Tag Archives: Value

The Perception of Value – Part II

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Photo Credit – Perry Grone (Unsplash)

As outlined in my previous blog post ‘The Perception Of Value – Part 1’, the world of Lean is all about value – delivering value to our customers and also ensuring we value our greatest asset, our employees.

 Do we know if our employees/colleagues feel valued?

We may think our employees/colleagues are happy and feel valued but do we really know for definite?

When we say we value someone, it is not our perception that counts or determines it.

What determines it is how that person feels, do they feel valued?

Do our actions and words or absence of actions and words make them feel valued?

That is the true measure.

Everything else is a perception,

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x x 

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The Perception of Value – Part I

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Photo Credit: Raw Pixel (Unsplash)

The world of Lean is all about value – delivering value to our customers and ensuring we value our greatest asset, our employees. 

In terms of our customers firstly we need to know who they are, then we need to know what our customers want.

We need to know if our customers believe we are delivering sufficient value for their money.

When was the last time we spoke face to face with our customers and asked them what they want and if they think we are delivering value for their money?

 Are our customers happy with the value we deliver to them or is it just our perception that they are happy?

In the Lean world we are consistently and continuously looking for ways to deliver more value to our customers and also exceed the expectations and perceptions of our customers through looking for, listening to and acting on ‘The Voice of The Customer’.

 What is the ‘Voice of Your Customers’?

How do you look for, listen to and act on the ‘Voice of Your Customers’?

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x x

 

 

 

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Meeting Art and Understanding Lean

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Oprah calls it an ‘Aha’ moment – the moment when something falls into place, when the penny drops, when a lightbulb goes off in your brain and you understand something with an immense clarity that you previously didn’t have.

I experienced this ‘Aha’ moment over 6 years ago when Art Byrne delivered his keynote speech at the 2013 Lean Enterprise Academy Summit. As well as a great guy, Art is a powerhouse of Lean knowledge having lived Lean with it’s highs and lows for many decades. I have read Art’s wonderful book ‘The Lean Turnaround’ many times and knew I was in for something special as Art took to the stage.

My ‘Aha’ moment came in as short a time as 4 minutes into Art’s talk. I had always known that Lean enabled a better, more efficient, more inclusive way of working however after listening to and understanding Art’s simple explanation of Lean, the power of this methodology was finally clear to me. Key elements from these short 4 minutes of Art’s talk that helped me understand the power of Lean are as follows

  • Lean is not a bunch of tools
  • Lean is not a collection of projects or belts (Art in his fabulous honesty makes it clear that in running a business you are not running a karate class!!!)
  • Lean is ‘the biggest strategic business weapon you can ever have’  – a business being ‘a collection of people and processes trying to deliver value to a set of customers and always the best team wins’.
  • Lean is a growth strategy not a cost cutting strategy.

Art continued by explaining the key elements required to be successful at Lean which are having Lean and Operational Excellence are your core strategy, that Lean is led from the top and that people are transformed. Without these elements, Art explains very honestly,  failure will be the outcome!

As Art spoke about transforming people, he explained that people are the only asset you have that appreciates and you want them to keep appreciating, that you also need to respect your people because the best improvement ideas come from the people doing the work. To do this you need to create a learning environment where people are learning every day and are excited to come to work. This then becomes your culture, the way things are done around here – this is Lean.

Art summed up all of the above by simply saying –  Lean is a people thing!

[tweetthis]’Lean is a people thing’ Art Byrne[/tweetthis]

I met Art at one of the break out sessions. He was gracious, humble and generous with his time. I spoke with him around challenges I was having in implementing Lean in my role as I  did not have the influence of a CEO for Lean to ‘come from the top’. He smiled and gave me some of the best advice I have ever received. He said ‘be the CEO in your area’, excellent advice for anyone trying to make things better when it’s not coming from the top!

Art signed my copy of his book ‘The Lean Turnaround’ by using a popular phrase synonymous with Guinness – it was Art’s way of saying how much he loved Ireland and how much he respects Kaizen. And yes, I totally agree with him, Kaizen is good for you!!!!

I left the 2103 Lean Enterprise Academy Summit energetic, enthused and looking forward to the next steps on my Lean journey.

Over 6 years later my Lean journey continues to experience highs and lows, I’m happy to say more highs than lows these days and always, always learning lessons which is at the core of what Lean is about – continuous learning!

Thanks for reading,

Keeping it Simple,

Siobhain

x x x

 

 

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