{"id":10378,"date":"2012-05-09T09:58:22","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T15:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?p=10378"},"modified":"2014-08-29T21:34:53","modified_gmt":"2014-08-30T02:34:53","slug":"lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/","title":{"rendered":"Lean and Innovation: Regurgitated Variations of an Old Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a296a24fa2fc69ef5487857f02f111e8\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Single Post readerboard -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8207522353004717\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1144967431\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Leave it to the Harvard Business Review <sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-10378-1' id='fnref-10378-1' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(10378)'>1<\/a><\/sup> to regurgitate an old debate on the relationship between continuous improvement and innovation. Here&#8217;s a great recipe for effective regurgitation that gets the media&#8217;s trousers all up in a wad:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Have a reasonable title that draws in the reader.<\/li>\n<li>Then, zap them with a first paragraph oozing with a doomsday tone to get them scared, angry, or outright interested to read the rest of the article.<\/li>\n<li>Go down the march of history and explain the debate, various points of views, but don&#8217;t dare be conclusive. Keep it open ended.<\/li>\n<li>Then, close the article with questions, keeping the reader interested enough to comment on the article, write an article as a response, tweet the article to their followers, or just give the reader something to think about &#8211; as if the reader has nothing else better to occupy their minds and thoughts with.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Using this approach, Ron Ashkenas does a heck of a job. Except for one thing:<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>He&#8217;s Wrong.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>What Tangled Webs We Weave<\/h2>\n<p>When one brings up an old debate, rehashes old stories of companies that failed, fell, or are otherwise now forgotten because they implemented some form of misguided Lean, Six Sigma, or, in general, Continuous Improvement, be sure to also highlight <em>how<\/em>\u00a0those companies implemented continuous improvement.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>HOW<\/em>\u00a0matters.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if a very dogmatic approach and a broadstroke was made to implement a very rigid version of Lean and to do it everywhere &#8211; then the fruits of such approach clearly will lead to a bad end.<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s not the fault of Lean of Continuous Improvement.<\/p>\n<h2>Lean Doesn&#8217;t Kill Innovation, People Kill Innovation<\/h2>\n<p>Using an old Gun Rights mantra of &#8220;guns don&#8217;t kill people; people kill people&#8221;, we can apply the same logic to the debate:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Lean doesn&#8217;t kill innovation &#8211; people kill innovation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What do I mean?<\/p>\n<p>Lean, as properly understood and applied with wisdom, is actually very flexible and very practical. There&#8217;s actually little or no dogma at all. Indeed, it&#8217;s all about &#8220;practice over theory&#8221;. But, when dogma enters the scene, that&#8217;s when bad things happen to good companies.<\/p>\n<p>So, how can one wisely implement Lean Thinking, meet the goals of Lean, and yet support Innovation?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Be Wise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yes.<\/p>\n<p>I even described this dogmatic approach in the continuous improvement world as <a title=\"star wars sith lord\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/oprah-lean-manufacturing-obi-wan-kenobi\/8290\/\">Sith-like<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, it&#8217;s not that easy, but seriously, be wise; focus on practical aspects, be pragmatic, and use your common sense.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a few examples of where this has been done to support innovation and to also do so in the spirit of Lean Thinking:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Ideo: Yup, Ideo is the Innovation 300 Pound Gorilla. And, when you look at their <a title=\"innovate at your company\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/dichotomous-thinking-at-ideo-no-more\/1533\/\">Innovation Process<\/a> &#8211; it uses many, many tools and approaches straight from Toyota.<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"pete abilla and clayton christensen\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/clayton-christensen-innovators-dna-pete-abilla\/8976\/\">Clayton Christensen<\/a>: Yes, the Innovation Guru and Juggernaut and pre-eminent author on Innovation. He quotes me in his new book &#8220;The Innovator&#8217;s DNA&#8221;, wherein he describes the 5-whys approach as central to innovation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>So, let&#8217;s put an end to this debate. Instead, let&#8217;s shine a light on all the Lean and Six Sigma dogmatist and their unwise approaches. Anything done to the extreme is really contrary to the spirit of lean. That&#8217;s what we need to address.<\/p>\n<div class='footnotes' id='footnotes-10378'>\n<div class='footnotedivider'><\/div>\n<ol>\n<li id='fn-10378-1'> http:\/\/blogs.hbr.org\/ashkenas\/2012\/05\/its-time-to-rethink-continuous.html <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-10378-1'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leave it to the Harvard Business Review 1 to regurgitate an old debate on the relationship between continuous improvement and innovation. Here&#8217;s a great recipe for effective regurgitation that gets the media&#8217;s trousers all up in a wad: Have a reasonable title that draws in the reader. Then, zap them with a first paragraph oozing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12327,"featured_media":14571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lean and Innovation: Regurgitated Variations of an Old Debate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How to reconcile lean and innovation and six sigma and continuous improvement\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lean and Innovation: Regurgitated Variations of an Old Debate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How to reconcile lean and innovation and six sigma and continuous improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OpEx Learning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/get.shmula\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-09T15:58:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-30T02:34:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dogmatic-lean-six-sigma-continuous-improvement1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"973\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"538\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Uday Kawar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@shmula\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@shmula\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Uday Kawar\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/\",\"name\":\"Lean and Innovation: Regurgitated Variations of an Old Debate\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dogmatic-lean-six-sigma-continuous-improvement1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-09T15:58:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-30T02:34:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/9335b5223b67189b35bda7d6be11c3fd\"},\"description\":\"How to reconcile lean and innovation and six sigma and continuous improvement\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dogmatic-lean-six-sigma-continuous-improvement1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dogmatic-lean-six-sigma-continuous-improvement1.jpg\",\"width\":973,\"height\":538,\"caption\":\"inflexible lean manufacturing\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lean Manufacturing\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Lean and Innovation: Regurgitated Variations of an Old Debate\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/\",\"name\":\"OpEx Learning\",\"description\":\"Lean Six Sigma. Simplified.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/9335b5223b67189b35bda7d6be11c3fd\",\"name\":\"Uday Kawar\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lean and Innovation: Regurgitated Variations of an Old Debate","description":"How to reconcile lean and innovation and six sigma and continuous improvement","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lean and Innovation: Regurgitated Variations of an Old Debate","og_description":"How to reconcile lean and innovation and six sigma and continuous improvement","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/","og_site_name":"OpEx Learning","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/get.shmula","article_published_time":"2012-05-09T15:58:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-08-30T02:34:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":973,"height":538,"url":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dogmatic-lean-six-sigma-continuous-improvement1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Uday Kawar","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@shmula","twitter_site":"@shmula","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Uday Kawar","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/","name":"Lean and Innovation: Regurgitated Variations of an Old Debate","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dogmatic-lean-six-sigma-continuous-improvement1.jpg","datePublished":"2012-05-09T15:58:22+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-30T02:34:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/9335b5223b67189b35bda7d6be11c3fd"},"description":"How to reconcile lean and innovation and six sigma and continuous improvement","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dogmatic-lean-six-sigma-continuous-improvement1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dogmatic-lean-six-sigma-continuous-improvement1.jpg","width":973,"height":538,"caption":"inflexible lean manufacturing"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-and-innovation-regurgitated-variations-of-an-old-debate\/10378\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lean Manufacturing","item":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Lean and Innovation: Regurgitated Variations of an Old Debate"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/","name":"OpEx Learning","description":"Lean Six Sigma. Simplified.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/9335b5223b67189b35bda7d6be11c3fd","name":"Uday Kawar"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}