Lean IT - the four steps to become a Lean IT...

1Lean IT – the four steps to become a Lean IT Leader

Lean IT - the four steps to become a Lean IT Leader

Quint Wellington Redwood

White P

aper

Lean IT Leadership is a principle-based approach to ensure that IT people, IT processes and information technology work in harmony to create long-term value for the users of IT services. In this paper, we want to show how the development of Lean IT Leadership contributes to the successful application of Lean IT principles and techniques. We will describe the four steps that need to be taken to develop into a Lean leader and we will discuss the four most important tools that can be used in this transformation.

IntroductionLeadership plays a critical role in the successful application of Lean principles within any orga-nization and in any industry in order to focus effectively on customer value and achieve both strategic and financial advantages. A lack of leadership is directly related to a lack of success when implementing Lean. In a world where new businesses and potential competitors arise on a daily basis it is becoming more and more important to be Lean. Continuous improvement is necessary to keep one step ahead of the competition and waste needs to be removed in order to work in an efficient way. Over the past years, we have helped various organizations to transform into a Lean organization while elimi- nating waste and creating value for their cus-tomers. Our experience is that the leader plays a crucial role in these transformations. This leader sets the example by fostering an environment in which continuous improvement is not only some-thing that is talked about during the week start but also becomes a way of thinking and acting that forms part of the organizational culture. The development of Lean IT leaders is based on the Lean Leadership Development Model as described by Jeffrey Liker in his book Developing Lean Leaders at all Levels, Jeffrey Liker, 2014.

The model contains four steps for developing Lean leaders and a set of ‘True North’ values.

Lean Leadership model, Jeffrey Liker, 2014

2 Quint Wellington Redwood

“The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.”

The most important step for a Lean leader is to make the explicit commitment to develop. This means making a concerted effort to go through individual learning cycles focused on improving the ability of the leader to adhere to the True North values and improve the ability to execute the other steps. These True North values are a starting point for an IT organization when setting out on its Lean IT journey.

Committing to self-development is the pre-requisite for the success of Lean within any organization, and it is no different for IT orga-nizations. By self-development, we mean the act of reflecting honestly on one’s own actions, thoughts, behavior and attitude with the aim of making these more effective.

Potential leaders need to be given the opportunity to self-develop and they need to be supported through the course of their development. Lead-ers do not self-develop on their own. Sup-porting self-development means finding the right self-development challenges, allowing space for self-development, and providing coaching at the right times during the process. Self-development is an activity that requires both individual reflec-tion and feedback from outside. Committing to self-development does not mean, for example, that you commit to reading a book about how to be a better leader and then doing your best to implement some of the ideas or suggestions; it means taking steps in changing behavior. It is an activity that needs to be planned and carried out on a regular basis. The challenge of self-devel-

Step 1 Commit to Self Development

Shu-Ha-Ri

Shu-Ha-Ri is a model of learning based on kata1.

The process of self-development is guided by the principle of Shu-Ha-Ri. It is vital for both IT engineers and leaders to progress through these three phases; otherwise no improvement will take place.

In essence, Shu-Ha-Ri entails:

• Shu (obey): learning how to do something

Within IT, new engineers become familiar with the IT environment by starting with operational activities; simply ensuring that the systems are ‘cleaned up’ on a daily basis so that they continue to function correctly. A next step would be to carry out standard changes such as getting a new laptop ready for use. In both cases, the work will be accompanied by either a checklist or a set of steps to be followed in a specific sequence.

• Ha (detach): then varying the way you do it

Within IT, an engineer will have moved on from carrying out standard changes to executing a non-standard change. This will need to be carried out according to the agreed change process, whereby small variations will be acceptable be-tween the key decision moments. The engineer will be able to identify small improvements, for ex-ample in the checklists for operational activities.

• Ri (separate): developing a new way of doing it

Executing a project is an IT form of Ri. The engineer is so well-versed with the execution of both standard and non-standard changes (which together make up the project) that he/she can improvise with both forms of change with the aim of achieving the project results. At the same time, the kata of executing a project must be respected. Depending on how experienced

opment is therefore threefold: self-development requires deep commitment, you need a coach and you need to practice.

– Ray Kroc, Founder and CEO of McDonald’s

1 The Japanese term ‘kata’ literally means ‘form’ and comes from the martial arts in which detailed patterns of movement are practiced. Kata is the starting point for all learning. It is the defined routine for thinking and acting in a particular situation.


Kaizen: Kaizen is the Japanese word for continu-ous improvement using small incremental changes. ‘Kai’ translates as ‘change’ and ‘zen’ translates as ‘for the better’.

Week start: A weekstart is a weekly team meeting during which the teams discusses the work objectives for the week to come and improvements that can be made. During the weekstart there is also an update of the key performance indicaters the team has selected.

