Lean for the Public Sector

I recently spoke with Bert Teeuwen who has spent 12 years as trainer, coach, and implementer of Lean in both industrial and public environment and currently serves as a consultant with the WagenaarHoes organization. He recently published a book titled Lean for the Public Sector: The Pursuit of Perfection in Government Services.

I asked Bert: "The title of your book suggests that processes in government are so unique they demand a specific Lean method to improve them. Why are these particular methods needed?" Bert's reply was quite interesting:

Most books about Lean are written with industry in mind. All the examples are about machines and installations. Some books are about Lean in the office, but civil servants are not impressed by all these examples from businesses. Public servants want to read a book about Lean when it contains examples from their own working environment.

The main reason, however, is that Lean in the public sector is indeed different! Organizations in the public sector function on a non-profit basis, so what should they do with the time or money earned with Lean? Another point is that considering a citizen as a customer is not always correct. Citizens are customers sometimes, but often they are subjects, voters, taxpayers, and users. When a parking guard or a policeman gives you a bill for incorrectly parking your car. Are you his customer? Are you in the position to say no and go to a competitor? In addition, consider the application for a building permit. As far as the applicants are concerned, they can build perfectly without that permit. But the permit was not created to solely serve the applicants but, for example, to protect their neighbors against excessive and intruding extensions to the applicants' houses. There is a different discussion about who is adding value to whom in the public sector.

And what about the pull principle? What is pull in the public sector? Is pull in the public sector always better? No, sometimes push is better, because the government has a duty to provide certain services for its citizens, even when they don't ask for it.

What are your thoughts about Bert's reply? What do see as the particular needs of the public sector in regard to Lean initiatives?

The State of Georgia’s Employees

Most articles reporting improvement-effort results focus on quantifiable measurements, such as on-time delivery, rate of defects, and capacity. The importance of these types of metrics should not be minimized, of course, but it was refreshing to read Craig Newmark’s (the founder of Craigslist.org) overview of Georgia state employees improved work environment. It appears the initiative hopes to change behavior and morale by transforming the culture. Most importantly, the goals are to instill a sense of pride in employee accomplishments and build team work through trust.

Note the most revealing description of the longstanding outmoded culture: employees opinions were “never solicited or if asked, not acted on. Therefore, many government employees have given up trying to go the extra mile, since no one (in management) cared. “ How many times how you read or heard about a successful lean initiative in which the leaders state that, at the beginning of the journey, the main complaint of the front-line employees was alienation and disfranchisement? Why do so many organizations continue to foster the mentality that those paid to do the job should not participate in improving the job?

A crucial aspect of Toyota culture is the belief that employees do indeed want to improve their work environments and participate in the process. What do you think ultimately drives long-term satisfaction in ones’ work? Is it merely the amount of the paycheck or the amount of ownership of the process?