"Lean Won't Work Here" -- Post by Mark Graban of Lean Blog

This morning I ran across this excellent post by Mark Graban on Lean Blog that walks through a short history of how organizations have crafted various reasons for why Lean won't work for them. He starts with the automotive industry and ends with health care - but in each case, the industry leaders adopt lean and the laggards fall behind. Each justification for resistance begins with "we're different . . . . ".

Big Sky uses lean principles for many of our clients, but we too have found that there is significant resistance to overt Lean or Six Sigma projects. Many clients are turned off by what I would call "true believers" -- practitioners who are unwilling to let go of by-the-book implementations of lean or six sigma methodology. The practicioners' or consultants unwillingness to be flexible or adapt their approach to the unique client situation dooms adoption of lean in the organization and everyone suffers are a result.

The bottom line, however, is that I have yet to find a process in any organization that couldn't be improved using at least some of the Lean or Six Sigma toolkit. Every client and every organization really is different -- but that doesn't mean that Lean/Six won't work. It does mean that Lean and Six Sigma must be applied differently. The real finesse comes with educating the organization in a way that isn't threatening or dogmatic, but brings them along at just the right pace.

Thanks to Mark and Lean Blog for a great post that I will surely be sharing with many of my clients.