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    Lean Leadership: From Manager to Leader
    Lean Leadership: From Manager to Leader
    Lean Leadership: From Manager to Leader
    Ebook113 pages2 hours

    Lean Leadership: From Manager to Leader

    By Marta Ferreira

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    As a leader or manager, your job is to work with your team to meet your organization’s goals. But as you know, that’s not always as simple as it sounds. It’s very easy to be busy but never really get anything done; always rushing but never really sure how what you’re doing fits into the bigger picture.

    If this sounds familiar, then Lean Leadership has been written for you.

    Lean Leadership tells the story of Charlie, a manager in a chocolate factory, and his team. With the company under threat from widening global competition, there is an urgent need for change. In the past Charlie has taken on every problem as his to solve alone. Now, as he struggles with his own health challenges as well as the company’s challenges, he needs to do things differently. He needs to transform himself from manager to leader.

    Whether you are an experienced senior manager, new to management, or a student of leadership, you’ll find Lean Leadership provides fresh insight into this often complex world in a readable and entertaining way. You’re guaranteed to come away energized and inspired.

    WHAT THEY'RE SAYING:

    “Effectively shares some very practical operational management and leadership concepts in a way that few other leadership and management texts do. A very practical 'how to' in effective leadership and operational management"
    Hayden McNamara, COO of Australian and New Zealand Bank, USA

    "Simply shows how the lean methodology can be used to manage effectively. A great book that should be read by all – from managers to operations staff. The more people that are aware and utilize the concepts the more dynamic and efficient business will become."
    Nina Muhleisen, Toyota Manufacturing Corporation Australia.

    “What I liked about the book was the lack of management jargon, making the book easy to follow and understand. Demonstrates, in a practical and unique way, how to get better business results, particularly in operational environments.”
    Ron Locke, Former Barclays Bank IT Director, UK

    “I found the book brought out many of the behavioral aspects that would not have been achieved via the alternative 'text book' approach. It explores subtle themes such as resistance to change, disconnection across teams, and lack of accountability. A good read for managers at all levels.”
    Richard Codd, Operations Manager, Trade and Supply Chain, ANZ

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMarta Ferreira
    Release dateMay 3, 2012
    ISBN9780987056146
    Lean Leadership: From Manager to Leader
    Author

    Marta Ferreira

    Marta Ferreira Böing is a passionate advocate for the application of lean principles and methodologies to operations management, and the benefits this can bring to both organizations and their employees. She has worked in this area for her entire career, as a manager, consultant and educator. Marta studied mechanical engineering and completed a Master of Science in Operations Management in Europe before moving to Australia. There she joined automotive supplier TriMas Corporation, where she was promoted to Production Manager in just three months. In her next role, at Yazaki Corporation (Australian Arrow), she earned the opportunity to travel to Japan and observe lean principles and practices as applied by the pioneers of process improvement. It was on this trip that Marta learned the importance of lean culture and behaviors to lean success – that lean tools alone are insufficient for the creation of a sustainable lean enterprise. On returning to Australia, Marta worked on the introduction of lean principles to the local Yazaki operation, learning additional valuable lessons about the need to work with international cultural differences during such an implementation. In 2007 Marta joined the ANZ Bank as Lean Advisor to the Managing Director, Operations. Since then she has driven the ongoing translation and implementation of lean principles into the banking environment. She has instigated extensive and widely used training and leadership development programs, and taken a hands-on role with a number of cultural change initiatives. As Head of Global Operational Excellence, Marta managed a team of 17 direct reports and 43 matrix reports across three regions. Her team supported behavior change programs for the bank across all divisions and regions, promoting a lean and continuous improvement culture. Marta had strategic responsibility for overseeing the project managers and driving change in processes, people and systems by preventing error reoccurrences and optimizing operations efficiency through staff engagement and skill uplift, based on the lean principles. Marta developed an operational excellence program which was deployed across offices in Australia, India, Vietnam and New Zealand. Savings identified were valued at over $10 million as a result of 6,000 improvement initiatives implemented by more than 4,000 staff. The program was subsequently formally recognised as best practice by the well regarded international research organisation Corporate Executive Board (CEB) in 2010. She also oversaw the development and implementation of a number of other lean-based programs. Both staff and senior management at the ANZ have recognized Marta’s work. She was selected as a winner of the CEO Recognition Program in 2010, recognizing one of the top 110 staff performances of the year (of over 48,000 staff worldwide). She was also awarded an Individual Excellence Award for Leadership. Marta is also recognized for her expertise, having been invited to speak at the conferences of a diverse range of industry groups, including health care, government, manufacturing and tertiary education. Marta runs her own consultancy practice deploying programs similar to that described in Lean Culture. Her clients represent a wide range of industries, including health care, finance and manufacturing.

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    • 5/5
      Empowerment, collaboration, customer centricity, learning to see, willingness to change, and so on – is what lean leadership is all about. Absolutely loved it!!!

    Book preview

    Lean Leadership - Marta Ferreira

    LEAN LEADERSHIP

    From Manager to Leader

    Marta Ferreira

    First Published in 2012

    by Monterey Press

    PO Box 319

    Carlton North  VIC  3054

    Australia

    www.montereypress.com

    Smashwords edition

    Copyright © Marta Ferreira Böing, 2012

    Author contact:  info@aleanbook.com

    Website:  www.aleanbook.com

    All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Marta Ferreira Böing asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

    Cover design by Pedro Farelo

    Paperback designed and typeset by JustYourType.biz

    National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

    Author: Ferreira, Marta.

