Should we use just one improvement method for everything?

Sean Driscoll facetiously asks :

Should we use just one improvement method for everything?

I can’t really tip-toe around the fact that Lean isn’t an “improvement method” or a framework.

Maybe striving so hard to get people to buy Lean by turning it into a simple framework that can be preached dilutes the whole thing, creates resistance, and makes it deliver very little or nothing that sticks.

Look around. The number of Lean consultants peddling simple-framework dilutions of Lean and the number of companies that have Lean initiatives and haven’t achieved much with them dwarfs the number of companies that have actually achieved breakthrough results by adopting, e.g., Deming’s ideas, to achieve what could rightly be called a “transformation”.

Lean is not a method or a bunch of them neatly packaged into a slide deck. Deceptively turning it into a method is what has led to this sorry state of affairs, where “Lean consultants” peddle methods, make some money, yet their clients achieve very little compared to what could be achieved by avoiding all the hype that makes Lean look as easy as applying a bunch of methods.

Let us not promote Deft …