Why Leadership Matters

Written by Jason Haines

“…the operator is not responsible for the product nor for its quality. He can only try to do his job. Moreover, responsibility divided between operator and inspector…assures mistakes and trouble… The quality of the product is the responsibility of management, working with the customer.” -W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics: For Industry, Government, Education, p. 11

When new employees come into an organization, they can be nervous because they usure to what to really expect and they want to make a strong first impression. But too many times, they arrive and walk into a job that showcases the disorder in the organization and are now looking elsewhere. Or the opposite can occur, they join the Debbie Downer in the corner who is complaining about the business with not solutions. What happened to this employee who tested so well on all the assessments, interviewed well, was likeable, and so many other things as to why they were hired? How can we change this?

So many times, I write these papers hoping that we can get into a discussion because I am spit balling ideas from things I have done, read, and learned from others. Just hoping that a discussion starts so I and others can learn more. This paper is no different and to answer the questions above is that leadership does matter. We always hear that a Lean journey will not take if there is no leadership buy in. But what does that mean? How do we get buy in? I would say to get buy in is to start doing because once people see what you are doing isn’t there to hurt them then they will realize you are trying to make their job easier and help them grow as well.

Too often we see an organization hire on a, put name in here Improvement Manager, who has little to no authority or knowledge of the system. This person, like the people above, wants to be successful but is nervous because they do not know what to expect in the position. First, many of these positions are a brand-new position and second the new person is just that a new person who knows nothing of the system. The managers think this person will walk right in and take care of all the problems but then they get frustrated when nothing happens. Then one of two things happen: the organization lets go of the person or the person gets frustrated from the pressure and not knowing the system and quits. Then guess what? The organization is back to square one and starting over with a brand-new person who knows nothing as well.

As leaders why do we keep doing this to people? How can we show respect to all our stakeholders? Covid put a magnifying glass on so many things that are going on. These problems have been there all along, but everyone kept saying “this I show it is,” and continued dealing with the problems as if they didn’t exist. However, these problems were always there and are now only growing and getting worse. So why did we just keep on believing we didn’t have any problems? As Ohno said, “no problem is problem.” And this has led us to a day where it seems like everything is just going wrong and we will never see the light at the end of the tunnel. As I heard the other day there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is a train coming at us. As leaders how to we have that foresight to avoid the train and keep pushing our organization forward for the future?

The above quote comes from W. Edwards Deming’s last book he wrote before he passed away, and if you read much of the book it talks about the same thing. It is the responsibility of the leadership to create a system that all people can work in and to understand that system to make the proper changes for a successful future. When we as leaders do this, we start to show respect for our people that we are there for them and trying all that we can do so that our organization and our people will succeed. It can open communication within a facility so that people are talking more about what needs to be done and everyone is trying to reach a certain goal, or as Deming says an aim. When everyone knows how to get to the goal and what the goal is, they will achieve that goal through teamwork. When people hear a quota or any other rate to achieve, they will reach this by any means necessary regardless of cost to company or other people. The leader must know their system so this does not happen, and they cannot delegate the responsibility to others.

I know this almost sounds like you are doing all the work as a leader and that is not what I am trying to say. What I am trying to say is that to make real change in the organization the leadership must understand and know the system they are working in and be responsible for the system. Not passing the buck when something happens, being there during problem solving, and understanding and seeing the vision of the future. One of those visions should be bringing along the people who are currently working for you as the future leaders and ambassadors of the organization. One of the keys that Lean is about leadership and growing and guiding other people through coaching and teaching. This is where the leaders start to grow and give other people responsibilities so they can learn how to coach and teach others. This growth and teaching will grow the future of the organization and allow it to succeed for the long-term. Giving stability to the people working for the organization, another responsibility of the leadership of any organization.

So why does leadership matter? It matters because people are looking for guidance, safety, and knowledge that things are going in the right direction for the organization. That guidance means we have a responsibility to have our systems prepared for incoming employees to work and hit the ground running for their job. When people walk into chaos it is our fault because we didn’t have anything prepared for them and the person must put the pieces together to be successful. How is this respect for the people? We all talk about respect for the people but most of the time we do not act our words out and we leave all our employees hanging to fend for themselves. Figure it out on your own. New hire gets little training, new supervisor or manager gets not leadership training, and so many other examples of disrespect for the people. These are the people who are producing at the frontline and when leadership allows them to fend for themselves the people will leave or not perform up to par allowing them to become frustrated and mostly leave. Or even worse stay and do a poor job that affects everyone right down to your customer.

Leadership matters because people want someone to look to in times of trouble and know that they only need to worry about their jobs and not problems. Leadership needs to help the people in this way and be responsible for the things that frontline employees shouldn’t be. Leadership needs to work on the process and grow the people.