People: A leader’s day-to-day guide to building, managing and sustaining lean organizations

Being a lean leader is an inherently rewarding job. You don’t need to wait for a quarterly report or annual performance review to know that you are making a difference. Improvements happen all the time, and everyone you work with can see and feel them.

But being a lean leader also can be immensely difficult and — at times — seemingly impossible. In a complex work environment run by people (who naturally make mistakes and can be uncomfortable with change) performing multiple processes (which naturally become less efficient and effective over time), building and sustaining a continuously improving culture takes never ending effort, a laser-like focus on principles and purpose, and constant realignment.