Lean has become an accelerated springboard for multinational companies who aim to achieve Operational Excellence and gain a greater competitive advantage. Often there seems to be too little focus on understanding the culture dimensions.

A known perception is that there is often an inability of organizations to create a right mindset and a strong culture that will sustain Lean as a continuous improvement process. 

Leading successfully Lean transformation involves changing processes and people mindsets including Individual attitudes, commitment and behavior.

Local culture aspect is therefore highly relevant to consider. From my personal and humble experience in delivering Lean training and coaching projects across multicultural countries, I strongly believe that understanding the mysterious codes of cultural dimension is crucial to deliver a greater operational performance.

In some countries employees are expected to share their ideas and solutions whereas in other countries it is not the case

Just to name a few examples as a real-life experiences where I have understood that power distance between employees and leadership has a significant impact in lean deployment. In some countries employees are expected to share their ideas and solutions to problems (med-low power distance) without any limiting factor whereas in other countries this power distance is expected and accepted without questions in high power distance. Consequently, opportunities for improvement are wasted, which is considered in the Lean philosophy as an under-utilization of skills. Other limiting cultural factors in Lean implementation are seen mainly in local language, make problem visible mindset, beliefs in respect of rules and application of standards.

In conclusion, the understanding of how lean is perceived in relation with culture is key to ensure a basic condition for Lean transformation success and enable the achievement of the desired operational and Business results.