to learn. And I believe I learnedwhat Lean and TPS isreally supposed to be about. Most people do not get the opportunityto learn about Lean like I did. I was lucky.

During those years with GE, and subsequent years in my ownbusiness, I’ve learned a lot of lessons and key concepts (most ofwhich fall under the category “If I only knew then what I knownow”). I sincerely hope these lessons will pass on some of my luckto you.

Lesson 1: Leadership and culture istrump

As I began to be exposed to the concepts and philosophy of Lean,I was hooked. Almost immediately, I understood the concepts ofstandard work, jidoka, flow, and respect for people. I was excitedbeyond belief because here was this philosophy/methodology/-toolset, that provided endless opportunities to improve manufac-turing operations. So why wasn’t everyone excited?

Early in my Lean leader role, I expected everyone to quickly under-stand and believe in the concepts of Lean. I became frustrated thatmanufacturing leaders across our business couldn’t see the benefits.

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The leaders of several of the factories I worked with seemed tosupport Lean and kaizen. But, during the kaizen events, they wereonly seen at the kickoff and closeout meetings. Why don’t theyparticipate? Although the lack of participation by senior leadersusually did not have a big impact on the success of the kaizen event,over the long-term, those factories usually experienced limitedsuccess and sustainability.

In a select few businesses, it was different. During the kaizen events,the plant manager would block out the entire week, and either walkwith the sensei, or participate on a team. These leaders wanted tolearn, and their participation communicated to the workforce thatLean was important. As you can guess, the long-term success fromkaizen efforts in these factories was much greater.

Before I go further, I need to make an important point. As youread this chapter, I may sound very critical of GE. It is unavoidablefor me to describe what I’ve learned on my Lean journey withoutdescribing some things I believe GE does incorrectly. However, youwould be mistaken to believe that I hate or disrespect GE. There isa reason GE has been successful for so long and has a phenomenalreputation. They were a great company to work for, and they domuch more right than they do wrong. I have nothing but respectfor GE, and I was fortunate to work for them for 13 years.

It’s probably not a secret to anyone reading this that leadershipplays an important part toward the success of a Lean journey. Iquickly learned the same thing, and I got frustrated when someleaders wouldn’t become more engaged. I admit that I once con-sidered these leaders as “cement heads.” But over time, I changedmy attitude and developed a deeper understanding of why someleaders stayed on the sidelines.

A wise mentor of mine once told me, “Those who are most resistantto change are those most effective in the current system.” Seniorproduction managers and executives who lead GE factories (or leadany organization) have achieved success in their companies. At

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GE, leaders who could hit their numbers each quarter were valuedand innovative risk-takers were only rewarded if they didn’t fail. Iimagine this culture is not much different than most companies. Soit takes a unique leader willing to do something different. I call theseleaders promotors, because in their mind, practicing Lean is not anoption, and everyone knows it through their words and actions. Iwas not a promotor as an operations manager. Hit the numbers anddon’t take risks. If I only knew then what I know now…

I also learned that some leaders do not become more engaged inLean because they simply do not see the benefits. Many of theleaders I worked with had not been exposed to the concepts (andbenefits) of Lean. No one (leaders or others) will ever be highlymotivated to work toward any goal or initiative unless they trulybelieve in the benefits. In one of the factories I supported, therewas a production manager named Joe who was also the site Leanleader. He was innovative, dedicated, and a Lean promotor. Withthe help of our team, Joe accomplished some phenomenal results,including a lead time reduction from eight to five days for a majorassembly. He used to complain to me because none of the otherproduction managers would engage in kaizen activities. I had toexplain to Joe that none of the other leaders understood Lean wellenough to understand how practicing Lean could help them.

There is an excellent book called 0LQGVHW⁹⁶, by Carol Dweck, thatdescribes the benefits of having a “growth mindset” instead of a“fixed mindset.” A growth mindset is a belief that your qualitiescan be cultivated through effort, and everyone can grow throughapplication and experience. A fixed mindset is a belief that yourqualities can’t be changed, and creates an internal need to proveyourself. Someone with a growth mindset wants to learn, andmistakes are part of the learning process. Someone with a fixedmindset is risk adverse, and looks at mistakes as failures.

For those leaders who have a fixed mindset and are not willing

⁹⁶http://amzn.to/1U91mHE

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to make changes, there is not much a supporting Lean leader orconsultant can do. Although I am an optimist, and I never giveup trying to help leaders develop a growth mindset, I learned itwas better to spend my efforts with those who want to try, andlearn, and grow. So our Lean team focused primarily on supportingthose managers and businesses who had a Lean growth mindset.We created “model lines” and highlighted our Lean successes withthe intent of helping those with the fixed mindset to see. It isdifficult to change someone’s mindset, and we only had limitedsuccess “creating” Lean promotors, but I believe it is always worththe effort because significant success practicing Lean cannot beachieved otherwise. Strong, promoting leadership trumps all otherfactors in determining sustained success practicing Lean.

