Does Lean solve some problems for ROWE

David Kasprzak, of the popular blog, My Flexible Pencil discussed ROWE in the Business901 podcast this week. ROWE is a concept developed by Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler, co-authors of the book, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution. ROWE stands for Results-Only Work Environment. It is a revolutionary new way of working that gives employees more responsibility and accountability for their work and the way they do it.

Are Lean/Six Sigma and ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) complimentary, or competing, approaches to workplace transformation? Both place a heavy emphasis on value and the elimination of any activities that don’t produce that value. Lean, however, advocates an engaged management that is able to “go to Gemba.” In gemba, leaders can observe where value is created in order to find waste and identify areas for improvement. ROWE, however, places a heavy emphasis on worker autonomy and freedom, as long as the Results are achieved. This could lead to the Gemba being anywhere and everywhere, especially for knowledge workers. Listen to the podcast as we attack issues such as this.

Download Podcast: Click and choose options: Download Here or go to the Business901 iTunes Store.

About David Kasprzak: While working as a cost & schedule analyst, I realized that the sources of either good or poor performance usually rested in the habits, practices and mindsets of both the leadership and the led. As a result, I began to explore the “people side” of performance. On this blog, David addresses both workplace and family situations by applying ideas derived from Lean, ROWE, Project Management, Organizational Behavior and my Master’s-Level education in Political Science and Business Administration.

P.S. Last week, I asked, Does ROWE solve some Lean problems?

More information about Dave and Rowe can be found:
ROWE, Lean and the Shingo Model
“Results Only” means “Value Only”