Explaining the Lean Management System Part 5 Leader Standard Work

 

Lean Nation,

In this five-part blog series on introducing the lean management system, the series focuses on discussing some of the key elements of the daily management system. This work, completed by organizational leaders at all levels, is essential in having a thriving improvement system. Four elements are essential in engaging all employees, building the correct improvement habits /behaviors, and sustaining improvement. 

 These four include:

1) Process or production control - This is used to ensure standard work is performing as designed and to provide hourly insights into waste creeping back into the system
2) Daily tiered huddles - These are used to monitor outcomes of processes aligned to true north measures
3) Kamishibai task audits - These daily audits are used to satisfy your curiosity that things are operating as designed with special emphasis on key standards, best practices, compliance, safety, etc. 
4) Leader standard work - This practice to designed to ensure time is being spent on improvement by leaders at all levels of the organization. 

Thus far we have discussed the production control board (previous blog Explaining the Lean Management System Part 2 Production (or Process) Control), the daily tiered huddle with primary emphasis on the tier one huddle  (previous blog Explaining the Lean Management System Part 3 Managing for Daily Improvement ), and Kamishibai process audits (previous blog https://breakthroughhorizonsltd.blogspot.com/2025/10/explaining-lean-management-system-part.html)  This blog will focus on leader standard work. Leader standard work is the fuel that runs the engine of the lean management system. This is the fifth blog in the series and the fourth and final tool we will discuss.

In order to be truly excellent, management will need some “wiggle room” to improve. They need to have some dedicated time to focus on improvement, change management and building a lean culture. They also need to be given the freedom to “fail.” To learn from each failure and improve. Sometimes this implies giving them the freedom and confidence to TRY.

Leader standard work begin with evaluating the priorities of management. Typically, line management has two responsibilities, administration of the department like scheduling, managing time off, attending meetings, payroll, etc. and improvement.

What percentage of time do line leaders spend on administration versus improvement? Go into your calendar and check. I am guessing the results will be very telling. One thing we know is if you want improvement, you must spend time on improvement. Good leaders keep those directly reporting to them focused on the right things. De-emphasizing the least important activities can go a long way toward ensuring success.

As an example of great leadership in action, after the presentation of a recently completed kaizen event, the Chief Operating Officer stated to the improvement team: “we believe in lean, and we are willing to help you free up time. Please let us know what specific activities you feel can be removed from your “plate.” Bring your recommendations to me so we can discuss and make the decision.”  This is the leadership we are looking for allowing management some elbow room to work on improvement.

Giving management elbow room only works if the managers both know what to work on and have the discipline to work on these right things. One of the tools we can use to assist in focusing on improvement is leader standard work. Think of leader standard work as a daily, weekly, and monthly checklist of things that need to be accomplished to improve the department, oneself, and the organization.

I have frequently seen two managers of equal talent and motivation in their daily work. One is extraordinarily effective, and one is not. The difference is what the two managers chose to focus on each day. Why not create standard work to get the managers, middle managers, and executives to focus on the most important things?

An example of leader standard work for a line manager is shown below:

 

Leader standard work (LSW) allows for a shift in daily focus from just results to process and results. We know a good process is the result of a good recipe. So what is our leader’s recipe for success? Additionally, leader standard work shows leaders what to do and what not to do. Use LSW as an opportunity to design wasted time and effort out of the leader’s daily work.

In our LSW we want to do two things. First, we want to allocate time to managing the visual controls. If you implemented some of the ideas from the previous blogs, you have many visual controls in place, like process control boards, the managing for daily improvement boards, 5S controls, kamishibai audits, and value stream performance system controls. Be sure and allocate sufficient time to audit these systems, make interventions in real-time, and improve these systems. This takes time, effort, and persistence. But it does not happen in a one-hour weekly meeting.

Secondly, we want to execute the daily accountability process. This activity involves project managing the action items coming out of the management system, the process control system, A3 improvements, etc. These follow up actions will require problem solving efforts and these activities can be solved by the leader or delegated as appropriate but again take focused time.

It should be noted that some of the activities in LSW are sequenced to time. For example, daily huddle happens at a certain time of the day. Many organizations have tiered huddles to review and escalate key issues affecting safety, quality, risk, operational barriers, etc.

We do need to include some of the administrative work into our LSW. As an example, payroll is due on Monday morning every other week. This work is essential and should be included in the LSW.

An opportunity to optimize LSW is for leaders is to stop being slave to email and text messages. Currently we are seeing a lot of activity from CEO’s banning cell phones and laptops from meetings. This is done more out of respect than in support of LSW,  but the impact can be the same. I watch leaders virtually addicted to their email and each email sets about a flurry of activity that is not always important or urgent. My recommendation is to schedule time each day to review and act on email. This will allow time to focus on improvement.

In summary of leader stand work,  we expect staff to follow standard work. The work sequence, the time a task takes,  the quality steps, etc. are all part of staff standard work. Frequently when we get to the management level,  there is no standard work and waste in inherent in the leadership processes the same as waste is prevalent in production and service work. LSW ensures that leaders at all levels are working on the right things at the right time to meet administrative responsibilities while ensuring improvement systems and processes are in place and thriving.

 

The four tools used in a daily management system include process control to ensure standard work is in place and meeting customer demand while exposing waste on an hour-by-hour bases,  managing for daily improvement to sustain gains in develop incremental improvement while engaging all staff,  kamishibai process audits to ensure key elements of standard work, risk, safety, etc. are being followed with real-time feedback to staff, and leader standard work to enable the shift of leaders and managers from results to process and results.

Taken together,  your organization can move beyond simply using projects and leadership muscle to drive improvement, to building improvement and sustainability into daily systems. In this manner, you should expect double digit improvement in the key measures of staff engagement and morale, quality, lead-time, cost/productivity, and growth.

Lean Blessings,

Ron

Ron Bercaw, President, and Sensei

Breakthrough Horizons

www.breakthroughhorizons.com     

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-bercaw-882a0a8/