Ask the CFO: The Missing Ingredient in Lean: Leadership Behavior, Not More Tools with guests Mike & Will Craig

Every time Lean comes up in a conversation with a business owner or CFO, I hear some version of the same question:

“We rolled out Lean… why didn’t it last?”

After our latest Ask the CFO session with Mike Craig and William Craig from GKW Business Solutions, I think the answer is clearer than ever. Lean doesn’t fail because people don’t understand the tools. It fails because leadership doesn’t change the behaviors that make those tools meaningful.

Mike spent years in manufacturing finance before stepping into hands-on leadership under the Toyota Production System. William brings strong Six Sigma expertise. Together, they’ve seen Lean work—and they’ve seen it fall apart. And their message was simple:

Lean gets implemented through tools.
Lean gets sustained through leadership.

Many Companies Start Lean Strong—but Don’t Stay There

Most organizations are perfectly capable of installing Lean tools. 5S goes in. Kaizen events get scheduled. Visual boards get mounted. Training sessions are held. And in the early stages, the improvements are visible and real.

Then reality shows up.

The systems that looked good in month one start slipping by month four. People drift back toward familiar routines. Processes revert. KPIs flatten out or decline. And leaders find themselves wondering, “Why can’t we hold onto these gains?”

The answer usually isn’t on the shop floor.
It’s in how leadership is showing up—or not showing up—for the work.

Culture Decides Whether Lean Sticks

The biggest theme from Mike and William was this: tools don’t sustain Lean; people do.

Lean only lasts when employees:

• Feel heard

• Feel respected

• Understand why things are changing

• Trust that leadership wants their input

• Feel safe raising concerns

• Are invited into the improvement process

• Believe they can influence how work gets done

When leaders focus only on tools and not on people, Lean becomes just another program. When leaders focus on culture, Lean becomes a way of working.

KPIs Show the Results. KBIs Explain the Results.

Here’s a distinction that really matters: KPIs measure outcomes. KBIs—Key Behavior Indicators—measure whether the behaviors required for Lean are actually happening.

KPIs show what happened yesterday.
KBIs show why it happened—and whether it will happen again tomorrow.

Examples of KBIs include:

• Are leaders regularly walking the floor?

• Are employees participating in daily problem-solving?

• Are team members bringing up issues early?

• Are conversations on the floor open, not guarded?

• Are leaders listening before jumping to conclusions?

When KBIs are strong, KPIs follow.
When KBIs are weak, KPIs won’t hold.

Gemba: Leadership at the Point of Value

Gemba simply means “go where the work happens.” It’s not a plant tour. It’s not a quick walk-through with a clipboard. It’s leadership showing up where value is created and getting genuinely curious about how work is done.

True Gemba looks like:

• Watching without interrupting

• Asking operators what slows them down

• Understanding why a process happens the way it does

• Noticing unnecessary movement, delays, or bottlenecks

• Building trust through presence

Gemba doesn’t require a script—it requires consistency. And consistency from leadership is what shapes culture.

The Role of Psychological Safety

Mike and William underscored the importance of employees feeling safe—safe to raise a concern, safe to identify a flaw, safe to question a process, and safe to offer an idea.

Without psychological safety:

• Problems get hidden

• Improvements stall

• Teams shut down

• Leaders make decisions with incomplete information

• Lean becomes compliance, not engagement

One manufacturer they worked with invested in training 172 frontline employees as Yellow Belts. That single decision shifted the culture dramatically. Problem-solving moved to the floor, engagement increased, and turnover nearly disappeared.

Not because of a tool—but because employees felt trusted.

Lean Fails When Leaders Delegate It

Another major insight: Lean cannot be handed off like a task or a project.

When the CEO or owner says, “Lean matters, and operations will take it from here,” that’s usually the beginning of the end. Teams quickly learn that Lean is something to comply with—not something leadership believes in.

Lean requires visible leadership.
Leaders walking the floor.
Leaders asking why.
Leaders listening.
Leaders modeling respect, curiosity, and humility.

Culture reflects whatever leaders demonstrate—good or bad.

Lean Is Not a Project. It’s a Way of Working.

Many organizations approach Lean as a rollout—something with a start date and an end date. But Lean isn’t a project. It’s a mindset that needs to show up in how people work every day.

Lean thrives when organizations:

• Reflect on what worked and what didn’t

• Make small, continuous improvements

• Encourage experimentation

• Learn from mistakes

• Celebrate progress

• Reinforce behaviors consistently

And when leadership commits to those behaviors, Lean drives results far beyond the shop floor—improved EBITDA, stronger cash flow, higher throughput, fewer errors, and better enterprise value.

Those gains show up in the financials because they show up in people.

After hearing Mike and William walk through all of this, my biggest takeaway was this:

Lean doesn’t rise or fall on tools.
It rises or falls on leadership behavior.

Teams can only sustain what leadership reinforces.

The good news is: none of this requires perfection. It requires presence. Show up. Be curious. Ask why. Listen. Respect people. And do it consistently.

When leaders make those behaviors part of how they work, Lean doesn’t feel like a program anymore—it becomes part of the culture.

And that’s when it finally sticks.

Want to chat more with Mike and Will? You can find more information HERE

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