This page summarizes the research that I have been engaged in since 2007 to unravel the most important question that we have all had for many years: Why do leaders resist or reject Lean management?
Read the three books in the order shown, staring with The Triumph of Classical Management (US$40 total investment, print or e-book), as well as the research paper to clearly understand what you are up against. They will answer all your questions. You must know this information so that you are aware of the hazards in interacting with top leaders and do not become a victim, and so you can figure out new and better ways to advance Lean management in your organization. As a Lean advocate, it is imperative that you understand the “institution of leadership,” how leaders think and why they do what they do (the “lay of the land”), and the eight categories of archaic preconceptions that have entrenched classical management. Click on the links below to learn more about each item.
Irrational Institutions: Business, Its Leaders, and The Lean Movement
Management Mysterium: The Quest for Progress
Once you understand these works, you can move on to the next important question: How to get leaders to accept progressive Lean management.
Finally, you may also be interested in the short research paper below. It examines how the Lean movement was transformed through status-seeking via the individual accumulation of knowledge wealth.
“The Transformation of Lean: A Social Theory of the Lean Movement“
I invite you to share your thoughts with me.
Gracias Bob por compartir. Lastima que tus libros aún no hayan sido traducidos al español
I wonder how to get from classic management to lean management. What is the process to follow and what steps do we need to take? Unfortunately, there is often a big difference between what we know and what we do.
In war and pandemic it looks like classical leadership is more effective than relying on trust in the population? We see for example countries using force vs countries that ask the population to follow infection advice?
Hi Jon – Now that I have answered the question why leaders resist or reject Lean management, we can move on to the next question of how to get leaders to accept classical management. There is no easy answer to this. I think it will take a team to figure it out.
Wilmer Garcia. Entiendo tu punto.
Desafortunadamente un libro traducido a nuestro idioma no hace diferencia.
Los libros que son manuales de operacion (incluyen como hacerlo) de Dr Deming, Juran, Eli Goldratt, Kepner Tregoe se han traducido en muchos idiomas ademas del nuestro y despues de tanto tiempo, en Mexico y Latino America la gran mayoria de iniciativas de Lean/CI son erroneamente implementadas y poco sostenibles.
Se requiere mucho mas que leer un libro para hacer que Lean funcione bien y sostenible
Gracias por compartir
I think part of the answer is found in the theory of competing objectives. It is covered in an article in Harvard Business Review’s “10 Must Reads on Change Management”. Essentially is posits that people who are outwardly supportive of change, but nonetheless fail to do so are motivated by a subconscious “competing objective” that is linked to their world view. It also presents some exercises for surfacing, and dealing with those competing objectives.
Indeed Michael. Many competing objectives, particularly with respect to privileges.
True. And also covering their weaknesses, trying to look their best, and managing other people’s impressions of them compete with doing what needs to be done as Robert Kegan describes in ‘An Everyone Culture’.