To a large, world-class corporation, lean is a measure of effectiveness and sophistication to which almost all firms aspire. Agile, high-growth firms should focus on a different type of lean.
Forward lean. The type of lean that forces momentum even when times are tough. The kind of lean that makes everything seem bigger than reality, but just enough so most cannot take anything going on too personally.
The question on top of every employees mind in a growing firm should be, “Are we always creating an increased ability to move forward?” A lean.
Not difficult to imagine, but takes an expert to execute. Why? Because someone will always find a reason to prohibit forward movement. No, not your competition. More likely than not, someone inside your organization. That tends to be hard for most executives to believe, because they surround themselves with momentum-builders every day. Even the firms that are a threat to movement will appear to support it in front of the boss.
So how do you get rid of the roadblock employees? (1) Remove the incentives to stonewall and (2) reward movement regardless of result (to a point) or, in a worst-case scenario (3) remove the employee.
NOTE: Incentives, as we all know, are not always cash based (i.e. “I get paid the same whether I help you today, tomorrow, or next year.”) But can be either positive or negative attention, flexible work scheduling, or added or removed responsibility (reworking the job descriptions periodically). Am I advocating tweaking? Yes, tweaking can cause some of the most effective lean.