At a superficial level – nothing. One is a Corps of specialised amphibious Commandos and the other is system for eliminating waste and improving quality.
But if we scratch the surface and attempt to understand these cultures in a bit more detail, you might be surprised to discover how much they share in common.
There is a myth that exists around the relationship between performance and resources. There is an assumption that if you want to improve performance, give people more money/resource. I think that it is most noticeable when politicians ‘ring-fence’ public services, typically health and education. The public perception is that if you cut the funding of those services, ‘performance’ will decline.
This assumption is flawed.
More resource, usually in the form of money does not always drive better performance.
It would be so much simpler if it did but unfortunately, performance does not work like that.
I have been lucky enough to experience the Toyota Production System and the ‘Lean’ approach to manufacturing. I was taught how to build a system for eliminating waste in operations and then became responsible for delivering that into a range of departments in a high-hazard manufacturing organisation.
I was amazed to see how well this system worked in building a culture of steady continuous improvement.
If you get it right, you change the way the people in the organisation think which is the only way you can embed any form of sustainable change.
I have been reflecting on the culture of the Royal Marines and Lean Manufacturing. I thought it might be helpful to examine four common themes that these two cultures share.
Firstly, I need to caveat this with the fact that I am not an expert in Lean Manufacturing. There are many people who are far more knowledgeable than I am and have built careers around this subject. I know enough to be competent and I understand that the end-state is a culture of continuous improvement, which is exceptionally rare in the commercial world.
1. The Importance of Standards
The Royal Marines and those who work in Lean cultures understand that the foundation of continuous improvement is standardisation.
You cannot assume that people just know how to do tasks.
You have to make it clear for people so that they know what is acceptable and what isn’t.
In the Royal Marines, we start with the very basics which include being taught how to wash. I remember at the time thinking that this was strange – ‘I am 23 and being taught how to wash myself!?’ But the point is, you can’t assume that everyone has been taught that. For some, the Training Team at Lympstone pick up where the Recruit’s (or Young Officer’s) parents finished – and you can’t assume that their standards were that high.
In the Corps, we do not assume that everyone’s parents taught them the importance of basic hygiene so we make sure that we ‘fill in the gap.’
This is important because in WW1, the US Military lost more people to disease than they did enemy action. It’s one of the reasons that the Corps places such high standards on hygiene and why all Royal Marines shower twice daily.
We cannot be effective as an organisation unless we work hard to maintain high standards of hygiene.
Lean Manufacturing starts from the same place – standardise the tasks.
Make it clear ‘how we do things around here’. This irons out differences in performance by teaching people to do things ‘the one best way’. We align everyone on ‘what good looks like’ and then when we find a better way, we update the standards and communicate it to everyone. This makes expectations very clear and creates an environment for people to be successful by showing them ‘what good looks like’.
Both a Lean culture and the RM understand that it is important to make expectations clear in order for people to be successful. It is one of the reasons we use ‘models’ to talk through our plans. It creates an environment of absolute clarity, which is so important on the battlefield.
In lean, they talk about 5S, which can be summarised as ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’.
In the Corps, we just associate cleanliness with professionalism. When you’re dealing with weapons, it’s pretty important to know where they all are – you can’t do this if your environment looks like a bombsite. We don’t tolerate mess – neither do ‘lean cultures’.
2. Focus on Quality
In a lean culture, there will be a focus on quality – getting it right the first time. Toyota builds cars that are able to withstand phenomenal punishment and are reliable because they build-in quality throughout the process.
In the Royal Marines, we focus on quality too. We have standard tests that we need to pass every single year. It is not usually enough to just pass them. These are viewed as the ‘minimum requirements’ to do the job.
Most Royal Marines can significantly exceed the basic requirements. We know that in order to do the job to the best of our ability, it is vital that our own personal standards and professionalism remain high.
We learn how to shoot and spend time improving our skills in this area. This is a form of quality because if we can’t hit the target first time, we have to use more bullets than necessary to do the job. More bullets than necessary is by definition, a form of waste, which lean cultures, seek to eliminate.
3. Engage your people
Both cultures use the capability of their people to their advantage. I was fortunate enough to have some exceptionally capable people work for me during my time in the Corps. As a young Troop Commander, I was encouraged to use their knowledge and experience to help me solve problems and deliver the best outcome possible.
In lean, the people ‘on the line’ do problem solving on the shop floor. They understand how the equipment works and the challenges at the coalface, they’re the ones who are best able to fix the problems.
In both instances, leaders understand this and make best use of their people’s intellect and creativity to deliver a solution that works. The leadership in both these cultures invest time in improving the performance of their people. This is probably the most important role of a leader. Help your people to perform better – prioritise that above all other activity.
4. Use of Resources
Resources are scarce. They always have been and they always will be. In the Royal Marines, we’re used to this. We accept that we’re never going to have all the things we want. We move beyond complaining about this and improvise with the tools/kit at our disposal.
This innovation (and our Commando humour) shines through whenever there is an opportunity to wear fancy dress. When you’ve seen ‘faux leather trousers’ made out of a roll of black masking tape – you know you’re living in an innovative culture!
These four commonalities are found in two extremely high performing cultures, the Royal Marines and Lean Manufacturing. I’ve been lucky enough to experience both and it has shaped my view of leadership and how best to build and develop a business.
High performing cultures and exceptional leadership share key themes.
If you examine highly successful business, sports and military cultures, you will find common themes across them all. It is valuable to deconstruct these to understand the commonalities that make them so successful so that you can replicate it elsewhere in your professional and personal life.
Take inspiration and share best practice from leaders and high performing cultures. There is a reason they’ve been successful. If you can understand that behaviour, you can replicate it and use it to support the achievement of your goals.
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If you’d like to have a conversation about high performing cultures or anything connected to improving your leadership capability or the leadership capability of your team, please feel free to get in touch – [email protected]