| Leading
the Lean Initiative: Straight Talk on Cultivating Support and
Buy-in
John
W. Davis December
2001
Productivity
Press, Incorporated
ISBN:
1563272474
This book claims it will show you how to effectively lead your
organization and how to cultivate a co-operative environment. How
to gain the respect and active support of the workforce. Work
effectively with unions and customers and diplomatically buck the
system.
Throughout the text, Davis weaves the story of Jim Warring, a
plant manager who is new to the job, detailing his frustrations,
challenges, and accomplishments, and how he handles the daily
responsibilities of a plant manager.
I feel the book fails to live up to its claims, and while the
story of Jim Warring is interesting I do not believe it provides
the reader with any new insights into the general issues of
management. This book is really dealing with the issues faced by
any new manager and for the most part the book has nothing to do
with lean principles or practices. The same issues would arise
whatever the change initiative.
I get a sense that Davis is pretending to be passing on advice
to new managers while in fact he is using the book as a cathartic exercise
to put the record straight and maybe have a dig at previous
bosses.
Sensitising the organisation for change and gaining support
while dealing with the day to day operation is fundamentally the
art of management. This book is interesting for the new manager
but there are other books that provide better practical advice.
The introduction is very interesting and well written, Davis is
succinctly talking about the status of lean as a movement within
the context of American industry, I suggest Davis writes
more on this subject.
I guess you would probably read this book once and then it
would gather dust on the shelf.
Reviewed 2005
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