The Lean CEO: Leading the Way to World-Class Excellence

CHAPTER 8

PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

     Let people realize clearly that every time they threaten someone or humiliate or unnecessarily hurt or dominate or reject another human being, they become forces for the creation of psychopathology, even if these be small forces.

—Abraham Maslow

One of the business casualties that we don’t hear about in the news is that millions of workers go home every day feeling that they are not valued by their employers. Behind this treatment of employees is a widely held view among managers that workers are dispensable, and the more dispensable, the better. The subsequent humiliation leaves many employees, even those who ...