Coaching

Help others develop the problem-solving skills needed to implement Lean tools and principles and to develop a culture of continuous performance improvement. 

In Lean management, a coach will not tell his coachees what to do; that deprives people of ownership of the problem and the opportunity to deal with it themselves. Moreover, the coach realizes that he or she rarely knows as much about the situation as the owner of the problem. 

The coach is the one who, by asking open-ended questions, makes the coachee more aware of what he or she knows and needs to know. The coach encourages the person being coached to question whether his or her ideas and impressions are based on facts. 

The following techniques are supportive of the Lean approach to coaching: 

• Apply the scientific method of Plan-Do- Check-Act (PDCA) to a coaching cycle. 
• Asking questions to help the coachee gain clarity about the situation surrounding a problem.
• Assessing the coachee's problem-solving ability without taking over responsibility for solving the problem.
• Observe and give feedback without interpreting.