When your company is faced with the need for a large, culture changing transformation, the worst thing you can do is to try to change everything at once. Your responsibility as a lean leader is to make the transition as quickly as you can while ensuring business continuity. We must understand up front that any big project should be broken down into a number of smaller pieces. Set deadlines for completing each part of the project. You’ll be making progress while having the satisfaction of reaching a goal. If you remain focused on your progress you will see all the parts of the project you’ve completed, rather than focusing on what work remains. Breaking a project into manageable pieces will make a difficult project seem easier.

As with all improvement activities, you should do this with your True North in mind. Do you know what your True North is? Ask yourself, “Will this improvement get our organization closer to our long-term goals? Do we know what our long-term goals are? If you don’t have these answers, get them. One of the worst improvements to make is the one that does nothing to advance our long-term goals. We should never spend our time and energy working on improvements such as these. That would be a true exercise in non-value-added activities!

We should also make sure to involve the workers who will be affected by the changes. Give the employees in the area the chance to take part in each element’s planning and execution. Including the team at all stages of, and throughout the project, will go a long way when it comes time to sustain the improvement, or make small changes after the initial implementation that inevitably will come up. We need people to own the improvements long after the improvement event takes place. Involving everyone gives us the best chance to achieve this outcome. And finally, celebrate each goal you reach in your project. Give yourself and your team small rewards for every task or deadline you complete throughout the project. Remember, rewards don’t have to be extravagant. Most everyone just wants to be recognized for their hard work. A simple, but heartfelt thank you, and job well done, can do wonders for morale. Sometimes the best rewards are free!