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| Bas Bonnier - MSc Mech. Eng. EMFC |
In the last years I have investigated several Lean, Kaizen and other process improvement philosophies and have investigated their implementation. My main research contained the question why Lean implementations in organizations in the Netherlands appeared less successful than in Japan. Cultural differences between the two countries seemed to have a major impact on successful implementation. All my argumentation was based on personal experience, gut feeling and common sense. Recently I read the book Cultures and Organizations of Prof. Dr. Ir. Geert Hofstede that gave me the longed insight based on 40 years of academic research. In his book regarding cultural differences Hofstede describes Culture as the unwritten rules of the social game, the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others. He compares countries on different cultural dimensions. In the below mentioned graph the dimensions Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Risk Avoidance and Pragmatism between the Netherlands and Japan are compared.
The Netherlands and Japan differ on all dimensions, on some dimensions more than on others. But especially on the dimension Masculinity we are each other’s opposites, two extremes. Japan is after Slovakia the most masculine country in the world and the Netherlands is after Latvia, Norway and Sweden the most feminine country in the world.
A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success, with success being defined by the winner/best in field. A low score (feminine) on this dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life. The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (masculine) or liking what you do (feminine). This difference in masculinity gives an explanation for the differences in implementation successes of Lean process improvements: Japanese organization members are improving processes to become better and to be able to do more in the same time. But we Dutch have, as process members, the intrinsic desire to make our life easier and more enjoyable, to do the same in less time. Our personal life improvement activities together with our high individualism lead often to sub-optimizations of company processes. This holds off results. Therefore, to be successful in the Netherlands, process improvers should spend much more time and energy on explaining, clarifying and creating goal congruence between the goals of the company and the goals of the employees.
Cyndi Lauper was right after all …
I am quite surprised to learn that the writer of this piece has overseen the fact that the Dutch have one of the highest efficiency rates in the world.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThe output for each hour worked in the Netherlands is among the highest in the world. Not in the least thanks to women partaking in work as a professional where they often succeed to exceed the efficiency of male coworkers. And not in the last place for the flexibility of our highly individualised way of living and working. Technology is helping out here, and the technology rate of the Dutch society in general and of organisations in particular is among the highest in the world. It may very well be higher than the Japanese technology / worker rate.
Does that mean there is no room for improvement? No, there most certainly is. Does it mean that improvement necessarily needs be pursued by using Lean as the preferred instrument? That's where culture comes into play.
Lean originates from Japan, so it will fit more naturally to the culture of Japanese organisations and people. It may be that some Japanese companies use a method that originates from the US or Europe, though that'll be less likely.
European organisations, Dutch ones in particular, will sometimes be really well of with the classical implementation of Lean. In other cases the company culture and character (both profit & non-profit) will require other methods of improving efficiëncy, or need a longer time to really adopt Lean.
One of the key factors to make Lean a succes is to immediately start with tackling the easy, small and often many little mudas. This will cause succes, while learning the method. This motivates, and creates room to observe the bigger mudas for a longer time. Thus enabling proper analysis, and succesfull implementation of the optimal solution.
I recently learned from a case that someone was trying really hard to implement Lean for more than one and a half year. Lean itself had become the muda. For the investment in time and money had not generated any or hardly any improvement. One could even state that the situation had worsened. For the workers had lost their faith in a good method and no progress (which automatically means regress) had been made. This was bad for motivational reasons and bad for the company's situation. The new situation called for even higher motivated staff. Which obviously wasn't the case.
Of course goal congruence is of the essence. Let's at the same time not forget that our individuality also stimulates creative thinking and action. Thus creating innovation and attractive challenges, which will result in the products of tomorrow.
Bowie has always been right... boys will be boys (playing with their toys).
When you're a boy, you can buy a home of your own
When you're a boy, learn to drive a limousine
You'll get your share, when you're a boy...
(Boys keep swinging)
Thank you for reading this reaction.
Arjen Vreeken
Dear Arjen,
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThank you for your reaction. Nice! And of course you are right, we also have our good things. I would recommend every organization a couple of Dutch for all the reasons you mention (creativity, innovation). But just a couple. Sometimes you just want the job to be done, but indeed also there we found a creative solution: quest workers :-)