**5.3 Culture and competency**

Lean is ultimately a culture change promoted by people, process and technology. Out of which people forms the most critical link that determines the make or break of this initiative. It is the insecurity feeling that originates from fear of job loss, redundancy, anxiety over inability to perform in changed circumstances breeds collective objection that ends in obstruction of the change. But the whole series of

fear psychosis is rooted in concerns around the incompetency factor. Therefore, creating the right milieu is essential as part of planning an enterprise wide Lean initiative. A thorough competency analysis that ends in a competency development plan is a must that takes care of the career aspirations and employability of the affected population, thus transforming them as Lean promoters. The learning and development imparted to the pioneer group may be systematically percolated to lower layers to enable organization wide understanding that takes away shocks and surprises.
