Climbing the Mountain of Change

If you are going to through a change like Lean or Six Sigma there are many things you want to consider.  One fact is that at best only 30% of any kind of change you do is typically sustainable and gets the results you had hoped for.  Here are the variables that will help you be successful:

• There is a technical component what to do and the behavioral  component of how to change people's behaviors.  If you do one without the other you are setting yourself up for failure.
• Build from a burning platform or a shared aspiration/vision.  Each have their unique traits and building from shared aspiration/vision is much easier and appeals to people more than a fear based approach of the burning platform.  Appreciative Inquriy is a great way to build a shared vision for your group.
• Start small with manageable projects that are smaller in scope.
• Start with a need start with a project that aligns to strategic goals and performance goals first to gain momentum.
• A common mistake I also see is hiring outside "expertise."  You should hire outside facilitation of the change not experts in your day to day work.  Although needed subject matter experts will not increase your chance of success and can in fact hurt success.  You want someone who is first a facilitator of the change and can guide and teach your people on the process and bring the best out of them.  Ultimately if the people who work the area come up with solutions it will be more likely that those changes will stay.  
• Understand that change is non-linear.  You will take steps back an take leaps forward and change takes time.  A true company change can take up to 4-5 years in a company that has about 100 employees so be patient.
• One factor that doesn't get talked about enough is resonant leaders.  This is different from sponsorship support.  Think of the best boss you had and how he/she made you feel and how you worked for him/her.  That boss is more than likely a resonant leader.  The bad news is that about 80% of leaders are not effective or resonant.  The good news is that you can help develop people.  Resonant leaders are one's with higher emotional intelligence as well as have a certain level of competence with their job.  You can find out more about Emotional Intelligence and it's importance in some of the past article's I've written: Combining Lean and Emotional Intelligence , and The Missing Link to Six Sigma - Emotional Intelligence
• Be inclusive to make sure you get representation form a broad group.  Even when you start small be sure to communicate what you are doing and make sure everyone knows.  The more you are inclusive the better the odds of the change sticking.
• This is a big one be flexible with methodology.  What works well for your environment may not work well at another and vice versa.  Don't be married to particular tools and methods from a Lean methodology or  Six Sigma tool chest.
• For change to happen learning has to happen.  Learning is not just formal class room settings but a process that involves theory, simulation, reflection, and actual implementation.  Without these key pieces you won't learn as effectively as an organization.

These are some of the items you should be aware of when you start a change effort like Lean or Six Sigma.  there are many other factors like alignment to strategic plans that are needed but don't have to be implemented right away.  

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Just Like New Year's Resolutions Lean/Change Efforts Can Be Hard

We Are Looking For Companies That Have Had a Slow/Failed Attempt at Lean for a Study

Change efforts typically succeed 25-30% of the time the first time you try.  Here are the reasons why they fail:

• Not Strategic
• Attitude vs Behavior Focused
• Agreement vs Alignment Focused
• Procedures vs Outcomes Focused
• The Change is Experienced as Disruption
• Enforce Compliance Over Commitment

Typical results:

• A Few Try to Convince Many That Change is Needed
• Partial Responsibility/Ownership Mindset
• Change is Perceived as a Disruption of "Real Work"
• Pace of Change is too Slow
• Breakdown at Implementation

What's Missing:

• Attention to Stability-in-Change
• Creating Positive Emotional Attraction at the Outset Making Change internally Driven vs. Perception of Being Forced To Change
• Finding a Compelling Positive Future Image - Fosters Internal Drive vs. Perception of Being Forced to Change
• Emphasizing Co-learning vs. Participation for the Sake of Making People Feel They Have a Voice

If you are interested in learning more about a new program we have to facilitate everything that is missing please reply to this email or go to the Contact Page.

The services will be part of a study and the first three qualifing companies will have little  to no out of pocket expenses for services.

Related Blog Posts:

-Change Effort Not Working? Try Appreciative Inquiry And Changing The Culture

-How To Make a Change Management Effort Like Lean Stick

Services

Stop SOPA/PIPA

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.


If the latest version of SOPA - Protect IP Act (PIPA S.968) passes it would mean the end of the internet as we know it.  It allows the government and the entertainment industry to shutdown sites just because they feel there are copyright infringements or there are links to sites that are copy write infringements.  What this means is that bloggers like myself could get 5 years in prison just because a commentor left a link to a site the corporations feel is supporting copyright infringements. Such sites can include youtube, facebook, and others.

Please contact your representative and senator and tell them you oppose PIPA S.968

More information on what's in PIPA

The Money Trail - which representatives and senators are given money by pro PIPA corporations

What's Missing With Your Lean Initiative

We are currently looking at new innovative ways to deliver services to folks that have superior value.  We want to hear from you on what you would like to see from a consulting company that you don't see.  It can be cost, product, services, or any other items but we want to hear from you.

Here are some of the ideas that are in the works:

-Distance facilitation
-Online coaching for managers
-Full package implementation (strategy, org structure, training, and some projects) at a single price point
-Strengths based problem solving

We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section or contact us directly.


Related Blog Posts:

Change Effort Not Working? Try Appreciative Inquiry And Changing The Culture

How To Make a Change Management Effort Like Lean Stick

Services

Lean in the Office

You might think of a scene like the one in the picture when you think of a "non-Lean office."  The fact is that Lean in the office is much more than just a 5s program.  For those unfamiliar, 5s is a 5 step process to help organize the work space and more importantly you use 5s to help see where there might be opportunities for improvements.  The 5s process is 1) Sort 2) Set 3) Shine 4) Standardize 5) Sustain.  For more information please contact us.  

A Lean office is an office that is designed to deliver the most value with minimal waste to a customer.  5s is a great place to start because it will usually lead to other findings which you can improve.  We have found a slightly different way to approach a lean office.  First step is to give everyone Lean training and teaching people to see what is value and what is waste.  The next step is to look at what you are currently doing well and try to see how you can do more of it.  An example of this is at an office I helped they were a a couple of people great at communicating with customers/clients.  We decided to standardize as much as possible their process and train others on how to have good interactions with customers/clients.  The training was done by the people who  were thought to be the leaders in the area (a receptionist, a manger, and a technician).  You can find what's working well by doing an appreciative inquiry.

After leveraging what you have working well then there is an opportunity to work on the problem areas.  We usually like to do some mapping events to get a good feel for where the main opportunities lay.  A value stream map or multiple value stream maps is ideal for this step.  In an office setting value stream maps can get a bit hairy and may not be as clear as in a manufacturing setting.  Don't worry that is ok just do the best you can in mapping.  Once you've mapped out the current state for a particular area then design an ideal future state map. The difference from the current state and the ideal state will be the projects you will need to work on in your office.  Don't worry if you can't get everything done this year, just prioritize and pick which ones you want to do.  Just remember that this is iterative so if it's not perfect then don't worry you'll have another change to improve it.  We recommend doing a value stream map at least once a year and doing both a current state and future state map.

From this point you can go in several directions but you will have multiple projects to work on through out the year.  For sustaining and continuous improvement we find that daily management helps.  This is a simple board with metrics and if the metrics aren't meet then we try to root cause the problem and solve it so it doesn't happen again in the future.  It's a great way to engage all people and give them ownership in their work space.  For more information on daily management, value stream mapping, or any other questions you may have please contact us.