If you lift the lid on why Lean transformations don't realise sustainable success you can identify two main causes and they are not what most seem to advance as 'root causes'.
The importance of leadership is identified - usually in terms of lack of senior leadership commitment. This misses the central point. Exactly how are senior leaders supposed to mainfest their support? It has to be more than just being seen to support it.
Taking a holisitic view the answer starts to become clear. All the available psychological and sociological research shows that people are far more affected by the context in which they work than many believe. Those that believe it still don't know specifically what to do about it.
The creation of a suitable context then becomes the most necessary central strategic leadership act. This means analysisng what that context looks and feels like for the teams and acting strategically to make it supportive of the Lean goals. We call this 'climate creation'.
