Best Event Ever
I was the Lean Champion for Armstrong World Industries for six years. My responsibility was to guide the organization to a continuous improvement mindset in all of their activities. I had no direct reports and reported to the Executive Vice President of Global Technology. When we kicked off our Lean transformation, most in the organization felt we were implementing the “flavor of the week” and weren’t ready to commit to changing their habits.
I knew it would be an uphill climb for me, as my job was one of influence. I had to capture the hearts and minds of my coworkers. It would have to happen one person at a time. With approximately 150 members of our team, I knew it would take a while to get to a point where we could see any indication of changing mindset.
As Lean Champion, I had to be a teacher, mentor, sensei, cheerleader, and pain in the ass at different times. Most people would say I was more of a pain in the ass than anything else. It was just me in the beginning, so I needed to get some allies. Luckily, I already had a few managers and coworkers who had seen my earlier Lean efforts with teams prior to our official Lean transformation. They were there with me, fighting alongside of me and lending credibility to my efforts. I also had the support of my manager, who had seen Lean applied in manufacturing and wanted similar or better results. Our group had taken a few hits over the past few years. A factory start-up didn’t go as well as planned and we had slowed our rate of developing new products for the market. There was a compelling case for change.
At the beginning of our Lean transformation, we strategically planned Kaizen events to target areas of the organization that needed the most help or would create high visibility for the results. Our first official Kaizen event was a Value Stream Mapping event, which is the Lean version of a strategic planning session. For many of the participants, this was their first time in a Kaizen event. I always want to generate energy and enthusiasm in the team, and as a facilitator, I had to put myself out there a lot. After my manager kicked off the event with words of encouragement, he handed control over to me. I decided to try something to get a positive reaction. I said, “I want to welcome you all to our very first Value Stream Mapping event in Technology. It’ll be our Best Event Ever!” Most of the room got the irony of the statement and laughed. Some didn’t know what to think and laughed too. I knew I was on to something.
At different times during the Value Stream Mapping event, I brought up the fact that we were doing work to assure this truly would be a great event, perhaps the best ever. People would poke fun at me every time. At the end of the event, during the report out to our sponsor and customers, my manager made a special point to say the event was truly the best event ever. Again, people laughed, but now they had something to use at my expense from then on.
Over the years, “Best Event Ever” was said many times by many people and the organization made many breakthroughs. An 18-month product development cycle was reduced to 10 months. The new product portfolio of $150 million was increased to $380 million. Over 95% of the total organization had participated in at least one Kaizen event and all new employees were onboarded with Lean principles, taught by the Lean Champion. The overall culture of the organization transformed to one with a continuous improvement mindset and the words of their pain in the ass Lean Champion were well ingrained by the time I left for my next adventure.