I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but there’s a bacon revolution going on. Everyone seems to be talking about bacon and eating more of it lately. Recipes are sweeping the Internet. Fast-food chains are peddling double bacon burgers, and upscale restaurants are wrapping steaks in it. Some connoisseurs are even adding it to desserts. To top it off, retailers are carrying all types of themed products, ranging from bacon soap, salt water taffy, to soda. It’s everywhere you turn.

Until recently, the frenzy had me puzzled. In today’s health conscious age, this new obsession didn’t add up. After all, 68% of bacon’s calories come from fat, almost half of which is saturated. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), foods rich in saturated fats can raise cholesterol levels, increasing risk of heart disease and stroke. So, having witnessed bacon’s rise in popularity over several consecutive months, I couldn’t help but ask myself: Why such a pig…I mean “big”… push for a food that we’ve all come to recognize as being so unhealthy? Is there a new, fat free form on the market? Have experts made a discovery that bacon is actually good for the body?

Upon doing some research, there were no ground-breaking “bacon discoveries” to be found. However,  I did learn about some healthier ways to prepare and eat it. Reading the countless available articles, I had a sudden epiphany. It hit me that the meticulous handling of bacon provides a valuable lesson. There’s a right and wrong way to do things, and, in many cases, the right way is neither the easier nor the faster path (but it’s still “the right path”).

Suddenly, I felt inspired by bacon. To me, bacon provided an ideal metaphor for how a business should manage its operations. Much like there’s a right way to consume bacon in order to maintain a long, healthy life, there’s a right way for businesses to manage and improve operations to drive lasting value. Going about it the wrong way… well, there are consequences.

Don’t see the similarities between handling bacon and improving operations? Consider these few simple improvement recommendations:

 

Remove As Much Fat (Waste) As Possible

To lower intake of the saturated, fattiness of pork belly, consumers should consider baking it, rather than frying. For optimal results, it should be placed on a rack, which allows the grease to drip down into a pan underneath — keeping it from getting reabsorbed. This makes for less greasy, crispier, and, ultimately, healthier bacon.

Much like bacon preparation, businesses that effectively apply Lean methods can remove waste (the fat) from their operations. Waste can be defined as anything that uses resources but does not add real value to transforming a product or service. According to Taiichi Ohno, the father of waste elimination in manufacturing operations, there are seven unique types of waste. Once waste is removed, the improved processes require less human effort, capital investment, floor space, materials, and time in all aspects of operations.

Consume in Small Intervals

When eating bacon, servings should be kept small and include antioxidant-rich fruits or vegetables to create a more well-balanced meal.

To effectively sustain improved operations, Daily Workgroup Meetings should be held to monitor progress. Lasting no more than 10 minutes, these tightly facilitated, loosely scripted, daily stand-up meetings (a) bring everyone together as a team; (b) provide every person with the same picture of what is going on; (c) focus each person on the metrics and key performance indicators that they can control; and (d) generate a sense of ownership among the team about their area and processes.

Cut Back On the Non-Essentials

Regular bacon eaters should strive to minimize intake of other processed meats to keep their total consumption of processed meat to a minimum.

A guiding principle of Lean is to define value as perceived by the customer, and to leverage that knowledge to remove unneeded barriers (non-essentials) from meeting those expectations. To adopt the lens of the customer, operational decision-making should only be done after asking, “What does the customer value, and how might this decision help or hurt that value?”

So, with these ideas in mind, I’ve officially joined the bacon revolution. Now, I’m more focused than ever on driving sustainable change. How about you? Are you in?

In my role as a management consultant at Kaufman Global, I work within a variety of industries ― both the public and private sectors ― assisting clients with driving sustainable change across their enterprise. In partnership, we work to reduce costs, improve the quality of their products and services, and identify new opportunities within their markets ― all while increasing productivity. During these engagements, I am always asked the same question, “What is the biggest contributing factor to a successful Lean implementation or cultural transformation?” My answer is always the same: A committed leader.

The term “leadership” can be defined in a lot of different ways, but essentially leadership occurs from one’s ability to guide, direct, or influence people. Within any culture change, Leadership’s role is to create a vision that their employees can believe in, and ultimately foster their desire to achieve it. In other words, human beings want someone who inspires them to be the best they can be.

The most successful leaders I’ve worked with are committed to bringing out the best in all employees. They understand the very essence of their organizations and regularly stimulate hope amongst their teams for brighter futures. They do so by exhibiting the following qualities:

A Willingness to “Get Their Hands Dirty”

Leaders need to spend time out of their offices. They need to work alongside their staff to appease their anxieties and solicit their input for improvements. Taking these ideas and transferring them across the company is the key. By listening to these ideas, a leader can establish relationships based on confidence and trust. He or she becomes a trusted advisor, demonstrating that continuous improvement is not only desired but adopted by leadership.

A Passion for Making a Difference

Strong leaders have a continual desire (passion) for making a difference in peoples’ lives by consistently enabling and empowering them to be successful. Many employees don’t care until they see that their leadership does. When implementing a Lean culture, resistance to change is often present early on, but people don’t mind being asked to do something different if they see that the leader truly cares about their future. In fact, when a committed leader makes decisions, he or she does so with the organization’s success in mind. People want to be inspired to achieve their best and become what they know they can be.

A Good Attitude

Leadership is about attitude. Leadership is about walking the walk. It is much easier to demonstrate the vision than to explain it in words. People watch a leader’s feet more than they listen to their words. A strong leader inspires hope, develops trust, earns respect, and provides encouragement ― all by treating others with respect and conveying a positive attitude.

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with a top leader that exhibited all of these qualities, resulting in one of the best client engagements that I have ever been a part of. After being newly hired, this leader came in and observed the existing work environment and the interaction of his senior leadership. Instantly, he recognized that the team was too large to be effective. There was little accountability, and decisions were rarely ― if ever ― made during meetings. As a result, he quickly reconfigured the team and set very clear expectations of how the team would perform moving forward. Just weeks later, he came to the realization that the right people were not sitting at the leadership table, as one of this leader’s key strengths was ― and still is ― recognizing others who possess leadership qualities and promoting them accordingly. He understood that getting the right people, in the right place, at the right time was critical.

To cut to the chase, the way this leader bridged the gap that existed between management and staff looked rather effortless. He drove changes by making himself available, listening to employees, showing respect to customers and staff, creating a bias for action, not being satisfied with the status quo, and inspiring the masses. In the end, others were willing to learn because he demonstrated how important it was to change. He walked the walk, maintained a positive attitude and demonstrated the organization’s vision repeatedly. Through his valiant efforts, I watched as the organization soared to new heights.

At the end of the day, a committed leader bets on his people being able to achieve their goals. He or she ensures that the right people are in place and removes any barriers in their way. In fact, at the start of the journey, getting the right people in the right jobs is a lot more important than developing a strategy. The best leaders are not those that develop more followers, but those that develop more leaders.

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Learn more about how best to nurture Lean leadership, read our Developing Operational Excellence Leaders White Paper.

Some simple behaviors leaders can do to build better relationships at work (and everywhere): Your People First – 5 Relationship Expectations

“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.” — John Buchan, Scottish politician, author (1875-1940)