"They were trying to automate out human problems"

I was rewatching this classic John Shook video about NUMMI (thank you, Nigel Thurlow , for recording and sharing it), and thinking of its relevance for the great automation of Knowledge Work using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

This one line hit like a hammer:

“They were trying to automate out human problems.”

Result: A disaster — followed by an extraordinary recovery once people were allowed to be ingenious, collaborative, valued, and solve problems every day.

And this cuts straight to the great Western misunderstanding of Lean.

Lean is still treated as a toolkit for process optimisation — often outsourced to consultants who descend with PowerPoints to “redesign” the enterprise. We even gave it a name: Business Process Reengineering.

But in real Lean, there is no “reengineering.”If you need to reengineer, it means you stopped improving. And the improvement should come from the people doing the work, supported by leadership and coached by senseis — not flown-in fixers.

In true "Lean", there is no wholesale process reengineering, replatforming, or transformation, because things are never growing that out of sync due to continuous improvements

Lean never mattered because it optimised processes. It mattered because it ENGAGED PEOPLE TO THINK, COLLABORATIVELY.

Now look at the digital, software, and service economy.

Isn’t it ironic that organisations are still behaving as if the world is split between White Collars who think (Execs) and Blue Collars who do (Engineers)? McKinsey’s “digital factories” only reinforced that fiction — and sent a lot of businesses down the wrong path.

Organisations are looking to operate digital AI companies with mass production leadership. Lean got people to think, and as such, was a first significant step towards the leadership of Knowledge Work

In modern so-called "knowledge work", that divide is nonsense. Everyone should be thinking and doing, continually.

True Lean is a major step in Leadership since mass-production leadership, and it is more needed than ever in the digital tech era. 

So, a good time to watch the video. Start there ».

And ask yourself one question:IS YOUR ORGANISATION MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE WITH YOUR ADOPTION OF AI? — trying to automate out human problems?

Draw your own conclusions.

If you want a Jidoka-led approach to AI, let’s talk.

Video - Courtesy of Nigel Thurlow - The Flow System / The Flow Consortium