The power of successfully implementing Lean in your organisation is motivation. It is important to inspire your employees. This actually may sound easier than it can be. Challenges arise in a culture of continuous improvement. The Lean Team Coach might be of great importance to reach the goals you want to. But how?
The Lean mindset
The Lean philosophy improves organisation by focusing on the customer. It is all about maximising customer value in processes. However, we do not define what is and what is not important. Our customers do. By taking into account what their requirements are, organisations should structure their processes. And do not forget your employees are the people with knowledge about how to do so. Because who knows better how to fulfill certain tasks in processes than those who have been doing so for years? However, it might be hard to enthuse and motivate your employees. This is where the Lean Team Coach might come in handy.
The role of the Lean Team Coach
Most of all, the Lean Team Coach focuses on improving collaboration.
Most organisations are divided in departments. The teams in these departments consist of employees with comparable tasks. Think of IT, human resources et cetera. However, this manner of organising companies leads to employees experiencing responsibility for their tasks instead of the entire organisation. And this results in competition between departments, instead of collaboration.
If you want to go fast, go alone
If you want to go far, go together!
– James Andeau –
Joint understanding
The Lean Team Coach helps teams to create insight in the organisation. By showing their influence they might be able to see the bigger picture. Employees are notified and know each other’s expectations. They then become able to create value for each other. What do your employees find important? How do they see quality and customer value? This will differ per team!
Structure en regularity
The Lean Team Coach plays a role in disciplinary work with Lean. He or she makes sure Lean stays within the focus of an organisation and motivates employees to begin with small steps to create structure in their work. This can be done by implementing day- or weekstarts.
Such a coach makes a difference…
…by strengthening the power of improvement that an organisation already possesses. The way in which processes have been structured often do not meet the customer’ requirements. In our experience, employees are not facilitated enough. They might be frustrated, because improvement seems unreachable. The Lean Team Coach supports the cycle of improvement and looks for a connection to be able to take the next step on your own organisational Lean journey.
