LEAN BITES Honey Bees a Lean Leadership Model

One of the fundamental reasons why Lean is not sustained, is due to leadership.

Using the model of Honey Bees will help you develop your Leaders and team members to achieve a successful Lean journey.

In this model the Bees are your people (Leaders and team members) and the Hive is your organisation.

1. Purpose
When you study Bees, their purpose is quite clear, to build the hive. Built into the DNA of every Bee is to build a hive which will create the right environment for Bees to grow and mature.
You and your team members should know your purpose right from the start. It should be absolutely clear, almost part of your DNA. To help instil the purpose we use tools such as Vision, Mission and Core Values. Make these as clear and easy to understand as possible. Particularly with Core Values, link these to everything you do.

2. Communication
The Bees leave the hive every morning to search for flowers that will provide them the nectar and pollen needed to create honey. When they return to the Hive, they have this dance which instantly and clearly communicates with the rest of the Bees, not only that they found a food source but the direction and the distance from the Hive.
The same principle applies to you and your leaders, it’s the role of everyone to bring nutrients into the organisation to strengthen it.
Encourage the sharing of ideas, create a mechanism where this occurs in a safe environment. If someone has solved a problem, have them share it with other teams.
Also have them share their success stories, with Senior leadership.

3. Working together
One of the most fascinating aspects of Bees is that there are no members working for themselves. The community can’t survive unless they all work together. Their greatest defence is working together.
The same applies to you as leaders and your teams. Everyone must work together
for the betterment of the whole organisation, to protect it against our enemies.
The enemies of our organisation are those poor practices and behaviours that work against building up the organisation. Whether it’s inefficient processes or waste, anything that restricts us from servicing our internal and external customers is an enemy of our organisation. It’s critically important that we work cohesively to drive out poor processes.

I truly believe that models like The Honey Bee, can help us to get a better understanding of the best way the to lead our organisations through our Lean journey.

If you apply the principles, I’m confident you’ll build a successful Lean culture.