In a nutshell, lean operational culture is concerned with maximising the production of value while minimising waste, thereby creating more for less for the customer. What is special about this way of thinking is the fact that the purpose is not to achieve productivity improvements by making people work faster, but rather to find ways and means to work smarter and to waste less time and effort.
The essence of lean is in operational culture, in which the workload, the effectiveness of processes and inefficiencies are discussed openly, and developed incessantly.
At the heart of this continuous development is data, which displays the individual differences identified. This information can be detrimental to development if the initial situation is very negative. This may lead to a situation where rather than focusing on development, one focuses on blaming the individuals concerned. Therefore, it is important to first build a base that allows us to review the reality calmly and scientifically.
One may ask why a company specialising in ethical leadership development and promoting sustainable practices wishes to help its customers onto a lean path. Simply put, it is because ethical leadership has the simultaneous goals of productivity and well-being at work at its core. Lean operational culture provides an excellent response to both these ambitions.