Many lean transformations (and more broadly, "change management initiatives") fail because the organizational environment isn't conducive to making and sustaining that change. As a result, it's tough for people in that environment to alter their behaviors.

A case in point: at a company I once worked at, we had a consulting group come in and tell us (for a large fee, of course) that lack of clear communication from the exec team was one of the behaviors causing problems. They advocated open door policies for individuals, and avoidance of closed-door meetings for the team. Ironically, this advice was given in a closed door meeting with the execs -- and that should tell you just how far this idea went.

There were a lot of causes of this behavior, but one of the main reasons is that the exec team spent a lot of money outfitting a really swank executive meeting room: big leather chairs, nice wooden table, fancy conference call hardware, cut glass pitchers, etc. If you were an executive, wouldn't you want to have meetings in there? And their individual offices were pretty fancy, too, which created an unfortunate tendency for them to stay sequestered in their well-equipped digs.

If you want people to change their behaviors, you have to make it easy for them to change. And you have to make them *want* to change. In a recent Harvard Business Publishing article, Peter Bregman describes how he wanted to eat outdoors more when he moved to Savannah, GA. He dutifully set up a table and chairs outside the French doors leading to the kitchen. And they never used it. Apparently, the 10 foot walk from the kitchen to the table was too much. His solution? Move the table right outside the doors. After that, his family ate every meal outdoors. Ten feet was all the difference.

Bregman tells the following story:

One of my clients wanted everyone in the company to fill out a time sheet, and they were having a very hard time getting people to do it. Their mindset was compliance. They made it very clear that people didn't have a choice. Everyone was required to do it. That worked for about half the employee population. The rest simply ignored it.

The leaders were about to send out a memo saying no one would get paid unless the time sheet was handed in. But wait, I asked, do we know why they aren't doing the time sheet? We assumed it was because people didn't care. But we asked around anyway.

Well, it turns out that people didn't mind the idea of filling out a timesheet, but they were frustrated by the technology. The online system required people to go through a series of steps (a wizard) in order to put their time in. It was meant to help them, but it took longer and needlessly delayed them. Not by much -- 10 seconds at most -- but that was enough to dissuade 50% of the people from following through.

Once we changed the form and the technology it was on, everyone started using it. They weren't being defiant. They simply weren't walking the 10 feet and four steps to the table. The solution isn't to explain to people why they should take the walk or force them to take the walk. The solution is far simpler: move the table.

This is lean thinking at its best: showing respect for people and creating a simple, no-cost solution to a problem. (Not quite lean at its best: the employees should have been in charge of changing the form and the technology.)

Now, think about the lean initiatives that you've undertaken that aren't being accepted. Is it possible that the environment isn't conducive to adopting those changes?

Think about 5S. What would happen if you reduced the number of filing cabinets in the office, or had people use smaller desks: would that reduce the amount of useless crap that people hoarded? I once wrote about the president of a custom prosthetic company in Seattle who gets a smaller desk every year in order to keep him from accumulating junk. Nature abhors a vacuum, after all, even if it's just on your desk.

Better yet, what would happen if you set up offices from the start to support 5S, with clear areas marked for Working, Reference, and Archive files? That would certainly increase the adoption of administrative 5S.

Do people have whiteboards in their offices to make their knowledge work visible (a la Jon Miller's experiments with a kanban system -- here, here, and here)? Have you tried Nielsen's trick of disabling the "Reply All" function within Outlook?

Think about it: how can you make people want to change?

One of the most important business concepts of the late 20th Century was Six Sigma as promoted by General Electric CEO Jack Welch. Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. Six Sigma is a disciplined methodology for eliminating defects in any process -- from manufacturing to transactional law. Six Sigma training and practices are still common place in many Fortune 500 corporations. Following this efficiency explosion, LEAN Processing, as developed by Toyota, is without question the most important approach to business process of our times. Toyota lives this approach everyday which is why they will soon be the largest, most successful car company in the world.

Two Magic Words.

LEAN processing essentially comes down to two words; Kachi and Muda. For those that don’t speak Japanese, kachi means value and muda means waste. To simplify this even further, your job as a well paid professional in your firm is twofold. It is to use your time, intelligence and experience to simultaneously increase value and eliminate waste for both your clients and your firm. By increasing value and eliminating waste you instantly increase your firm’s profits and your client’s satisfaction.

Three Real World Applications in your firm.

1) We have done a number of studies on how the average person interacts with their technology. First let’s look at the simplest of technology; the telephone. In one study we had participants work on an intensive document (for your purposes let’s assume it is a brief or court appeal). In the middle of this work the phone rings and the participant picks up. They speak with the other party for 15 minutes. They then hang up the phone and resume their work on the document. We’ve measured the average amount of time it takes an individual to get ‘back in the groove” of their work. The results were between 15 – 20 minutes! 15 – 20 minutes to reread what you had done up to that point and refocus your mind to where it can continue to process the document. The critical question now is - WHO do you bill those 20 minutes to?!? You’ve added no real value to the document in that period. You simply created 20 minutes of waste. We need to seriously look at these habits and correct them.

2) Take a tour of a Toyota plant and you’ll have an amazing experience. As you walk the facility you will notice that all of the equipment has a specific form and function. Each function adding important value. This is not the case with most attorneys’ offices. Many attorneys don’t know how to properly use their offices, resulting in huge unmanageable piles of papers which dramatically decreases productivity. Remember the essential rule of design, form follows function. Your desktop, your floor and your chairs were not designed to be storage facilities so get the papers off of them, that’s what drawers are for. Create a comprehensive file system based not only on matter but also on the time/value of your documents. We recommend a working, reference and archive division. Make sure the system includes all of your work responsibilities and areas for personal documents. Establish the proper home for all objects in your office, put them away and watch how your stress immediately decreases and productivity increases. This will also do wonders for the brand that both you as an individual and the firm would like to project to potential and current clients.

3) How many messages are in your e-mail inbox? If you require a scroll bar, you are creating waste by not processing your electronic communications efficiently. Your electronic world should be just as organized as your physical world. At the end of the day both your physical and electronic in-box should be empty. The vast majority of “fires” that have to be put out on a daily basis were not emergencies when they first appeared in your office. They became high priority due to individuals not processing the information in a timely, effective manner. Just as Toyota is able to follow each and every step of their manufacturing process, with precision and accountability, we need to establish a process by which all information which enters our office can be moved along in a precise fashion. Every time we “touch” a piece of information we need to add value and move it towards completion. At Integra we use the 4D method of: Do it, Designate it, Delegate it or Dump it.


Remember, attorneys and clients don’t leave firms, they leave the partners they work with. The cost of recruitment and retention is enormous. Any adjustments we can make to our management style using LEAN processing techniques can significantly beef up the firm’s bottom line. Remember every day, your job is to increase value (kachi) and reduce waste (muda). Do it now![html]