Is a strategic list of standard tasks the leader performs regularly (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) to achieve strategy deployment and maintain continuous improvement momen-tum. It is a method to ensure daily progress which directs the leader to check on and support key metrics. It also ensures that the leader plans his/her presence on the gemba (work floor).

This helps to identify where issues and deviations are occurring in the leader’s work. This is a strong trigger for self-development related to the routine tasks of leadership, es-pecially if the leader is not able to complete the required work within the time available. Leadership work can be standardized within IT organizations as well. There are routines identifiable at all frequencies:

Daily

attending day start(s), checking the previous day’s performance reports, gemba walk, indi-vidual coaching sessions, daily kaizen activities and resource planning review.

Weekly

30

reviewing performance measures, attending week start(s), team coaching sessions, weekly improvement activities (e.g. processing issues on the improvement board) and resource plan-ning week review.

Monthly

activities to align goals, supplier meetings, customer meetings, improvement kaizen and updating the longer term resource plan.

these activities appear to be special and one-off because they do not occur as often as daily or weekly activities. However, in fact, they do contain routine elements, or they can be turned into routine activ-ities through planning and standardization. Examples include the annual budget cycle, with a quarterly review; updating the service catalogue and setting up new service level agreements.

Quarterly/yearly activities

the project manager is, he/she may even be at the Ri level in managing the project.

The first step in the Shu-Ha-Ri of Lean IT leader-ship is to define the kata of your own leadership as a Lean IT leader. This means building your Leader Standard Work.

Tool: Leader Standard Work (LSW)

In our experience, developing Leader Stan-dard Work helps to create an understanding of strategic goals at the operational level. When developing yourself to become a Lean IT leader, LSW is a powerful tool for ensuring everyone un-derstands the organizational strategy. This helps teams to focus on the work that adds most value and to make choices when capacity is scarce. LSW leads to the avoidance of problems since tasks are performed in a previously determined way. Performance is sustained since leaders know what to do and LSW helps in making work plannable.


Step 2 Coach and Develop Others

What leaders do for their own development, they must also do for the development of others. This means identifying, mentoring and nurturing the potential in others, and ensuring that this is developed and used to the best effect within the organization. This is done by giving autonomy to individuals and teams, providing appropriate challenges, and improving capabilities through training and coaching.

Each potential leader must follow the devel-opment path, starting with a commitment to self-development. The established Lean IT leader is both a role model and a teacher, in short: a sensei. In this capacity, the Lean IT leader must seek out the people who need to be helped with their development. These people can be found in a particular place: the Gemba, the place where the work is done.

When the Lean IT Leader goes to the Gemba, he or she is doing a so-called Gemba walk to experience what is actually happening on the work floor. The Lean IT Leader must “Go See, Ask Why, Show Respect” on the Gemba in order to help others to develop.

The Gemba walk is used by the Lean IT Leaders as a method to support the cul-ture, communicate strategy, and develop the engagement of people to the goals. There are basically three aims when doing a Gemba walk:

1) Support: support employees by removing obstacles and providing the necessary resources.

2) Teach: if employees are unsure of the strategy, Lean tool usage, controls such as quality, policies or required skills, then take the time to teach. The key is to explain why a certain policy or quality control is in place.

3) Promote: promote the True North values, continuous improvement, safety, security, a learning organization, teamwork and so on.

Remember: the best method of promo- ting is by being a role model, leading by example.

Tool: Gemba Walk

Examples of the gemba in IT organizations are a software development team where work is often project-based with a focus on the quality of deliverables. Or, a service desk where work is often client-based and production-oriented with the goal of meeting the expectations of the client. A service delivery team, on the other hand, is more process-oriented and focuses on comply-ing with process standards. Due to the different work environments in which IT teams operate, it is crucial for Lean IT leaders to understand the different goals and the work of each type of team so as to be able to provide support, teach and motivate the team members in order to increase customer value.


Step 3 Continuous Improvement

Leaders must be constantly aware of and attuned to possibilities for improvement. They empower their people to address issues that have an impact on customer value when they occur and at the source. This is not done through criticism, but through ongoing dedication to removing obstacles that stand in the way of the people doing the daily work on behalf of the leader.

“Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.”

Seeing and prioritizing problems: are both managers and employees truly prepared to uncover problems, accept them as a part of daily life and initiate actions to identify the problems that most need solving?

Solving problems: are both managers and employees prepared to invest time and other resources to understand the root causes of problems and resolve problems completely?

Sharing lessons learned: are both manag-ers and employees driven to share lessons learned as a result of solving problems with others in the IT organization, so that they can also benefit?

1.

2.

3.

