Managing preschool the Lean way. Evaluating work processes by numbers and colours.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how public preschools use the Lean management model in their daily practices. The study focuses on how evaluative techniques are handled using colour-coding and how this work is perceived by preschool staff.

The study shows a duality in the preschool staffs' approach to Lean-evaluative techniques. On the one hand, staff resist what they understand as hard-core statistics, for example, the introduction of monitoring tools that include feelings and experiences. On the other hand, in their efforts to improve the measurability of their work processes through the use of colours and numbers, staff are eager to comply with the ethics of evaluation. The use of numbers and colours, such as in Lean Boards, signal an idea of objectivity and political neutrality, which lead the staff to perceive the numbers and colours as being general and comparable. In addition to identifying this duality, the author concludes that the evaluative techniques call for increasing those rational management strategies in the preschools that give rise to more improvements such as action plans and evaluative objectives.

The study is based on field work in two Swedish preschools in Stockholm and on a number of meetings with Stockholm Municipality. The data is based on six weeks of participant observation of staff at the two preschools, including a number of meetings related to the Lean process. The researcher has also participated in a three-day Lean-coach-training course, six Lean Forum meetings and one Lean Network meeting - all of which were held by the municipality. The study is also based on two interviews with a municipal development consultant and one interview with an preschool leader. The analysis consists of a description of selected situations that present the practices surrounding the use of Lean in accordance with S.M.A.R.T-objectives (Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-related) and evaluative techniques.

Thedvall, R. (2015). Managing preschool the Lean way. Evaluating work processes by numbers and colours. Social Anthropology 23(1), 42-52.