I hope that you read my colleague’s post yesterday on the “R” Word. In it he argued eloquently that R stands for Restructuring, not Recession, and that this is the beginning of the restructuring of America’s financial and business landscape. C-level executives will have one word on their mind as they prepare for 2009:  The “R” word. Restructuring of balance sheets to maximize cash; of organizations to get more done with fewer, more productive people; even of entire industries.

If he’s right, then it’ll soon be time to grapple with the “F” word. No, not that “F” word. I was thinking about follow-up, fall-out, facing the facts, fearlessness…in other words, what are we going to do about the R word?

Today and tomorrow I’m going to explore two courses of action. Today, getting lean. Tomorrow, the lost art of execution.

I spent time recently with executives and practitioners from Enterprise Minnesota. Enterprise Minnesota (EM) operates as a fee-for-services 501(c)(3) non-profit, and it is one of 59 affiliate organizations connected to a national network of Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) organizations. Their charter is to help MN companies grow profitably, but organizations like this exist throughout the US.

If you think lean principles are just for the factory floor, think again. From the EM site:

‘The same “we’ve always done it this way” culture you’ve eliminated from your shop may still exist in your office…While the idea of Lean Principles in the office is new, even greater efficiency benefits can be gained through the elimination of time consuming processes and tasks. Administration centers are ripe for improved efficiency because few companies have tried to apply these ideas to an office environment’

Here are some tenets of Lean that you can put to work in your business:

• Lean does not presume a technology solution for every inefficiency. True lean guys will not tell you to buy two more systems and call me in the morning
• Lean is about incremental improvements every day. What can we do this afternoon to make it a little better? is a legitimate lean question
• A great way to start a lean discussion is to ask this question: What drives you crazy?

Lean is for real people with common business problems. Its principles can be applied to the office, not just the shop. Check your prejudices at the door and take a few hours to explore what this could mean in your business.

The R Word is going to force many companies to get lean by necessity, not by choice. Either way, you’ll emerge a meaner, leaner machine.

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