For many people, one of the biggest curses of knowledge is that we tend to over complicate things.

Case in point, I have been doing a lot of reading about Lean Manufacture and its application into the service industry. One book I slaved through this week explained Waste in a complex way that cumulated in the formula shown in this picture (for the record I have no idea what this actually means.)

LEAN Waste Forumla

And then, I read a simple explanation in a completely different book. Waste is non-valued added time. I.e. Doing things that don’t add value to your customers, that’s waste.

The goal of both books is to make Lean Service understandable and applicable, and yet one failed miserably.

The goal of leading people is not to show how much knowledge we have or make us feel smart. The goal is to lead our people to do great work, by keeping things as simple as possible.

The simpler we make that, the better.