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
          Twi cards on a cork board

          Understanding the True Value of the TWI...

          office sign that says - Kaizen Promotion Office

          Ask Art: Why Do I Need a...

          • See all Posts
  • Events & Training
        • Leadership Coaching and Custom Training
        • What is a Co-Learning Partnership (CLP)?
        • 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 / Key Traits and Behaviors of Great Lean Consultants

Key Traits and Behaviors of Great Lean Consultants

Key Traits and Behaviors of Great Lean Consultants

By Art Byrne

October 13, 2015

"If you want to accelerate your lean practice I highly recommend reaching out to a good lean consultant to serve as your coach, teacher, trainer," writes Art Byrnes. "Plan on working with these people over the long haul." But how can you tell the good lean consultants from the poor ones? Art has the answer.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPrintComment

Many lean consultants have a terrible reputation. 

And they deserve it.

I know of far too many companies who have hired so-called “lean experts” who really function like traditional strategy or business consultants. They come in, create and share fancy PowerPoint presentations, make a set of general recommendations (many of which the client has already considered), charge an outrageous amount of money and then leave. As a result, many companies feel burned by the experience, and lean itself gets a bad reputation.

It doesn’t have to be this way. I know from experience that great lean consultants take a radically different approach than most clients are familiar with. That’s because their approach is based on the idea that lean is a learn-by-doing exercise. The path to lean practice is nothing more than constant practice. This does need the leadership and management of an experienced sensei overseeing kaizen activities in the beginning.

Back when I was a group executive at Danaher Corporation, we started using Shingijutsu as our lean sensei. They referred to themselves as “insultants.” They badgered us, they pushed us and pointed out all the stupid things we were doing. They were more serious about us improving most of the time than we were.

To be honest they function more like trainers. They teach your people to see the waste and develop approaches to eliminate it.  They are very hands-on, showing your people how to improve and leaving a lot of “homework” to be done by their next visit. We never got a PowerPoint presentation or, in fact, any type of presentation from Shingijutsu. They just spent their time on the shop floor helping our people make things better.

So if you want to accelerate your lean practice I highly recommend reaching out to a good lean consultant to serve as your coach, teacher, trainer. Plan on working with these people over the long haul. We scheduled out their visits one year in advance. We tried to get enough of their time so we could make rapid progress and give as many of our people exposure to their thinking as we could. For example, a good lean sensei can handle four teams of 10 people each per week of consulting. For a small to mid-size company, 12 weeks of sensei-led kaizens per year is a good target to start with. Thus you can get 480 of your people exposed to this intensive learn by doing activity each year.

Recognize that what we are really talking about is changing the thinking of every person in the company. This is not a quick or easy thing to do. It can feel like having someone come in and say that everything that people are doing is no good and has to change—that everything they have learned is wrong. That’s a bit dramatic, and not always true—but the changes required for lean practice are in fact so big that it will feel a bit like this to people. This change, which is emotional and personal as much as it is technical, has to be led from the top down by leaders who the workers trust— to whom they have an attachment.

Great consultants recognize that their role is important, and ongoing; but limited. They are there to teach the operators and support and push the leaders. If they can’t get the full commitment of the company’s leadership then a good lean consultant will “fire” that client. This is something that you will never see a traditional consulting firm do. They are more invested in their own revenue stream than in the improvement progress of their client. The opposite of a lean sensei who is fully vested in the rapid improvement and transformation of his clients.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPrintComment

Written by:

Art Byrne

About Art Byrne

Retired CEO, The Wiremold Company

Author, The Lean Turnaround and The Lean Turnaround Action Guide

Best known as the CEO who led an aggressive lean conversion that increased The Wiremold Company’s enterprise value by 2,467% in just under ten years, Art is the author of the best-selling books The Lean Turnaround and The Lean Turnaround Action Guide. His lean journey began with his first general manager’s job at General Electric Company in January 1982. Later, as group executive of Danaher Corporation, Art worked with Shingijutsu Global Consulting from Nagoya, Japan, all ex-Toyota Corporation experts, to initiate lean at Danaher. 

During his career, the Shingo Institute recognized Art with two awards: it bestowed the Shingo Prize to Wiremold in 1999 while he was CEO and the Shingo Publication Award to The Lean Turnaround Action Guide in 2018. Art is also a member of the AME (American Association of Manufacturing Excellence) Hall of Fame and the IndustryWeek magazine Manufacturing Hall of Fame. In addition, he has written the popular “Ask Art” articles monthly since mid-2013, compiling more than 80 of them for LEI’s Lean Post. 

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
Executive Leadership graphic icon Executive Leadership

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!