Lesson 2: Be believable

For anyone who has tried to convince others of the benefits of Lean,or motivate them to take action, you know it’s not easy. I’ve beentrying to do this for many years, and I still haven’t figured it out. ButI have learned at least one thing about motivation. Another mentorof mine once told me, “Everyone wants something to believe in.” Ifa leader can create a vision that others believe in, there is a muchgreater probability that action will take place toward that vision.But it must be believable.

Once I understood how Lean could transform a business, I becamevery excited and motivated to help others. Moving lines. One-pieceflow. Rapid changeovers. I saw huge opportunity everywhere. “Wecan create a one-piece flow cell here and cut our lead time by 90%!”“If we reduce the changeover time by half on the PCBA line, we canreduce our batch sizes by half and get rid of a lot of WIP!” “Let’sput a team together to get rid of all the crane usage on this line!”The responses I received ranged frommild acceptance to downrightnegativity. “That CAN’T be done,” or “It will NEVER work” were

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heard often. So I started to respond in amature, logical way. “No oneis allowed to use the words CAN’T and NEVER during our kaizenefforts!” Why didn’t everyone get excited like I was?

Then one day during a Shingijutsu kaizen event, I learned what myproblem was. There was a team working to improve an assemblyline layout and they suggested minor changes to the sensei. Theconsultant gave his approval and the team proceeded to make thechanges over the next couple days. I was shocked. It was obvious tome how some major improvements could be done, but the consul-tant didn’t push the team. Once we were alone I asked, “Sensei,it was obvious the team could have made bigger improvements.Why didn’t you push them to make bigger changes?” He responded,“Mike-san, the team must learn to walk before they can run. Untilthey learn to walk, they won’t understand or believe they can run.”

No wonder why few people believed me. I was trying to convincenon-runners that they could complete a marathon, when I shouldhave helped them to run a 5K. Why would anyone believe a pressdie could be changed in 15 minutes when no one had ever seen itdone in less than 2 hours? It took me a couple years before I learnedthis lesson. But once I did, it was much easier to convince others totake action. I simply had to provide a vision of the next small step,and keep the bigger vision to myself.

Lesson 3: Promote the journey – theresults will come

Results are important. Ultimately, it’s why we work on continuousimprovement. But when it comes to practicing Lean, it really isabout the journey, not the destination.

One of the key philosophies of Lean is to create a learning organiza-tion. In an earlier chapter of this book, Michael Lombard mentionsthe importance of quickly trying ideas over and over again to learn.

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Mark Graban frequently discusses the importance of having respectfor people and promoting a culture of learning in his books andblogs. I couldn’t agree more, and that’s what I mean by the journey.But how do you convince business leaders and clients that it’s OK ifwe don’t get results right away as long as learning is taking place?

It’s a fact in business that results matter. And GE was no different.Almost every business leader wanted results and ROI from kaizenevents, and I would be lying if I told you I didn’t hope for a“big hitter” at each one. Before every event, we ensured that eachteam had measurable goals to accomplish, and if ROI couldn’t bedemonstrated, we often had to re-scope the project – or select adifferent project altogether. One business leader would go so faras to demand that every team had to complete two safety and twoquality improvements during a kaizen event, regardless if they wererelated to that team’s scope. On the last day of a kaizen week, teammembers would be searching throughout the factory for safety andquality improvements unrelated to the scope of their project whilemissing out on more opportunities to learn from the sensei. Sheesh!

I haven’t figured out yet how to convince some leaders that short-term benefits are less important than the long-term results thatwill be achieved by allowing people to learn without pressure toachieve measurable results on every initiative. This was nearlyimpossible at GE because most leaders were only in their roles fortwo or three years before moving on, and missing your numberseach quarter was unacceptable. But I’ve discovered that smallercompanies, and those that are privately owned, are more likelyto think long-term because their leaders are there longer. I nowalways set the expectation that the primary goal of kaizen is tolearn. Eventually the results will happen. As a consultant, it’s hardto not promise short-term results. It’s difficult to turn down workwhere the client’s only priority is cutting costs. But I would be doingour Lean community a disservice if I did work that focused on theshort term or only on cost.

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Lesson 4: Promote the philosophy – notthe tools

I love Mark Graban’s L.A.M.E. acronym (Lean As MisguidedlyExecuted)⁹⁷ and I’ve begun to use it when I teach. Unfortunately,I think there might be more examples of L.A.M.E. these days thanthere are solid Lean applications. I believe the primary reason thishas occurred is due to the prevalent thought that Lean is a “set oftools.”

When I started practicing Lean, like most people I first learned thetools (value stream mapping, 5 whys, process at a glance, etc.). Dueto early success using these tools, I quickly formed opinions on howthey should be used and what they should look like. Lean toolsshould be standardized, right? But once again, I learned this wasL.A.M.E. frommy teachers. I would attempt to force a kaizen projectinto a tool, rather than adapt a tool to my needs. Over time, as Iobserved and learned from Shingijutsu (and my own mistakes), Irealized that Lean tools were meant to be molded, altered, and eveninvented as the need arose. And the need arose from understandinghow to apply the concepts of Lean to a problem. Let me try toexplain.

