Lean Leadership,

Culture, and Tools

Chris Hefley

CEO | LeanKit

@indomitablehef

#AgileIL15 @AgileIsrael

Lean Leadership Culture, and Tools

• Without Leadership, sustainable Lean/Agile is impossible

• Leadership’s responsibility is to change the culture, by teaching Lean

Thinking

• Lean Tools (Lean Thinking Tools) are essential for changing the

culture

1960s-1980s 1980s 1990s 2000s Today

TOC

Just-In-Time

Lean

Manufacturing

Lean Healthcare

Systems

Engineering

Construction

Toyota

Six Sigma

TQM

Agile

SAFe

Scrum

Focus on flow / feedback vs. “efficiency”

Lean Startup

Lean – A multi-industry trend

Last Planner

Kanban

Built on a foundation of Leadership

The Goal of Lean

Pillars of Lean

Principles, Values, and Tools

The House of

Lean

Lean = Lean Thinking

Lean Tools = Thinking Tools

Lean Thinking Tools

• “5 Whys”

• PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act)

• Cost of Delay

Agile Thinking Tools

• Planning Poker

• Story Mapping

LeanKit’s Thinking Tools

• FSGD

• TLDR

• Fat Robin Scheduling

• 0.5x Thinking

Frequent

Small

Good

Decoupled

what Fizz Good

and

what doesn’t

Frequent

Small

Good

Decoupled

Frequent

Small

Good

Decoupled

Frequent

Small

Good

Decoupled

Frequent

Small

Good

Decoupled

Frequent

Small

Good

Decoupled

Annually

Big

Good

Coordinated

Frequent

Small

Perfect

Coordinated

Frequent

Big

Perfect

Coordinated

Frequent

Big

Good

Coordinated

Quarterly

Small

Good

Coordinated

Frequent

Small

Good

Decoupled

Tested

Logged

Documented

Reviewed

@ifandelse

DIY Lean Tools

• As you learn Lean Thinking, you can (and should) create your own

Lean (Thinking) Tools

• Borrow and Customize Models and Tools from wherever you find

them

• Brand them as your own

• What’s your organization’s “FSGD”?

DevOps

• What is DevOps?

• Another Thinking Tool (not just tech)

• The goal of DevOps: Continuous Delivery, High Quality and Safety

• Corresponds to two classical Lean Thinking Tools

• Error-Proofing (Poka-Yoke)

• Autonomation (Jidoka)

Poka Yoke

Mistake-Proofing

Autonomation (Jidoka)

• “Intelligent Automation” or “Automation with a human touch”

The Self-

Healing

Machine

So, it’s all about Lean

Lean Leadership

• Sustainable Lean/Agile requires Leadership

• Not just “permission” from Leadership

• Not just “buy in” from Leadership

• Leadership must Lead and Teach Lean Thinking

Lean Culture

• Sustainable

Lean/Agile requires

a cultural change

• To change the

culture, change the

thinking

Lean Tools

• Use Lean Tools to teach Lean Thinking

• “A Fool with a Tool is still a Fool”

• The tools don’t make you Lean, or Agile, or effective at DevOps (not

even LeanKit )

Start with Leadership • The initial goal of a Lean/Agile transformation effort should be to

“convert” the Leadership

• Without Leadership and Cultural Change, Lean/Agile won’t be

sustainable

• Use initial Agile transformation results to provide evidence of positive

change, and real economic impact

• Lean Metrics can help to show that economic impact (better than

Agile alone)

For more information • On FSGD: leankit.com/FSGD

• Lean and “The house of Lean”

• Lean Primer by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde

• LeanPrimer.com

• On DevOps

• Tomorrow’s DevOps Flow Workshop, by Dominica DeGrandis

• More great Lean content, webinars, e-books, etc., at LeanKit.com/blog and LeanKit.com/Learn