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Introduction

Why this Book?

Another book about Lean Six Sigma?

Ah but this is different, it's about leadership and it is definitely not a technical book about the dark arts of black belts or advanced statistics. We hope you'll find it helpful no matter what kind of role you are in. We hope it will make you think that maybe there is more to this than you had thought. We hope you can put some of the ideas into practice. Come and join the party!

Let's start by trying out one of our favourite Lean Six Sigma tools, 'negative brainstorming' on that very subject - leadership.

If you haven't discovered it yet, this 'tool' (as Lean Six Sigma practitioners like to call techniques which can be employed to help facilitate workshops and the like) is really good fun - and it works.

So how do you use negative brainstorming?

In our experience there are two main steps. Firstly, grab a flipchart and pen, and say to the group 'Okay, so describe what good leadership looks like.'

This is a tough question and is likely to stall quickly, so before they get bogged down, say 'Let's turn the question around, what are the characteristics of really bad leadership?'

This inevitably creates a few chuckles around the room and immediately engages everyone including the negative diehards. Everyone seems to know what BAD leadership is like and they will have no trouble describing examples of it.

Here are a few examples from workshops we have run with senior executives:

• Being a poor communicator
• Dictating everything from above
• Not involving people in decision making
• Saying one thing and doing another
• Rubbishing a company programme
• Not living the company values
• Pushing blame down
• Jumping to solutions without any real facts.

You can add more to this list as there are sure to be plenty of ideas.

You will have real difficulty writing down their ideas fast enough and keeping up with them, so the second approach is to use Post-it notes and ask them to write down each idea on a separate note. Then you put them all onto a wall or flip chart. Personally, we both like getting them to shout out ideas as it creates a real buzz and it's clear who is participating.

Once they have filled up at least one flip chart sheet, you say 'Okay well we seem to be pretty good at this! However, what we really want is "excellent leadership" so let's look at our collected notes and see if they can give us ideas by turning the negatives into positives.'

So, work down the list and literally change the negatives into positives.

Looking at the list above, this might become.

• Being an excellent communicator
• Not being a dictator
• Involving people in decision making
• Doing what you say you will do
• Supporting company programmes
• Living the company values
• Not pushing the blame down!
• Not jumping to solutions without getting the facts.

You can continue with your list of negative ideas, turning each one around.

The discussion as a team is helpful, engaging and we have found this one simple 'tool' can really make a difference in getting teams involved and opening up thinking. We probably all know somewhere deep in our minds what the characteristics of good leadership look like but simply reversing the question seems to help dig out that thinking and gets a serious discussion going in a way which is more enjoyable. Maybe it is because we're Brit and we are pretty expert at being negative about just about everything given half a chance; but underneath it we genuinely do want to be good leaders ourselves and we want to work with good leaders too.

Okay so negative brainstorming, it's a great tool, try it in your next team meeting on 'How can we run the worst team meeting ever!?'

Our experience with teams is that within 15 minutes you can run the negative idea generation and turn these ideas around into positive thoughts, create a 'guidelines for effective team meetings' flip chart which you can then use in future at YOUR team meetings. The team will buy into it too. After all, they were involved in its development.

I (Martin) wanted to start by illustrating that when you get under the somewhat weird and off-putting name, 'Lean Six Sigma', it may surprise you. If you can get beyond the odd name and any residual stigma or preconceived ideas you might have about Six Sigma being just about super high levels of quality, then there is a lot 'under the bonnet' of Lean Six Sigma which any manager or leader will find more than just useful.

With so many books written on the subject it may seem rather crazy to write another. However, from my experience working with many executive teams, what managers or leaders want to know is a little different from the rather technical descriptions that are covered in the traditional books on the subject.

I am often Asked the Question 'What Exactly is Lean Six Sigma?'

Over the last few years it's come to mean a number of things but, in reality, most organisations use it as a tried and tested approach to implement continuous improvement. In Catalyst, we use the name to encompass a wide range of methods, tools and techniques which have their origins in different histories and backgrounds. This range is developing and changing over time as more and more organisations build ever increasing experiences of using the approach in very different situations.

The latest most successful implementations of Lean Six Sigma - or whatever you want to call it (more on this later) - bring together thinking, principles, approaches, tools and techniques from the following:

• Lean thinking
• Six Sigma
• Change Management
• Agile and, most recently,
• 'Digital Transformation'.

Lean Thinking

Let's take a look at some of the background, starting with Lean. If you'd like a serious grounding in Lean and Six Sigma then pick up a copy of Lean Six Sigma for Dummies. When we wrote that book we wanted to 'demystify' the approach and make it accessible to everyone. We are going to paraphrase some of the basics here with the emphasis on the leadership aspects behind the approach.

When people talk about the roots of Lean thinking, the word 'Toyota' is often quoted. In fact, Toyota call their system 'The Toyota Production System'. The concept of the word 'Lean' goes back to 1987, when John Krafcik who is now the CEO of Waymo (including the Google driverless car project) worked as a researcher in his earlier career at MIT. He was looking for a label for the Toyota Production System (TPS) phenomenon that described what the system did. On a whiteboard, he wrote the performance attributes of the Toyota system compared with traditional mass production.

TPS:

• Needed less human effort to design products and services.
• Required less investment for a given amount of production capacity.
• Created products with fewer delivered defects.
• Used fewer suppliers.
• Went from concept to launch, order to delivery and problem to repair in less time and with less human effort.
• Needed less inventory at every process step.
• Caused fewer employee injuries.

Krafcik commented:

It needs less of everything to create a given amount of value, so let's call it 'Lean'.

The Lean thinking world grew rapidly with the focus on reducing non-value-adding activities or waste. The Japanese word is Muda.

But, to sustain success, organisations need a lot more than knowledge about the tools and techniques. It all boils down to leadership. After all, it would not have taken root in Toyota if it hadn't had strong leadership commitment to create the environment needed to embed the principles and thinking into the organisation as a system. As Toyota chairperson Fujio Cho says:

The key to the Toyota way is not any of the individual elements but all the elements together as a system. It must be practised every day in a very consistent manner - not in spurts. We place the highest value on taking action and implementation. By improvement based on action, one can rise to the higher level of practice and knowledge.

As we said in Lean Six Sigma for Dummies: the system focuses on training to develop exceptional people and teams that follow the company's philosophy to gain exceptional results. Consider the following:

• Toyota creates a strong and stable culture wherein values and beliefs are widely shared and lived out over many years.
• Toyota works constantly to reinforce that culture.
• Toyota involves cross-functional teams to solve problems.
• Toyota keeps teaching individuals how to work together.

Being Lean means involving people in the process, equipping them to be able, and feel able, to challenge and improve their processes and the way they work. Never waste the creative potential of people!

All of the above has implications for leadership. It won't just happen without commitment and 'commitment' alone isn't enough either - you will need to stir it into action.

There is a lot more to Lean thinking but these...