Mike Rother: Look before you lean By Mike Rother, Author of Toyota Kata and co-author of Learning to See - Last updated: Friday, December 18, 2009 - Save & Share - Leave a comment

Thank you for the question Rob.  But, boy, couldn’t we have started with an easier one?!  Not only a classic conundrum, but also two questions in one:

• How to avoid “lean” becoming ruthless cost cutting?
• How to get people to embrace the philosophy?

The easiest and, who knows, maybe best answer could be to just let things run their course.  Over time natural selection among firms will sort things out.  Not a very satisfying response for those who would like to see how the movie plays out.

The other response that comes to mind is that we have simply misunderstood what Toyota is doing.  Understandably — but unfortunately — when we started investigating Toyota 20 years ago we looked at Toyota’s outcomes and visible factory practices and labeled that “lean production“.  This is what we have been trying to implement, and what can lead to lean as ruthless cost cutting.  We missed Toyota’s less visible thinking, intentions and behavior routines.  However, we are now in the process of rectifying that oversight because our comprehension is deepening.

What is Toyota really doing?  Is it simply cost cutting?  Here’s a clue:

• When Toyota is able to reduce the number of people working in a process, they take out the best operator and promote him or her.
• Toyota corporate guidance in the current harsh economic climate is:  “No permanent layoffs of full-time associates at any location in the world.”

We tend to manage with an outcome-oriented mindset, while Toyota strives to strengthen its business via a development-oriented mindset.  If you take Toyota’s approach, an approach that emphasizes learning and adaptation, then the greatest asset is the associates of the company.  That’s a different lean.

Mike