If your organization has people, then interpersonal skills are needed.

I work with companies that are on a path they call the lean journey. Whatever you call it, its based on the Toyota Production System. Some manufacturers embraced it and it became known as Lean Manufacturing, expanded into the Lean Office or Lean Enterprise. During this transformation the approach became focused on tools, but Toyotas approach is about people.

The focus of Lean Manufacturing training has been on technical skills such as value stream mapping, 5S, and set-up reduction. People skills; also known as soft skills or interpersonal skills havent been much of a priority. Difficulty in moving from a traditional to a lean organization is usually blamed on the culture of the organization. If this is true than interpersonal skill training needs to be a higher priority. Communication often determines if the transition succeeds or not. Could the soft stuff actually be more important than the hard stuff?

Somehow, many companies seem to believe that training managers to create a vision and engineers to map the value stream, make work instructions visible and dictate how to clean and organize will magically transform the company.

However, as we all know, its the people who do the work, not maps or set-up calculations. In a Lean organization, its the people who do the work that create the standardized work, not managers or engineers. In his book, The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker explains, its the people who bring the system to life: working, communicating, resolving issues, and growing together.

Toyota, on its website, states that Improvements and suggestions by team members are the cornerstone of Toyotas success. Managers act as coaches and develop their people. Once again, lets not forget, its the people who do the work. Continuous improvement is part of the work.

Its easy to see (but somehow difficult for some of us to embrace) that any organization can effectively follow Toyotas lead. Managers only need to coach and develop their people. Communication is the key. Interpersonal skills training, the soft stuff is actually more important than the hard stuff.

Copyright 2005 Chuck Yorke - All Rights Reserved