Mahatma Gandhi famously said "Be the Change you wish to see in the world" while I had read this quote several times had never really understood the depth of its meaning until I decided to undertake the journey towards becoming a leaner self. What I'm going to pen below are some of my learnings in the process and what I feel are applicable across businesses that undertake a transformation journey.
Lean is Good - Look at the picture above, I'm sure the right side not only looks better but feels great too. I (and extrapolate to organizations) not only feel better but have better agility and health, similarly a Leaner organization is able to maneuver better in a VUCA world and hence is faster in responding to ever-evolving customer needs
Difficulty in initiating change - Oh this one is a killer I tell ya :). I kept postponing the efforts required to initiate the transformational journey giving myself various "justifiable" excuses like age, it will take too long, extreme effort, will it work, etc... do you as a leader feel the same? Well, what helps is defining a clear WHY. No transformation can be a flight of fancy or should be initiated because everyone around is doing it. It should feel right and the commitment to it has to start from the very top... that's YOU
Failure / Course correction: Both are inevitable truths in a transformative journey. Do not abandon the path on account of some hiccups and be cognizant of measuring success and adopting countermeasures if metrics depict a need for it
Celebrate Milestones: Look at each milestone as how far you have come from point A (start point) and that keeps you going. Progress for sure is addictive. Most importantly let milestones be exactly that, do not set too small or too grand a target on those
It's an evolutionary cycle: In the end, no transformation is an end in itself and completion of one journey sets you on course for the next one to be undertaken.
Let me know what you think, would love to hear about your transformative journey.