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LEAN on me
El Jefe has latched onto LEAN – which he always, always writes this in caps, as if it were an acronym, persuading Cliff that it’s our salvation. Now! PANIC!
I’m not worried about LEAN. It’s like Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, Six Sigma, Jedi, and Iambic Pentameter in that it sounds great in theory and will generate a net positive, though not what the consultants advertise. It’s also interesting in that its core seven habits/principles are ones that no rational person could disagree with:
- Eliminate Waste
- Build Quality In
- Create Knowledge
- Defer Commitment
- Deliver Fast
- Respect People
- Optimize the Whole
For example, you’d be insane to deliberately engineer waste, unless your business is (wait for it…) sanitary engineering. I would have a problem with respecting people whom I felt were demonstrably incompetent or not pulling their weight. Like the BM. But I’d manage.
The problem is El Jefe is irrational and violates a majority of the principles above, but doesn’t know it. There has been debate among the worker bees where he falls on the scale:
Idiot < Imbecile < Moron < Feeble-minded < Retarded < Dull < Normal
If he leads this, consensus is the effort is doomed.
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