Deck 3: Cultural Enablers

Question 1

Which of the following would a cultural enabler do to infuse lean into the organization?

A)Provide a command and control leadership environment.
B)Admit when they are wrong.
C)Provide standard operating procedures and checklists.
D)Accept credit for positive actions.

Answer 1

Admit when they are wrong.

Question 2

Which of the following examples shows what humility would look like to employees?

A)A mid-level manager accepting credit for a group's process improvement.
B)A leader implementing a plan and overruling a team's recommendations.
C)A supervisor attending a Kaizen event and retaining their thoughts so as not to influence the group.
D)A supervisor providing beverages and snacks for a Kaizen event.

Answer 2

A supervisor attending a Kaizen event and retaining their thoughts so as not to influence the group.

Question 3

Using the Shingo model, which of the following would NOT be included in the supporting principles for developing mutual respect and humility?

A)Improving financial performance.
B)Empowering and involving all employees.
C)Nurturing long-term relationships.
D)Developing employees for continuous improvement

Answer 3

Improving financial performance.

Question 4

Operational excellence is achieved by developing a culture where everyone in the organization is respected. Which choice below reflects the principle of respect?

A)Respect enables the development of employees.
B)Respect creates an environment of empowerment to improve processes over which employees have ownership.
C)Respect is earned at the group level.
D)A and C are correct.
E)A and B are correct.

Question 5

Leadership must protect the working environment and the health and safety of all the employees of the organization in order to maintain respect. Which of the following choices is NOT included in assuring a safe environment?

A)Providing emotional safety for employees.
B)Providing financial safety for employees.
C)Providing employment for the community.
D)Providing environmental compliance services.

Question 6

Organizational management should focus their attention to major initiatives and the strategic direction of the organization, while employees focus on the execution of the vision. Which principle supports this thought process?

A)Involving and empowering all employees.
B)Leading the organization with humility.
C)Expanding the knowledge base and developing employees.
D)Nurturing long-term relationships.

Question 7

Cultural enablers respect the individual by providing developing opportunities to drive continuous improvement. Which of the following would a cultural enabler do to promote employee development?

A)Provide additional vacation or leave time.
B)Provide additional project resources.
C)Provide training for rapid process deployment.
D)Provide an in-house exercise suite.

Question 8

Leading with humility is a requirement which must occur long before learning and improvement can occur. Employees who have a leader that listens will respond by what?

A)Understanding continuous improvement.
B)Freely giving their creative abilities.
C)Adequately managing conflict.
D)Requiring additional resources.

Question 9

Respect in the organization facilitates long term relationships. What is the main reason for facilitating these relationships?

A)It is the employees that are the essential part of every process or system.
B)Employees who are happy have less ancillary overhead costs.
C)Respected employees are safer and have fewer accidents.
D)Employees who feel respected are documented to waste less resources.

Question 10

William Edwards Deming displayed characteristics of humility by keeping notes in his pocket as he toured and listened to workers. What actions did this display to the employees?

A)That each employee had value.
B)That the organization had interest in their work.
C)That leadership was interested in improvement.
D)That Deming was learning from them rather than them learning from him.

Question 11

Motivating, empowering, and involving employees requires a "people centric" culture that engages employees. Which choice below would be associated with or would identify a "people centric culture"?

A)Providing routine breaks.
B)Providing a flexible work schedule.
C)Training and socializing a soon as employees are hired.
D)Providing readily available snacks.

Question 12

The environmental safety aspect, which includes raw materials, packaging, and recycling, would be classified in what environmental category?

A)Reduction of the carbon footprint.
B)Workplace green initiatives.
C)Reduce, reuse, and recycle initiatives.
D)Organization "world care" initiatives.

Question 13

Which of the following choices would NOT be considered an enabler for creating a culture of safety?

A)The emphasis of safety by the organization.
B)Employee trust and engagement.
C)An environment where employees learn from failure.
D)A culture which includes blame and retribution.

Question 14

Which factor would improve baseline safety measures?

A)The standardization of tasks.
B)Providing visual indicators for factory processes.
C)Lubrication of a printing press.
D)The addition of a conveyer belt which improves efficiency.

Question 15

An organization is having difficulty removing barriers to creating a culture of safety. Which of the following is NOT a barrier to safety that they may be encountering?

A)A lack of employee training.
B)A lack of support from leadership.
C)A culture of retribution.
D)Enhanced employee engagement.

Question 16

Which of these is an incorrect statement regarding the characteristics of standardization?

A)Standardization is dynamic and requires continuous input.
B)Standardization should occur across the organization.
C)Standardization is static and requires no monitoring.
D)Standardization employs the use of Plan-Do-Check-Act.

Question 17

According to Taiichi Ohno, which of the following is the purpose of a standard?

