Continuous Flow in Lean Consulting Part 2

In Part 1 of this post, I outlined the problem that I observe: the way we conduct lean consulting reinforces an event-oriented view of lean that leaves a lot of value on the table.

My personal mission is to create the freedom to innovate, by eliminating all the stuff that gets in the way.

In most PD organizations, there is a lot of stuff in the way: big stuff, like rigid phase gate processes, and small stuff, like difficulties retrieving essential information on a daily basis. It all clogs up the flow of innovation.

It takes daily, continuous effort to get all that stuff out of the way. We humans are masters at grooving the things we do every day, even when those things directly impede the flow of our work. It takes effort to change, even when there is immediate benefit. One training event or one goal setting session is not going to create change.

I've never been satisfied with an event-driven model of consulting, and I've attempted to fix it by providing unlimited access via phone and email for all of my clients as a part of every engagement. As a result, at least my clients never feel like they're on a meter with me.

Still, I think that doesn't go far enough. The business model of consulting, as long as it's based upon face to face meetings, trainings and events, is not continuous or just-in-time enough to be as effective as it can be during a lean transformation.

So how do we make consulting services more continuous? Here are six principles for continuous flow consulting:

1. Become trusted mentors and advisors, not trainers or analysts.



2. Cut the "batch size" for trainings and other learning experiences.



3. Spend less time in face to face meetings, and do much more over the phone and over the Internet, using the richest media available, on shorter time cycles.



4. Provide multiple ways to connect, and lower the barriers to connection.



5. Provide ways for clients to pull your knowledge when they need it, rather than on a time schedule that's dependent upon the consultant's availability.



6. Bring clients together to form communities so that they can provide support for each other around their common goals.

Just this week, I took a major step towards building my own continuous flow consulting model.

I launched a Knowledge Supermarket around lean product development. It's called the Lean Development Resource Center, and it's available here: www.leantechnologydevelopment.com

The site will give my clients and other lean product development practitioners the ability to pull knowledge from me when they need it. I have a wealth of materials in my personal library from seven years of lean product development consulting and fifteen years of product development work that does no one any good if it's on my hard drive and in my head.

It's an experiment and as such, I don't know exactly where it's going to end up, but I think this type of thing is a step towards being available for our clients when they need us, and not just when we get on a plane to see them.

Continuous Flow in Lean Consulting, Part 1

In a lean organization, people at all levels of the organization continually engage in systematic problem-solving so that the company and its people eliminate waste and deliver more value ever day.

This is the Holy Grail of lean thinking - the true source of differentiation between the companies that get great results with lean and the ones that get good results initially but find that they can't sustain their gains. It is a universal and continuous flow of innovation that tackles problems from massive to tiny in a spiral of exponentially increasing value creation.

As lean consultants, our job is to support organizations as they develop this internal capacity. I'm beginning to wonder whether or not the way that we tend to do this is as effective as it could be.

Kaizens, mapping sessions, trainings, etc. are all events. As such, they are discontinuous, limited in the number of people engaged, and conducted mainly on the mid-sized problems that lend themselves to this format. Often, they focus on implementing best practices from other lean companies like 5S, kanbans or set-based concurrent engineering, rather than allowing the workers (machinists, engineers, doctors, executives) solve their problems using their own ingenuity.

We don't want to reinvent solutions, and the tools of lean have a demonstrated track record of delivering performance improvements, but the companies who just implement the tools without instilling systematic problem-solving leave so much value on the table. Yet as consultants, we model exactly the kinds of behavior that lead to unsustainable or shallow tool-driven lean programs that generate only limited value.

Our clients need to develop sustainable, continuous flows of systematic problem-solving to maximize their potential. Yet without living with a client for some time, we need to support them.

There must be a better way. In Part 2 of this post, I'll explore some ways to get more continuous flow into our lean consulting work.

In the meantime, I encourage you to check out my two new web class offerings, Lean Product Development Basics and Lean Thinking for the Front End of Product Development.