It’s not unusual to see plans labeled the “LEAN Six-Week Look Ahead Plan” or the “Lean Weekly Work Plan.” For the most part the labels are well intended, portraying an understanding that the team is working in what for them is a new and better way.

The danger with including the word “Lean” when labeling a document or visual display is that alternative approaches are still in play. I have heard references on projects to “our normal look ahead schedule” and similar comments that suggest the old ways of managing work aren’t completely dead and buried. People may then hold back on their commitment to Lean practices believing them to be temporary.

Let the Lean tools stand on their own. They don’t need a “Lean” label to validate their value. Start accepting Lean tools, and more importantly Lean thinking, as the new normal.