Keep in mind that this post is a bit on the lighthearted side, if you couldn’t tell from the Conan O’Brien intro. That being said, I don’t think I’m discussing Lean as the center of the universe. It’s not written from the perspective of the universe with Lean in the center; it’s written from the perspective of a Lean advocate looking out at the world. In other words, I’m not making predictions about the business world in general, just how Lean folks will contribute to the business world. So, from that perspective, the article is obviously Lean-centric, by design, in accordance with the type of readers one would expect from a Lean Six Sigma blog.

You are “not sure Lean is the most suitable skill for Project Management…” Lean is not a skill per se, it’s a methodology, but I take your meaning as ‘people with Lean skills.’ With that in mind, I’m interested in knowing why people with Lean skills might not be suitable for PM. Both Lean and PM are socio-technical methodologies, and there is huge overlap on the social side. The technical side differs between the two, but my contention in the article is that the technical side of PM will probably shift away from the traditional PMBOK approach and towards agile PM techniques, such as Scrum or Last Planner. This is already happening, and bodes well for Lean Leaders.

You also mention that maybe Lean Leaders are not well-suited for organizational design. Traditional leadership has yielded organizational designs based on outdated principles such as: manage-by-numbers, command-and-control, and rigid vertical hierarchies. Is that the best we can do? Lean Leaders, if they can acquire the status necessary to be influential in high-level organizational design decisions, can correct some of these outdated models. I say this because Lean Leaders understand that we must identify customer value, align the organization around value streams, and put in place management systems that improve value stream flow and reliability through continuous improvement. Those are powerful organizational design principles.

“Social media can be a waste of time when you need to read posts from a large number of people…” I agree that reading a wide range of posts can be time-consuming, but I don’t think it’s wasteful if it helps you broaden your understanding. I do agree that there is an opportunity to provide a little bit of structure to the Lean blogosphere to avoid repetition and create synergy.

Thanks again for your good comments and your opposing viewpoint.

When we start thinking what we do is the most important thing in the world and that is the only thing it takes to make the world a great place, we are dead. It takes all kinds of skills and people to succeed in projects and organizations. I am not sure Lean is the most suitable skill for Project management and Organizational design.

Social media can be a waste of time when you need to read posts from a large number of people, and make sense of a wide variety of opinions, often repeated in many words and forms. Lean social media needs a way of getting the right set of people, with experience, understanding and thoughts expressing themselves through non repetitive posts.

@Greg, your point is true about how social media can actually make things more chaotic. It’s just like if a company adopts a fad-of-the-month approach where they’re constantly introducing new tools to the workplace. This can obviously become counterproductive if it ends up confusing the work team.

With social media, it can’t just be for fun or to make the bosses seem more approachable or friendly. It has to be to actually improve the flow of communication and/or accelerate learning somehow. Otherwise, it’s just more waste.

I think Conan’s got you beat in ridiculousness…its a shame NBC paid him so much and raised the expectations.

Your predictions are valid, and they all seem to compliment each other…social media tools can often make things seem chaotic. However, when used effectively with a focused approach, they improve collaboration, which encourages innovation, and if managed properly (say by a bonafide LL with an understanding of PM) will certainly improve the flow of knowledge…and presumably continue to minimize waste, even in already “lean” processes. This kind of continued improvement is applicable to all industries.

@Shane, I didn’t get your Twitter link, but I agree that #1 is already happening…big time.

@Matt, your prediction about C-level PM’s needs to happen for a variety of reasons. I just hope that those leaders understand Lean thinking and don’t just continue outdated project management techniques.