Getting started with lean government projects.

• Author: Kenworthy, Harry

There is clear evidence that Lean is working in government --or at least that Lean tools are working. The impact of the Great Recession has led many state governments to pursue Lean, along with a growing awareness that there are wastes involved in the way government operates and serves its clients. The question now is not why we should implement Lean, but how we will integrate Lean fully into public management. This article addresses ways to get started with projects and hold onto the gains they create.

LEADERSHIP IS THE KEY

"Lean leaders" make successful, sustainable, organization-wide implementations possible. Much has been written about leadership being the key for any successful, sustainable major change initiative, and the leadership characteristics required for Lean generally align with those principles:

* Respect for people.

* Humility and willingness to recognize problems as opportunities.

* Focus on what is wrong, not who is wrong--on fixing problems and processes, not blaming people.

* Willingness to personally participate in Lean.

* Ability to model Lean thinking and behaviors for others

Looking for leaders who best display these characteristics is the best way to get started with Lean. Keep in mind that there are leaders at multiple levels in organizations, not just at the very top.

Provide training to the top management team first so they are able to model Lean behaviors for others and participate directly in Lean. Another approach is to do a demonstration project first, perhaps starting with a Lean leader and achieving some successes in that person's unit to demonstrate Lean's effectiveness. This project would then be followed up with top management training.

IDENTIFYING AND SELECTING LEAN PROJECTS

Once Lean training has been provided, the next step is to identify and select work areas or processes as candidates for a Kaizen event. A Kaizen event is a dedicated period of time, up to five full-time days, when a small team identifies (and, ideally, begins to implement) opportunities for improvement. Selecting a Kaizen project can be based on factors such as:

* Customer Impact. Lean is about creating value for the customer, so chose processes that have the most potential to improve the customer experience.

* Financial Leverage. Some projects may offer clear financial returns. In state governments, it is quite possible to find projects with a minimum $250,000 return for one week's effort in a Kaizen event.

* Pain. Where is the greatest area of client/customer pain? What has the media been focusing on?

* Upset Employees. Where does the organization have poor morale, customer service problems, etc.?

* Greatest Concerns. What's keeping leadership up late at night, worrying?

Of the points listed, focusing on the client/customer instead of the government itself may require the biggest shift in thinking. This focus has important implications for how processes are designed and managed; however, who the customer is or what the...