Is Your Lean Deployment “Made to Stick?”

Mark Rosenthal is The Lean Thinker who connects the ideas from the book Made to Stick to visual controls used on the shop floor in a Lean factory. Mark argues convincingly for having “Sticky” Visual Controls in an article posted yesterday.
In summary something is “made to stick” when the explanation is simple so that the core concept immediately apparent, presented in a way that is unexpected so that triggers our brains to remember it, made concrete through analogy and credible or explained in a way that makes sense. Finally, the sticky idea will tell a story and connect with people on an emotional level, rather than just bare facts and data presented without human context.
Mark Rosenthal tells us:
Other books on organizational transformation, like John Kotter’s Leading Change talk about the critical importance of creating a sense of urgency, creating a vision, communicating that vision, but Made to Stick goes further and gives you tools to actually make sure your message gets across in a way that compels people to act differently.

Decades ago, the QC storyline was introduced back from Japan to the West as part of the TQM movement. One of the reasons that the Total Quality movement is not alive and well by that name today is that leadership did not lead change effectively, by communicating the need for Total Quality in a way that was simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional and in a story. It’s ironic that the TQC / TQM movement failed to start with a QC storyline at the leadership level.
This all makes me wonder: is your Lean deployment “made to stick”?

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