To create continuous improvement, it is necessary to involve your employees. You will not succeed if you push the improvements through orders from the top. This chapter discusses both Lean management and elements from other management theories.
Involving your employees requires a different management style from the one we know best, namely the hierarchical.
Competencies Depend on Management
“The employees who ‘cannot figure out anything’ at work can both be football coaches, build carports and repair cars in their spare time. It tells you something about management at the workplace”.
Henrik Danielsen, Patriotisk Selskab
How do I motivate my employees, is one of the questions that managers often ask. It is not that easy, you see. You may think that the employees are the ones who must change.
There are actually many challenges with “uncommitted employees” who “do not show an interest” in the job. The solution, however, is not that the employees “must pull themselves together”, but that the management style they are met with must be changed. People who are ordered to go from A to B cannot commit very much to that. If they do not get the opportunity to see the connection and influence the process, the job will not be inspiring.
Involvement is Crucial
At a farm, which, among other things, produced groundnuts, the manager was really good at making schedules and visually showing how the standards were at the farm. One day he had made a new standard for driving the truck.
He put up great posters and was very pleased. But soon he realized that the employees did not comply with the new standard at all.
We discussed why they did not comply with it. He had a hard time realizing that employees do not take ownership until they are involved in discussing and setting up the standards.
5.1.1 Traditional, Modern Management and Lean Management
With Lean management you look more across processes, you work in teams and you communicate in feedback loops with your immediate superior. In Lean, the employees need to be involved, and the best way for the manager to do that is to take a step back. This does not mean that the manager is invisible, but the management style is different.
Traditional management is often defined as management that is largely based on orders, rules and control. With traditional, modern management, we mean a management style that is controlled from the top but whose intention also is to commit and motivate the employees, work with values and so forth.
That management style is probably the most common in companies today – also in agriculture. The top management makes strategic plans and sets performance goals that employees are informed about and measured by.
Henrik Bak, who heads Arla’s internal Lean office, Global Lean Management, says that Arla makes a dedicated effort to Lean train managers and middle managers. “For many years, managers have learned that a “true leader” leads the way, takes initiative, shows authority, makes decisions and so on. That is how a real leader appears, and that is also true of managers and middle managers in agriculture. Lean management, however, requires managers to step back – and that is hard for them”, says Henrik Bak.
5.1.1.1 A Developing Management Concept
Lean came into existence in the industrial society. It is created by the curiosity and involvement of the employees – focusing on increased productivity through continuous improvement. It required a management style different from the one used at the assembly line. But focus was on the operational aspect – on the processes. There were no tactical and strategical perspectives in the beginning.
Since then, Lean has been further developed into more refined use, involving several other management methods. Thanks to that, Lean is used today in manufacturing, service, public administration and other industries. We can use Lean, although we have now passed from industrial society to knowledge society with a big focus on strategy.
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Traditional, Modern Management |
Lean Management |
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We look up to top management. |
We focus on the customer. |
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Top-down management authority. |
Management responsibility runs across the organization. |
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Middle management is measured by various target figures at the end of a period such as key performance indicators (KPIs) and budget follow-up. |
Middle management is measured by process status with rapid feedback loops. “If the process is right, the result will be right”. |
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Management is convinced that a properly implemented plan will produce the wanted results. |
An understanding that all plans are experiments and that they can only be evaluated through a problem-solving method like the PDCA (Plan–Do–Check–Act). |
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Decisions are made far from where value is created. Decisions are made on the basis of analysis data. |
Decisions are made where value is created, e.g. in the barn with the employees. “Go and see, ask why, show respect”. |
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Consultants, often only with a short-term contact with the middle manager, make standardization of procedures, and they are rarely revised. |
The middle manager, in cooperation with the employee team, makes standardization of procedures, and they are revised often. |
Lean – Desire, Creativity and Experiments
The main driving force in Lean is not productivity, efficiency, profit, quality, prosperity and so on; it is people’s intrinsic desire to explore the world and challenge themselves and others. Lean can never be achieved through goals, management, duty and so on, but can only mobilized through trust, conversation, knowledge, desire, inspiration and space for creativity and experimentation and so forth.
