I love to take analogies from sports and apply the successful concepts to lean and continuous improvement.  This one may require you to stretch your mind a little, but I believe you will agree consistency of commitment over time is critical in all that we do to be successful.  It’s an old cliché you hear repeated over and over, “Defense Win Championships”.  The thing about defense is that it doesn’t take superstars, but a group of teammates with well-choreographed movements who end up eventually stifling the offense.  Everyone loves the flashiness of offense, high scoring is more exciting, but in the end it comes down to defense.

In lean concepts our defense is built on making quick adjustments to a broken process or taking action against the status quo.  The goal is having the ability to make a precise adjustment based upon inputs outside of your control (offense did X, we do Y).  Lean provides a framework for seeing the whole picture and moving the expected results to our favor.

All of the great defenses force an offense to get out of rhythm and that gives them the advantage.  In business we need to smooth out inconsistencies so we have a better rhythm, and what better way than a great lean defense.  The lean approach is to help identify, initiate and sustain meaningful organizational change over time.  This is best done thru team engagement with unwavering focus on eliminating pain points in the day to day activities required to add value to the client.

What do great sports teams defenses do in order to succeed?  Ensure leadership engagement with the team through daily Gemba’s.  Asking what works and does not work (timeout) because those in the game often have a great grasp of current changes and opportunities.  Next up is application of quick change through daily kaizen activities.  Allow the team to react quickly (audible); being able to adjust quickly can be a great advantage is stopping unwanted results.   Being flexible based upon new inputs is critical to preventing errors.  Another vital tool is the introduction of visual workflow which gives you a line of sight to what is currently happening.  In sports the study of game tape and current game pictures often leads to rapid changes (halftime adjustments) thereby improving the ability of seeing what is happening to stop unwanted disruptions.

So go ahead and build a great defense.