While I’m here using as an example the qualities of a single man, it is a relatively rare case in which one person is indispensable. It isn’t who they are that makes the difference, but what they do. It’s about their processes. Even in the case of Churchill.
Dr. Larry Arnn, now president of Hillsdale college, relates a story from his time as a research assistant to Sir Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Winston Churchill. Many years ago, Dr. Arnn interviewed several of the permanent secretaries at Downing Street who, in the 1930s, had worked for Prime ministers before Churchill and, like many in Britain, were not happy to see Churchill become prime minister in 1940. Within a few weeks, however, these permanent secretaries had turned around. As Dr. Arnn related the story, “Ah,” they said among themselves, “So this is how it’s done!”
These permanent secretaries recognized that what Churchill did — how he organized his day, how he gathered information and gave direction, how he came to recognize or establish priorities, how he monitored progress, the processes he set up to manage information and bureaucracies, the people he appointed, how he dealt with those appointees — was quite different and obviously more effective than the apparently ad hoc procedures used by previous prime ministers. It isn’t the man, it’s the process.
Focusing on process rather than the person is an extremely important lesson for those wishing to make a Lean transformation. It was a constant theme for Edwards Deming.
In contrast to Churchill’s (and Deming’s) emphasis on process development, I am frequently surprised by the number of managers who know that a very few on their staff are particularly productive, but who make no effort to discover what processes make those people so productive. Not knowing which process is more productive, or why it is more productive, (that is, without doing any research or value stream mapping) they can’t teach other staff members the same processes. They pass up the opportunity to make the entire staff approximately as productive as their very best. This neglect is hugely costly to mass production businesses.
By the same token, if one person seems less productive than others, managers blame that person for the failure rather than blaming what is almost always the real problem, which is the process, or the lack of training (which is to say, the problem is the managers themselves).
This focus on finding somebody to blame or, on rare occasions, to credit, is common in mass production environments. Because of the focus on processes in Lean environments it’s far less common there.
In most cases, it isn’t the person, it’s the process.
More Leadership Lessons from Winston Churchill:
Listen.
Ask questions.
Give clear directions.
Don’t get angry at challenges to your ideas. Learn from them.
In most cases, it isn’t the person, it’s the process.
Learn to think in terms of a system.
Go and see for yourself.
Measure a lot of things, and have something to compare them to.
Have courage. Tell the truth, and expect others to do the same.
Great oratory is built on great arguments. Master your facts and your arguments first.
Copyright 2015, 2018 by Paul G. Spring. All rights reserved.