Try to imagine my excitement when I received my first response from a real live Olympic coach wondering what my LeanOnMe consulting services were all about. I won't identify the coach but lets just say they and their athlete provided some of the proudest memories for me of the 2012 Olympics.
Their response in part read as follows...
"I like the idea of applying a more stringent, and proven methodology to the entire Athletics Canada federation, but I have absolutely no say in what they do....if you can give me a more specific idea of what you envision I can run it by our team and see what everybody thinks. Right now we have LOTS of people coming forward with ideas. But we don't want to change things too dramatically since what we are doing seems to be working. Maybe we can talk next week? Let me know."
I was struck by a few things they said. The first was that they expressed a certain level of frustration at their lack of say in terms of what Athletics Canada federation does. I couldn't help but think of countless employees and front line managers with whom I have worked who said the same thing about their senior management.
I was also a little amused at the notion that they have "LOTS of people coming forward with ideas." And here I thought I was the only one. Who knew? But I wonder how many Lean consultants are knocking on their door.
Finally I was reminded as I always am of the importance of being respectful to my clients. It is easy for outsiders such as consultants to want to focus on the road to improvement. But in any organization it is of utmost importance to have the buy-in of everyone involved.
Keep in mind this is still hot off the press. But I will share with you my response which was sent just six minutes after I opened their email to me:
"...what I am proposing is basically taking the principles of the Toyota Production System or “Lean Manufacturing” and applying them to competing in sports. As I’m sure you can appreciate it’s not something you can easily describe in an email so I will definitely take you up on your offer for a phone call next week. But put as simply as possible you start with what the customer, in this case the taxpayers, value. Then you analyze everything you do that adds value and try to do more of that. And at the same time you look at everything you do that doesn’t add value and you try to do less of that.
It sounds overly simplistic and I always resist trying to give specific examples, especially when it comes to Value Streams where I am not an expert such as competing for Olympic medals. But the first step would be to really understand what it is that the customer/taxpayers value from the Olympics. I know I can speak from personal experience and say that I value the following things (out of many):
- Achieving a personal best
- Winning a medal
- Being very personable in interviews
- Winning with grace and style
- Coming to my kids’ school so they can meet a real Olympic athlete
- …and so on
...I suppose the real strength of Lean is it takes all subjectiveness out of process improvement by letting the customer define value, and the subject matter experts make the improvements.Bottom line is I am willing to offer my LeanOnMe services free of charge to you, or any Canadian Olympic athlete’s team to see if I can help. That consists of two days per month in person as scheduled by you. And outside of that access to me as required via unlimited emails and phone calls.Like you I believe passionately in what I do. I care deeply about my clients. And I take the greatest pride imaginable when they achieve more than they ever thought possible. And I don’t need you to have any influence what-so-ever over Sports Canada. All I need from you is an open mind, a rabid passion to succeed, and a willingness to be a leader. Check. Check. Check.I am asking for half an hour of your time to talk on the phone or grab a coffee....Thanks again for responding to me. And again thank you for what was definitely my most memorable moment of the 2012 Olympics."
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