Throughout the IT organization, among both managers and employees, there must be a belief that improving IT services and the way they are delivered can and must be done on a daily basis. This kaizen mindset consists of three elements:

Daily Kaizen practical routines for the Lean IT leader:

• Understand daily Kaizen in the context of IT. Develop a Kaizen mindset and a deep understanding of how to stimulate improvements by knowing the reasons for improvement, for instance increasing flow efficiency, and by identifying key areas for improvement.

• Help teams to develop by instituting routines based on standard work which enable the Shu-Ha-Ri principle and kata to be used. Ensure that standards are created, monitor compliance with the standards, identify improvements in the standards and ensure daily Kaizen and improvement kaizen are implemented to resolve problems.

• Visualize how much time is needed to solve identified problems and make sure this time is visible on the Visual Management Board so that time is reserved for solving problems and making improvements.

• Support daily Kaizen. The Lean IT leader is responsible for injecting new energy into the team. Without additional energy, the team will eventually fall back into a state in which improvements are not continuously sought.

Tool: Structured Problem-Solving

The concept of continuous improvement is em-braced widely by organizations working with Lean. However, we have learned that aiming for improving on a frequent basis is something different to actually embedding daily kaizen within your team. We basically see two things in our daily experience: first, organizations in which a Visual Improvement Board is placed on the wall on which improvements are gathered but there

– Paul Hawken, environmentalist and entrepre-neur who has shaped corporate sustainability

Ensure that routines become habits. Create positive feedback loops that encourage people to carry out daily Kaizen as part of their daily routine. Turn this action into a habit by reviewing performance at each day start.

•


is little or no progress made on the identified improvements. The Lean IT leader plays a crucial role in helping and facilitating the team to actually achieve the identified improvements. This might mean coaching team members to help them to execute an improvement or remove impediments, or ensuring that decisions are taken at a higher management level.

Second, organizations in which the Visual Im-provement Board remains scrupulously empty. Team members claim there are no improvements to be made. In these situations, the Lean IT leader supports the team by challenging team members to convert frustrations into improvements or, for example, by organizing a collective brainstorming session during which improvement possibilities are sought.

In both cases it is the Lean IT Leader who injects new energy in supporting daily Kaizen.


Lean IT leaders must create a vision and align the goals within the IT organization. In doing so, a Lean IT leader is responsible for communi-cating the vision and goals. Where the required communication regarding other aspects largely consists of motivating, teaching and supporting, the communication in this area involves creating a consistent story. The mechanism used within Lean to translate longer term goals into more

The leader must ensure that everyone in the organization knows what the organization stands for and what it is trying to achieve. Leaders es-tablish structures and processes to cascade True North values throughout the organization and they nurture a culture of personal accountability to ensure that supporting goals are defined and realized. They ensure that the goals are shared and are consistent across the individual teams within the organization.

Step 4 Create a Vision and Align Goals

Visual Management is a tool that embodies the need to make the current state clear so that problems can be identified. It ensures that facts are collected and presented in such a way that they are visible to everyone.

Visual Management is the most effective way to know where the IT organization stands at any moment in time. It ensures that a gemba walk can be carried out in a short time, but is still highly effective.

The basic trilogy of Visual Management consists of:

1) day board

2) week board

3) improvement board

Tool: VisualManagement

immediate goals is called Hoshin Kanri. Literally, Hoshin means ‘pointing device’ or ‘direction’ and Kanri means ‘management’. Hoshin Kanri is usually translated as policy deployment.

Hoshin Kanri is a cyclic planning and manage-ment concept applied at the strategic level to achieve breakthrough objectives, and at the day-to-day level to manage the operations needed to keep the business running. Hoshin Kanri sets big-picture objectives which are translated into specific actions through daily management.


In organizations with different management levels, catch-ball communication techniques are used to translate organizational goals into team goals. Top management sets the overall vision for the IT organization. At each level throughout the hierarchy, managers and employees participate in defining the strategy and drawing up a detailed action plan, which they will use to attain their tar-gets. They also define the measures that will be used to demonstrate that they have successfully achieved their targets. The catch-ball process works like this: the ‘need’ (a proposed vision or direction) is expressed by the leader, and the sub-ordinate responds with an interpretation of what that direction will mean within the subordinate’s realm of responsibility. The leader then reviews the response with humility, and remains open to proposals or ideas he/she had not considered previously. As the ball (idea) is passed back and forth, new ideas emerge, as does a consensus on the right course of action.