Preben Melander
CBS - Copenhagen Business School
Today, it is discussed whether it is possible to handle future demands with Lean. Some skeptics mention that the eternal pursuit of waste has resulted in too small a buffer – too little “fat”. It may also be risky if some devices are only produced one place in the world. Then production becomes very vulnerable.
Three Things Lean Leaders Do
• Make each employee identify waste, solve problems and improve his/her job.
• Ensure that each employee’s job creates value for the customer and the company.
• Ensure time and space for continuous improvements.
Other skeptics mention that a management concept that is so focused on efficient production cannot handle a market driven by emotions and desire for experiences. Agriculture must also be aware of that risk. We think rationally and are focused on doing things in the best and professionally most correct way. We risk underestimating a customer demand based on emotions – which we may not understand and do not really recognize.
Therefore, it is not enough that the company is controlled by process optimization. It is necessary for the company to develop – also strategically. Lean is therefore not a complete recipe, but a concept with associated tools that will still develop.
5.1.2 Motivation Requires Trust and Respect
In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey describes a breakthrough he had with his seven-year-old son. He wanted to teach the boy to take ownership of a task. The task was to be in charge of the lawn and make sure it was tidy. For a long time, he tried with different methods. He carefully showed his son how to do it and trained him to tell the difference between the right way and the wrong way, and he was close to tempting him with money and scolding him as nothing really helped.
The breakthrough came when he started listening and recognized that his son found the task difficult. When the boy understood that his father trusted him, something happened. The son asked, learned and took responsibility for the task. The lawn was tidied, watered and mowed all through the summer.
Another important aspect of creating motivation is respect for other people.
Respect is close to recognition; they are two sides of the same coin. If you do not respect another person, you cannot motivate him/her.
Try to think of situations from your own life, where you have been highly motivated by another person. It was probably a person that you appreciated and who respected you. Otherwise, you would have noticed it, and then you would not have liked to do anything for that person.
Very quickly, we notice whether we are met with respect. We read the body language, eyes, facial expressions and tone of voice of people close to us – especially if these people mean something to us. We can feel whether a person finds us OK or the opposite.
If you are with someone who does not respect you or think you are OK, it feels uncomfortable.
Four Questions About Your Management Style
Reflection for you who want Lean:
• How do you usually react when your employees tell you about problems in production?
• Which tools do you use for problem solving?
• Which model do you use to follow up on the changes you have made?
• Which system do you use to distribute employee time between development and daily tasks?
Motivation Went to Zero
A man was employed at a farm. There was a lot of focus on doing a good job and keeping everything tidy. He was keen on coming out of it well and constantly scanned the owner's body language to check if he did things right or wrong.
“One day”, he said, “I had finished my work before the others had finished theirs, and actually, I could just have left. Instead, I went to the others and was just about to take a broom to help them finish. It would give me the opportunity to show initiative and a sense of solidarity with my colleagues, I thought.
I did not make it before the owner shouted: ‘Grab a broom and help us finish!’ Boo! I did it of course, but it was with a completely different feeling. He did not trust me, and my motivation went completely to zero”.
That is a fact that is underestimated by many managers and employers.
Respect goes both ways. Your employees must also respect you if you are to succeed in motivating them to perform their best. And this applies to both professional and human respect.
That means that you must be fair and professional.
Your Body Language Gives You Away
A farmer found it difficult to get his employees to take initiative by themselves. To him they seemed idle as soon as he turned his back. Therefore, he considered introducing PBR (payment by result) or a bonus system to create motivation.
He was basically of the opinion that foreign employees only came to make money and were not interested in doing a good job. “They do not care at all”, he said, clearly annoyed and angry. “I have to stand over them all the time, otherwise they don’t do anything properly”.
