Comments on: In Honor of Dr. Edgar Schein: A Tribute to a Giant in Organizational Theory https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/in-honor-of-dr-edgar-schein-a-tribute-to-a-giant-in-organizational-theory/ Lean Production | Lean Manufacturing | LEI | Lean Services Mon, 06 Feb 2023 20:36:49 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: Ralf Lippold https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/in-honor-of-dr-edgar-schein-a-tribute-to-a-giant-in-organizational-theory/#comment-69550 Mon, 06 Feb 2023 20:36:49 +0000 https://www.lean.org/?p=24019#comment-69550 Dear John – Thank you for your thoughts on Ed’s passing which I have just learned about via Lex Schroeder’s LinkedIn post. Ed also had a massive impact on me and my work. Before I attended actually the same workshop as you on Cape Cod I had the good fortune to work five years for an automotive company that was scaling a new plant from scratch at the time I entered the company. Interestingly enough I am neither an engineer nor automobile enthusiast but my passion is about people and the processes they run. So I found myself quite often in situations on the various parts of the shopfloor where I practised humble inquiry without even knowing about it. The reason mostly was that I honestly did not know the underlying processes in most cases. So I asked my colleagues quite innocently trying to understand and solve arising production problems. And as Ed describes the essence of ‘humble inquiry’ these questions opened a communication channel and trust level that enabled me to gain insights that otherwise, my colleagues did not openly share.

His work will be there forever, and people who have met Ed in person will probably go along when I say, “Ed is the most humble person I have ever met!”

PS: His biography “Becoming American” and the workshop recordings from his course at the Cape Cod Institute definitely have had the most lasting impact, and still open new learnings after several rereads and many hours of listening to.

]]> By: Jim Fackelman https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/in-honor-of-dr-edgar-schein-a-tribute-to-a-giant-in-organizational-theory/#comment-68762 Thu, 02 Feb 2023 17:19:56 +0000 https://www.lean.org/?p=24019#comment-68762 Beau Keyte and Drew Locher refer frequently to “humble inquiry” in their book, The Complete Lean Enterprise: VSM for the Office. Now I know where it came from.

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