The Lean Formula for Change

For virtually everyone change means hard work, risk, and the need to learn new ways for unproven benefits. Change is one of the most difficult things for humans to readily accept. Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change” which holds true for culture change.

Fortunately, there is a formula that provides insight into how to successfully facilitate change:

L x V x K x AP x A > R = Change

Where:

L = Lever: Find a sense of urgency by identifying a crisis in which action is the only choice. It is necessary to overcome inertia.

V = Vision: How you would like things to be in the future, this is the “True North” thinking.

K = Knowledge: Learn the skills necessary to facilitate the change. Find a change agent. Understand and disseminate the lean knowledge.

AP = Action Plan: Actions and strategies needed to move the organization toward the vision. It is important to begin as soon as possible with visible activity. Often, a great start is to identify and map your value streams.

A = Alignment: Communicate the why and how of the vision to inspire people to want to try to achieve it. As you gain momentum you need to expand your scope. Apply strategy deployment (Hoshin Kanri) to facilitate horizontal and vertical alignment.

R = Resistance: People tend to naturally resist change. Reduce resistance by making the change known, easy, beneficial, and popular.

To ensure successful change all of these elements are needed. If an element is missing you won’t get change but rather something short of that as shown below:

Lever x Vision x Knowledge x Action Plan x Alignment = Change
               Vision x Knowledge x Action Plan x Alignment = Status Quo
Lever x                 Knowledge x Action Plan x Alignment = Confusion
Lever x Vision x                          Action Plan x Alignment = Frustration
Lever x Vision x Knowledge x                          Alignment = False Starts
Lever x Vision x Knowledge x Action Plan                        = Resistance

There is no quick solution for creating a lean culture. Successful initial implementation and ongoing maintenance of process improvements, among other things, requires overcoming the resistance to change.

Collaboration Techniques for Moving Ideas & Decisions Forward

Collaboration and teamwork make an important contribution to the success of business initiatives like quality improvement, product development or customer service. To create effective teamwork across your organization, you need to break down any departmental barriers to collaboration so that you can draw on the best people. You need to set clear objectives and define working relationships so that members can work as a cohesive team, and you must provide tools that support efficient collaboration.

Team collaboration and decision-making works best when everyone is involved in the process, from brainstorming ideas to implementing the decision. Here are some tips for moving decisions forward in a team-meeting environment.

1. Keep the group small; five to nine members is optimal.

2. Announce the meeting(s) in advance. Define the issues to be discussed and invite attendees to arrive prepared with ideas and possible solutions. (On the whole, individuals are better at suggesting ideas, while groups are better at evaluating them.)

3. Use a “round robin” format to collect ideas. Go around the table and ask people to each mention the ideas or solutions they’ve developed. List on a screen, flipchart or white board. (This format is used to gather information and does not allow criticism or evaluation.)

4. Encourage people to discuss the idea with the group, not with the originator. Once the idea is on the table, it’s a group issue, which is discussed by the whole group.

5. Rephrase criticism in a positive way. Rather than saying, “We did that and it failed;” try “What could we do differently this time to make that solution work?” or “Have our circumstances changed so that the solutions could work now?”

6. Ask for positive remarks from negative people. If a lot of negative comments are made, list them on a flipchart in one column (con). Create a positive column (pro) next to the con column, and ask the people who made negative comments to suggest a positive comment. This approach reduces defensiveness, broadens thinking, and encourages people to look for solutions rather than focus on the problems.

7. Set an example by not defending your idea. Let other team members defend it. Remind the team that this is a group issue. If necessary, clarify or explain your idea in more detail, but don’t defend it. People will tend to follow the example you set.

Collaboration and team work create an environment that allows the collective knowledge, resources and skills of each team member to flourish. When people work together they can complete tasks faster by dividing the work to people of different abilities and knowledge. Teamwork can lead to better decisions, products, or services.

Both Attitude and Behavior Change Are Key to Success

Attitude and behavior are closely related in some sense though they are two different concepts. One of the most important differences between behavior and attitude is that attitude is internal whereas behavior is external in sense. In other words it can be said that behavior can very well be seen by others as it is external whereas attitude is shelled within the mind of the individual and hence cannot be seen by others immediately.

Several situations within the office affect attitude and behavior. For an employee to consistently display good behavior in the workplace, he must maintain a positive attitude towards his job. If your employee develops a dislike for his job, he might lose interest in his assignments or lack motivation. These negative feelings influence his behaviors and might trigger low productivity. In addition, an employee's negative attitude can become evident with other actions, such as poor performance, regularly staying away from work, poor business ethics and perhaps favoring one supervisor over another. To the contrary, employees who feel respected by you and other coworkers, and those who maintain a good attitude, typically respond differently and exhibit appropriate behavior in the workplace.

Leadership behavior plays a very important role in enhancing employee job satisfaction, work motivation and work performance. The major type of supervisory behavior that has been identified as influencing work motivation and performance include positive achievement behavior and the behavior that is expected to lead to dissatisfaction include authoritarian or arbitrary and punitive behavior

We tend to assume that people behave in accordance with their attitudes. However, social psychologists have found that attitudes and actual behavior are not always perfectly aligned. In some cases, people may actually alter their attitudes in order to better align them with their behavior.

