Yoga & Lean — Is there a common link?
Two things I am very passionate about are Yoga and Lean (aka ‘Toyota Production System’, the famed approach to manufacturing cars, pioneered by Toyota). On the surface, Lean is primarily about work, business and Yoga is about self, health & wellbeing. As I will explain further, while their origins and methods seem totally unrelated, there are uncanny similarities between the two. As someone familiar with both Yoga and Lean, these similarities have intrigued me for years and I finally got myself to sit down and try to analyze and articulate these. I had fun doing this and although I am not sure how many people are familiar with and interested in both Yoga and Lean like me, I hope you enjoy reading this and become a bit more interested.
Most people know about Yoga but in short, it’s a 5000+ year old set of teachings and practices that originated in India, geared towards helping you keep your mind, breath, body and intellect healthy. Yoga became popular outside India as a set of physical exercises. Although physical fitness is an important part of Yoga, it is just a small part of all that Yoga has to offer. In its truest form, Yoga is a holistic approach to leading your life in a virtuous and balanced manner, achieving equanimity of mind despite external disruptions and ultimately getting to a state of eternal happiness.
Lean, originally known as Toyota Production System (TPS), was introduced by Toyota in the mid-20th century as a pioneering approach to consistently produce cars of the highest quality in the most efficient manner and at the lowest cost. But TPS is more than just a way to make good cars. It is a holistic approach, a mindset and a set of techniques to run an operation that is highly efficient, values its people and is always improving. TPS became popular as Lean Manufacturing, Lean Thinking or just Lean, not just in manufacturing but business at large. Many companies have tried adopting Lean practices over the years and while some have been successful, many have failed and given up. Lean can also be considered to be the origin of many modern practices like Lean Startup, Agile, SCRUM & CI/CD.
Growing up in India, I had heard about Yoga all my life but started learning and practicing it much later, primarily to help me manage stress. It has now been over 10 years since I first started learning Yoga and have been a practitioner, ongoing student and an ardent believer in its teachings and value ever since. I eventually went on to become a certified Yoga instructor and have been teaching Yoga for the last 8 years. Yoga has been a life changer for me and a key reason I found myself fitter in my forties than I was in my thirties. Additionally, my recent focus on breathing and Meditation has also helped me become more calm, patient and self-aware.
In the case of Lean, I had never heard about it until I started working for Honeywell. Back in 2003, I was nominated to get trained, certified and work for a couple of years as a Six Sigma Blackbelt, as part of a talent development program at Honeywell. I had heard about Six Sigma but knew nothing about Lean. My boss at the time said that I could become a Lean Black Belt instead of Six Sigma. I read up a bit on Lean and immediately realized that Lean appealed to me much more than Six Sigma and decided to go down the Lean Black Belt path. With Lean as with Yoga, it was like love at first sight! The simplicity, the systematic nature, the long and rich legacy yet eternal applicability, amongst many other virtues of both Yoga and Lean seemed to be tailormade for my personality and values. Although I didn’t pursue Lean as a career after a few years (I couldn’t keep up with the constant travel that it needed back then), the learnings and more importantly the way of thinking has stayed with me forever and I seem to apply it almost unconsciously in many things I do both at work and in my personal life. Not surprisingly, books on Yoga and Lean dominate my bookshelf!
So here are the uncanny similarities I have noticed between these two seemingly unrelated disciplines.
· Although broad and profound, both are simple techniques at the core. For example, Yoga, despite what some Yoga studios might try to tell you, doesn’t require any fancy gear. All you need is an approximately 6 X 3 space, any loose/ stretchable clothing and a Yoga mat or cushion. No shoes, no fancy Yoga pants, no energy drink, no TV or music. Same with Lean. It doesn’t require sophisticated computer systems or help from people with big degrees or titles to learn and implement. Both of them do need a good teacher initially to set you on the right path.
· While simple to adopt, neither can be learned in a hurry. To truly understand, practice and benefit from, both Yoga and Lean need a complete belief and a full commitment to constantly learning, practicing and improving. There is no such thing as a crash course or instant results in Yoga or Lean.
· Both are as much mindsets as they are tools & techniques. That is why they say that Yoga isn’t just what you do on the mat but also what you do off the mat. And in the case of Lean, Toyota never tried to hide TPS from its competitors because they knew that while the visible techniques (Kanban, Andon cords, etc) seemed easy to copy, changing your mindset and having the patience and discipline to constantly experiment, learn and improve was really hard. That is why most non-Japanese auto companies could never catch up with Toyota.
· Both are comprehensive in nature. The classical Ashtanga (8 limbs) Yoga approach encompasses how to conduct yourself, how to treat others, how to keep your body healthy, control your breath, keep your mind calm, focus, and achieve happiness. Lean isn’t just about manufacturing either, but encompasses many things needed to run an operation that is successful in the long run including how you conduct your entire working day whether you are an operator or a manager (standardized work), how you align goals from top to bottom (Hoshin Kanri), how you treat and engage your people and provide them meaningful work that gets the best out of them. One thing that struck me when I visited a Toyota plant many years back was how proud they were that they had not laid off a single person at that plant in their entire history to date!
· I read an article some time back that talked about how Lean needs a ‘farmer’ versus a ‘hero’ mentality where a premium is placed on continuous improvement (Kaizen) in small incremental steps instead of big, flashy but short-term changes; why and how to empower those closest and most knowledgeable about the specific job (assembly line workers, individual contributors) to think on their own, make important decisions and drive improvements instead of being told what to do by those sitting in ivory towers (managers, consultants); etc. Same applies to Yoga. Although there are many Yoga gurus with flashy robes and long beards these days, the ones that really taught the world about Yoga (Sage Patanjali, Swami Vivekanand, Paramhansa Yoganand, Iyengar,..) and so many others in the past and even today are simple, humble human beings who are not chasing popularity or money but have dedicated their lives to it and genuinely want to improve themselves and also help others.
I am just a beginner, have much more to learn about both Yoga and Lean and am sure that there are other similarities between the two that I haven’t noticed yet. What I also don’t know is why these similarities even exist between a 5000+ year old teaching from India and 70+ year old teaching from Japan? I have no evidence for this but maybe the Zen Buddhist philosophy that came to Japan was significantly influenced by Yoga or perhaps even originated from Yoga (?) and provided the right mindset for those that pioneered TPS / Lean. You can be sure that I will write about it if I find the reason / evidence. Until then, I again hope that you enjoyed reading this and would love to hear your thoughts.
Additional reference material for anyone interested:
o My other Yoga and wellness related blogs.
o My other Lean related blogs (a bit dated).
o My blog about another unlikely link — between Cars and Sushi.
o My blog about my highly un-Lean experience with a Tesla Model X.
