Lean in the society

In our society, we have in our country had democracy as a political system, for many years, which we are proud of, rightly so. Compared to many other systems, democracy is a sovereign system in which all people in society can influence, at least with their voice in every election. Nevertheless, we regularly find that decisions are made, reforms are implemented, and actions are carried out where many people feel that they are not being heard and that they do not get the respect they think they should have got.

Lean is continuous improvement and respect for people. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a democracy based on continuous improvement and respect for people? Not as a substitute for the current system, but as a new dimension, where we set visionary goals and experiment with small steps towards an ever-improving system in all areas of society?

In much of the Western world, where democracy is the basis for the form of government, there seems to be an ever-stronger polarization between those who believe in full market liberalism with the freewheeling of economic forces and those who believe in equality in the sense that rules should govern and everyone should act in the same way, whether they like it or not. All with seemingly equal disrespect for those who do not agree with them. This may seem to lead to a two-party system in many countries, and if we have several parties to play on, coalitions and compromises are formed to one side or the other so that we end up with two blocks.

But we cannot find the best solutions in society by choosing between Adam Smith and Karl Marx? Surely, we must be able to develop our democracy into a society where these economic doctrines become tools and aids instead of religions?

If we think Lean in society, we describe a vision for the people of the country with respect for all. The vision can entail an effective bureaucracy with a minimum of resource use, access for everyone to develop new services in the market, Lean culture in public service organizations, and at the same time respect for everyone, so that the minority is heard and gets their rights the same way as the majority. - And the users of public services are listened to more than the providers.

Many are skeptical of a lean concept, but this is based only on modern management principles. Lean has a general ideological philosophy at the bottom that can be used in politics and society, urban development and public services as well as in business. We can hear political debates that words like the customer in focus or the patient in focus are used. And we note that everyone is committed to introducing solutions that will be in the best interests of our citizens. Nevertheless, we often act the opposite of what is fundamental in Lean. At Lean, we decide a direction and set goals for a condition we are going to achieve through some main strategies. Next, we take small steps of testing alternatives before experimenting with solutions to constantly improve in the direction we want development to go, as an alternative to billions for reforms that can have negative impact on large parts of the population.