To avoid confusion, the term “headhunter” in this article does not refer to those who take the severed head of others as some sort of trophy (that practice, as far as I know, is defunct); nor does it refer to finding, at a price, qualified candidates for employment. Rather, we’re talking about leaders who see their own employees as fungible things, as “heads.”

That thinking clearly runs counter to the lean principle of respect for the individual.

Tell me that you’ve never observed these headhunters. They blow quickly by the first three objectives of improvement—easier, better, and faster—and get straight to cheaper. Cheaper, of course, means reducing heads. Not the size of heads; that would be head shrinking. Some of the trophy kind of headhunters did that….

Headhunters seek productivity improvements. Productivity is a wonderful thing. As the lean scion, Art Byrne, says, “Productivity equals wealth.” That’s absolutely true, unless you squander it. Headhunters squander the wealth. They see productivity as an opportunity to take out heads.

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