The future of lean education

LEAN INSTITUTE BRASIL: Could you tell us about your history at Anima and your current position?

ANA CAROLINA: Of course. I joined Una, the first institution of the Anima Group, in 2004 as market relations coordinator. Since then I have served as product manager, marketing manager, and director of planning and expansion. After the project developed with lean thinking in our service channels, I became director of student relations for the entire group, a new area created out of the need to bring all the departments that provide services and assistance to students under one umbrella, with a focus on the student.

LIB: Anima is one of the pioneering institutions in implementing lean thinking in education in Brazil. How did this whole transformation begin?

AC: At one of the CSC (shared services center) meetings in Brazil, lean was introduced to one of our directors. He saw this philosophy as a great opportunity for the purchasing area, but the project was left for a second round, since purchasing is a procedural, internal department and was not our top priority. We saw another department as more important for the business at that moment: student services. Lean then took on a fundamental role in that department.

In October 2015 we started a small project aimed at eliminating errors in some student-related processes. In January 2016, we began to learn more deeply about lean thinking, and we brought what we had already achieved in the small project into Anima's first lean cycle, also expanding its scope to other critical processes in that area.

The idea was for me to be just a listener, a bridge between the project that started in 2015 and STAR, the name given to this first lean cycle. But I was so excited by the first results and by the philosophy and its transformative potential that I am still in the project today.

LIB: Which points do you believe were crucial to Anima's first results at this beginning of the lean journey?

AC: The concepts that the lean philosophy brings triggered a profound change in the way things are done here. As soon as the results began to show, people became more and more excited about the transformation. Today, everyone's commitment in the institution is visible.

The interesting thing is that the project did not happen from the top down; it did not start only with senior management. There was a group of enthusiastic people who started the work and, as the results appeared, they won over more and more people, until they reached a good part of the institution. This changed our culture radically. We always read that lean thinking is not just a toolbox, but a new way of thinking and acting, and this new way of thinking and acting has been changing the organization's culture. We really are not the same institution we were before the implementation.

The way of leading was greatly affected by the projects. The lean leader is active; he or she takes part in the organization's activities, goes to the gemba and develops and empowers people. As a result, people began to realize that they are capable of improving, of transforming their reality. In addition, the lean leader goes and sees what is happening and collects data. This allows the leader to understand how the person does their work and what their difficulties are.

Another important point that lean brought us was the ability to listen to the student. We do this to understand the process they go through until they get the service they want. For all of this to happen, it is also necessary that we don't rush into doing things without thinking, without planning. There is no point in firefighting or bringing palliative solutions; you need to understand the problem and its causes in depth to bring effective solutions. People take an active part in the planning process, and this enables them to have a view of the process as a whole and of the impact of their work on the final result, and as a consequence they feel more valued. We emphasize the importance of stopping and thinking before rushing into doing things.

One last item I need to highlight here is what we have learned from daily management. We have managed to get the team to interact and find previously unimagined solutions to improve results.

LIB: You talked about the changes in the way of leading. As a director, what is your perception of the role of leadership over the course of the transformation?

AC: It is fundamental. There is no doubt about that. At the beginning, I felt that people kept a little distant from me. I would speak, and many would just look at me, wondering what I would do next. It was not an easy road to travel. We had some people who bought into the idea right from the start, but many people were doubtful at first and were inclined to reject the project. However, the fact that leadership always believed and was always there doing it with them made a big difference.

We lead by example, and we believe that the stance we adopted in the project was responsible for winning over the people who were initially skeptical. We learned that it is people who make the transformation happen; without active, participative leadership, no matter how well the tools are applied, the project is doomed to fail.

LIB: You started your projects in the administrative areas that support students. What are your next targets for expanding the improvements?

AC: We have our sights on the commercial area. The idea is to deepen what we have already started and to move on to that area. We cannot, however, forget to deepen and keep expanding the scope in the student relations area. We have to keep in mind that the project must be expanded to other areas without interfering with the gains we have already achieved.

Another area we are studying, and one that is a big challenge for us, is the academic area, more precisely the assessment process. These projects have not yet started, but we are already thinking seriously about it and beginning the planning phase.

LIB: Education, especially in Brazil, needs immediate changes to form more critical and aware citizens. How do you think lean can help in this transformation?

AC: First of all, I believe we need to make lean part of the higher education curriculum. The lean philosophy has enormous power to change the outdated methods we still have in our schools and universities, bringing practice into the classroom. There is great potential here, and we need to know how to reach it. To adopt lean thinking, we need to go through the process, getting our hands dirty; only then do we learn and change the way we think. With the lean philosophy, I believe it is possible to educate students with a different mindset. I believe this is an important step toward forming more engaged, aware, and critical citizens.

LIB: In Brazil, you have been one of the pioneers in this lean transformation as an educational institution. What makes you excited about the future of lean at Anima and in Brazil?

AC: At Anima, we see many things that indicate we are on the right track. I believe the main one is the engagement employees now show in the projects. When we take a walk through the gemba, we see some A3s being done spontaneously in the areas. We are not forcing them to use lean thinking in management. They are doing it because they believe in its potential.

We can also see other areas, where we have not yet started work, taking the initiative and adopting the philosophy. As I said before, Anima's culture has changed, and this is evident when we go to the gemba.

I believe our example can inspire more educational institutions to adopt this philosophy. We see this as something we are proud of. We still don't know much about applying lean in education - at least here in Brazil. We are still taking small steps and are at an early stage of a broader transformation, but we feel we may be at the beginning of something revolutionary, and we are very excited to be one of the institutions inspiring this revolution.