How many times have you heard or said: “How do you create a Lean culture?” Akio Toyoda gives us the answer: You create a progressive management system to create a culture that drives improvement. People desperately want the culture but they do not want to do the work and change the thinking that is required to create the system that creates the culture. For most people, it is too difficult, so they continue along with classical management which continuously re-creates a culture that drives stagnation. The discussion of creating a progressive management system always turns to the time it takes to do it (less time than you think) and the need to satisfy shareholders’ short-term interests. Shareholder are trainable. Top leadership just has to train them on what is happening and what to expect and when.
