Roles and Responsibilities - Story of Everybody

Here is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

"There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done."

When working with teams, I always make roles and responsibilities (R&R) explicit. A tool that helps in defining R&R's is the RACI Chart. It defines who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed for specific activities. In Dutch VERI is used as abbreviation for : Verantwoordelijk, Eindverantwoordelijk, Raadplegen, Informeren.

Four step check-list to enable behavioural change

I use this powerful four item check-list whenever challenged with changing people's behaviour.

1. Do people understand what is expected of them and why the change is necessary ?

2. Does the manager lead by example and demonstrate the new behaviour?

3. Do people have the capabilities required for the new behaviour?

4. Are structures and systems supporting the new behaviour.
E.g. Processes and procedures, compensation plans, KPI's, IT systems

Lean : What's in a name ?

Recently I attended a Lean Symposium. Contrary to many ( more expensive ) lean conferences, this conference attracted a diverse group of participants. E.g. shopfloor associates, HR professionals, consultants, entrepreneurs.

The power and pitfall of the terminology "lean" is that it attracts a wide range of people with different backgrounds and agenda's. What struck me is that many people have a very different understanding about lean. During the first general session, a discussion erupted on " the definition of lean ". Here are some examples :

Lean tooling in a Six Sigma program context : A presenter of a company using LSS, stressed that "lean" in no way was related to "developping people to their potential".

Only bottum up - power to the shopfloor : "We talk here about how management should implement lean, but management is overhead. Lean should start from continuous improvement on the shop flow"

The production lead time perspective : The essence of lean is reducting the lead time from customer order to delivery.

Branding : Another startling example is one of an entrepreneur in HR services: "Lean is just common sense. For me it's just adding another label for my services to address a new customer segment"

Form this confusion of tongues I learned, that to properly reflect my school of thought, I should use the definition "Lean, based on the Toyota Way" instead of just "Lean".

Towards Lean

Lean, based on the Toyota Way, is the first truely integrated and holistic management system I have encountered. I'm on a journey of continuous learning and improvement, in search of understanding and practicing lean. In my belief, a company or a person never achieves the state of "Lean" or perfection. Hence we will always remain moving "Towards" Lean.

This informal Blog will act as my training notebook; containing both lessons learned and making my insights explicit.

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Towards : 1] in the direction of, 2] in relation to, 3] as a contribution to