Has ‘Lean' Affected You?
How has "lean" impacted you personally? I'm not talking about frozen Lean Cuisine dinners, or lean months during a national recession. I'm talking about lean concepts ... a lean mindset.
I've done quite a few interviews across the years with facilities and individuals who have adopted "lean" as a way of practicing and doing business. The results are almost universally glowing. Stripped-down clutter - of both the material and esoteric kinds -- married to consistent, streamlined processes produces a family of enviable offspring: less wasted time, less stress, and improved patient outcomes.
The first time I asked a clinician about the lean processes in a facility, she set me straight: Lean was no longer practiced only at work; it now infiltrated every aspect of her life. She de-cluttered her home living space, and found streamlined processes for packing the kids' lunches as well. She told me "lean" had changed her life; it was her salvation.
Just yesterday, I asked another lean-at-work proponent what leanness had meant to him. He didn't have a ready response, but after a moment's thought he summed it up through the opening words of a workshop speaker: "Lean was formerly known as common sense..."
Has lean made you more able to handle work or life in general? Or is it merely a hyped term that comes down to common sense?