Building lean teams 101

You’ve probably started hearing the term “lean team” much more frequently these days. While a ‘lean’ structure or business strategy is well-established, a ‘lean team’ is now one of those buzzwords that's really buzzing, but is it right for your business and/or team? And how do you roll it out as a strategy if it is a good fit? Most businesses are on their way to figuring it out, but Toyota has it mastered. After all, Toyota’s lean manufacturing design has already inspired lean teams around the globe.

Toyota’s lean connection

At Toyota, manufacturing endeavors towards minimalism. Toyota wanted to give their customers maximum value while also maintaining sustainable growth for the business, and that meant they had to remove everything that wasn’t making sense. Anything that was redundant or added unnecessary steps to the manufacturing process had to go.

Toyota is not only the origin of ‘lean culture’, it is also a great testament to its success. It’s this ‘lean production’ plan that made Toyota surpass General Motors as the world’s largest automobile manufacturer, and what enables Toyota to continue to be lean in manufacturing, principles, and team.

But, how? Reducing extra steps is easier said than done, right?

Lean teams definition

When we look at lean teams around the world, there are five main attributes they all share in common:

1. Value addition

A lean team, by definition, wants to create something valuable for its customers, ideally with the fewest steps and wasted resources as possible. The idea behind “lean” structuring is to reduce waste and increase efficiency. Combine the two and you get a product that’s reaching the customers faster, has less error and more use. This inherently adds value, simply because there is now less cost to get to the product/service/etc.

2. Innovation and improvement

This is key! Businesses that want flexibility and the capacity to maneuver at the drop of the hat would want their teams lean and trim. The closer the group is, the easier it gets to upgrade and experiment. ‘Lean’ is still subjective based on the size of your overall business, but if you’d like to embrace an agile business style, leaner teams is the route.

3. Collaboration

When you have five people to do the job you used to have ten people for, you want those five people to coordinate, communicate, and collaborate tighter. Importantly, running lean doesn’t mean burning out your talent or giving everyone twice as much work, but rather increasing efficiency, which requires incredible communication. Lean teams are well-connected teams, and work happens in tandem with each other, not in silos. Every member of the team knows where the project is at the moment, and everyone is clear on their role in the project.

4. Systematic

To reduce waste (mostly inefficiencies, which sometimes generates literal waste), you have to know where the ‘waste’ is, which means you must measure every step. This means neat documentation and mapping out the system down to each step, to be followed by the team. For a business to operate with a lean structure, it has to establish a clear system for all the employees. Who reports to whom, who does what, where to look for help, and how to do it all together to do it better — leave nothing to doubt! Consider internal or informal KPIs where data isn’t available so you can ensure each part of the process is taken care of.

5. Autonomy

A dynamic aspect of a lean business is that while it has a set structure, it also allows for freedom. Each employee is a high performer, because they have to be to make a lean team work! This means you should be able to trust that each employee can bring their own motivation, leadership, ideas and innovations to the table.

How to make lean teams at your business

Now that we have established the five key pillars that make a lean team functional, how do we go about building a lean team? You're looking at building a team that is self-sufficient and always on the lookout for new and better possibilities. At their core, all lean teams are high-performing teams first.

You want to recruit (and retain!) future leaders, self-starters, independent thinkers, and above all, great team players all in the same group. It might sound like a Herculean task, but in reality, building a lean team is easy if you have a roadmap to follow. Naturally, we’ve got one for you to start with:

Vision

First on the list for a reason! A lean team is highly focused and everyone should be clear on the goals, both for the team and their individual contributions. Establish the purpose of the team; what are some areas you want to see improvements in; what are some processes you need to streamline better? Start with these questions, especially because when we talk about vision, we have to accommodate the brand’s holistic mission too. You need employees who are aligned with the bigger picture, so your recruitment efforts should focus on the job/business as it stands today and the next five years. You need skilled hires, but do not undermine the importance of a good culture fit too.

Specialists but also generalists

If you have fewer people running the game, you want them to be on top of the game. You’ll need employees who have niche expertise, but also the ability to understand and help with other tasks. Hence, the right fit in a lean team is someone who is great at their job but also has an understanding of other important functions of the team. Cross-functionality is what helps lean teams remain efficient at times when an employee falls ill, takes PTO, or simply gets stuck, ensuring you are able to maintain your productivity and deadlines.

Collaboration

Since cross-functionality is so important, it’s equally important that the team members communicate and collaborate without friction. Communication has to be quick, easy, and frequent. This also means feedback! Feedback (done respectfully and conscientiously) is the backbone of effectiveness, and honesty and openness in feedback help push the bar higher.

Growth mindset

Lean teams are, well, lean. You should be conscious of numbers (team bloat), but don’t dismiss the quality; that’s what makes these teams work. However, ‘quality’ can age, particularly when we work in a world that has new tech developments happening every day. What’s relevant and useful today may very well be obsolete and replaceable tomorrow, so, to keep up, businesses need to allocate upskilling budgets and development tools. While hiring for a lean team, you also want to scout for people who commit to lifelong learning. Anyone who lacks in that department is likely to lag behind the rest of the team.

Systematic and iterative working style

Last but not least, let’s talk structure. A solid structure is crucial to making lean teams really work. Without a structure, there is no method and that means chaos.

The structure you put in place has to keep in mind that every stakeholder’s role is defined; KPIs and project goals are pre-discussed and very specific. A lot of planning should go into this to ensure no time or talent is going underutilized while at the same time ensuring no talent burns out. Lean teams thrive on each employee’s wellbeing! We all know that planning can also go by the wayside quickly, so ideally each project has to be divided into smaller tasks with room for regular updates or changes. Fortunately, working with a lean team makes this iterative approach easy to execute, meaning your business can then reach for more innovation and higher benchmarks.

Staying motivated

Frankly, time is of the essence. Because the manpower at hand is limited by design, we can’t afford to drag a project on for too long. It demotivates and crunches a team and the business. Clear deadlines and accountability are just as important for a lean team!