I was speaking with a friend who stated that his organization was ending their Lean efforts. Although they believe they have benefitted significantly from the Lean projects they had undertaken, there was an assessment that the effort demanded was large compared to further improvements they could realize.

My sense is that they are a victim of Lean fatigue, the same way an athlete can fall victim to overtraining fatigue. They had a large number of significant projects ongoing at any one time and sustaining the high level of effort they were putting into these projects was exhausting them.

Athletes use seasons and periodization to balance the times they push their bodies and the times they allow their body to recover. During recovery periods an athlete still works on conditioning their body – the training never stops completely. A Lean enterprise should be mindful of the same dynamic and need. There are times to press forward with major improvements and times when the day-to-day observation, tests, and reflections are enough.