Can you be too Lean?

I am writing this post in the aftermath of a weekend getaway gone awry. The plan was simple – leave very early on Saturday morning, arrive at our favorite beach by 11, enjoy the island and friends and great seafood. And then out the next night- back in time to resume work on Monday.

Instead, I am at home… not at the beach.

The plane was there, the pilot was there, the flight attendants ready to go. Missing was the co-pilot. Much waiting with effort to secure another. During this time, my husband and I went in search of breakfast – and chose a nice, sit down option in the gate area. There we watched with both frustration, amazement and a bit of admiration at the ONE server attempting to serve the restaurant guests, assisted on occasion by the cook and busser.

We bemoaned about people not showing up to do their jobs. About how the one co-pilot failing to show inconvenienced hundreds of folks that we could see and many more as the ripple of the cancelled flight spread to others. We gave the server an outsized tip in spite of the slow service, knowing what an admirable job he was doing in spite of being short staffed, and maintaining a pleasant demeanor.

But on the long ride back home, I wondered if there was not another bigger theme at play here – of being too lean.

I’m the first to admit that I am a fan of the lean way of thinking. Of only focusing on what adds high value to the customer and dropping the rest. Of reducing waste and scrap and extra effort. Of fine tuning your process so that it hums along with just the right amount of effort, materials, and people, at just the right time.

Yet I am convinced that American businesses are too lean – too bare-bones, too stripped down, too right sized, to the extent that it undermines their health. It certainly undermines their customer satisfaction!

OK – so I can buy that co-pilots are a pretty special bunch – and that not too many are just hanging around waiting to be called in. Still, everything about my experience was negatively compounded by the lack of any extra staff or capacity in the system. The gate only had one computer and one gate attendant, which resulted in excruciating long lines to rebook. As a solution – we were given a “special” number to call and rebook. That was the option I chose – and yet there was still a wait to get an operator and it was only 58 minutes later that we were rebooked.

The amazing thing was that in spite of systems and tools that were getting in the way of doing a great job for the folks we encountered at the airport, they were pleasant, respectful and working as hard as they could – even at 4 am. This really was not a people problem; this is a systems problem.

Being too efficient robs the system of much needed slack. Of breathing room. Of some extra resources that are available “just in case”.

Large companies today have big bankrolls and tiny payrolls. Systems have been automated to squeeze out the last ounce of cost efficiency – but are dehumanized mazes in which customers are on their own. The workers I deal with, just like the ones I encountered at the airport, have on their game faces, and are doing the best they can. But just like the Lucille Ball spoof on the candy factory line, they keep falling farther and farther behind

Time labelled as non-productive (training, managing the unexpected, going above and beyond, creating something new, dreaming of the next big thing, doing preventative maintenance, and filling in for those on vacation) has been relentlessly slashed. This training takes 3 days – can you do it in 3 hours?

So, in business, being too lean may be a bad thing after all – bringing with it consequences such as:

• extraordinarily disappointing customer service
• the inability to respond to disruptions
• lack of depth or bench strength
• a poorly trained workforce
• less innovation
• stressed and frustrated employees

Which ultimately result in customer and employee defection and loss of long-term vitality. Yes indeed, you can be too lean. Leaders need to remember that things drawn too taut finally break.