How a LEAN Journey Began

In 1996, I opened the doors of my interior architectural design firm.  Our beginnings were probably similar to those of most ID firms in the hospitality space, but about 10 years in, my partner and I began to question a number of things.  We began to have more and more discussions centering on how we could be better, how we could be more efficient and more profitable and more efficient.

That curiosity, that desire, led us to what has become an ongoing search on a different path.  It began with a friendship with a very successful business woman, one who was quite literally one of the most astute and knowledgeable leaders in Silicon Valley at the time.  As we were chatting one day, I asked her what she was reading.  She humbly said, “Well, there’s this guy. He’s not very well known, but I like what he writes and I think he’s really onto something.”  The writer was Pat Lencione, and the book he had written was his first of what would become the first of six New York Times best-selling books, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.  We bought the book and devoured it.  The principles, theories and structures Lencione characterized were like nothing we’d ever read.  We were so impressed with the ideas that we signed up and flew our entire office of 6 people up to San Francisco and took a one day training with Pat and his team at The Table Group.  At the time, over a dozen years ago, little did we know what an impact he would have on us and on the rest of the business world.  We were immensely affected by how a team could and should work.  So much so that we redirected the focus of our company culture based on the ideas from the book.  It became the mirror of evaluation we would look into as we ran our projects and organized our people.  The changes we made and the many evolutions we have gone through since then have always stemmed from the foundation of that team orientation and those processes.

The characteristics described in the Five Dysfunctions were in some regards very easy for us to implement, and yet some were extraordinarily challenging, both on a corporate level as well as on an individual and personal level.  Some staff members would breeze through one characteristic yet get stuck on another.  As individuals and as owners, my partner Dolly and I chose to walk-the-talk of learning to ask the hard questions, say the hard things, and make the hard decisions.  It was not always a comfortable path.

As we grew and as we put into practice what we learned, we came to an unexpected realization.  We all were skilled designers, yes – but something else also began to surface.  University studies and professional experience over time does focus entirely on refining and honing design skills in one form or another, yet when we paused and thought about it, no one was ever teaching in earnest, how to work AS A TEAM, at least from the standpoint of how Pat Lencione does. The idea of true, deep teamwork which takes a group to elite performance levels is the stuff of the Navy SEALS and of Formula 1 pit crews who can change all 4 tires on a Formula 1 race car in under 2 seconds (notably Red Bull’s Racing Team).  But having insightful guidance, coaching and a bit of courage allowed us to get better, much, much better.  Pat Lencione continued to write and we continued to read and to put into practice each new concept with each new book.  Our office inadvertently became the ever-evolving laboratory of change.  What we began to realize was that sure, we are interior designers who apply our skills to upscale and luxury hotels and resorts, but what we also are is a teaching organization.  No matter how senior someone is, they always have more to learn (of course this applies to us as well).  We feel that their ability to adapt and learn new ways of interacting, of communicating, of motivating and coaching and mentoring is key to their success in our firm, but also in this industry.  I think we’ve all met highly talented designers or architects who are just impossible to work with, who leave a wasteland of burnt and abused staff members behind and who either don’t care or don’t know what to do to fix their plight.  We’ve all heard or perhaps sadly witnessed in person the ranting and raging Principal who hurls objects and curses a blue streak and intimidates everyone within their realm - what Carlos Casteneda calls "petty tyrants".

What we’ve made is a conscious decision to conduct ourselves professionally and demonstrate how we expect our staff to behave and act and work.  This leading from the front is how we work best.  We discuss problems openly, we brainstorm, we talk, we solve challenges collaboratively.  We’ve intentionally created a space within which it’s safe to risk, to be vulnerable and to make mistakes. In our world, this is the norm.  And not only is it OK to hold each other accountable, it’s expected.  That means not just from top down but also from bottom up.  Just because Dolly or I are the firm owners does NOT make us any more exempt from mistakes or irreproachable.  Quite the opposite, it makes us the prime targets for when something goes sideways.  Here, everyone contributes, all ideas are valued.  We’ve found that ongoing refinement, improvement and growth have become our corporate culture.

Not that is was originally an intentional idea for us to link the work of Pat Lencione to lean project delivery, but the components and attributes which we have adopted through Pat Lencione’s work are excellent precursors and fundamental building blocks of lean practices and have made our adoption of lean practices significantly easier for us to incorporate as a company.

Does any of this sound familiar as you as you now look at the structure of lean?  It sure does to me.  As a new and very enthusiastic champion in learning and applying lean principles within the hospitality interior design space, I can offer this – the parallels and ties between the 5 Dysfunctions and lean elements are very symbiotic and well worth learning, blending and adapting.  Yes, there is always more to learn.  That’s not the curse, it’s the blessing.  A path well worth beginning.