Hearing the Voice of the Shingo Principles

12Leaders Lead Culture

What leaders really lead is culture.

Dave Petersen, CEO

The OC Tanner Company, 2012

Delegation by senior management for improvement of the business is an all too often and very unfortunate unintended and almost always negative consequence of distilling principles down to tools and systems. When business improvement is seen as training people on the use of some new tools, diffusing a few improvement systems or organizing some project teams to fix things, it is easy for senior leaders to opt themselves out.

While tools, management systems and good people are necessary requirements for creating business improvement, they are hardly sufficient for creating a sustainable culture of excellence. Many studies have shown over ...