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Herb Kelleher
His goofy touch helped Southwest Airlines amass 35 years of profitability.
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The Paradigm Problem
Why is Charismatic Leadership so important for the
transition to Lean Manufacturing? The answers have to do
with paradigms, empowerment and motivation.
We all view the world through the lens of experience (our paradigm). This lens may distort reality to it fit
our paradigm. Alternatively, the lens ignores or rejects
information that does not fit the paradigm.
This is not a personality defect, it is the way
brains work. Human brains are
self-organizing pattern
recognition systems. When new information fits an established pattern, the brain works
well. New information that does not fit
an established pattern causes confusion and, subsequent distortion or rejection.
The power of charisma overcomes this.
Emotional
commitment to the Charismatic Leader allows followers to
accept the leader's paradigm in spite of the brain's
confusion. Gradually, the brain develops a new paradigm
based on new evidence and experience.
Empowerment, Efficacy & Self-Correction
Successful Lean Manufacturing requires high levels of
empowerment for people and work teams. Taiichi Ohno and
Shigeo Shingo must have understood this implicitly, but
they did not write about it very much.
This empowerment is necessary for the system to
self-correct at the lowest levels. Highly directive,
bureaucratic systems that attempt to correct at high
levels are inherently unstable.
The diagram illustrates how self-efficacy and
empowerment lead to self-correction and system
stability. Self-efficacy also leads to increasing
self-confidence which leads to more empowerment.
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Motivation
All of this ties in to motivation. People and teams
who believe they have control of their situation work
harder and perform better. They take pride in their
efforts. Pride gives meaning to their work and their
lives.
You may see this cycle at work in the classic film
"Twelve O'clock High". Our download of
Major
Attila Bognar's article on this film clearly
illustrates the role of the charismatic leader.
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