If there was ever a demand for innovative solutions and approaches to restructuring businesses, it is now.
Bella Englebach is a Lean Thinker who spent 18 years with Johnson & Johnson in R&D, business improvement, and IT implementation.
She honed her skills in lean thinking, people-centered improvement, and training teams to gain productivity. She recognized the need for companies to train their workforce how to shift their well-rooted ideas from resistance distrust and obstruction to lean, creative, and experiment- inspired.
She teaches teams to create possibilities that might work, then remove the barriers (including their old thinking) to create a new plan.
She uses short-term trials and experiments to see what works. It allows businesses to remain flexible identifying improvements along the way.
She subscribes to Toyota’s philosophy, passed on to them by W. Edwards Deming, which includes continuous improvement and respect for the dignity of every human’s ability to grow and develop.
“Too many companies separate their employees into thinkers or doers. The thinkers receive better pay, but often contribute less, and they control the fate of the doers. This paradigm creates problems from the get-go.
She recalls one of her first positions was working in a lab. Her boss, an M.D., asked her a question, and she replied: “Give me a minute to think.”
“You aren’t being paid to think,” was the response.
An opposite response came from her sister, who made a huge mistake when she was six months into her job at a large financial company. It was so big; she wondered if they would fire her. Instead, the response was: “You made a mistake. Don’t make it again.” – end of the story.
When everyone expects to think and do, work becomes more productive and enjoyable.
Bella chooses clients who want to leverage their thinking at a higher level but may need some help getting there.
They may know they are missing something, but can’t quite put their finger on it. Leaders may know certain things must change, but they can’t always identify specifically what it is or what should come first.
Bella works to explore what it means to work differently.
It’s quite a gift – especially when everything about work is changing and it seems hard to find a guide.
You can reach Bella at bella.englebach@gmail.com