Snowflakes, Structural Collapse and the Simplification of Lean

A snowflake is a delightfully complex object when rotated in the three spatial dimensions. Collapsed into two dimensions, it is a pattern of jagged lines. Reduced to a single dimension a snowflake becomes merely a connected series of points, a mathematical line, wholly unimpressive. Viewed through the window of a warm building, a blizzard is a beautiful moving arrangement of snowflakes. These are just four perspectives on a snowflake, but there are many more. The crucial question we must ask is, “How do we view our organizations in comparison to these perspectives?”

Exploring Lean’s Complexity Through the Snowflake Metaphor

As Lean methodologies gain in popularity, trends emerge that steer towards simplification and the removal of jargon. This popularity also fosters a growing specialization into Lean’s various sub-fields, encourages opportunistic blending with other disciplines, and even prompts fragmentation. Embracing a Lean organization requires grappling with its profound, holistic grandeur. It involves understanding aspects such as human psychology, group dynamics, organizational behavior, societal forces, macroeconomic trends, and historical currents. These elements may align with the diverse perspectives of observing a snowflake all the way to a full-blown snowdrift. It’s uncertain how many dedicated scientists devote their lives to studying the complete, fascinating life cycle of snowflakes. However, compared to these efforts, attempts at Lean might resemble a snowball fight among youngsters: hastily gathering a handful and launching it, hoping for quick success. The mere three-dimensional framework often proves inadequate for comprehending the intricacies of snowflakes, or many other complexities in this world. The dimension of time is an essential aspect of any process, even those that transform dihydrogen monoxide vapor into intricate snowflakes. The fractal rules that guide a snowflake in forming its elaborate, aesthetically pleasing structure evoke curiosity – where do these rules originate? The statement “no two snowflakes are alike” lacks purpose unless persistent inquiries of “why?” and “so what?” are made, leading to the discovery of algorithms underpinning fractal water crystal formation. The task of designing high-performance Lean organizations seems insurmountable without acknowledging the existence of such rules, let alone understanding their essence.

Inherently, systems and structures exist that are far more complex than those we navigate (pondering this deeply can certainly induce a sense of vertigo). For us to structure our thoughts and understand our perceptions, they must be distilled into dimensions fewer than those that encapsulate these perceptions. Meanwhile, time continues to progress and the universe persistently expands. Attempting to track this relentless flow can be as futile as pursuing snowflakes that melt into dew upon our approach. Instead, our focus should be on understanding the mechanisms that create blizzards and the conditions that actualize individual snowflakes.

Dark Matter Analogies: Understanding the Unknown in Lean Organizations

Unsatisfied with mere theorization about universe formation, scientists actively engage with the dynamics of time and space, daring to make direct observations. Their findings, however, reveal large portions of the universe seem to be inexplicably absent. In response to this baffling discovery, they propose the existence of a hypothetical entity known as dark matter. The coherence of the universe, according to scientists, necessitates the presence of massive amounts of this elusive dark matter. Despite this need, none has been found. The only indirect evidence lies in the gravitational impact dark matter supposedly exerts on visible matter, and the gravitational lensing of background radiation, but otherwise, this mysterious entity remains undetected. It’s akin to the elusive gremlins a perplexed machine maintenance worker might invoke to explain unaccounted machine behavior.

Similarly, when observing Lean organizations and finding significant gaps in improvement, we deduce something is absent from our understanding. We monitor the impact of changes made within our organizations, discovering that, despite following every step of a transformation process that was successful in the past, the outcomes in the current organization don’t align with the theory. We hypothesize the existence of an external factor, akin to dark matter. Just as in cosmology, the answers sought about Lean organizations stem from further observation, more comprehensive measurement, and a deeper understanding of the system.

Optimal Reduction in Lean: Striking a Balance

The simplification, development, and subsequent reduction of Lean management into fewer dimensions is inevitable. Just as in science, understanding in Lean is often equated to the ability to use the knowledge for impactful, practical outcomes. Broadly speaking, both science and Lean revolve around power management and efficient energy use. This knowledge is applied for immediate practical benefits and is often contextualized around our own perspectives. This is valuable as it fosters learning from applied science and practical experiences. However, caution is necessary when simplifying Lean to avoid reducing it into excessively few dimensions or defining its context prematurely or too narrowly. The degree of reduction, timing, and scale depends entirely on one’s preference for a more direct, snowball-fight style of Lean, or a comprehensive, blizzard style. Much like how snowflakes ultimately dissolve into water, all organizations in the end simplify down to their most basic unit: the individual. The transition from water to vapor, then to snowflakes, and ultimately to a blizzard, involves a process.

---