Poor communication stopping business change
Resistance from middle managers and employees block efficiency reforms, survey says.
More communication is needed to overcome resistance from middle managers and employees to lean business innovation, according to a survey of 2,500 businesspeople conducted by the Lean Management Institute (LEI).
Lean management principles exposes problems by traditional business systems, which is often threatening to middle managers.
The LEI, which promotes the idea of transforming businesses so they use less effort, space and cost less to run, says 36.1% of survey respondents saw middle management as the main obstacle to lean reforms, while employee resistance was cited by 27.7%.
Threatened by change
"The application of lean management principles exposes problems with traditional business systems, which is often threatening to middle managers in the problem areas," says LEI chairman and founder, James Womack. "To get middle managers on board with lean transformation, organizations must transform the metrics and behaviors for judging their performances," he says.
For instance, Womack says, traditional financial metrics often need to be removed from day-to-day management decisions about key processes. "Instead, operating managers have to learn to help employees look for waste and remove it," he says.
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