A)To provide a mitigating factor in human error.
B)To provide an organizational rule for a process.
C)To provide timeline for the continuous learning process.
D)To provide a baseline for future improvements.

Question 18

Knowing standards are the baseline against which improvements are measured, which of the following would be described as a standard?

A)The cultural enabler which provides constancy.
B)The framework for the best, most efficient, and safest way to perform a job.
C)Operationally, the process which is known and requires no training.
D)A process which incurs variability.

Question 19

Leaders as cultural enablers understand that failures are imminent when making improvements. According to Dalal, there are three types of failures. These include all of the following EXCEPT:

A)System level failures.
B)Human level failures.
C)Equipment level failures.
D)Process level failures.

Question 20

Great leaders create a culture for learning and believe which of the following principles?

A)30 percent of failures are avoidable with70 percent of planning.
B)70 percent of failures are avoidable with30 percent of planning.
C)80 percent of failures are avoidable with20 percent of planning.
D)20 percent of failures are avoidable with 80 percent of planning.

Question 21

Which of the following is the prime responsibility of a leader in a lean organization?

A)To develop problem solvers and decision makers.
B)To determine the vision.
C)To understand "why" for all problems.
D)To build a culture which prevents failure.

Question 22

In order to optimize the benefits of lean, "employee empowerment" would include which of the following?

A)Leaders engaging the workforce.
B)Responsibilities that are clearly defined.
C)An idea suggestion program being implemented.
D)B and C.
E)A, B, and C.

Question 23

Which of the following lean tools are designed for automatic collaboration?

A)An Ishikawa diagram of the production of roofing shingles.
B)Development of a checklist for maintenance of machine bearings.
C)A process map of a commercial kitchen.
D)Holding a Kaizen event for corrugated press operators.

Question 24

Key traits of a humble environment include all of the following EXCEPT:

A)Relationships which are long-term and based on mutual loyalty.
B)Discrimination throughout the organization.
C)The personal "people" aspect of the value stream.
D)A stable learning environment.

Question 25

Which example would show a leader who leads with humility and leads by demonstrating their ability to do what they say?

A)The leader is boastful and accepts public adulation.
B)The leader looks out the window instead of the mirror to determine success.
C)The leader sets up success for the organization today, letting successors chose their own course.
D)The leader remains loud in motivation.

Question 26

As managers understand that effective teams outperform individuals, the value of cross training should not be overlooked. Which of the following is a benefit of cross training?

A)Employees feel as though they shoulder the burden of tasks.
B)Employees are able to pass off assignments.
C)Organizations are able to build succession plans by allowing new team members to prepare for new responsibilities.
D)The negative effects of absence are amplified.

Question 27

Which of the following is the most important concept for a cultural enabler to recognize in order to utilize enabler techniques and practices in the best manner?

A)Improvement is a normal part of daily work.
B)Waste is inevitable and does not affect all work.
C)Customers on the outside of the organization are most important.
D)Employees should remain within their comfort zone.

Question 28

Which of the following tools would drive behaviors aligned with humility and respect as cultural enablers?

A)Revolving daily management employees.
B)Suggestions and goal sharing for teams.
C)A focus on individual development.
D)B and C.

Question 29

Cultural enablers involve everyone. Which principle-based behavior below would indicate that a manager were displaying characteristics which explain the "what" and "why" of respect in relationships?

A)The leader ensures that products do not have unintended negative consequences on the environment.
B)The leader ensures routine hiring of new employees.
C)The leader ensures that competencies are reviewed with other managers.
D)The leader ensures that safety is incorporated into policy.

Question 30

Teamwork is important because everyone who touches a process should have a say in changes made to the process. Which of the following choices is NOT a type of project team?

A)The self-directed work team, which shares management responsibilities.
B)The process management team, which shares the responsibility of monitoring and controlling a process.
C)The natural work team, which involves employees in a common area who are responsible for completing a piece of work.
D)The non-natural team, which is a hybrid team of both self-directed and process management teams.

Question 31

Which of the following is a form of horizontal deployment in which the process that leads to an improvement is just as important as the improvement itself?

A)Value stream mapping, which shows processing steps with information flow as well as process data.
B)Yokoten, which promotes the sharing of information in a systematic manner.
C)Poka-yoke, which prevents incorrect parts from being made or assembled.
D)Process capability, which measures the inherent process variability.

Question 32

Which form of information sharing promotes information at the lowest level in the organization?

A)Horizontal information sharing.
B)Top down information sharing.
C)Bottom up information sharing.
D)Lateral information sharing.

Question 33

When performing a skills assessment of an employee's knowledge and use of lean tools, which would be the most useful for a manager to perform?

A)Interview employees about their knowledge of process improvement.
B)Provide new tools for team members to try.
C)Review prior projects and corresponding metrics.
D)Develop a lean review team.

Question 34

A skills assessment should focus on four specific areas of lean. Which of the following is NOT one of those areas?

