Ihave had a big smile on my face for much of the last month because I’ve had the opportunity to visit progressive organizations on three continents to look at their efforts to create lean value streams.

Walking through any process, good or bad, seems to put a smile on my face for one of two reasons: If the process is awful, it’s easy to see how it could be better. If it has already been significantly improved from its original condition, I’m pleased by the progress and aware that the next layer of waste is now visible and ready for elimination.

However, I also found myself frowning as I walked along some value streams. This happened when I heard improvement teams complaining about the difficulty of gaining and sustaining the engagement and cooperation of everyone and every part of the organization touching the process being improved.

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