Stopwatches are everywhere

One of the facts of life of a Lean environment is that things get measured. Often the data collection is inconspicuous. But sometimes, the measurement is hard to miss. When a stopwatch comes out, people know that their work is getting looked at. It is easy for them to inadvertently, and in some cases, intentionally, bias the results.

Problem

Stopwatches are everywhere

How this affects you

You want to be viewed in a positive light, so working quickly seems like a good plan. But, you also know that your performance will become the new standard as soon as you are timed—maybe it would be better to pad the clock a little. You just don’t know the best strategy to use.

Action to Take

Work at your usual pace. Gaming the system always comes back to bite you.

You only have three options. The first is the recommended action—work at your normal pace.

The second option is to work faster than average to impress the boss. You speed through the process and post a record time. Unfortunately, this is the equivalent of shooting yourself and your team in the foot! If you set the bar at an unsustainable rate, you will suffer while trying to keep up down the road.

The final option is to slow things down: take a little extra time and make the trials longer than normal. Employees generally have two reasons for…

Why this works

The Why this Works section is only available in print copies of Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean?