There are many lean consultants out there, and their job seems pretty clear-cut. You bring them in, they answer your questions, and you carry out their advice. But if that’s your philosophy, you’re sabotaging your own lean transformation, according to LEI Senior Coach Mark Reich.

Consultants can indeed provide the advice you need to further your continuous improvement efforts, but only to a point. If you’re assigning your consultant or an operational excellence team to take responsibility for the transformation, you’re crippling a key requirement for success: developing problem-solving abilities in leadership.

In this 10-minute Lean Talks video, inspired by a true story from his tenure at the Toyota Production System Support Center, Mark explains a critical misconception about the roles of consultants and leaders. Listen to him now as he recounts how a plant manager learned to change the way she managed and led.