Last week a friend shared with me a snippet from an employee meeting. All “lean transformation” activities were to stop in order to put every effort into catching up on late shipments.

My friend’s comment, between many expressions of frustration and disappointment, was that the company’s management was cancelling the very thing that was supposed to solve the problems that lead to late shipments. Why would they do that? What does that really mean in terms of leadership?

By way of context, the organization has been implementing a formal continuous improvement program for more than two years. If we consider the company’s other organizational structures, including most of the personnel involved, it has engaged in formal continuous improvement programs for somewhere between 10 and 15 years.

Whether it’s intentional or accidental, I believe the decision to stop continuous improvement efforts is an admission: The leadership just confessed that the organization isn’t succeeding in using process improvement methods to improve business performance.

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