This is an excerpt from the book "Five Minute Lean", by David McLachlan - a wonderful book that blends teaching of the tools, culture and philosophy of traditional Lean with a modern-day Lean parable. You can get the whole book on Amazon here and enjoy your own copy.
Where Lisa Becomes a Leader
They had been in the boardroom under lock and key for over four hours – the highest paid people in the company undertaking a fierce debate on whether to close the call centre and offshore the other staff, or save the company and keep the jobs of 300 people.
The end of Lisa’s shift for the day had come and gone, as had the clock-off time for every other person at the Shoe Emporium. But no one had left. They had all come to the boardroom floor to await the announcement of their future and their life.
Security had been called in to guard the doors in case the announcement went bad – although nearly all of the people already expected the worst. Then suddenly over the noise of the crowd, came the loud “click” of a door unlocking.
There was silence within a moment, and every eye turned towards the door. It creaked as it opened, and out walked Michael Pilbury, CEO, taking his place in front of the crowd.
There was not a sound in the room as Michael declined a microphone to speak from. He would deliver the news without it.
“Thank you for being here everyone,” said Michael. “I’ve always known the people at the Shoe Emporium cared deeply about their jobs and the company, but now I can see it all with my own eyes.” And he let out a deep sigh. The pause seemed to last forever.
“It is with deep regret…” Michael started, but the crowd, sensing the worst, erupted in collective outrage and his voice was drowned by the noise. Michael raised his hands and spoke in his deep resonant voice.
“Friends!” and the noise quietened. “It is with deep regret, that I announce the resignation of one of our senior board members, Alan.”
Dead silence. Board member? Resignation?
“During our meeting today and based on some last minute information, the board has decided not only to postpone any offshore initiatives,” Michael paused again for effect, “but also at this stage to keep every single staff member of the Shoe Emporium employed in this fine company! Yes there will be changes, and yes we have some work to do, but I believe that we can do it together.”
And the crowd could contain itself no longer. Cheers and applause echoed through the floor, and didn’t stop even as the board members filtered out from the room and into the crowd. Lisa caught the eye of Jerry, Anne and Ron and broke into a beaming smile. “It worked!” she shouted above the noise.
Team-mates were hugging as the news sank in, some were even crying tears of relief and joy as they realised what it meant for them. As nobody seemed to be leaving, pizza was soon ordered, bottles of champagne were bought and opened and the party really began.
But not everyone was in good spirits. Over the noise of the crowd bellowed a voice that Lisa had been trying to avoid.
“LISA! Did you finish that extra work I gave you to do?” Robert the Boss came storming into Lisa’s space and got so close she could smell his awful breath. He took a hold of the pizza in Lisa’s hand and shook it as he bellowed. “You don’t get to enjoy this until you’ve finished your work, SO GET BACK TO IT.”
Lisa stood her ground. She looked Robert the Boss in the eye, let go of the pizza he was shaking and got ready to tell him exactly what she thought. But she wasn’t alone.
“I think you mean your work, Robert,” it was the voice of Michael Pilbury, calmly but fiercely standing behind him.
“And she won’t be taking orders from you anymore,” he said. Lisa looked over at Michael in surprise. “In fact,” he continued, “You won’t have anything to do with this company at all. You are fired!”
Robert’s face grew red. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but no words came out. Seeing that he had no allies here, he quickly ran out of the room. And that was the last time anyone saw Robert the Boss.
“Which means there is a space for someone to be promoted,” said Michael, looking knowingly at Lisa.
“Do you mean me? I couldn’t,” said Lisa. “Michael I can’t. I’m not a boss like Robert.”
“That’s right – you’re not a boss, Lisa. You are a Leader. Despite your title you still managed to lead the people around you. The changes you’ve made and will continue to make have saved the jobs of over 300 of us here. Which is why I would be honoured and grateful if you continued to work on and improve this company in your new role as manager.”
Lisa smiled. In fact, she couldn’t think of anything she would rather do. “Well… if you put it that way,” she smiled. “You can count me in.”
Michael’s face broke into a beaming smile.
“I was hoping your answer would be yes,” said another familiar voice, and Lisa spotted a ragged mop of light brown hair bounding through the crowd.
“Steve?” Lisa nearly squealed with joy. “What on earth are you doing here?”
“I heard about what was happening, and came right over,” said Steve.
“Steve happens to be a recent friend of mine,” said Michael with a grin. “And he may have let it slip about some of the great things you’ve been doing,” he added.
“It’s amazing who you meet at the yacht club,” said Steve. “Michael was very interested in what was happening at his company – very interested indeed. Sometimes it’s easy to lose touch with the process, but with Lisa around somehow I don’t think that will be a problem anymore.” Steve smiled and looked at Michael, who nodded.
Lisa looked accusingly at Steve. “Why am I not surprised that you know my CEO?” she asked and then said half to herself, half to Michael, “Now I understand how you knew what I was trying to do here.”
“That’s right. And thanks to you Lisa, I feel as though we could get back to the old days, when it was about our passion for shoes and it was fun to come to work.” It seemed as though now it would be impossible to wipe the smile from Michael’s face.
Lisa nodded, and felt a swell of emotion and any words she wanted to say got caught in her throat. Tears started to well around her eyes.
“Thank you!” she said and threw her arms around the CEO. “And you!” she turned to Steve and gave him a hug.
Together they got another champagne, talked more about the way things could be and the impromptu party lasted long into the night. People discussed their jobs, their lives, and the changes they could make, and the futures that awaited them.
As the party raged on, Steve slipped quietly into the background and away into the night. He couldn’t stay out too late – after all, he had a meeting with an old friend over lunch tomorrow who was having trouble with their job.
Steve chuckled to himself. It should be an interesting lunch.
This is an excerpt from the book "Five Minute Lean", by David McLachlan - a wonderful book that blends teaching of the tools, culture and philosophy of traditional Lean with a modern-day Lean parable. You can get the whole book on Amazon here and enjoy your own copy.
Selected chapters from the story within Five minute Lean:
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Makes a Change
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Discovers a New Way
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Performs a Balancing Act
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Pulls the Trigger
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Sets a New Standard
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Becomes a Leader
Check out these selected chapters from the teachings within Five Minute Lean:
- Five Minute Lean – Create a Pull System with FIFO, Kanban Triggers and Visual Management
- Five Minute Lean – Make Feedback Meaningful with Kano Analysis
- Five Minute Lean – Collect and Measure Feedback With the Net Promoter Score
- Five Minute Lean – Put it Together With Design for Ease of Use
- Five Minute Lean – Gather Direct Feedback and Indirect Feedback
- Five Minute Lean – Eliminate the Eight Wastes to Improve Flow
- Five Minute Lean – Present and Manage Your Change Using an A3 and LCA
- Five Minute Lean – Help Your Process Flow with Line Balancing
- Five Minute Lean – Map the Value Stream to Reveal Opportunities
- Five Minute Lean – Introduction
- Five Minute Lean – Go to the Gemba
- Five Minute Lean – Use Pareto to Find Where to Start
- Five Minute Lean – Heijunka: Level the Workload when Demand Fluctuates
- Five Minute Lean – Use Feedback to Fix and Guarantee
- Five Minute Lean – Create a Future State Value Stream Map
- Five Minute Lean Summary
- Five Minute Lean – Organise Your Process with Five S
- Five Minute Lean – Value is Determined by the Customer
- Five Minute Lean – Use Kaizen and Kaizen Events to Help Stakeholder Buy-In
- Five Minute Lean – Get Your Map Started with a SIPOC