Reader Question on Poor Performers

Here is another reader question I received this week:

I was wondering how
you deal with removing people from the company who resist change
while maintaining the culture where people are not afraid to be
laid off due to improvements. Aren’t there some sceptics who
see the anchor draggers get fired and think it’s due to
improvements, and how do you deal with
this?

That’s a great question. I think, often times, people know who
the “anchor draggers” are anyway and can see the difference between
mass firings and performance-based firings. It’s tough, from an HR
standpoint, as you can’t necessarily tell the rest of the employees
“we fired so-and-so because of their bad performance,” but people
usually can tell. While we don’t want to use efficiency
improvements, via Lean, to drive headcount reduction, morale can
often be improved by getting rid of a person who is dragging down
the rest of the team. The employees might thank you for “finally”
taking action that they wish had been taken long ago.

Before resorting to firing, I think we do have an obligation, as
leaders, to coach people to the best of our ability. The main
question often becomes “is that person worth the time investment
that may or may not pay off?”

How have you, the Lean Blog readers, dealt with this situation
in your environment?