Chapter 23. Go see, ask why, show respect
The best way to help your team serve their clients better, and to achieve and sustain a culture of continuous improvement, is to start by showing them deep respect.
How can you best show respect? Consider Jim Womack’s excellent advice in his collection of essays Gemba Walks (Lean Enterprise Institute, 2011).
You do this by challenging their thinking about the current work process, asking lots of open, probing questions to uncover the root causes of current impediments. No process is ever perfect, but you can focus on helping the team to discover what its key constraint is at any particular moment, and then devise countermeasures to remedy it.
The key constraint is the area in which an improvement will show the biggest bang for the buck when measured across the entire system, improving the overall flow of the work process, and likely reducing cycle time and waste, with less overburden or absurdity involved.
By engaging your team in problem-solving, you show them that you choose not to attempt to solve the problem alone. You trust them to be best positioned to come up with the most promising improvement ideas, as they’re closest to the work being done and have all the facts in hand. As a team leader, you truly respect your team’s knowledge and their dedication to finding the best answer.