Lean Leadership Readiness for Change: A Methodology for Lean Change Readiness and Continuous Improvement

摘要

A Lean transformation initiative has become a business imperative for most organizations in just about every industry sector across the globe. While many companies are attempting to implement Lean methodologies across their enterprise, the vast majority of these organizations fail to meet their intended business transformation objectives or they fail to sustain their Lean transformation results. Several research studies have shown that the two most common reasons for a Lean transformation not achieving or sustaining its improvement results are: 1) a lack of leadership support, and 2) a lack of focus on the organizational culture. This research studies the role of the Lean leadership team in an organization, the first line managers and senior management team, in launching and sustaining a successful Lean transformation initiative. This paper will also discuss the importance of the leader in enabling an organizational culture that is ready for the many of the diverse challenges of a Lean transformation. Developing a Lean Culture is widely recognized as the underpinning of a successful Lean change effort, and leaders plan a critical role in transforming the organizational culture. A methodology for preparing leaders to orchestrate a successful Lean Transformation was developed by the IBM Center for Learning and Development, which focuses on developing transformational leadership skills across an organization's entire management team to prepare them to lead a successful Lean transformation initiative and help the organization sustain their Lean success by building a constructive and adaptive Lean Culture.