He was asked how the employees reacted to his opinion of them. “I don’t tell them, of course”, he answered. He clearly was not aware that his body language gave him away long before he opened his mouth. You cannot motivate people whom you think are lazy and indifferent.
If there are things that you are incapable of, you must acknowledge it, don’t just pretend.
5.1.2.1 How to Motivate
1. Show the Employees Respect – And Get Theirs. People follow great leaders because they want to – not because they are told to do so. There are many ways to get people to follow you, but a good way to start is to show them respect. On top of that, you must be skilled and professional.
2. Set High Goals for the Team. It is much more fun and motivating to strive to obtain the highest yield than to go from average to +5%.
3. Make Tasks Meaningful. Tell your employees why you do things the way you do, so that everybody understands it. Provide them with the professional background for doing so. Commit the employees by including their proposals and ideas.
4. Go For Increased Commitment. People usually do what is expected of them. But they choose for themselves whether they will go to great lengths and do the exceptional. You must make them. Show that you trust them, and give them ownership of their tasks.
5. Use a Visible Scoreboard. Visible performance goals are motivating if employees can influence them. Choose some targets that can be affected daily. Make sure that there is a culture of continuous improvement.
6. Make a Good Team Fabulous. If your team thinks they are doing OK, you risk not developing anymore. You must constantly challenge, ask questions and benchmark to reach new heights.
7. Talk About the Efforts of Your Employees. Do not take the efforts of your employees for granted. Talk about them, and mention their achievements as often as you can.
8. Avoid Being Negative. Even though you do not always choose the challenges you meet, you always choose how to react to them. If you are negative, your people will be negative, and then you get nowhere.
9. Immediately React to Poor Performance. If you catch an employee performing below level, you must react immediately to reach the level you want. You cannot do that the day after, and certainly not at a joint meeting later.
10. Make Time and Space for Coaching. Teach yourself to coach to develop your employees in regard to knowledge, skills, attitudes and performance. Use coaching as a tool in your daily life as a leader.
Make Goals Specific – and Obtainable
Goals must be broken down into sub-goals to motivate. For instance, it does not help on the football ground if the scoreboard says: We are heading for Champion’s League! The scoreboard must show specific numbers, that is whether we are behind or in front – and by how much.
Respect – Something You Are Worthy Of
An employee had great commitment. He never left the barn until everything was in its place, and he made it a point of honor that production was running optimally. He was very good at taking care of the animals.
After a change of manager, it began to go downhill. The owner was well aware that they did not get on well, but he thought it would work out. The new manager complained about the employee, and with good reason. He had begun to leave a lot of mess, he left the barn, even if an animal needed help, and he was to be neither led nor driven.
At the performance interview, it turned out that the employee had no professional respect for the new manager. He was to decide, but he did not have sufficient professional authority – without realizing it himself, though. The manager himself was convinced that his education made him the most skillful. Unfortunately, the employee left the farm before the problem was solved.
Be Positive – It Works
All situations can be looked at from a negative and a positive point of view. You choose yourself how you want to react. If, for instance, an employee drives into a gate, you may choose to take it out on him and put your foot down: “Now, will you pull yourself together”. However, he did not do it to bother you.
You may also choose to ask him what he did differently all the times he succeeded in missing the gate. Maybe he used another gear, maybe the lights were on or he wore other shoes, which did not slip on the pedal. The answer reveals what it takes to be successful. Thus, you teach him to focus on where he succeeds instead of where he fails.
Everybody needs appreciation. Appreciative words and actions help shape our identity and self-understanding. When we are appreciated, we have trust in ourselves and in others. We feel successful, and as a consequence, we are encouraged to think new ideas and perform even better.
To most farmers, it is crucial to be appreciated for their skills. It gives both joy and energy when things succeed and people notice it. This is true both when you receive a prize at the animal show, when colleagues from the discussion group speak highly of you and when an employee returns because your farm is a good place to work.
