Confessions of a Lean Construction rookie

I was introduced to Lean Construction back in 2000. I had no idea what this "Lean" thing was and I believed the company I was working for invented it. The tool I was learning was The Last Planner System®️ and just like I believed the company had invented Lean, I also believed The Last Planner System was the definition of Lean. I was wrong on both counts. 

You may be wondering what is it and who invented it? The best I can tell you is there are many opinions, and varying definitions. The standard answer you will get sounds like "Lean is Continuous Improvement and Respect for People" and "Toyota invented it" I used to echo these words without really understanding, and let me tell you there is an enormous amount to be understood. And I aint talking about the tools.

But yes, early on I was totally proud of myself because I had the 8 wastes and 5S memorized. I understood one piece flow because I had facilitated the airplane game & parade of trades multiple times. A3s, visual management, just in time delivery, 5 Whys I read about em and by golly we were going to do them.

It was alot like finding a new board game and making everyone around me play it because like an 8 year old I expected everyone to be as excited as I was, and when they werent I had my little fit. 

I hadnt learned how to get agreement on the problem. I was a full fledged solutionizer. I would walk the job and see inefficient practices and shank my team with my solutions. If that doesnt clear up what solutionizing is, think about unsolicited advice. That person, and its always the same person, that jumps on and tells you what he did, how he would do it and how you should do it. Solutionizing is like that, its giving people the "answer" without them even asking a question. It is a form of disrespect, because solutionizers dont have the curtesy or humility to understand the entire situation. They walk away with a sense of accomplishment cuz they pointed out waste and "told" them a more efficient way to do the thing.

I was the ultimate solutionizer, people avoided me. In my head I was helping them, I was showing them a better way. I would ridicule them with the tired and overused "oh youre too busy to improve" I could not understand why they didnt want to do better.

Then I had the awakening! I learned that I had been doing it wrong the whole time. People didnt like me because I was doing Lean to them, I never did it for them or with them. 

So what sparked the awakening? 

I had a coach pull my brain through a key hole. He wasnt impressed by my Lean vocabulary or any of the Lean audits I showed. He simply said lets go study some work. Thats when the shift happened. You are probably thinking exactly what I was thinking, "study work? Ive been doing this for years, they just need to be more efficient" But  I had never looked at work from the Zoom level my coach introduced me to.

He instructed me to pay attention to the hands and eyes of the worker. This helped me see the painful elements in the work. The hidden burden that puts wear and tear on the bodies of our men and women. I gained empathy for the installer cuz it hurt just watching it. I thought "damn and they do this all day every day". After watching em push through the pain they had become desensitized to, I was compelled to make the work better for them.

The improvement ideas we generated were specifically focused at making the work easier FOR them. And guess what, the "buy in" was instant. The first crew we worked with told the rest of the crews that we were making the work better for them. And they sought us out and asked us to come check out their work too. All of a sudden all the lean tools had purpose. I wasnt spinning my wheels putting blue tape on peoples desk and calling it 5S. Now I was actually delivering value for the people who make it happen. 

Weve had some pretty sexy outcomes in terms of labor savings, improved safety, and quality. More importantly, I figured out how to teach it. So now not only do I get to multiply the impact of Sweat Equity Improvement, I also get to see the learners have their own awakenings.