My blog through the years has discussed the interaction Middle Management needs to have in a Lean Transformation. I have always thought the key to a Lean Journey or Transformation resided in Middle Management, Can Lean be driven by Middle Management? It was also discussed in this blog, If less than 1% of companies are successful with Lean. I have always thought this component was more important than Leadership in the success. In these discussions, I have seldom found many sympathetic supporters and have just accepted it was one of those odd things I believed in.
Mike Rother is an undisputable leader and expert on the subject of Toyota Kata. His work in Toyota Kata is documented in his book Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results. In my recent foray into Toyota Kata, I ran across this video that actually lends a little credence to my thoughts of Lean and Middle Managers. in it he basically makes the argument that the Lean community should view middle managers as its customers. In it he says middle managers may have more influence on an organization’s performance than any other group.
What are you thoughts?
How does your thinking align?
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