Lean Government
Author: Eric Thompson
Why Government is going “Lean”
There is little secret of the fact that the UK government faces a huge challenge to balance its books and maintain essential services. The Operational Efficiency Programme has targeted annual saving of around £15bn by 2013/14. These fantastic sums can’t be achieved by tinkering around the edges. What is needed is a completely fresh approach. An environment where continuous improvement becomes possible is required. The “lean” approach, first introduced into the Automobile industry by the Japanese car manufactures Toshiba enables a focus on value adding streams and elimination of unnecessary work and there has been a growing realisation in the last few years that this approach which grew up in the manufacturing environment will work just as well in government departments. In a nutshell it allows government departments to find the least wasteful way of adding value to their customers.
What is Lean Government?
The term appears to have originated in North America and Wikipedia in its definition of Lean Government refers to it being an evidenced based process that allows government to identify and provide the most efficient and value added services. By cutting out waste more resource is available for tax supported necessities. Lean Government does not in itself lead to lower taxes only more efficient use of the taxes that have been gathered.
Lean Government Conference
Jest Management Services Limited added its weight to the Lean Government conference, London 30th September 2009 Central Hall Westminster In addition to contributing through sponsorship the JMSL team attended to discuss aspects of change management and how JMSL can support management and staff during times of organisational change.
Eric Thompson has produced a Special Report to mark the occasion highlighting five key areas for attention when implementing effective change management. This is available as a free download Click Here
For more information about the Lean Government Conference go to www.publicserviceevents.co.uk Here you can access the latest thinking on the topic in the UK and find examples of best practice in government departments.
People make the Difference
One of the very clear messages that emerge from the use of the “Lean” approach in the UK is that “people make the difference”. The Lean tools provide the structure and the opportunity for saving to be identified but unless the people that are involved believe and want to make the change happen any benefit will not be sustained and will erode away fairly quickly. If you want the benefits to last you must consider how to engage and empower those who deliver the services that are being addressed. Eric Thompson considers this matter further in his article “Making Change happen through People”. Why not click on this now and contact Eric if you would like to explore the matter further.
Taking the Lead
The Lean approach is always described as a journey that leads to an environment of continuous improvement. An empowered team can continue to identify new opportunities to make services more effective. But it doesn’t just suddenly happen! The leader has to make it happen. In his article, “Leadership Skills for Organisational Change” Eric Thompson considers the issues more fully.
Who is the leader in this context? Well there are lots of senior people who need to give their support, champion the cause, and explain the need, but meaningful sustained improvement to the effectiveness of a service can only ever be created by those people who are delivering it and that put the onus on the local leader. It is the local leader that needs to take the team on that journey and along the way transform them into a high performance team that is empowered and capable of delivering continuous improvement.
If you are in a role that requires you to lead your team on such a journey, are you ready to leap into action. Perhaps you feel a bit nervous? Not sure whether you have the skills required? Well we have produced a tool that you can download now that will help you to assess the skills that you have in the context of leading change” and begin to think about developing yourself if you need to before you start to work on the team. Click on this link “Test your Leadership Skills” to download our assessment and development tool now.
If you would like some help with the tool itself or to think through what you need to do to follow up why not give Eric Thompson a call and you can explore what “Taking the Lead” means for you.
Contact Us
To explore any of the thoughts on this page further please contact Eric Thompson
Tel: +44 1606 854813
e-mail eric.thompson@jestmanagement.co.uk
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