Appreciative leadership is a management style that can foster development of both people and companies.
We Want To Be Positive
I don’t think that anybody gets up in the morning, leaves their wife/husband/sweetheart, parks their children in the care of other people and goes to work thinking that they want to be in opposition. I simply don’t believe that. We want to be appreciated for what we do, we want a decent life, we want to be treated with dignity, we want to speak with each other, we want to be heard, we want to have an interesting and exciting job.
Henrik Danielsen
5.1.3.1 Principles of Appreciative Leadership
The principles of appreciative leadership are
1. Everyone has successes, and in these successes, there is scope for development.
2. Focus on what works.
3. People are different, and everyone has talents and qualifications, which should be brought into play.
4. It is clear to the employees what the good performance is and when the goal is reached.
5. Ongoing dialogue about the small victories puts focus on employee efforts.
6. You speak up to your employees and believe that people grow with responsibility and free hands.
5.1.3.2 Share Good Experiences
At the board meetings, one of the items on the agenda should be: “Share a good story from last week”. All employees must contribute something positive from last week. In the beginning, they may hang back a little, as we are not used to praising ourselves. Therefore, it is OK to mention something impersonal such as, The sun was shining. That is a beginning.
Gradually, it is enjoyable to be at the board, as everyone has had their turn:
■ “You were quick to respond as the sow was getting squeezed. Well done!”
■ “We finished on time. Good work!”
■ “I came here last night and everything was neat and tidy”.
■ “We have no sick animals this week”.
■ “We have now finished at 5 p.m. four days in a row”.
A board meeting is a brief, standing meeting at a board where the employees discuss suggestions for improvement.
It is a great point at a meeting that offers many benefits. The atmosphere is lifted, and everyone gets more energy. There is room for small and well-placed praise heard by everybody. At the same time, it provides you as a leader with the opportunity to show and articulate your values. When you say that everything was neat and tidy when you came to the barn in the evening, you show that it is one of your values.
You can read more about board meetings in Chapter 7.
It is hard enough to change yourself. But when you want other people to do something different, it will be even harder. It requires change management and knowledge about human reactions in change processes.
When we are filled up with praise, we are readier to change.
5.1.4.1 Cullberg’s Four Phases
Swedish psychiatrist Johan Cullberg conducted interviews with 59 people who had been through a crisis. He found that they underwent four phases when they worked themselves through the crisis. Moreover, he found that the same reactions could actually be seen in people who are subjected to change.
The four phases are
1. The Shock Phase: The phase can last from just a moment to several days. You simply don’t understand what is happening. You try to deny it, you may be apathetic, and you reject it.
Your employees will meet your improvement suggestions with great resistance in this phase. They might think you are joking. Or they may not respond at all.
2. The Reactions Phase: In the reaction phase, you start to understand what has happened. You react, you grumble. You get angry and sad, you feel insecure and afraid. You resist and argue.
Your employees might take it out on their spouse or their colleagues. As a leader, you will see different reactions. They back out and declare that it will never work out. They will certainly be no part of it.
You will also be unsure in this phase. Is it such a good idea? You ask yourself the question: “Should we rather leave it when they react so violently?” Then it may be a great help to know that there is a third phase.
3. The Healing and Processing Phase: In this phase, you begin to face facts and relate to the present. You are a bit up and down in this period.
Employees who have been presented with changes begin, in this phase, to relate to them. They begin to find their place under the new conditions. They begin to speak constructively about what is going to happen. With coaching, you can help your employees to see their new roles and how they can influence the new procedures.
4. The Reorientation Phase: The final phase is the reorientation phase, in which you begin to make plans for the future. You have coped with the difficulties and get back to work again.
In this phase, your employees will suggest how to implement the new initiatives. They will have “bought” the idea and support it.
Resistance From Manager Slowly Overcome
The four phases can also be recognized in minor change processes. At a farm, we were to introduce board meetings. It was a decision the owner had made without really informing anybody. Obviously, that was a blunder that made everything more difficult.