    Title: Lean leadership / Marta Ferreira.

    ISBN: 9780987056146 (ebook)

    Subjects:

    Organizational change--Management

    Personnel management

    Employee motivation

    Dewey Number:     658.406

    To my family: Everton and Lucas

    Projetos e sonhos como este só são possíveis com o apoio, amizade e companheirismo que tenho em casa. Obrigada pela paciência.

    Preface

    Hundreds – no, thousands – of books have been published on leadership, so you could be forgiven for picking up this book and asking why there needs to be another. The reason is quite simple. In the work I have done as a manager and consultant over more than a dozen years, I still see the same weaknesses in leadership over and over again. I still see the same situations over and over again: leaders and their people struggling to understand their goals, let alone achieve them. And I still see the same potential over and over again: the potential for leaders and their people to work together much more effectively, if only they had some simple management techniques and tools available to them. So there is still plenty of scope for leadership lessons to be taught.

    Lean Leadership tells the story of Charlie, a middle manager in a chocolate factory, and his team. With the company under threat from widening global competition, there is an urgent need for change. In the past Charlie, as the leader, has always seen it as his role to drive change. Now, as Charlie struggles with his own personal challenges, he needs to do things differently. Now he needs to start sharing the responsibility for change with his team leaders and the rest of his staff. Charlie and his team learn that when they work together to identify and implement improvements to the way they work, the job is easier for everyone – and the results surpass anything they thought possible. Along the way they discover a number of simple but remarkably powerful tools to help them on their journey. These tools, and the way in which Charlie and his team use them, can be implemented by any leader in any organization.

    The concepts behind Lean Leadership, including the tools described here, have a long heritage. Many of them have been ‘best practice’ in many industries – especially manufacturing – for over fifty years. But in the way they are presented here, they have much broader application. Whether you work in a bank, an insurance company, a retail chain, a hospital or almost anywhere else, you and your team can benefit from the lessons learnt over a long time by these companies. They include focusing on what is important, involving and empowering the whole team to get things done, sharing information openly, and constantly learning from past experiences.

    Of course, the scenarios presented in a story like this should always be seen as general examples. While Charlie and his team are faced with specific goals, and while they go about using the tools to meet those goals in a specific way, what is important to you, the reader, are the general principles and logic behind what they do. For instance, while the factory’s goal here is to cut costs by 20 per cent over a year, that goal could easily have been to increase productivity by a similar amount, or to grow sales or market share, or any of myriad other targets. What is important is not the main goal, but the fact that the goals developed by Charlie’s team make contributions that are clearly aligned with that main goal.

    Some readers may already be familiar with some of the terminology used in this book – things like the ‘PDCA’ cycle. I would urge you to put aside any preconceptions you have about this terminology and to concentrate on the way the tools have been applied here. Many of the tools demonstrated in this book have a reputation for being made overly complicated or for having relevance only in specific situations (e.g. projects), but the reality is that when they are used properly, they can be very simple to both understand and use.

    If, having read this story, you want to learn more about the concepts presented here, you will find further information and suggested reading at the end of the book. In addition, tools you can use in your own work are available by registering at www.aleanbook.com. On the last page of this ebook you will find a promotional code. Enter that code when prompted for access to additional, reader-only materials.

    Chapter One - Challenge

    The doctor placed the clipboard back on the end of the bed and looked down at Charlie with a steady gaze.

    You’re a lucky man, Charlie. A lot of people who have heart attacks in your condition don’t make it. This was only a fairly minor arrest, but you need to take it as a serious warning sign. If you have another attack it will probably not be so kind to you.

    Charlie gave an expressionless nod then turned his head and stared blankly out the window. The doctor waited, allowing a good amount of time for what he’d just said to sink in.

    "If you’re going to get out of this dangerous situation, you’re going to have to make some changes. You’re going to have to change the way you eat, get more exercise and lose some weight – at least 20 kilograms for a start. And you’re going to have to find a way to reduce your stress level. If you can’t do those things … well, there’s not much I can do to help you. Things will just continue to get worse.

    Of course I’ve said all that before and we’ve got nowhere, the doctor continued. If anything positive is going to come out of this heart attack it will be the realization that ‘no change’ is not an option and that this time you’ll really act. But I’m also going to be more prescriptive as I’m still not sure that you can save yourself.

    Okay, Doc. Charlie fell into thought again for a moment. So how’s this going to work?

    "I’m going to write you a prescription. It won’t be a prescription for medicine – it will be a prescription for lifestyle. It will be a plan to get you healthy, including an exercise regime and a diet. You’ll then go away and implement that plan. Every month, you’ll come and see me and we’ll check on your progress. If adjustments need to be made to the plan we’ll make them, but otherwise we’ll just keep to the plan. We’ll continue this cycle for at least 12 months: my planning, your doing, then checking and adjusting together before starting the next cycle."

    More silence, then Charlie said, The food and exercise – I reckon I can do those, even though they’ll take a while and even though I’ve failed in the past. The sort of rigorous cycle you’re talking about – I think it could work. But you also mentioned stress, and that’s a different story. Problem is, I’m not really in control of that. I can’t afford to leave my job, and it’s my job that piles on the pressure.

    What do you do? asked the doctor.

    I’m the operations manager in a chocolate factory, said Charlie.

    Hmm. Charlie and his very own … The doctor smiled. Sorry, I’m sure you must get jokes about that all the time.

    I do, said Charlie. "But let me tell you, real life doesn’t bear much resemblance to the book, let alone the movie. My job is one of long hours and constant fire fighting; one problem after the other. Half my

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