Top 10 Ways To Become The Successful Leader After Lean Trainings

Lean thinking is one of the most effective techniques used across different industries. That’s exactly why so many business leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals dedicate a fair amount of time to master lean thinking and become better at what they do. But how can you apply what you learned in practice? Here are the top ten ways to become the successful leader after lean trainings.

#1 Understand What Lean Thinking Is

First and foremost, remind yourself about what lean thinking is. If you understand the essence of lean thinking, you can effectively apply this knowledge to your activities. Here are the main points about lean thinking that you need to understand:

·        Lean thinking is a business methodology that has its roots in Japanese manufacturing techniques – more specifically, it was developed by Toyota. Nowadays, lean thinking is applied in different industries all around the world.

·        The essence of lean thinking is in approaching work in a lean way. Customers are valued above all else. Lean thinking can help companies keep costs low, increase efficiency, and identify wasteful activities among other things.

·        To effectively implement lean thinking, you need to change your mindset as well as the way you approach different business processes.

#2 Work with the Two Pillars of Lean Thinking

Now that you have recalled what lean thinking is like, it’s worth taking some time to recognize the two main pillars of lean thinking which are:

·        Continuous Improvement: You and your team should be actively looking for ways to improve and develop your business. You need to be looking for and creating your own opportunities, initiatives, and innovative projects.

·        Respecting People: It goes without saying that respect within and without your company is essential, but lean thinking prioritizes respect for people like nothing else. You need to practice empathy, support your employees, and value your customers.

#3 Practice the Five Principles of Lean Thinking

In addition to the two main pillars of lean thinking, there are five principles associated with the mindset. They are:

·        Value: You need to understand what your customers value and then provide them with what they are looking for.

·        Value Stream: You need to determine how to achieve the value you identified through a specific process or value stream.

·        Flow: You need to remove any roadblocks standing in the way of your value stream which is why you need to establish the flow in your company through active changes.

·        Pull: You need to keep things going as the flow continues, but customers will already start “pulling” your products from you once they are ready, so they won’t pile up.

·        Perfection: You will reach perfection through implementing the principles of lean thinking in your company, but remember that it is a journey – not a destination.

#4 Train Your Employees in Lean Thinking

So, how exactly can you start introducing lean thinking into the business processes of your company? Well, the first thing you should do is train your employees in lean thinking. Though you are trained already, you can’t do all the work yourself – moreover, it will be ineffective in the long run if you are the only one applying lean thinking in practice.

To train your employees, it’s a good idea to hire a professional coach who specializes in lean thinking. However, you can do the training yourself if you feel confident in your knowledge. Alternatively, you can train your manager and appoint them to transfer this knowledge to the rest of your team through lectures, seminars, and workshops.

#5 Implement Kanban Boards in Your Company

Next, you need to implement Kanban boards in your company. Kanban boards can be incredibly useful when utilized throughout your entire company as they give you more insight into and control over your initiatives and projects. Besides, using Kanban boards can help the different departments in your company to collaborate closer.

In addition to that, Kanban boards provide an added level of transparency as well as accountability. Teams that use Kanban boards will identify both issues and opportunities faster and react to them appropriately. Teach your employees how to use Kanban boards and encourage them to utilize the boards frequently.

#6 Rethink Your Business Processes

Lean thinking is never about targeting people but rather targeting the processes these people are involved in. This is why you need to rethink your business processes and analyze your strategy to implement the necessary changes within your company.

Isaiah Martins, an expert from the top rated essay writing service site, explains, “When you start targeting people instead of actual issues within your company, you will start losing any kind of sense of direction that lean thinking is meant to provide you with. If there is something wrong with what an employee of yours does, you need to teach them how to make it right – not fire them just because they made a mistake.”

#7 Respect and Support Your People

As mentioned earlier, respect for people is one of the two main pillars of lean thinking. This is why you need to respect and support your people while also valuing your customers. In other words, you pretty much need to internalize respect for people and become a more empathetic and thoughtful person all-around.

Lean thinking is about changing your mindset which is why you need to reevaluate yourself as well. Ask yourself questions that will challenge your beliefs and arrive at conclusions that will help you become more respectful and attentive about the people around you.

#8 Share Your Knowledge with Others

While training your employees in lean thinking is definitely important, you should also go beyond that and share your knowledge with as many people as possible. Indeed, educating your own customers about lean thinking can be quite beneficial to you. This way, you will be more transparent with them about your business while also showing them how much you value your customers.

In addition to that, you might also want to partner with businesses similar to yours to help train employees in those companies in lean thinking as well. By continuing partnerships with these brands, you will be able to prevent malicious tactics from competitors while actually working with them to maximize success for everyone.

#9 Celebrate Victories Both Big and Small

Lean thinking definitely requires a lot of effort from you which is why it can be quite exhausting to implement in your company and sustain long-term. This is precisely why you should definitely celebrate all the victories you and your team have, both big and small.

#10 Keep Learning and Developing Yourself

Last but not least, never stop learning and developing yourself as well as your team and your company. Remember that lean thinking is about constant development and improvement, and its fifth principle of perfection is not a destination but rather a journey. This is exactly why you should always strive for better things.

Make new goals, accept new challenges, find new opportunities, and start new initiatives. Grow, expand, and develop your business. Upgrade your employees’ qualifications and continue learning yourself.

All in all, learning what lean thinking is will only be the first step for you. The next thing you should do is start applying your knowledge in practice and innovating your business and your team to achieve better performance than ever before.

About the Author: Anna likes writing from her university years. When she graduated from the Interpreters Department, she realized that translation was not so interesting, as writing was. She trains her skills now working as a freelance writer on different topics. Always she does her best in the posts and articles.