Behaviors are much easier to change than attitudes. When we focus on attitudes, we are setting ourselves and our employees up for failure because even if they sincerely want to change, they don’t have anything tangible to work on. Once we’ve clarified the behaviors that we want to eliminate or see more of, it is relatively easy to set performance expectations, and measurement becomes a matter of whether the behavior did or did not happen.

Some managers I’ve worked with don’t want to move past attitudes to focus on behaviors. They will argue that if the employee doesn’t have the “right” attitude, then they can’t be successful. While attitudes can have a powerful effect on behavior, they are not set in stone. The same influences that lead to attitude formation can also create attitude change.

In order to have meaningful change we have to change both attitude and behavior together. Change in thinking will lead to behavioral change. Alternatively, change in actions will eventually lead to changes in attitude. This combined approach provides the most success by providing positive thinking with the right methodology to implement and sustain change.

Lean Quote: Small Jobs Make Efforts Easier

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs." — Henry Ford

Continuous improvement is about small changes on a daily basis to make your job easier.  Small step-by-step improvements are more effective over time than occasional kaizen bursts, and have a significantly greater impact on the organization culture - creating an environment of involvement and improvement.

Small victories tap into motivation. Achievement is fueled by making small amounts of progress, such as accomplishing a task or solving a problem. Help employees break projects, goals, and work assignments into small victories. Help them jump into an achievement cycle.  

Making one small change is both rewarding to the person making the change and if communicated to others can lead to a widespread adoption of the improvement and the possibility that someone will improve on what has already been improved. There's no telling what might occur if this were the everyday habit of all team members.

One of the most counter intuitive facts about small ideas is that they can actually provide a business with more sustainable competitive advantages than big ideas. The bigger the ideas, the more likely competitors will copy or counter them. If new ideas affect the company's products or services, they're directly visible and often widely advertised.  And even if they involve behind-the-scenes improvements--say, to a major system or process--they're often copied just as quickly. That's because big, internal initiatives typically require outside sources, such as suppliers, contractors, and consultants, who sell their products and services to other companies, too.  Small ideas, on the other hand, are much less likely to migrate to competitors--and even if they do, they're often too specific to be useful.  Because most small ideas remain proprietary, large numbers of them can accumulate into a big, competitive advantage that is sustainable. That edge often means the difference between success and failure.

In a Lean enterprise a strategy of making small, incremental improvements every day, rather than trying to find a monumental improvement once or twice a year equates to a colossal competitive advantage over time and competitors cannot copy these compounded small improvements.

 

10 More Ways to Show Respect for People

Respect for People is one of the least well known and often under practiced principles of Lean thinking. As a voice in the Lean community I feel a sense of responsibility to try to change that.

Showing respect in the workplace is one of the most important traits of a Lean environment. Some of the most productive time of our lives is spent on our jobs. Our office is a kind of our second home and our co-workers becomes more like our family members.

Demonstrating respect for people goes beyond just being nice to them. Showing respect in the workplace is all about the relationship we develop with other people and how we value them. To explain this more here are another 10 ways to show respect for people in your organization:

1. Provide a safe working environment. We need to eliminate work hazards which can cause employees to have an injury.

2. We need to relieve people of any unnecessary burdens that wear them down. Don’t overload them.

3. Don’t trouble your customer (anyone who consumes your work or decisions). Don’t give them defects.

4. Encourage coworkers to express opinions and ideas. Use people’s ideas to change or improve work. Let employees know you used their idea, or, better yet, encourage the person with the idea to implement the idea.

5. Don’t take problems away from people. Teach them problem solving skills and let them solve the problems.

6. Develop people who can think for themselves. People who can think for themselves and are experts in their area often need to be empowered to feel respected.

7. Give people the responsibility to make decisions about their work autonomously.

8. Challenging people (constructively) to perform at their highest possible level of performance.

9. Manager act as teachers, not directors. Mentor people closely in the ways of Lean.

10. Don’t waste employee’s time. Don’t force people to do wasteful work.

Asking people to improve their work and giving them the tools to do it (e.g. Kaizen) shows the ultimate form of respect in my opinion. In other words management is saying that we trust and expect that you will take a hand in making things better in order to ensure our survival. The implied message is one of mutual trust and respect.

Daily Lean Tips Edition #45

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey.  Another great reason to like A Lean Journey on Facebook.

Click this link for A Lean Journey's Facebook Page Notes Feed.

Here is the next addition of tips from the Facebook page:

Lean Tip# 661 - Define the problem first.

Explain what the problem is—what went wrong, what are the symptoms, what is the impact on your business. Write it down. Everyone who reads it should understand what the problem is and why it’s important. Caution: describe the problem, not what you will do to fix it.

Lean Tip #662 - Test your assumptions about everything.

Check the facts first. Be sure that you and your team understand the problem the same way, and that you have data to confirm that the problem is important. Test the assumptions about proposed solutions to improve the chances your solution will actually solve the problem.

Lean Tip #663 - Measure the right things.

