Can You call Yourself a Sensei? The implementation of management tools in a company always comes down to the involvement of employees. People are the key element when implementing any changes in the organization. The essence of the building of corporate culture is successful human resource management. John Davison Rockefeller, one of the richest people in the world’s history, said that: „The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.” This ability is connected to involving and motivating workers, and it’s achieved by raising worker awareness, settling measurable goals for them, and managing their competencies.
Sensei for Lean Management implementation
It is very important to dedicate skilled employees to specific tasks. Let’s take as an example implementation of Lean Management. How it is performed by most of the companies? Lean Manager is assigned the task of implementing Lean Management. It is presented by me as a negative example. Based on my experiences, the implementation of given management tools and methods, including Lean Management, should be done by leaders. The Lean Manager should play the role of Sensei. In Japanese, the Sensei means a Teacher. While implementing the Lean Management approach, The Sensei can run workshops, carry out audits, or give many valuable hints. However, operational tasks have to be done only by workers working at a specific workstation every day. It doesn’t mean that the Senseis shouldn’t set any goals or have any goals set for them. Quite the contrary. But these goals have to be related to the support they provide, and not operational task performance. Employees of the company or external consultants can be Senseis. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is this: the Sensei has to have practical knowledge of Lean Management and needs to share this knowledge with employees.
If you are the head of an organization then ask yourself: is your Lean Manager a Sensei for your employees?
Dr. Bartosz Misiurek is a co-founder of a few start-ups like Leantrix, Lean Community, Leancoin, etwi, Lean Global Consulting, Sallar. He is a CEO at LeanTrix Ltd., Leancoin Ltd, Do Lean IT OU, and a Member of the Board at Astral Hodling OU. Author of the book “Standardized Work with TWI: Eliminating Human Errors in Production and Service Processes.” He works as Sr Manager and TWI Global Coach at Automotive Company.
