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Great Lean Leaders Power Points

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Great Lean Leaders Power Points are selected to give you a quick highlight of useful paradigms and practices–designed to accelerate your Great Lean Leadership Journey.

What Lean Leaders Can Learn from the  Insatiable Cookie Monster

The well-known Muppet, the Cookie Monster, models something important for Great Lean Leaders.  This noteworthy behavior is his insatiable appetite for cookies.  The Cookie Monster is constantly focused on finding and eating cookies, based on the popular phrase, “C-o-o-o-o-k-i-e-s!”  

For example, every conversation the Cookie Monster has is eventually tied to the topic of cookies.  Cookies are thought of and talked about incessantly.  There is no doubt about this focus of the Cookie Monster.  There is minimal variation on his topic of cookies.  While there is something endearing, but slightly askew, in the Cookie Monster’s approach and actions, the clarity of the Cookie Monster’s intention and rationale is a great template for Great Lean Leaders.  Let’s look at the parallels that can be made from the focus and clarity of the Cookie Monster as an exemplar for Great Lean Leaders.

The Lean mindset calls for a similar focus modeled by the Cookie Monster.  That is, the Great Lean Leader should be obsessed with continuous improvement, zero defect inputs and outputs, and the creation of value through the elimination of waste.  The representation of the continuous improvement cycle as a never-ending  activity requires focus, a certain discipline of leadership practice.

In Lean organizations, the call for “C-o-o-o-o-k-i-e-s!” can be replaced with “Continuous Improvement!” And while the Cookie Monster often engages in a monologue, Great Lean Leaders need heightened self-awareness and higher levels of emotional intelligence. When the call for “Continuous Improvement!” goes out for the Great Lean Leader, it is a conversation.  Respect for People is the bigger, driving concept in Continuous Improvement (Emiliani, 2008).¹   

This means that dialogue, inquiry AND advocacy about and around Continuous Improvement should be as ambitious as it is for the Cookie Monster.  A Great Lean Leader will not waiver from this cycle of Continuous Improvement, just like the Cookie Monster does not move from his quest for cookies.  However, the enrichment for the Great Lean Leader is in tending to Respect for People by grasping and leading within the context, toward the culture and about the climate.  What we see in the Cookie Monster shows the intensity and succinctness that the Great Lean Leader should possess for Continuous Improvement conducted based on Respect for People.

For example, a better understanding of context, culture and climate founded on Respect for People can occur on a daily and strategic basis.  Through Lean tools, such as daily huddles, waste walks and kaizen events, Great Lean Leaders enact the call for Continuous Improvement based on Respect for People on a regular basis.  To further assist Great Lean Leaders at the strategic level, the framework of True North (comprehensive vision, mission, values and goals) and the method of Hoshin Kanri (policy management from a strategic planning framework to daily work) create a long-term systemic method for focus and clarity.  If one considers the longevity of the Cookie Monster, there is evidence of True North and Hoshin Kanri in the impressive work life of this Muppet. 

So, we can appreciate what the Cookie Monster brings to the table, so to speak, as he goes on his relentless pursuit of cookies.   In contrast, Great Lean Leaders are on the relentless pursuit of perfection.  The Cookie Monster is immersed  in a self-centered approach of feeding himself.  Great Lean Leaders are driven by Respect for People as a way to develop the three C’s of context, culture, climate. The Cookie Monster never fails to ask for cookies on a daily basis or to plan how to get more cookies in the future.  Great Lean Leaders think, act and talk True North, using both daily work and Hoshin Kanri as the framework.  

As you take your next snack break (cookies?), take a moment of reflection on what can be learned about focus and clarity from this adored Muppet. The insatiable Cooke Monster can help us in our quest to be Great Lean Leaders on both a daily and strategic basis.  “Continuous Improvement!”

Enjoy the learning!

Shannon Flumerfelt, Ph.D., Lean Black Belt

Founder, Charactership Lean Consulting (CLC)

Author of Great Lean Leaders:  Making the Business Case, Book Series

¹ Emiliani, B. (2008).  Practical lean leadership:  A strategic guide for executives.  Wethersfeld, CT:  The Center for Lean Business Management.