What is a Lean Champion?
Lean Champions are an organisation’s Lean subject-matter experts’ in implementing Lean Thinking. They are an internal resource dedicated to supporting and encouraging leaders, managers and staff to deliver continuous improvement activity. Their role is not to do Lean for everyone else, more to work ‘with’ the business to facilitate change, solve problems and help embed the cultural change that Lean delivers.
Why have Lean Champions?
• They are cost-effective. Having a team of trained and skilled individuals makes the organisation self-sufficient, reducing dependency on, and cost of, external consultancy support for improvement work
• Issues where Lean projects are not progressing as they should, or changes are reverting to how they were previously, can be dealt with quickly by having Lean Champions on site permanently
• Staff and managers involved in reviews completed with external Consultant support are reassured by a face that they already know and trust.
The Challenge
Becoming Lean is about aligning an organisation philosophically and behaviourally, not just having knowledge and technical tools – it requires cultural change. This makes Lean something that is difficult to learn in a classroom or from a book. No single seminar, training course or ‘coloured belt’ will equip people to deliver bottom-line Lean improvements or deal with real live challenges and issues. A combination of theory and practical application is essential for the development of well-rounded Lean Champions who, motivated in the pursuit of perfection, will be capable of leading improvement activities or transformation programmes.
How can we help?
At Ad Esse we believe in following two guiding principles to develop Lean Champions who can provide in-house capability to implement and sustain change: firstly that Lean Champions need to use their skills as soon and as often as possible and secondly, that training should be business-centric activity through a strategic decision to introduce Lean.
Our experience has shown the most effective way to train staff in new skills is to explain a concept, using real life examples, then put theory into practice. This way staff learn by ‘doing’ and we are able to support them by emphasising and explaining why it is important to take certain approaches.
We use a four-stage approach to the learner’s development:
• Develop awareness through a combination of classroom and practical experience
• Apply learning with support allowing the learner to build confidence in their new skills
• Apply learning unsupported taking steps towards a self-sufficient Lean organisation
• Develop/coach others as the organisation becomes fully self-sustaining in Lean.
Our approach enables Lean Champions to practice their knowledge in a controlled
environment with support and guidance from us as experts. Applying the new skills and tools quickly becomes second nature and readily leads to successful application in the workplace.
