The Secret to Sustaining Lean: Kick-starters and Care-takers

“I’m great at kicking off new projects and improvements but then I quickly lose interest and move on to the next thing”

That’s what one of my long-standing clients said to me yesterday. And you know what – I’m exactly the same. And you know what – if you’re an owner-manager, an entrepreneur or an experienced manufacturing professional, you’re probably exactly the same too.

We’re driven by the excitement of new and interesting challenges and we quickly become bored by repetition and monotony. That’s just how we are. And we’re unlikely to change.

And that’s the real reason that so many organisations fail to sustain Lean and Continuous Improvement. In fact, it’s the real reason that so many organisations fail to sustain major change programmes: “The people who can kick-start change are not the people who can keep it going”.

If you can face up to that fact then maybe you can do something about it.  

You need kick-starters and you need care-takers. And you need the kick-starters to hand over to the care-takers before they get bored.

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