Real Lean Vs Fake Lean

I recently made my first holidaying trip to Disney Land in Anaheim and had an awesome 5 days staying near the theme parks.

On my travels around the local, I spotted this interesting Motel, which is the “Alpine Inn Anaheim”.

As you can see the motel is styled  and presented in an authentic alpine design, even including snow on the roof and roaring fires inside.

This looks like a real alpine setting until you realise that we’re in Anaheim and it’s 28 degree Celsius!

So this reminds me of some of the organisations I have met who claim to be “doing Continuous Improvement”.

Far too many believe it’s just a case of learning how to use the tools and miss out the fundamental principle that people must understand why and then respect that they need to be involved in the changes to deliver value to your customers.

Respect for people cannot be faked like snow on the roof of the Alpine Motel.

Real Lean is a combination of respecting those that create and deliver value and using the appropriate tools to engage the whole organisation in long term sustainable continuous improvement.