A common measurement trap is to measure something because it’s “interesting.” If knowing a measurement won’t change anything (e.g., help you make a decision, verify an assumption or prove the problem is solved), then don’t waste your time measuring it.

Lean Tip #664 - Look for solution owners rather than problem owners.

Everyone participating in the situation owns the problem, like it or not—and nobody likes it. Avoid the finger-pointing trap by looking for solution owners, i.e., the people who can do something to help solve the problem. Helping with a solution is much more fun than being blamed for a problem, so you’re more likely to get the response you need.

Lean Tip #665 - Acknowledge and thank everyone who helps.

Solving an important problem deserves recognition, and nobody else is going to take care of this for you. Make sure management and key stakeholders know what you and your team have achieved. Remind them of the risks avoided. Thank everyone who participated in the project. It’s the polite thing to do, and encourages them to help you next time.

Lean Tip #666 – Management commitment and leadership from the top is paramount.

Your leadership should be 100% convinced of Lean benefits if it is to be implemented successfully. You should form a steering committee to ensure that resources are planned for and roadblocks removed. Organizational goals need to be aligned to Lean activities. An individual should be selected to lead Lean for your organization.

Lean Tip #667 - Lean is not just a Lean Manager’s job.

Implementing an effective Lean management system will mean engaging staff at all levels. A Lean Manager’s role is distinct – they are not capable of improving an entire business single-handedly.

Lean Tip #668 - Lean is Easy – It’s the People and Culture Stuff that’s Hard

For those of us who have been around LEAN for a while, we know that the methods and the tools are easy. It’s the people and culture stuff that’s hard. That’s one of the main reasons that I recommend people focus on the 4% of the business that’s causing over 50% of the delay or defects, and only engage the employees involved in that 4%.

Lean Tip #669 – Teamwork is Critical for Success, But You Cannot Simply Will it to Happen.

Teamwork is important to the success of the team, but as they say in the magazine: it’s “like getting rich or falling in love, you cannot simply will it to happen. Teamwork is a practice. Teamwork is an outcome.” And teamwork leverages the individual skills of every team member. What can you do now to maximize your team’s success?

Lean Tip #670 - Leverage Your Centers of Influence to Improve Your Success

As Malcolm Gladwell identified in his book, The Tipping Point, there are people in your company who are the true centers of influence. They may not have the top job, but they do have the ear of the right people. They can make or break your success. There are two types of centers of influence: connectors and mavens. Everyone comes to the maven for their encyclopedic knowledge of the business or technology. The connector knows everyone and succeeds by connecting the right resources. It would be a good idea to engage your connectors and mavens in the improvement team.

Lean Tip #671 – Don’t expect training alone to fix your problem

Having a well-trained, correctly-focused team is of course an absolute must for any organization looking to operate with a Lean mindset. But training alone isn’t a panacea and, indeed, will almost certainly lead to serious problems if it’s not accompanied by the organization paying proper attention to the other requirements of the methodology.

Lean Tip #672 - Engage Senior Leadership to Push Through Transformation

As with so much in this life, a successful adoption of Lean simply isn’t going to happen without getting the requisite buy-in from the top. A clear mandate from above will be an indispensable aid in pushing through what for many people might seem a particularly exotic - even downright incomprehensible - methodological transformation.

Lean Tip #673 - Deliver Quick Wins to Receive More Management Endorsement

Everyone knows walking the walk matters more than talking the talk - and nothing’s going to make those at the top more likely to endorse subsequent projects than a quick and successful turnaround on initial Lean ventures. Sure, bear in mind the dangers of rushing things through - it’d be a particularly bitter irony if an over-hurried process improvement methodology implementation were to lead to a decline in process quality - but if you can show quick wins initially you’ll have the ear of those who matter when it comes to getting cracking on more ambitious, lengthier and costlier projects.

Lean Tip #674 – Lean Embodies, Keep It Simple Student (KISS)

Too many times we try to over complicate processes, events, projects, and even standard work.  One of the key elements in Lean instructs to “design simple and inexpensive techniques to error-proof processes”.  When we add levels of difficultly and complication we add an opportunity for error and costs, and possibly waste.

Lean Tip #675 - Make Small Changes – One at a Time

In the world of business it’s not always about survival of the strongest, rather those companies that adapt to change. Human nature is resistant to change, so the entire organization must be involved in establishing company goals and objectives. Small changes are not only easier to handle, but easier to maintain and perfect. The ideal company will learn through small, incremental improvements to the current state. Think of it like building a house.  The foundation goes down first, then the frame work, the roof, the electricity, the installation, the walls, etc.

So God Created a Quality Manager

Quality Digest created a video honoring the role of the quality manager in today’s organizations, based on Paul Harvey’s timeless tribute to the farmer, which debuted at the 2013 Super Bowl. Mike Micklewright and Quality Digest present this homage to quality managers: Those hard-working, often-overlooked gatekeepers of continuous improvement. Told in the style of the late, great Paul Harvey, this video demonstrates why quality managers are the glue of organizations everywhere, whether in manufacturing or service industries. Enjoy!

http://www.qualitydigest.com