During the opening speech, the manager was silent. His body language revealed that he thought it was far-fetched. His attitude was contemptuous and indulgent. He was in phase one.
When they came into the barn, he was clearly in the reaction phase. He was in opposition, answered sullenly and, most of the time, he was standing behind the others with his arms crossed. He made a call on his cell phone and went back and forth. Several times, he said that the proposed suggestions were impossible. He was clearly in phase two. Unfortunately, it also affected the two workers who had been positive to begin with.
The owner, however, succeeded in imposing the board meetings. The manager was still somewhat negative, but not quite so demonstrative. It was agreed to take turns being in charge of the board meetings – one month at a time. The manager also headed meetings, and gradually he started to participate in the process. There was a minor crisis at a time when he repeatedly accused the owner of not completing the agreed actions on time. The manager was now in phase three.
After a few months, it started to work. The manager had developed his own model for the board meetings together with the workers, and they found the meetings useful. He had finally reached phase four.
5.1.4.2 Checklist for Change Management
John P. Kotter, Harvard Business School, has set up eight steps to go through to succeed with change management.
1. Create a Sense of Urgency: You must describe an opportunity that will appeal to your employees’ heads and hearts. Use the statements to raise a large urgent army of volunteers.
2. Build a Guiding Coalition: This means that there must be consensus on the change between owner and manager. If there is no consensus and support, it will fall to the ground when the least resistance occurs.
3. Form a Strategic Vision and Initiatives: Create a vision and a strategy to realize the vision. The better people can envision where they are going, the more they can focus on specific initiatives that make the vision a reality.
4. Enlist a Volunteer Army: Tell the story on every possible occasion to make many employees join. It is important that owner and managers lead the way in spreading the positive message.
5. Enable Action by Removing Barriers: Change systems and structures that counteract the changes. Encourage your employees to come up with ideas and to take initiatives.
6. Generate Short-term Wins: It is important to create visible and rapid results and to praise employees who contribute to effecting improvements in the process.
7. Sustain Acceleration: Every day you must adapt and change systems, structures and guidelines incompatible with the vision. You must balance between change management and change leadership.
8. Institute Change: Explain the connection between the new behavior and the success of the company. You must develop tools that can ensure that the change is maintained.
There are some good recommendations in Kotter’s eight steps to good change management, and the recommendations are well in line with the Lean mindset.
5.1.5 Communication and Questioning Technique
5.1.5.1 Communication Types – We Are Different
In working with Lean a good use of questions is important, especially in three situations:
1. To commit people during board meetings.
2. When, together, you have to find the core of a problem – that is, a problem-solving method.
3. When you work with value stream mapping.
We humans express ourselves in different ways, depending on how we see the world. This may give rise to many frustrations, so it is good to know these differences. When you know that some people take a long time answering, it is easier to accept.
Long Response Time
A farmer’s wife said about her husband, who was the introvert type, “When I ask him something on Mondays, I sometimes get a response on Wednesdays”.
Types of Attitude
The Extrovert Type We all know the extrovert type who loudly plunges into all discussions. They are often spontaneous and quickly begin to speak. They can easily dominate at a board meeting because saying something is easy to them. They are not always as good at listening to others and are quickly bored when others speak. They are valuable at a place of work because they make fun and get things going. To them dialogue is important, because it is often only when things are put into words that they realize what they think about a matter. This type is best at developing ideas when speaking with others, and they may have difficulty reflecting on their own.
The Introvert Type In a group of employees, some are also more introverted. They are more reserved, and therefore they risk being misunderstood. As they do not immediately express themselves, others may think that they are less gifted or stupid.
It is by no means the case, but they need to chew a bit on the matter, to think before they speak. When you as a leader ask the group direct questions, the introvert types often will not respond. You may be annoyed and say it is impossible to draw a word from them. However, that will worsen the situation, as the introvert type needs confidence to play an active part. If they are confident and with people they know, they can easily express themselves, and their contributions are often good and carefully prepared.
