After 35 years, Lean management is mostly known and appreciated within a subset of the larger business community. Lean might have a better chance of displacing classical management if it gained a much larger audience. What might happen if Lean’s values were made clear as a force for good and its identity shifted to become a working class solution rather than a solution for privileged business leaders?
- Do no harm
- Humanist perspective
- Respect
- Continuous improvement
- Higher pay
- Agency (choice and control)
- Dignity
- Workplace satisfaction
- Real teamwork
In his book, Toyota Production System, Taiichi Ohno said (p. 91): “True innovation – I mean real technological innovation – also brings some kind of social reform.” Lean has yet to produce “social reform” beyond the level of individual organizations.
In a recent blog post I made the case that Lean was bungled from the start, and people remain committed to a path that cannot produce the desired results. Pretty much all that can be accomplished has been accomplished with the framing that Lean started with and which continues to this day. Therefore Lean needs a major change in direction.
Change for the better. You won’t know if you don’t try!