Where do I Start? THIRD of Series

What do I NEED to consider? Kind of a basic question with lots of possible answers.  You need to know what you need to know to accomplish whatever task you have defined that you want to complete.  Therefore at each stage of your journey to your organization's Vision you will have to obtain the necessary skills and knowledge to accomplish the task.  You may wish to learn the knowledge for yourself, buy the knowledge, or utilize the knowledge your team has.  Normally it will be a combination of all three.

The knowledge, skills, and tools needed to realize your Vision will be a composite of past experience, current skills, and future learning events.  Take an assessment of your own skills, your team's skills, tools you own or can acquire to determine your "knowledge state" and compare those with what is thought to be needed.

Some of the basic 'need-to-know' are shown below and can be found on various posts on this blog.  Check out the page tabs for quick links to them.

NEED TO KNOW:

1. Your personal style - are you a Manager or a Leader?
2. What task(s) are to be accomplished.
3. Key business strategy factors.
4. What you do not know.
5. Why am I doing this?
6. Who knows what, in your organization.
7. Who can help.
8. Do you plan to go it alone or with consultants.
9. What's in it for me.
10. Can we afford it.
11. What knowledge needs to be purchased.
12. What tools to consider.
13. Is the organization and leadership committed.
14. How do you enlist support.
15. Where to obtain the knowledge and tools needed.

See also:

Where do I Start?  FIRST
Where do I Start?  SECOND

Where do I Start? SECOND of Series

There could be many 'first' items you may want to know.  Yet there are only a few you really need to know to get started.  Over time you will want to learn as many of the process tools as you can.  You should consider looking at and learning something new every week until you are comfortable with a path to follow.  Do not try to learn and apply too many things all at once.  You want to gradually move into the realm of lean leadership principles and processes.  Taking on too many things will only confuse your teams and cost money and resources without achieving the expected results.  Focus is always the best approach.

So what are a few things that are on the "What do I need to know?" list? 

1. Read all the material in this blog.
2. Keep in mind that all organizations supporting and promoting Lean Leadership, Six Sigma, TQM, etc. are in business to make money.  Some are better at making money than actually helping you to succeed.  Individuals and groups that have a vested interest in you are the ones to seek out for support. If you are not seeing results discuss this with your team and move on.  Some organizations will give you guarantees and/or base a portion of their fees on results you achieve. 
3. You need to decide if this lean leadership process is something you want to do. Once you have made the decision to pursue this process then you must get fully committed, but remember to take a slow methodical approach to implementation until everyone is comfortable with the process and you build up momentum.
4. Determine if there are real opportunities for improvement.  (There are always opportunities, but are they necessary to your current success?)  There are few, if any, organizations that will not benefit significantly from process changes.  For example almost everyone has some 'quality' issue that needs to be addressed.  This is an area where there are usually many opportunities to expand the lean leadership principles and processes into many of your organizations while addressing a fundamental issue.
5. Discuss your ideas with your team(s) and solicit input.
6. Look over the material in this blog to get an understanding of the path to follow.
7. See the process tools section for ideas on which tools may fit your current need.
8. Find someone in your organization that has project management skills and is preferably a certified PMP (Project Management Professional) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).  If you are starting small (recommended) then find someone with good people skills that you can train to be your  Project Manager.

See also:
Where do I Start?  FIRST
Where do I Start?  THIRD