6. End of the day

• Reflect on the day – based on LWS – seek improvements

• Reflect on the Lean principles: Lead with Humility, Respect Every Individual, Constancy of Purpose, Thinking Systematically

• Make an action list for the next day

Case Study: Bob the IT ManagerBob is head IT of the Infrastructure department of an insurance company. He has five teams reporting to him: Service Desk team; Windows team; Unix team; Middleware team and the Da-tacenter team. Bob has adopted Lean and has a daily routine using Leader Standard Work. This is what a regular day looks like for Bob:

1. Start of the day• Self-development preparation: what is his

personal improvement goal for this day?

• Day start preparation: get the facts, and align with goals/targets

• Gemba walk preparation: get the facts and choose the department that needs special attention; reiterate and tune the change story

2. Day start with team

• Use Visual Management in team discussion

• Encourage team members to seek improvements

• Align targets for the day (if necessary)

• Show leadership in stimulating the team

3. Gemba walk

• Do the daily routine (every day)

• Conduct performance dialogue based on Visual Management, the team has the initiative!

• Communicate decisions to team

• Follow up on specific topics from the preparation

• Encourage mindset of continuous improvement by using “why techniques”

4. Gemba walk follow-up

• Discuss performance with individual team members

• Encourage each team member to seek improvements

• Be a coach to team members (Shu-ha-ri)

• Give support by listening and asking why

• Provide feedback

• Set, review and agree on personal objectives aligned with goals

5. Team consultation

• Lead the team by setting meeting goals

• Encourage team members to:

• Give input

• Discuss ideas to make things better

• Commit themselves to the team result

• Show respect and express gratitude for the input of the team


Quint Wellington Redwood (Quint for short) is a global, independent boutique consult-ing firm. Since our establishment in 1992, our portfolio has been focused on providing consultancy services and training courses aimed at designing and optimizing IT-inten-sive processes, services and organizations.

Quint itself does not provide IT services. We see it as our task – and our challenge – to aid our clients in getting the most out of their existing and new IT. We deliver our consultancy jobs based on accountability for results. In doing so, we focus on:

• effective sourcing of IT-intensive processes and services (Sourcing Advisory)

• optimal and compliant designing of IT processes (IT Service Management)

• implementing and above all embedding customer-oriented and effective working methods (Lean IT)

• output-driven and effective governance of IT Demand & IT Supply (IT Governance)

• steerability of the market conformity of IT products and ser-vices produced and/or purchased (Benchmarking)

• safe and future-proof designing of IT (Architecture & Security)Quint is all about people. Our staff and our clients are our greatest assets. Open communication, transparency in creating and fulfill-ing expectations, and the feeling that ‘we’re in this together’ en-sure that staff and clients alike feel at home and valued by Quint.

Our motto is ‘Dare to Challenge’

Quint’s ‘Dare to Challenge’ motto challenges us and our clients to improve continuously. As proof of this drive and to demonstrate our commitment to our clients, we contract our services based on the results and/or value we deliver. Quint is committed to your success.

Our best practices support the improvements we deliver. These best practices and above all sharing them with our clients are proof of our thought leadership. Among other things, this has led to Quint being named the World’s Best Outsourcing Advisor by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP® rankings 2016).

© Copyright 2016, Quint Wellington Redwood. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transferred and/or shown to third parties without prior written consent of The Quint Wellington Redwood Group.

Please Recycle

Final wordsThe case study about Bob the IT manager illus-trates how the four steps to develop into a Lean IT leader are incorporated into the daily life of an IT manager. First, committing to self-development by setting personal goals on a daily basis to improve your personal way of working. Second, creating opportunities to coach and develop the people you work with to help them develop themselves. Third, continuous improvement by stimulating the daily kaizen mindset is achieved by challenging the status quo and by encour-aging team members to take (small) actions to improve any obstacles they encounter in their work. Improvements that require more profound investigation to determine the root cause, or issues that demand the involvement of other stakeholders can be a topic for a kaizen event. Finally, the Lean IT leader plays an essential role in creating a vision and aligning goals to make sure team members know what the organization stands for and how they can contribute at a personal level to these organizational goals. The Lean IT Leadership Development Model is not

AuthorNiels Loader is a Principal Consultant with Quint, and one of the leading experts on Lean IT & DevOps. He is the Content Board Lead with the Lean IT Association (LITA), and is Chief Examiner of Lean IT with APMG. Niels brings extensive experience in the areas of IT Service Manage-ment, IT Performance Improvement, Lean IT and DevOps.

a static model in which the ‘end state’ will be achieved by going through these four steps. The idea of continuous improvement in small steps is also applicable to the Lean IT Leadership Development Model itself.

Your personal journey to become a Lean IT leader starts by committing yourself to the challenges of self-development.

Start with spending time on the Gemba, set yourself a daily personal improvement goal, spot talent in the teams you work with and find a coach to help you in developing yourself.

Lean IT - the four steps to become a Lean IT...

Documents

Transcript of Lean IT - the four steps to become a Lean IT...