Lean is for you!

Have you heard the term "Lean" and dismissed it because you’re not in manufacturing? You might know it originated at Toyota and think, "Well, I’m not making cars—how does this apply to me?" Maybe you make or provide something—beer, bagels, or bespoke services—but not in a high-volume, standardized way. Or perhaps you work in sales, accounting, or a creative role and assume Lean has nothing to do with your job.

I’m here to tell you: Lean is for you. Whether you’re in business or non-profit, no matter the industry, if you serve customers, if you produce any kind of outcome, Lean principles can help you work smarter and improve results—and maybe create a little joy in your daily work.

Lean Makes Work More Human

Image from Toyota Motor Corporation official global website.

Often when a corporate bigwig or salesperson says they can “improve” your process, they mean by adding complexity, making you work harder, or even removing people from the process altogether. But true Lean improvement is built on the fundamental principle of respect for people. It’s about making work easier, safer, more effective, and more rewarding for those doing it. My ultimate aim on any Lean engagement isn’t actually to achieve the commonly-cited results of a faster, less error-prone process (although that is a pleasant side effect!) – it’s to make the work “more human.”[1]

Consider the origins of Lean. When I teach Lean Fundamentals, I love asking, "Does anyone know what Toyota made before cars?" Most people don’t—which I got a real kick out of when training a yarn producer client last year. The answer? Looms.

In the late 1800s, Toyota founder Sakichi Toyoda was focused on alleviating the suffering of (mostly women) weavers, who were working their fingers to the bone using manual looms to make cloth for their families. He created and continually refined power-driven looms to make weaving less punishing, producing a more consistent product for customers with half the effort.[2]

This triple benefit—improving the experience for workers, customers, and the company—is still at the heart of Lean today. We can make more with less, not because we’ve extracted this “extra” from the people at the expense of their physical or mental health, but because we find ways to innovate the process itself.

Lean Principles Apply Everywhere

While there is a lot of technology muddying the picture these days, business at its core is still the same—it’s one group of humans (the employees), creating value for another group of humans (the customers). Human beings have always made things to solve problems for human beings, whether a simple woven basket to carry water or an advanced semiconductor to carry data. Lean is about this very human endeavor.

One of the core principles of Lean is creating value for the customer. While that might seem straightforward for businesses selling tangible products, Lean challenges us to define "customer" more broadly. Your customer is the next person who receives your work—whether that’s an external buyer, a colleague down the hall, or a department or constituent that relies on your data. No matter your role, you can improve how value flows to your customers. You might ask the beneficiary of your work, “what would have made that more useful for you?” or, “is there anything I can do to make your job easier?” This humble, service-oriented mindset is what provides the creative impetus to improve.

Another key principle is always strive to improve. While many companies conflate “kaizen” with a 5-day workshop, the deepest embodiment of this principle is a personal earnestness about making change for the better every day.[3] Interestingly, Sakichi Toyoda was inspired by the 1859 book Self-Help, which chronicled inventors working to improve humanity. Lean thinking carries that same spirit: small, thoughtful improvements that compound over time, making work better for everyone.

Lean is for You

If you’re producing an outcome—any outcome—you have processes. Our processes, whether physical or mental, must be crafted in a way that works for the people doing them. Lean thinking can help you eliminate waste, reduce frustration, and deliver better results. It’s a universally applicable, fundamentally humane approach to improving work. Lean gives us the methods to harness human energy, intelligence, and creativity to do whatever we set our minds to.

Want to learn more? Let’s talk about how Lean can help you and your team work better—without working harder.

[1] See the work of Renee Smith at https://www.makeworkmorehuman.com/. Her talk at a Lean conference I attended circa 2016 indelibly marked this phrase on me.

[2] Liker, Jeffrey, The Toyota Way, McGraw-Hill, 2004.

[3] See “The Real Meaning of Kaizen” by Katie Anderson, https://kbjanderson.com/the-real-meaning-of-kaizen/.