Lean has a longer and more color ful history than most of us think, with

Have a clear mission. A mission is 

an agreement between top management 

and the rest of the company on a target 

state. The target state itself is not a goal; 

it’s a state of being. For the German 

army, the target state was world domi-

nance. Their mission was to beat the 

British and the French. As a leader, do 

you have a clear mission for your orga-

nization? Do people understand why 

they are doing what they are doing?

Teamwork. This comes through 

training and experience; people work-

ing/learning together. In your business, 

what kind of training do your people — 

at all levels — receive? Are they learn-

ing from their experiences?