What if you are the employee assigned to guide your companies Lean journey but you have little experience? Here is how you can increase your confidence.
1. Have Confidence in your Lean Abilities
In our minds, we believe that we have to know everything there is to know about Lean before we can confidently deliver results. We overcomplicate things. Increase confidence with the decision to be confident in what you are doing. This is a choice that you make every day. Choose to have confidence!
The reality is you have to be one page ahead of your students in the book. If you think your algebra teacher knew everything there was to know about algebra- guess again. They were one page ahead of you as a student. Have confidence that you will bring about change in your Lean Transformation
2. Increase confidence by gaining competence
Psychologists call it the confidence-competence loop. The more that you do something and the more competent you become the more confident you are in doing that thing.
Think about when you began to drive a car. It was scary at first. I know I scared my Dad when he was teaching me to drive. Nothing like taking a sharp turn on a country road at 50 miles an hour.
When you go into a situation for the first time, be okay with being uncertain. It’s fine if you are uncomfortable. Move forward anyway and you will develop your skills around leading a Lean transformation. Eventually, you will reach the point where you will say to yourself “I feel confident in doing this!”
3. Gain momentum through action
Building confidence is led through action. Your company won’t wait for the perfect plan, the perfect time, the perfect quarter to improve. Competitors are working every day to get better and will drive your organization to improve.
Martin Luther King said you don’t need to see the whole staircase to take the first step. Congratulate yourself and your company by taking the first step. Having that first Rapid Improvement Event. Developing the first Value Stream Maps. Training people on Lean concepts. Putting together the first quarter of activities in your Lean Game Plan.
6S is a great first activity on a Lean journey. I can remember working at a Machine shop in Iowa and the first event we ever conducted was a 6S event in their paint department. The paint department was on the main aisle as you walked through the building.
After the event when everything was nice and organized, other departments began asking when they could have events in their areas. They all wanted to look like the new paint department. It built huge momentum in their company.
4. Develop a support system
There will time in the beginning when you won’t feel you are making as much progress as you would like. It is important to develop a support system. Join a mastermind group in the area. Search for an experienced coach that can guide you and provide positive feedback.
Join a group such as AME to learn more about Lean. Learn from this podcast. Anything that can provide a support system and help you learn. Reach out to me with questions. I am always available to help!
As always, it is an honor to serve you and I hope that you and your company are getting better every day!
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