Lean Quote: Working Together is Success

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is process; working together is success" — Henry Ford

As an organizational change agent. I have assisted in the creation and development of teams at different levels in the organization. As a Lean Champion I have trained many teams. I have also been asked to help teams that were in trouble.  My passion has always been to work with teams – as a leader, coach, neutral facilitator, and contributing team member. I’d like to share a few simple but powerful personal lesson that I have learned over time:

Change is constant. Constant change makes progress possible.

The needs of the team are the needs of the organization.

Researching first prevents redoing later.

You need to be “alive” for lifelong learning.

Hear it, learn it, do it.

Improvement tools help every kind of team.

Creativity means moving out of the box.

Committee assessments kill innovative ideas.

Tools do not solve problems, people do.

Team recognition and rewards is part of the process.

Building effective teams is an important ingredient in developing a continuous improvement process for your company. Generating creativity and innovation by linking together employees from various functional departments – creating cross-functional teams – will assure you even higher degree of success. And sustaining these teams with policies that reward them to keep your teams dynamic, fresh, and effective.