Dark Lean

During the European Lean Educator Conference in Chemnitz, I had the opportunity to listen to a presentation by Nadja Böhlmann on “Dark Lean.” In order to do good lean, we need to understand why some lean projects are bad. Or, in order for practitioners to reach the light side of lean, they need to understand more about “Dark Lean.” Let’s have a look at the darkness to understand the light…

Introduction and Its Origin in Dark Scrum

The idea of “Dark Lean” originated from the very similar idea of “Dark Scrum.” Let me give you the briefest of summaries: Scrum is a framework for project and product management, especially for risk management in complex environments (that’s why it is often used in software development). It is the most popular framework for working “Agile”. The name comes from the Scrum formation in Rugby, which got its name from the English word “scrum” for a tightly packed crowd. Scrum uses five events:

1. Sprint (an iteration)
2. Sprint Planning (for the next iteration)
3. Daily Scrum (to synchronize)
4. Sprint Review (product focus)
5. Sprint Retrospective (people and process focus)

plus Product Backlog refinement (to prepare for the upcoming Sprints)

There are also three artifacts that show us our progress:

• Product Backlog (Product plan)
• Sprint Backlog (Plan for the iteration)
• Increment (completed, usable work)

 

Finally, there are three roles:

1. Product Owner
2. Developers
3. Scrum Master

Just like lean, Scrum, done correctly, can yield quite some benefits in project management. Also just like lean, Scrum can be misused. Dark Scrum is the use of Scrum primarily to put pressure on the programmers or developers. Rather than improving the product or software development process, (Dark) Scrum is used to push for deadlines and to micromanage the developers and programmers. Rather than quality, the focus is solely on cost and time. Anything that can be counted counts (i.e., cost and time), and anything that can’t does not count (quality, creativity, motivation…).

This kind of misuse of Scrum can leave a lasting impact on people. The programmers and developer falsely learn that Scrum is misery and pressure. They feel a lack of respect. They are stressed, and their creativity is unused. Hence they turn against this (properly used very useful) tool. As a result, the project will suffer and the performance will be worse than without (dark) Scrum. In Agile, they try to prevent Dark Scrum from happening and try to promote a healthier “Bright Scrum.”

Dark Lean

A very similar situation can happen with lean manufacturing. The pretense of lean can be misused sorely to push on cost and time. Pressure is piled on the worker to work faster and better, without actually improving their workplace. Lean is used as an excuse to fire people. Rather than improving the processes by reducing waste, unevenness, and overburden (muda, mura, muri), the focus is mostly on cost.

Please don’t get me wrong, cost is important. If you accumulate losses, your company will eventually go under. However, it is utterly wrong to start with cost! The Toyota KPI dashboard includes KPI on safety, quality, productivity, and cost… IN THIS ORDER OF PRIORITY! The most important aspect is the safety of the operators. The second most important aspect is quality, followed by productivity. If safety, quality, and productivity are good, then cost will automatically follow. (See also my post series on The Toyota KPI Dashboard.)

However, if cost is the starting point, it is VERY easy to go down the wrong direction. If your primary focus is cutting cost, you may accidentally (or intentionally) cut something that is crucial to the long-term success of the company. There are plenty of ways to cut costs that will lead to misery afterwards, like in maintenance, quality, service, research and development, kaizen or improvement, training, respect for employees and their goodwill, and more (see also my sarcastic post series How to Look Good at the Cost of Your Successor). For a good example of cost-cutting accountants driving a company into the ground, see my post on How Managers Drove Boeing into the Ground. While the post is a bit older, even now every month there is another story of a Boeing mishap in the news, and the company has long lost its reputation for quality.

Dark Taylorism?

While we are at it, the concept of misusing useful tools to put pressure on the employees is nothing new. Around one hundred years ago, Frederick Winslow Taylor was the first to measure work in detail and use this knowledge to optimize work processes. Taylor is considered the father of scientific management, and his system is known as Taylorism.

His methods of optimizing were technically accurate, albeit Taylor was well known for his lack of tact. In particular, he treated his workers like machines and micromanaged them. However, he did want to share the improvements with them. Taylor always promoted that any savings from his work should also benefit the frontline operator, and he offered generous pay raises should the workers follow his ways. He said, “I feel confident that when your system is thoroughly understood, workmen themselves will rise up and demand it.” Yet, due to his uncompromising and arrogant nature, he always found it difficult to implement his methods.

Nevertheless, his approach was very popular with management… which saw it as another way to pile even more pressure on their workers and do the same work with less people. And, of course, any benefit was solely for the owners of the company. In a way, they took a somewhat flawed system of Taylorism and turned it into “Dark Taylorism.” In particular to this misuse, Taylorism now has a negative connotation.

Similarly, nowadays you can find quite a few people who see lean as a modern form of Taylorism, used to exploit the workers. I have been to quite a few plants where the word “lean” was burned and refused by operators based on prior experience. Changing the mindset of the operators toward the benefits of lean is hard. Hence, try to avoid this Dark Lean as much as you can, and bring the people to the light. Sorry for sounding like a preacher…

This was another blog post that is more on lean philosophy than on lean tools, and hence is also not quite as factual and applicable as some of the tools. Nevertheless, I hope you found this interesting. Also, keep in mind that this is one of many things that can go wrong in lean (like e.g. a lack of PDCA, etc.). Now, go out, respect your people to avoid dark lean, and organize your industry!

Many thanks to Nadja Böhlmann for sharing her experience and her views a the ELEC conference 20214 in Chemnitz, and to Alisa for more info on Dark Scrum.