We transform organizations by creating a new way of working—setting up systems to drive continuous improvement and engaging employees to meet customer needs more effectively.
McKinsey believes that lean is much more than a “toolkit” or a methodology for removing waste. We completely transform how companies operate, focusing in particular on creating a culture of continuous improvement and a new leadership approach. We instill new routines and behaviors to unleash leadership capacity. A true lean management enterprise feels like a very unique place to work:
- Employees at all levels understand the organization’s vision and translate it into action every day, with a common purpose toward common goals across the entire enterprise.
- Managers develop people with the expectation that everyone should have the opportunity to contribute to the best of their ability.
- Everyone sees problems as opportunities to make the business stronger.
- Employees understand their customers, and seek to meet their needs as efficiently as possible.
These “management disciplines” correlate to tangible skills and ways of working that people and organizations can learn—which, over time, constitute a new company culture: how people behave and think.
How we transform companies
We design a transformation that makes sense for each organization, based on proven methods for attaining the right balance between fast and deep. Our impact comes from building the capabilities of employees to understand their customers, measure performance, and fix problems that arise.
A common challenge of big transformation programs is making sure change sticks over time. We have developed unique solutions to teach the capabilities required to sustain operational excellence:
Digital Leader Standard Work
Digital Leader Standard Work is a learning tool that allows managers to track progress on the routines and activities they’re asked to perform in a lean way of working, and to receive upward feedback and senior manager coaching on how they are doing.
“Go & See”
“Go & See” visits allow senior managers to learn from peers who are more advanced in transforming their organizations. One-day visits across the world create an unparalleled network to instill leaders with conviction and confidence in the new way of working.
The Operational Excellence Index (OEI)
The Operational Excellence Index (OEI) is an assessment of operational maturity which is embedded in all of our transformations. This methodology—and the digital tool that supports it—offers a built-in approach to drive continuous improvement by offering a starting point, and narrowing in on targets for improvement.
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Continuous improvement teams use the Digital OEI to run maturity assessments with a single solution for notes, scoring, reporting, feedback, benchmarking, and logging improvement goals.
Digital Lean Academy
Digital Lean Academy (part of the McKinsey Academy suite) is a set of two online learning modules, which can be taken individually or in teams. The content teaches the basics of lean management, gives students insight into how a transformation will deploy and affect them, and trains on the tools needed to sustain transformation.
Capability-building centers
Capability-building centers around the world use experiential and other proven learning techniques to demonstrate best practices, develop skills, and create executive commitment.
Expert consultants
Expert consultants who have led similar transformations, some recognized by The Shingo Prize, serve as peer coaches to our clients.