Leading Lean

Chapter 6. Leading Enterprise Wide

Leading enterprise wide means fostering and achieving alignment across all levels of the organization through the development of a centralized decision-making framework that clearly states who you are, what you’re after, and how you’re going to get there as an organization. It acts as your “Enterprise True North” by rallying the entire organization around your common purpose: the pursuit of perfection in all you do in the quest for value creation and delivery.

Have you defined your strategic mission (why your company exists), vision (the future state you’re trying to create), and value proposition (proposed value you’re after)? Do the people who follow you understand your vision and how you propose to get there through the execution of your mission?

Without a written, well-thought-out plan, it becomes nearly impossible to mobilize others toward your common goals, known as strategic objectives.

In this chapter, we’ll spend some time discussing how you can build a centralized strategic decision-making framework that ties your mission, vision, and value proposition to your strategic objectives. You can then use the strategic roadmap and release plan to mobilize the Lean enterprise toward the realization of its value proposition. First, though, we’ll discuss the need for aligning all areas of your enterprise, and why that’s at the heart of this element of Lean leadership.

Recognizing the Importance of Enterprise Alignment

A lack of alignment and ...