Types of Lifestyle
The Assessing Type To people of the assessing type it is important to take a position, to classify, to put things in place in a logical system. They want to settle questions and plan activities. Their way to communicate may seem harsh to others, because they are so direct in their communication.
The Observing Type To the observing type, senses and intuition are important. They take things as they come and do not assess whether what other people say is good or bad, true or false. They just note what the other person thinks. In a discussion, they take in new information and may change their mind, which other people may perceive as indecisiveness.
People are different and express themselves differently. It is important that you consider that when you are to be the leader of a group of employees. The two types of approach and the two types of lifestyle can be combined, enabling us to recognize four ways to express ourselves.
5.1.6 Use of Questions in Lean Work
5.1.6.1 Training
It is important that everybody contributes, even if they don’t say anything right away. Therefore, the leader must be aware of including everyone. That requires practice and training. Not everyone can do it just like that. Training can be attending a course in speaking techniques or inviting a coach to the farm.
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Extrovert assessing type |
Introvert assessing type |
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Extrovert observing type |
Introvert observing type |
There may be a tendency to have a dialogue between the leader and only one participant. But the dialogue should include everybody. The participants are a team.
5.1.6.2 The Important Confidence
It is also important that everybody feels confident. Leave out hidden agendas such as using board meetings to “make employees say it themselves” if they do something that the owner doesn’t approve of.
Also, raise your voice if some of your employees are laughing or ridiculing a colleague who speaks out.
That is poison for the process. You must stop that immediately by initiating a joint agreement on rules or maybe even a “friendly talk”.
5.1.6.3 Open Questions and Pauses
You may turn directly to someone with a question, but also be aware that some people are actually getting performance anxiety and find it very unpleasant if they are confronted.
Open questions and pauses are good tools for this purpose. When using interrogatives, be aware that in some contexts they can be perceived as criticism. If you ask a colleague: “Why did you do it?”, he or she may perceive it as criticism even though it was not intended that way. You may rephrase the question to “What was the reason that you chose to do it that way?”
If, at the board meetings, you are very specific and talk about daily routines, it is easier to include everyone.
Examples of questions starting with what, when, who, which, how and why:
■ What do you see as the reason?
■ When does it happen?
■ Who do you think knows how?
■ Which solutions to the problem do you see?
■ How do you see that it affects the workflow?
■ Why do you think the animals react as they do?
■ Which solutions do you propose?
■ When will we get there?
■ What can I do to help?
■ What would happen if we chose to do that?
Open Questions Start With
• What
• When
• Who
• Which
• How
• Why
The use of a Talking Stick can make the employees listen to what is being said and keep the discussion focused. The method can also provide the quiet person with the courage to speak, because he or she knows that nobody else will speak as long as he or she holds the Talking Stick.
Talking Stick originates from the Native Americans where it was used to solve conflicts between contending parties and to achieve a conversation respectful of all arguments. Today, the method is used in several contexts and in a more developed form than mentioned here. But this simple way works very well when you are standing in the barn.
Only the person holding the Talking Stick is allowed to speak. Everybody else must listen and try to understand what is being said. When he or she has finished speaking, the Talking Stick is put forward. The next person who wants to speak will then take the stick.
A Talking Stick is not necessarily a stick or piece of wood. You may choose whatever you like, for instance the pen that you already hold in your hand.
Catchball is a method that ensures consistency between what you are looking for as a leader and the ideas that your employees have. It is an effective way to get the whole farm to work together. Such a process may take a couple of weeks.
At catchball, you must agree that ideas are thrown back and forth between the top leader, the farm manager and the other employees.
You may achieve the following with catchball:
• The team is involved in making the plan and thus gains ownership.
• You ensure management commitment to ideas from the team.
• Everyone who has inputs to present do so.
From Individualists to Team
Catchball helps involve people more as members of a team than as individuals.
Charles Tennant
Throwing Ideas Lead to Solution
At a vegetable farm, they had problems retrieving transportation boxes from the storage room. Two persons were always needed for the job. The manager said, “We have a challenge, retrieving the transportation boxes. What do we do to enable one person to do the job?”
The employees discussed it. They realized that the location of the storage room was the challenge. Based on that recognition, the ideas were now thrown back and forth.
• One employee suggested that they built a new flat storage to avoid storing the boxes up high. Then one person could retrieve them.
• Another was of the opinion that they exchanged the pallet lift for another type. That might solve the problem.
• A third suggested that they rearranged the storage facilities, storing items that were not used very often up high instead.
The suggestions were turned over and over. Then the question, How much can a solution cost? was returned to the leader. The answer was that they had to find a good solution below $2000.
This excluded the suggestion of a new building, and the employees proceeded with the other suggestions.
That way the problems were thrown back and forth until a solution was found in which the employees were prime movers.
5.1.9 Communication with Sticky Notes
Sticky notes are a good tool when more employees participate in the decision-making process. They are good because they provide visibility. You switch from oral to written communication while being compelled to express yourself briefly. They can be moved, so you can physically move a proposal from one priority to another and so on. Here are a few examples of how you can use sticky notes.
5.1.9.1 The Board Meeting
Sticky notes are the obvious choice for board meetings. During the week, you can put up suggestions for improvement. The person in charge of the board meeting can hold a suggestion in his/her hand as you discuss it. Then you can put it somewhere else on the board, for instance in the priority section. Everyone can join, and spelling and language are subordinate. You may also draw suggestions.
5.1.9.2 Brainstorming and Prioritizing
If you want your employees to come up with a lot of ideas and afterward agree on which ones to choose, the following method is good:
1. You are silent and reflect individually for ten minutes. You write all your ideas on sticky notes – one idea on each note.
2. Initially, put all sticky notes in a fishbone chart enabling you to get an overview of whether the idea belongs to “management”, “manpower”, “method” or “machine”.
3. Then you can take a group of ideas, for example under “management”, and prioritize them in terms of effect and effort. You can read about the prioritization method under board meetings.
4. The next step is to decide which ideas you want to implement.
5. The final step is to put them into an action plan or project plan for the ideas that are more complicated to implement.
There may be more good ideas than you can implement right away. You can put them on a to-do list or set a date later.
APPRECIATE YOUR PROBLEMS
Problems are like treasures – valuable to discover and fun to solve. You’ll even get praise when you find them!!!
Pascal Dennis, Getting The Right Things Done
Five whys is a technique to get to the core of a problem. We tend to extinguish the same fire over and over again because we do not find the root cause. We are too quick to address the immediate cause without getting to the core.
In 1988, Taiicho Ohno from the Toyota factories described a simple method called Five Whys, that is, 5 x why. “By asking ‘why’ five times and answering the question each time, you’ll get to the root cause of the problem, which is often hidden behind the first symptoms”, Taiicho Ohno explained.
Taiicho Ohno gave the following example with a machine that had come to a standstill:
1. Why did the machine stop?
There was an overload, and the ignition went out.
2. Why was there an overload?
The bearing was not sufficiently greased.
3. Why wasn’t it greased?
The lubrications pump did not pump properly.
4. Why didn’t it pump properly?
The shaft was worn and rattled.
5. Why was the shaft worn?
There was no tightening, so a metal piece had come in.
Five Whys in the Milking Parlor
The morning milkers start at 4 a.m. and discover that again, there are no clean wipers. That is annoying, and therefore at the next board meeting, they suggest to buy some more. However, they start with the five whys:
1. Why are there no clean wipers?
Nobody has started the washing machine.
2. Why hasn’t the washing machine been started?
Because it can’t run when the washing program for the milking parlor is on.
3. Why can’t it run when the washing program is on?
Because the relay turns off.
