Lean Expertise meets Organizational Coaching
In my last week as head of a manufacturing department in China, Holger Friebe invited me to join and observe his ‘Leading Improvement Training’ at Bosch Automotive Diesel Systems in Wuxi plant. Holger is an expert for Lean and the Bosch Production System with experience all across the globe and has been cooperating and learning with Toyota over a period of time. Based on his experience he developed the training which has emerged over the past years.
“Not a single training looks the same; and I reflect and adjust according to the learnings out of the recent round”
Holger shared with me his transformation as Lean expert coming more from a consultant role moving towards mentoring and later on integrated more and more the coaching approach in his training.
Over a period of 3 weeks the team is 100% focused on the target they want to achieve for their value stream. 15 working days with a focus on transparency, awareness and visualization as well as team development and feedback. While Holger shared his approach with me and his roles as observer, mentor, facilitator and coach, I saw a lot of parallels with my understanding of organizational coaching. Especially the definition of coaching as to “Unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their performance. It’s helping them learn rather than teaching them.” fits well to Holger’s approach.
How smart people learn and why?
It all starts with the assumption that the participants are resourceful and bring their own learnings and experiences to the training. Same as in organizational coaching, the participants set the agenda and come with their commitment and purpose. The goal and the scope are set by the organization not by the trainer. As in coaching, Holger is addressing the whole person and the teams in a strengths-based approach.
I observed the increasing intrinsic motivation of each individual towards their team goals the more they progressed in their learning and first successes became apparent thus making their life manufacturing easier. While listening and observing, I couldn’t help but recall the six assumptions (Knowles et. al. 2005)1that characterize adult learning:
Adults are self-directed in their learning.
Adults are goal-oriented: they need to know why they are learning something before they learn; that is, learning needs to be relevant.
Adults have a vast wealth of life experiences to bring to their learning.
Adults are interested in learning to solve real-life dilemmas. Learning needs to be relevant
Adults have a practical orientation. Their learning needs to have application in their personal and professional lives.
Adults respond more to intrinsic motivators a (increased self-esteem and quality of life) than to extrinsic motivators such as qualifications.
To do is to know!
Go to Gemba (Japanese: the actual place) is the key, since the training is all about transparency. You have to observe and check what is really going on at the site in order to draw conclusions. After each observation and team discussion on how to proceed further actions had to be defined, described thoroughly and then implemented. Those actions emerged out of the team dialogues and the thought provoking questions by Holger. It made them think differently and act upon that. Their implementation leads to further experiences. Experiential Learning, as it says, goes through having the experience. The ‘Leading Improvement’ approach supports this way of learning by verbalizing and visualizing this experience, reflecting on the effects, conceptualizing the learnings and - to close the loop - plan actions to take based on these learnings. An approach that sounds so familiar to me from my coaching practice.
The coaching mindset in training.
How people grow?
With those learnings, starting in a safe environment, participants were able to step out of their comfort zone entering a zone of learning and growth. It was amazing to see how the quality of the conversation has emerged within the first week in content and context.
“Usually, the breakthrough is happening after two and a half weeks when the participants realize their progress as an individual and as a team.”
The chance to observe Holger and the team supports my belief that a coaching approach and a coaching mindset is beneficial in a training environment, since the aim is a behavior shift, which can’t be achieved by merely passing on knowledge and experience. It requires a systems approach and it takes time. I’m happy to see that an organization allows their teams to spend three weeks not only for the benefit of improving the system but also for its individuals learning and growth. I’m curious to gather the feedback from the participants after finishing their three weeks of ‘Leading Improvement’.
1Malcolm S. Knowles , Elwood F. Holton III, et al. (2005),The Adult Learner, Sixth Edition: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development