This presentation is an overview on how to implement SDCA (Plan – Do – Check – Act) in the field of Lean Sales and Marketing. It includes an outline for standard work of this cycle and an embedded video with Dr. Michael Balle, the Gemba Coach at the Lean Enterprise discussing Standard work in a knowledge creating department – Engineering.
The amount of Standard Work that you decide for your teams will differ from organization to organization and from team to team. Standard Work should only encompass part of your time. Knowledge workers should have a fair amount of slack time built into their process, i.e. Google, 3M. On the other hand, just about every person wants some form of standard work. Most enjoy doing tasks that they are comfortable with and it gives them a sense of accomplishment when completed.
The bigger picture is that Standard Work provides line of sight for your team. It enables support and provides opportunity for managers to serve you. Standardizing your work provides opportunity to spread it within your organization and make it easier for customers to go deeper into your organization for knowledge sharing. This provides a flood of new ideas for innovation and co-creation opportunities. But even more importantly it secures a vendor-customer relationship or partnership that is difficult for others to replicate. More on this in the blog post, Positioning your organization to learn from your customers.
And Standard Work does not need to be boring: Is Zappos the Next Toyota?
Related Information:
Servant Leadership in the Toyota Culture