Many people are familiar with the seven types of waste originally identified by Taiichi Ohno.

• Defects or rework
• Waiting
• Overproduction
• Overprocessing
• Inventories
• Motion
• Transport

These types of waste are common not only in physical production but also in services and transactional environments.  With some experience, one cannot stop but see waste everywhere they work.  For example, mistakes happen and require rework (defects).  Documents go through multiple reviewers before approval (overprocessing).  Searching a number of locations before the information is found (motion). 

In my observation, this simple concept and basic awareness of waste is a very effective first step toward building a Lean organization.  Who wants to waste their time doing things not valued?

As an organization becomes more mature in Lean thinking, it will discover more types of waste that are less visible and potentially more detrimental.   For example, James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, in their book Lean Thinking, included “the design of goods and services which do not meet user’s needs” as an additional type of waste. 

Personally, I think the worst type of waste is underutilized human potential.  Many would agree.  It is also the most difficult type to reduce.  I see it manifest in three common forms.

1. Employees spend a large proportion of their time on non-value added activities.  These include attending unproductive meetings, writing lengthy reports that few people read, or preparing elaborate presentations for management when a summary suffices.  
2. Employees are not able to use their knowledge and skills they are hired for.  To quote a senior executive, “The company hires the best people and then ties their hands when they come to work.”  Often motivated employees eager to solve a problem only are told “that’s not your job.”
3. Employees are not growing to be more productive or effective.  They are stuck doing the same job using the same skills for years.  Many are not aware of the growth opportunities until late in their careers.  Some technical training, coaching, or exposure to leadership concepts, continuous improvement methodologies, or computer skills goes a long way to improve their performance.     

As more people move from traditionally manual work to knowledge work, the demand for new knowledge and skills only accelerates.  If we do not effectively address the waste of underutilized human potential, the loss will be immeasurable for both individuals and organizations.

Just to understand the problem is an enormous challenge.  But I believe there are steps that employees and managers can take to make a significant difference.

For example, for employees

• Take ownership of our career and professional development; no one else has the responsibility.
• Continue to develop ourselves professionally, in technical, business, and leadership skills. This can be achieved through education (e.g. taking classes) and experience (e.g. taking on a challenging project).
• Seek mentorship and feedback from others within our own organization and outside.

For managers,

• Encourage our employees to do the above and support them with our words and actions.
• Be aware of the impact of our actions and decisions on our employees.  Are we the root cause of their non-value added activities?
• Have a growth mindset in our employees.  Continue to provide them challenging opportunities.  Support, mentor, and coach them along the way. 

What is the worst type of waste you see?  How do you reduce it?

Who doesn’t? But how?

For over a decade, I have used many management methodologies for business improvement, e.g. Lean, Six Sigma, Enterprise Process Management, Change Management, etc. One of the biggest lessons I learned is that no matter what methodologies we use, ultimately, sustainable improvement is built on one foundation: understand, develop, and enable people.

Anytime when the people component is lacking in a change initiative or operating model, it will inevitably fail.

It is not a new concept, and no one seems to disagree with the premise. Yet few put enough emphasis on people in everyday practice. The people and culture piece often gets the least amount of attention on a Balanced Scorecard — if it is used at all. Businesses need to achieve financial goals, satisfy customers, and improve capabilities. No doubt. Guess who make these happen: it’s their people.

Many organizations start to pay attention to people only after they begin a change initiative or when there is an attrition problem. Even then the task is often delegated to Human Resources or other specialists, and the resources disappear as soon as the initiative officially ends or when the symptom is gone.

But change is constant. The need to develop and enable people never ends, and it is the professional responsibility of the managers.

Nowadays, every organization tries to be agile and embrace change, including digital transformation. But are their people willing, prepared, and ready? The outcome is predictable: those who succeed have nurtured the right culture and people from the start.

People familiar with the Lean concepts know the seven types of waste and the benefits of relentless elimination of such waste. Lean practitioners are trained to see them in everyday activities and act on them. There is the eighth type – unused human potential, which is the biggest but least visible or recognized waste. Reducing or eliminating this type of waste is not the responsibility of a process improvement or HR specialist but management. Unfortunately, many managers (if not the majority of) do not proactively develop and enable their people. They are only trained or expected to handle performance issues when things go wrong.

Not realizing people’s creative and productive potential is a huge missed opportunity for both the organization and employees. But it doesn’t have to be.

I encourage every manager to ask one question:
What have I done today to develop my people or improve the environment to enable them to accomplish more? How about in the last week, in the last month?

I want to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Peter Drucker.

Entrepreneurs innovate. Innovation is the specific instruments of entrepreneurship. It is the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth. Innovation, indeed, creates resources. There is no such thing as a “resource” until man finds a use for something in nature and thus endows it with economic value. Until then, every plant is a weed and every mineral just another rock.