4. Why does the relay turn off?
Because the electrical system becomes overloaded.
5. Why is the electrical system overloaded?
Because there is a defect in the way it is set up.
Lean literature mentions that problems should be solved slowly. That is to say that every time, you have to make sure that it is the right problem you solve. We are used to making quick decisions, but then you risk solving the wrong problem.
Question:
How do I get my employees to go for my goals for the company?
Answer:
You are the one to decide the overall goals for your company. You must involve your employees in breaking the goal into subsidiary goals and then into daily actions. When, at the board meetings, you talk about performance management, they are committed to reaching the daily goals. The goals you measure must be connected to the overall goals.
Question:
How do I get the quiet employee to talk?
Answer:
Some people need time for reflection. You must respect that. Take your time to listen. You must ensure a good and confident atmosphere, and you may agree with your employee that he/she contributes with something specific at the next meeting.
Question:
How can I show respect to an employee that I don’t respect?
Answer:
You can’t. Nevertheless, you must respect him/her, and maybe you need to revise your view of human nature. Everyone has potential, and you must learn to see it. You must acknowledge the starting point of each individual. You must also listen to him or her – that is, really listen with the intention to understand. When you acknowledge and understand your employee, you will be able to motivate, train and build from there. If you still don’t respect him/her, he/she is probably the wrong employee for you.
Question:
How do I get my employees to take initiatives? They are just waiting for me to speak.
Answer:
Step back, and have confidence that they can do it. Many have seen their employees perform incredibly well, while they themselves were on holiday. If you are fast and enterprising, they will not challenge you in that position. They will await your signals.
Question:
How do I get an employee to take responsibility?
Answer:
The simple answer is involvement. When people are informed and involved, they also take responsibility. You can’t take responsibility if you don’t understand the background of what you are doing. Here is an example from a farm where two apprentices joined the vet at an animal welfare inspection tour, while the foreign trainees did not. The foreigners were subsequently criticized for not observing the animals sufficiently.
Question:
In Lean, you look for waste, and in appreciative leadership you look for the positive. Is that not a contradiction?
Answer:
No, there is no contradiction. It is positive if your employees can identify waste. It shows that they see where value is created. In addition, at the same time, they are appreciated because they know and come up with improvement suggestions.
When you identify waste, it is possible to eliminate it and hence improve your earnings. If your employees are not able to identify waste and tell you about it, you don’t have the opportunity to eliminate it. However, you should also pay attention to focusing on the improvement opportunities.
Question:
I find it difficult to hand over responsibility. What if it goes wrong?
Answer:
It can be very difficult. You must hand over responsibility gradually to be certain that your employees can handle it. That way your confidence in them will increase. Often, they can do more than you think, so sometimes you must keep cool. Finally, you must be ready to accept solutions other than those you would choose.
Question:
My employees will not change old habits. What do I do?
Answer:
Try to read about the four phases we are all going through when we are introduced to something new (Cullberg’s four phases). Some people are in the reaction phase for a very long time. Habits can only be changed if you are willing to do it yourself. Therefore, you must involve your employee, enabling him/her to suggest how change can happen.
Question:
What is the difference between ISO and SOP?
Answer:
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a quality management system, ensuring that everybody in a company does as agreed. It is supervised by an external company. SOPs are standard operating procedures which, quite true, have the same purpose but with less control. In agriculture, we make SOPs for smaller areas and for certain simple work procedures when we find it necessary. It may be a single page with pictures that the milkers make to visualize a joint decision.
Question:
The manager puts a stop to it all. She is very negative and can ruin everything. What do I do as the owner?
Answer:
First, find out if there is a power struggle behind it. Perhaps she is unsure, and maybe she is the type of person who is not good at changes at all. It may also be that she just needs more time. Remember, the Lean work might be something you pull down over her head. Lean management requires that the middle manager employs a new management style, and that leads to uncertainty. We suggest that you give her more knowledge and training in Lean management, leading her to safer ground.