A)Design for Six Sigma, which combines the tools used to improve existing products or services.
B)Soft skills for performance improvement.
C)Project management skillset.
D)Six Sigma methodology knowledge.

Question 35

Managers can review overall assessment scores or the scores an employee receives in specific categories. An employee who scores somewhere in the range of 4 to 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being high, would be categorized as what experience level?

A)The practitioner level of lean practice.
B)The basic level of lean practice.
C)The expert level of lean practice.
D)The novice level of lean practice.

Question 36

Which of the following demonstrates what instructional goals using enabler practices should do?

A)Instructional goals should contain subject matter content.
B)Instructional goals should contain multiple learning outcomes.
C)Instructional goals should require detailed training.
D)Instructional goals should represent an intended learning outcome.

Question 37

Which of the following can be a negative result of poor on-the-job training?

A)Training skills that are purely the perception of the student.
B)Employees train on the actual equipment which will be used regularly on the job.
C)On-the-job training requires additional time for a trainer to provide hands-on experience.
D)Employees develop poor work habits.

Question 38

What is the best benefit of on-the-job training for an organization?

A)On-the-job training is cost effective, as the instructors are in-house.
B)It requires the employees to know job expectations from the start.
C)It may require additional equipment.
D)It requires additional transportation in some facilities.

Question 39

Some organizations do not embrace suggestion systems because of common objections. Which of the following is NOT included in the objections?

A)Suggestion ideas require resources to implement.
B)An employee's suggestions should be compensated.
C)Suggestions may turn into complaints.
D)Employers should not have to pay for ideas that should be part of an employee's job.

Question 40

Which of the following choices has the most significant impact on the organization using an employee suggestion program?

A)An employee identifies a problem.
B)The employee develops a corrective action or improvement.
C)The employee implements the idea after receiving approval.
D)The idea is posted on a display board for employee recognition and learning by other employees.

Question 41

What cultural enabling technique would be in use if an organization asked questions such as "Do we have a clear vision of our ideal state for a process"?

A)Performing a skills assessment.
B)Motivation and empowerment of employees.
C)Developing a sense of urgency.
D)Developing leadership positions.

Question 42

A mentor is assisting a project team. In doing so, which factor is most important to members of the team?

A)Ideas are not dismissed because of the agreed upon direction of the team.
B)All members are compensated equally.
C)All members feel as though they have something to contribute.
D)The mentor develops a solution.

Question 43

A lean leader engages in their development of the lean mindset through commitment to continuous improvement. The premier focus of lean is which of the following?

A)The development of a clear vision for the organization to its employees.
B)A customer focus for both internal and external customers.
C)Development of clear responsibilities and expectations.
D)Utilization of multiple lean tools.

Question 44

Lean environmental systems have two priorities within the organization: those to employees and those to the community. Which of the following factors or processes would NOT impact environmental systems?

A)Organization productivity standards.
B)Deployment of management system standards.
C)The number of employees in the organization.
D)Employee worker protection regulations.

Question 45

Which of the following would result in reduced regulatory oversight as a result of using lean principles?

A)Participation in the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP)with OSHA.
B)Participation in EPA Energy training programs.
C)Donation to the Energy Star Program.
D)Donation to the World Aid Initiative.

Question 46

In order to best motivate, empower, and involve a lean team, which of the following would a supervisor do?

A)Include additional reporting requirements for quality control.
B)Provide an additional 15 minute break per shift.
C)Eliminate approvals for reports.
D)Provide redundant control mechanisms.

Question 47

Modeling lean principles, values, and philosophies within the organization includes developing a lean mindset. Which choice below is an example of a lean leadership mindset?

A)The organization provides a budget for lean activities.
B)Leaders develop one to three lean project teams.
C)Leaders include a lean review in strategic planning.
D)Lean is considered the solution for each daily operational decision of management.

Question 48

Implementing lean philosophies require management commitment, training, and incorporation of lean tools. What factor will most likely increase the value of lean with employees?

A)Celebrating team success for projects.
B)Allowing teams to choose team members.
C)Introducing additional lean tools.
D)Providing monetary incentives.

Question 49

Planning and deployment of lean requires management's prioritization of projects, approval of the projects, and celebration of the success once complete. Which selection below would indicate the focus for management when prioritizing, approving, and celebrating projects?

A)Customer needs, business needs, and return on investment.
B)Customer requirements and environmental impact.
C)Elimination of waste and business impact.
D)Cost, customer care, and continuity of business operations (C3).

Question 50

A team has worked on improving a metric for several months and not been successful. What may a leader suggest to provide the team with more traction towards their goal?

A)Replace the existing lean tools with a new set.
B)Provide more frequent celebration of incremental improvements.
C)Redevelop the project timelines to provide additional time.
D)Alter the team composition.