Team building in Lean Organizations
Use this approach for talent development, succession planning, and team configuration.
by
From the HBR Magazine (January–February 2022)
"Summary.
As people develop competence in a new domain of expertise, they move along an S Curve: Growth is slow and effortful at the outset, or launch point. It then progresses rapidly as people acquire new skills in a stretch known as the sweet spot. At the peak is mastery, when work becomes easier but the curve flattens. Understanding where your employees are on this S Curve of Learning will help you coach them appropriately, craft thoughtful succession plans, and build a team with diverse but complementary strengths.
The S Curve is a tool that smart managers use to launch conversations with their reports and create tailored development plans for them. It reveals when people are ready for bigger challenges—something that’s especially critical if they’re in mastery, which may mean they’re getting restless and need to jump to a new S Curve. Often the employees don’t even realize they’re ready to take the leap, but their managers push them anyway.
When that happens, it’s key to surround an employee with the right supporting team. A good team will include members from all phases of the curve, who can contribute diverse perspectives and skills." (Whitney Johnson, HBR, January-February 2022)
This concept from Whitney Johnson is something I have applied to my team. It is nothing completely new, but Whitney Johnson has packaged it in a very understandable way, and I am a great supporter of her concept. Thank you, Whitney, for your work!
The first time I understood the power of the learning curve portfolio concept was when I read, "The Machine that changed the World" - the Holy Grail of Lean Management from James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos. I was leader of a production team and was additionally assigned to run Lean Events for process improvements and change. The team had employees with many years of work experience. Some had worked for their whole lives at this department and were close to retirement. I was the young guy who had to show them a new way of working and how to improve. With such a long-established team, it seemed to be very difficult to drive any change and get something new going. It seemed especially difficult to motivate the team to do something other than what they have done for years, or even decades.
In Lean Management the goal is also to empower the work force and move them to different areas/functions and jobs. There are two reasons for this:
To see the full picture of the organization and to understand the value created for the customer; and
To have the workforce in a sweet spot of learning with motivation and good ideas.
It keeps the workforce agile and fresh and they can develop great careers. Indeed, there are also many more facets to it:
You need to have an open and supportive culture, where everybody’s goal is to help each other develop a better company, society and world.
Personal development, with the principle of continuous learning; and
Make a good contribution to the big picture as a team, or even as a society.
With this mindset, a team not only tries to benefit themselves, but also to help each other to give a positive contribution for the whole. I really love this part of Lean Management, and this is not only something which is theory: I know from my own experience that it is happening in great organizations. I also believe that this kind of culture provides long term success, because it is the only fair way to cope with each other and it leads to motivation and productivity that you would never gain, otherwise.
Coaching Leadership is key for the learning curve portfolio concept. As Whitney Johnson explains, employees at the end of their job’s learning curve can act as masters and coach newcomers. This was the principle I used when leading the consistent long term team. The masters „senior members“, before retiring, would act as coaches and show the beginner how to do tasks, but then leave the beginner enough freedom and space to try out new ideas. Some ideas were very innovative, some terribly bad, but the coaches had to let the beginner gain their own experience and help with the learning curve. Of course, when things went astray, and would have an impact on safety or quality, then the coaches would intervene. Coaching has to be learned as well, certainly, and sometimes there were also big conflicts in the roles: ”You are not my boss” was sometimes said, and the team development was rough. Creating a new culture of ‘together’ instead of ‘alone’ was a big change. Leaders had to act as role models and constantly build the team culture. As a teamleader, I had to coach and not direct. On tough decisions I had to direct, but usually I gave team members the space to do their own work. When problems arose, I supported them as well and as quickly as possible. We made sure that, for problems the team could not solve, they were supported by other colleagues.
If you want to know more about the coaching leadership or how to create a high performance team, then you can join us on the Mastermind-Gruppe Schweiz, or book your coaching session with me.