Page 203 - How To Implement Lean Manufacturing

Cultur es 181

• Its thoughts, beliefs, and actions must be in harmony with one another. There
needs to be a logical consistency. For example, for a business that needs a highly
structured environment, like that necessary for firefighters, it is not possible to
have an “everyone can do it his own way” attitude and still expect things to get
done. Those behaviors are not consistent.
Simply put, to have a strong culture, the thoughts, beliefs, and actions must be con-
sistent with each other, as well as vertically and horizontally integrated throughout the
group.
The second quality of a healthy culture is that it must be appropriate. Appropriate
for the needs of the group and, in this case, the needs of the business. For example, a
culture that is appropriate for a professional football team would not be appropriate for
a business such as Disney, and may not be appropriate for a manufacturing facility. This
concept of an appropriate culture is missed by most. Often, a culture that has demon-
strated success is one that many will want to copy. Take the successful football team that
demonstrates their competence by winning the Super Bowl, for example. The coach is
often next seen on the motivational speaker’s circuit explaining the “Road to Success”
or some such thing. Altogether too often, many business managers flock to these meet-
ings trying to get the most recent success formula, believing fully that if they could
embody the principles of the football team, they too could be successful. Well, it just
doesn’t work that way.

Appropriate Cultures: An Example
A key cultural characteristic is leadership style. This characteristic then dictates a whole
set of behaviors by both the leaders and the followers within the culture. Now back to
our football metaphor. For example, on game day, the quarterback is the offensive leader.
It is his responsibility to call the plays and audibles. In his role as the “on-field leader,”
he will perform based on his judgment alone. In so doing, he does not consult with those
affected. His actions are very autocratic. In fact, he acts in a very dictatorial fashion. In
Super Bowl I, Bart Starr was the quarterback of the winning Green Bay Packers, and
Forrest Gregg was his all-pro offensive tackle. While he was in the huddle, calling a play,
do you think he might have bent over to Forrest and said something like:

“Well Forrest, I know you have blocked that big guy across from you for some time now, and
I know you could use some rest. I really appreciate your efforts and am pleased to play with
you. But would it be all right if we ran over your position just one more time? We really do
need the yardage to get the first down, and I firmly believe this will be the best thing for the
team. But before we do anything that might affect you, we wanted to solicit your opinion. So
do you think you could support that and knock that big guy on his butt one more time?”
Well, for a quarterback to say such a thing in a football game would be patently
ridiculous. The quarterback, the team leader on the field, is a dictator—there is no better
word to describe his style. He is not seeking input or agreement, nor is he trying to cre-
ate relationships. He tells people exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it,
and if they do not do it, he has them replaced—they have no options. Worker freedom,
on this occasion, is nonexistent. The quarterback is under extreme time pressure and his
necessary style of leadership is dictatorial. Yet no one finds this odd. It is the way it has
to be for that business. It is appropriate for that business, at that time.
So when the plant manager looks for the answers to his cultural problems in the
football team, he is often looking within the wrong type of a culture. He may not be