Lean Enterprise Institute Logo
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Cart (0)
  • Account
  • Search
Lean Enterprise Institute Logo
  • Explore Lean
        • What is Lean?
        • The Lean Transformation Framework
        • A Brief History of Lean
        • Lexicon Terms
        • Topics to explore
          • Operations
          • Lean Product & Process Development
          • Administration & Support
          • Problem-Solving
          • Coaching
          • Executive Leadership
          • Line Management
  • The Lean Post
        • Subscribe to see exclusive content
          • Subscribe
        • Featured posts
          office sign that says - Kaizen Promotion Office

          Ask Art: Why Do I Need a...

          WLEI Podcast with author Paulo Savaget of The Four Workarounds

          Strategies for Tackling Complex Problems: a Conversation...

          • See all Posts
  • Events & Training
        • Custom Coaching and Learning Experiences
        • Co-Learning Partnerships
        • Forms and Templates
        • Featured learning
          • Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata Remotely

            April 10, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • Developing Structured Problem-Solving and Leadership Skills using A3 Thinking: Managing to Learn Remotely

            April 17, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • Hoshin Kanri Remotely: Aligning and Executing on Your Organizational Objectives

            April 21, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • Designing the Future Remotely: A Lean Product Development Immersive Learning Experience

            April 24, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • See all Events
  • Store
        • Shopping Cart
        • Featured books
          Managing to Learn: Using the A3 management process

          Managing to Learn: Using the A3 management process

          Learning to See

          Learning to See

          • See all Books
  • About Us
        • Our people
          • Senior Advisors and Staff
          • Faculty
          • Board of Directors
        • Contact Us
        • Lean Global Network
        • Press Releases
        • In the News
        • Careers
        • About us

The Lean Post / Articles / It’s About the Tools, Not the Terms

It’s About the Tools, Not the Terms

Coaching

It’s About the Tools, Not the Terms

By John McCullough

July 20, 2016

"I’ve never been a big fan of lean lingo," says John McCullough of Crayola. "It may sound expert-like, but I’ve always found its use to do more harm than good." Read more to learn John's experiences with the pitfalls of lean lingo and what his preferred approach is now.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPrintComment

I’ve never been a big fan of lean lingo. It may sound expert-like, but I’ve always found its use to do more harm than good.

One example that I have witnessed firsthand was during a checkup visit to a manual assembly department in which I had helped implement the beginnings of a lean management system. I worked hard in implementing visual management, problem solving and coaching the front line leaders in recognizing waste, problem solving, and the concept of single piece flow.

During the visit to the floor, a supervisor came to me, distraught. She said that they hadn’t been getting the results they had seen in previous weeks. In her estimation, she was doing all the right things: observing work, recognizing wastes, problem solving, etc…but the workers just weren’t very good. She said, with irritation dripping in every word, “I’m always telling them, no, not like that, single piece flow! But they just don’t listen! They were trained on it, they know this stuff!”

The reality was that her team did NOT understand the term “single-piece flow” from their training session. They were not ignoring her, they simply didn’t know what she meant, and the result was that she mistakenly concluded her people were not very good.

Does that sound familiar? Time and time again, we as lean practitioners struggle to develop structured problem solving across an organization. We see people reluctant to problem solve or, when we do see a brave few step forward, struggle and stumble their way through their first attempts. I have trained, coached, led, recognized and rewarded people through many problem-solving efforts but I still see otherwise motivated and talented employees intimidated by it.

I believe problem solving at its core is something that is natural, intuitive and something that most people do to some extent in their everyday lives with no knowledge of lean. We have been problem solving for millennia. Imagine being the person who solved the problem of keeping warm in freezing temperatures (countermeasure: fire) or the person who solved the problem of wasting too much energy moving things (countermeasure: the wheel or the pulley or the lever). Illustrating another point, these are problems that we continue to work on (countermeasure: passive solar heating, countermeasure: robotics) – a testament to our species’ natural inclination towards continuous improvement.

So if humans are natural problem solvers, why do organizations across the globe struggle to implement structured problem solving?

The success of every lean methodology is multifaceted, but for structured problem solving there is one detail in particular that I find is often overlooked and prevents it from flourishing across the organization – A3 report language.

Typical problem solving reports use steps like “problem statement,” “root cause,” “countermeasure,” and “standardize.” Although these words are less foreign than “kaizen” (continuous improvement) or “gemba” (literally: the real place), they can best be described as technical terms, words that are part of the lean language. At some point in time, every individual in a lean organization will be looking to the A3 report as a guide. The terms are not easy to remember, not easy to relate to, and thus not easy to embed in an individual’s thinking.

The possible reasons we use some of these lean terms, myself included, are many. It could be because many of us come from an engineering background where technical terms are common. It could be because lean was developed in a Japanese company. On a much bigger scale, we may use a whole plethora of business lingo to fuel our egos; trying to appear more competent or intelligent with our peers. Or maybe we just do it because that’s what others do or that’s what we were taught. As John Shook writes in Managing to Learn, “The story and format of the A3 should be determined by the specific answers or context of the questions as they relate to the problem or project.” Lean lingo is irrelevant.

When it comes time for a novice problem solver to write down their work, sections titled “develop countermeasures” and “root cause” do not easily convey to them the thought process we are expecting them to follow. A good process is one that a trained person can execute reliably; a great process is one that anyone can execute reliably. Many companies during a lean transformation, my own included, have spent considerable time and resources in training people in problem solving. At the same time, people love to point to training as a problem. It’s not long enough, it’s not often enough, its content is wrong, it’s delivered inconsistently, trainee’s not paying attention….the list goes on. I am not at all opposed to training but we are doing a disservice to those we teach by requiring them to learn and speak the “lingo.” Lean methodologies are not secret techniques, yet it seems as though we use secret words to go along with it.

The fact remains, using the simplest words possible to convey meaning, even at the cost of using more of them, will make your subject accessible to the broadest group possible. If we believe problem solving should be inclusive across the organization, and that problem solving is a natural human process that just needs to be developed into a standard set of steps, then we need to disregard terminology. We need to use words that are easy for everyone to understand if we want everyone to adopt lean thinking.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPrintComment

Written by:

John McCullough

About John McCullough

Operations Manager, Crayola

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

jpw fund for the numbers

Coaching

Assessing a New Way to Develop More Lean Thinkers

Article by Patricia Panchak

a group of people holding large puzzle pieces

Coaching

How to Get the Most from Your A3 Thinking and Practice

Article by Lean Leaper

Students Take the Lead in JPW Fund Internship

Coaching

Students Take the Lead in JPW Fund Internship

Article by Patricia Panchak

Related books

The Gold Mine (Audio CD)

The Gold Mine (Audio CD)

by Freddy Ballé and Michael Ballé

graphical user interface

Four Types of Problems / Managing to Learn Set

by John Shook and Art Smalley

Related events

April 10, 2023 | Online Live Course

Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata Remotely

Learn more

April 17, 2023 | Online Live Course

Developing Structured Problem-Solving and Leadership Skills using A3 Thinking: Managing to Learn Remotely

Learn more

Explore topics

Coaching graphic icon Coaching
Line Management graphic icon Line Management

Subscribe to get the very best of lean thinking delivered right to your inbox

Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

©Copyright 2000-2023 Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
Lean Enterprise Institute, the leaper image, and stick figure are registered trademarks of Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Learn More. ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!