During one of our big GE kaizen events, a team was attempting toimprove flow through a series of processes. It was very complex.It was so complex that no one (including our sensei) really knewfor sure what would happen if the ideas of the team were imple-mented. Due to relatively long cycle times and multiple variables,“try-storming” was not practical. It was a perfect situation for asimulation. Now the sensei knew this would be tough, so he askedme to join the team for the rest of the week to help them createa simulation and analyze the improvement ideas. I can guaranteeyou, there is no book or other instructional material in existencethat teaches the “tool” we created. And there is no way I could

⁹⁷http://www.leanblog.org/lame

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have created this tool without spending many weeks learning theconcepts of Lean from my sensei. When I started my tool-centeredapproach to Lean, I tried to convince my boss we should buy acomputer simulation program. He gently coached me why thatwas a direction we didn’t want to go. Our results that week werephenomenal, but not because we saved GE a lot of money. All of uson that team developed a much deeper understanding of Lean.

The emphasis on tools, and the misapplication of them that occursbecause of a limited understanding of Lean, is what causes L.A.M.E.In Taiichi Ohno’s book, 7R\RWD 3URGXFWLRQ 6\VWHP ٙ %H\RQG /DUJH�6FDOH 3URGXFWLRQ⁹⁸, he wrote:

“With a better tool, we can getwonderful results. But if we useit incorrectly, the tool can makethings worse. Kanban is one ofthose tools that if used improperlycan cause a variety of problems.To employ kanban properly andskillfully, we tried to clearly un-derstand its purpose and role andthen establish rules for its use.”

You could substitute any tool for kanban in this excerpt and it wouldbe correct. I wish I would have spent more time early in my Leanjourney reading the writings of Taiichi Ohno, Shingeo Shingo, andW. Edwards Deming, and less time studying tools.

Final Thoughts

When I learned about this book, I made a commitment to myselfto write this chapter. Not only did I want to help my fellow Lean

⁹⁸http://amzn.to/1OldLG4

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practitioners, but I knew it would help remind me of where I’dcome from on my journey. Thank you, Mark Graban, for this bookidea (even if you don’t include this chapter), and your remarkablecontributions to the Lean community.

One of my pet peeves in the continuous improvement communityis the misguided emphasis on certifications. I’m all for training andeducation, and I encourage everyone to acquire more knowledgewhenever possible. But I firmly believe that certifications in theLean and Six Sigma communities has done more harm than good.Certifications promote a fixed mindset instead of a growth mindsetand a learning culture.

At GE, my boss was asked to develop the requirements for a newGELean Leader certification. He didn’t want to for the reasons I’ve justmentioned, but higher authority prevailed and a certification wascreated. One of the requirements was to participate in a Shingijutsukaizen event. Once the requirements were communicated, andbecause our office coordinated all these kaizen events, we werebombarded by GE employees around the country who wanted toknowhow to participate. Clearlymost of these employeeswere onlyinterested in padding their credentials. If it’s necessary for you toget a certification to advance your career, then by all means go getone. But please consider it as merely a small step toward a lifelonglearning journey.

I believe I’ve achieved the highest “certification” you can get inLean, but it’s not hanging on my wall. In fact, it’s not writtenanywhere and I can’t put it on my professional biography becausealmost no one will understand. But it means everything to me. This“certification” was achieved during the complex simulation event Idescribed earlier.

During that event, our sensei from Shingijutsu was someone I hadworkedwith for 12 weeks over a four year period. After I had led thesimulation team for three days, he was very pleased with the resultsand he said, “Thank you Sensei Mike. You did a great job.” It was

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the first time he had ever addressed me as a sensei, and from thatpoint forward he continued to do so. We both knew the significanceof that moment. I was lucky to have the opportunity to get to thatpoint on my journey and earn his “certification.” I sincerely wisheveryone could do the same. Good luck on your journey!

Thanks for Reading theBook!

I hope this book has been interesting, helping, or entertaining. Ormaybe all of the above. Thanks for taking the time to make it thisfar.

Please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com¹⁶¹.

Again, all author royalty proceeds are being donated to the LouiseH. Batz Patient Safety Foundation¹⁶², a Texas-based non-profitthat does excellent work in educating patients and hospitals aboutpatient safety improvement. Their publications, like the Batz Guidefor Bedside Advocacy¹⁶³ are really making a difference in the livesof patients and staff.

Over $1000 has been donated from sales of this book, as of Decem-ber 2016.

If you would d like to donate, please visit their website¹⁶⁴.

Mark Graban¹⁶⁵ Mark@MarkGraban.com

¹⁶¹http://amzn.to/2i7w7iQ¹⁶²http://www.louisebatz.org/Home.aspx¹⁶³http://www.louisebatz.org/patient-education/the-batz-guide.aspx¹⁶⁴http://www.louisebatz.org/¹⁶⁵http://www.markgraban.com