I know more wrote about what if politicians would go to root cause analysys rather than blathering on about symptoms, than I saw an item about the Governor of Washington using Lean principles in the state’s administration. The sorry thing, as pointed out by Bill Waddell at Evolving Excellance, was when someone thought it would be a good idea to get the state legislator to say they thought it was a good idea, too.
You have to read Bill’s analysis of the legislative circus, er, hearing. I can’t do it justice. But the short version is they are a bunch of idiots. But when someone said it wouldn’t cost money, they said, OK.
You may get the same reaction from your “pointy-haired bosses” when you propose Lean thinking. Persevere. They may eventually get a clue that Lean means eliminating waste–even if the waste is “pointy-haired bosses.”
Oh, if you don’t get the reference, read “Dilbert.”
It would be nice if government departments were run using Lean Manufacturing Principles but unfortunately they do all seem to have pointy haired bosses and with no competition there is zero reason for them to improve themselves.
And the further problem is that even in "for profit" companies, the same mentality exists. We (in general) have organized ourselves into an ideology of control instead of an ideology of unleashing passion for customers.
Or, as a member of Parliament in Hungary (with a Ph.D. in economics) told me last summer, in an economy of scarcity (as Hungary was during Communism), bureaucrats and even customer service people, thought they were doing you a favor by providing their service. It's tough to change people into the idea that people are doing you a favor by buying your service.