This Is Lean. Resolving the efficiency paradox

Lean is the most widespread management philosophy of our time and is currently present in every industry, yet the concept is still vaguely defined and widely misunderstood.
The book also introduces the idea of the efficiency paradox, which claims that organisations’ understanding of “true efficiency” is incorrect. It suggests that when organisations focus too much on utilising resources efficiently – the traditional and most common form of efficiency – it tends to lead to an increase in the amount of work there is to do. Consequently, the more organisations try to be efficient (being busy), the more inefficient they will actually become (taking care of non-value adding but necessary work). This is Lean addresses how to resolve this paradox.