The Virtuous Triangle of Lean: A Transformation Beyond Tools
"When you see what you see and hear what you hear, you're right to think what you think." - Coluche
This quote made me smile when I discovered Michael Ballé's illustration about Lean. Because yes, Lean isn't just a method - it's a virtuous triangle that sustainably transforms our organizations. And as Coluche so aptly suggests, it all starts with the art of truly observing what's happening on the ground! 🧐
While leading Bpifrance's Digital Factory, I had a revelation: the true power of Lean lies in the virtuous interaction between three dimensions that feed each other:
1️⃣ Strategy (4F): Find, Face, Frame, Form
Confession: for years, I thought good strategy was born in executive committees. Until I understood that the best decisions emerge when we combine:
Top-down vision (Find)
Courage to face reality (Face)
Collective intelligence from the field (Frame)
Ability to transform together (Form)
2️⃣ Culture (Toyota Way)
A recent experience particularly struck me: during a Gemba Walk with our data team, I had a real "aha" moment. On paper, the team seemed perfectly aligned with our impact obsession. Dashboards showed results, KPIs were green.
But spending time with them revealed a different reality: the team was sacrificing technical debt quality and data pipeline robustness to focus solely on end-of-chain metrics. Why? Because they had interpreted my message about impact as "only final results matter."
What irony! In trying to please me with quick wins, they were preventing themselves from building the solid foundations needed for sustainable impact. It was my responsibility - I had poorly communicated the importance of end-to-end quality.
This discovery would never have emerged in a reporting meeting. It took this immersion time, these informal discussions, to understand the real problem. Today, we celebrate code and pipeline quality just as much as business results.
As a data engineer told me: "Now we understand that impact is also about taking pride in doing things right at every step."
3️⃣ Operational Excellence (TPS)
Or as I like to say: "The art of transforming problems into collective learning opportunities". At Digital Factory, we've exponentially increased our productivity not by pushing harder, but by learning to see and solve our real problems.
💡 The magic happens when these three dimensions align: strategy nurtures culture, which in turn strengthens operational excellence, creating a virtuous circle of continuous improvement.
#Lean #Leadership #DigitalTransformation #Innovation #CorporateCulture #Management #GembaWalk #OperationalExcellence #LeanEngineering
P.S.: If you see your boss wandering the corridors with a notebook, don't worry... They're probably just rediscovering the power of Gemba! 😉