Brad Schupp asked me for my thoughts on the root cause of Lean fatigue after reading the previous post. He has see similar issues in the Six Sigma, Strategy and Process Improvement spaces across many organizations and his assessment is that in each case the primary root cause was the failure of leadership because many leaders do not focus on adopting Lean practices as a shift in the organization’s culture. Instead Lean is presented as yet another initiative and series of projects.

The assessment reminded me of a story relayed to me by Bill Rodgers (not the four-time Boston Marathon winner Bill Rodgers) about his high school running experience. The story is about high school coaches who would push their athletes to run far more miles than a teenage body is equipped to handle. The results were faster competition times in high school events with heightened prospects for injury.

Piling on the the Lean initiatives may be like piling on the miles, especially if the leader takes the approach of assigning the initiatives to others and relies on an initiatives completed count to confirm ‘this Lean stuff’ is working.

Smart Lean leaders need to emulate smart athletic coaches and embrace an approach that develops the abilities of their team for the long term and not just the next race. For most organizations that likely means leaders have a healthy amount of self development they need to undertake at the same time so they understand how to adjust from being a director to a coach.