Tell-Tale Signs Your Employer is Focused On Employee Development

It is hard to think of a more important and most neglected management aspect than employee development. Unfortunately, many organizations do not plan properly for the development of their people and teams. People development without proper planning in place normally results in internal and external conflict, which leads to confusion, low productivity, less motivation, and therefore loss in various ways. When the right plan for development is designed based on the employees’ needs, desires, and potential the expected positive outcome will be achieved.

How can you tell your employer is focused on employee development?

1. They invest in their employees' careers.  One of the things I value as a coach are organizations that value their employees.  Invest in training your executive team on down to entry-level employees with coaching programs, mentoring programs, training programs.  If every organization did this, it would create a completely different and more effective corporate environment.

2. They trust their people to get the job done.  Working isn't about punching a clock.  Rather, it's about getting high-quality results. Don’t micro-manage your employees otherwise they won’t learn. Autonomy comes from trust and responsibility.

3. They partner with their employees. Career development focuses on collaboration.  What does it really take to get and stay motivated at work?  Employees, managers and executives need to create the kind of work environment that inspires them to grow.

It is a proven that companies that invest in the continued training and proficiency of their employees enjoy improved performance, lower attrition rates and a greater overall return on their investment. Intellectual capital is now a critical factor for competitive advantage in today's global world. The organizations that recognize the benefits and value of providing continuing training opportunities to employees will be better able to compete in a rapidly changing world.

Providing employees with the tools and resources to do their jobs effectively can make a real difference in employee morale and productivity. The employees of Best Employers state that they have access to the tools, resources, and processes to perform at a much higher rate than employees from average companies. Is it possible to have engaged employees without enabling them? An engaged employee who is not enabled to perform is not likely to stay engaged or stay with the company for long.

Development planning doesn’t have to be elaborate or costly.  At its core it’s mostly a matter of good managers taking the person-to-person time to understand their employees… recognizing their skills and needs… and guiding them to fill in the gaps.   If it’s done well, the payoff can be substantial in terms of long-term loyalty.   If it’s not, the costs can be substantial in terms of long-term talent.

Lean Quote: Lean is a Growth Strategy

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.

"Many people think that Lean is about cutting heads, reducing the work force or cutting inventory. Lean is really a growth strategy. It is about gaining market share and being prepared to enter in or create new markets." — Ernie Smith, Lean Event Facilitator in the Lean Enterprise Forum at the University of Tennessee

First and foremost, Lean is about value — a bigger and more inclusive concept than mere cost. That is antithetical to genuine Lean process, the simplest definition of which is the continual pursuit, identification, and removal of waste in product and process. Waste is anything that does not contribute value — anything the customer will not willingly pay for. Traditional cost cutting occurs in silos, without regard to who is affected upstream and downstream. These impacts cannot just negate the initial cost reduction from the unilateral approach, but exceed them. Lean examines each process, internal and external, finding and removing the waste, and reducing cost while maintaining the health of all constituents.

Lean is really a systematic way to learn to see the inefficiencies in your processes and to solve these opportunities in such a way to grow the business profitably by adding value the customer will pay for. If you want to be a successful company you will learn to empower and engage the entire organization to focus improvement on value-added work from the customer’s perspective.

Lean is Not about Tools. Tools do not solve problem but rather people do. It is not about the tools it’s how they are applied. A large number of organizations have failed to produce the desired results from the direct and prescriptive application of Lean tools. The tools themselves have been proven to work in many situations. The difference must then be in how the tools were applied, their appropriateness, but not the tools themselves.

Lean manufacturing is not a head-count reduction system; instead Lean manufacturers understand employees on the shop floor know their work best. Lean manufacturers don’t want employees to work harder, or faster – they want employees to work more efficiently. Lean manufacturing focuses on improving employees, providing more value to the workforce, and, overall, establishing a dependable and stable workforce.

Company executives that treat Lean as mean and use the tools to shed people, the source of the company’s health, are either delusional or do not really care about how the company performs in the long term. A Lean implementation that results in layoffs should not be considered a successful Lean implementation.

For me Lean is a thinking methodology for running your business.  The of goal of which is to grow the business by adding value to the customer, being efficient by eliminating waste, and engaging all employees in this process.  Lean is about learning to seeing opportunities and continually improving them.  

Share Knowledge Across Your Company To Beat Your Competition

The value of knowledge sharing to an organization is well known, yet much of the knowledge within an organization remains unshared. Knowledge sharing is the process by which individuals exchange tacit and explicit knowledge in order to create new knowledge.

If you don’t share knowledge within your company, your customers will suffer. Many managers are unaware that the team that sits right next to theirs is doing some great work that that could help the business deliver a better service to customers, or open the door to a new market.

Host regular knowledge-sharing sessions – whether virtual or real; keep your knowledge management system updated and make it interactive. Or invite individuals from totally different parts of the business to team meetings and then reciprocate. Start with some of the managers. Proactive knowledge sharing is one of the key ways to remain one step ahead of your competitors – and senior people need to make the time to lead by example.

Even in a small company, silos emerge. A policy of more sharing will help everyone stay in touch with what others are doing, and create a collective expectation. Keeping everyone pointed in the same direction is hard; sharing more about what’s going on, how you’re doing things, reasoning behind decisions, etc. will help.

Actively managing knowledge can help companies increase their chances of success by facilitating decision-making, building learning environments by making learning routine, and stimulating cultural change and innovation.

Learning is the key to success—some would even say survival—in today’s organizations. Knowledge should be continuously enriched through both internal and external learning. For this to happen, it is necessary to support and energize organization, people, knowledge, and technology for learning. A learning organization values the role that learning can play in developing organizational effectiveness.

By engaging in the knowledge sharing process teams create a new unique knowledge resource that competitors cannot easily imitate. Knowledge sharing leads to superior team performance and is a source of competitive advantage for organizations. 

5S Comprehensive Education and Resource Center

My friend Tony Ferraro, at Creative Safety Supply, has put together a comprehensive 5S resource and education page. Tony has been a frequent contributor on A Lean Journey Blog on many 5S and Lean topics. Many know Creative Safety Supply has been a valued sponsor of this site. This 5S page was made possible with contributions from a number of Lean Bloggers and members of the Lean Six Sigma LinkedIn group.

This site covers a wide range of 5S topics:

• What Is 5S?
• 5S Methodology
• What Does 5S Stand For?
• Five S
• Seiri
• Origin of 5S
• What Is Lean?
• 5 S Lean
• Visual Management
• Visual Workplace
• Lean 5S, Why?
• Employee Involvement
• How to Get Started
• 5S System
• 5S Program
• 5S Training
• 5S Manufacturing
• Common Misconceptions
• Each Step of 5S Defined
• Understanding the Sixth S – Safety
• Tools for 5S

It is full of visuals and videos to make understanding and implementing 5S easier. The content is well thought out and presented in a simple way. You will find this page has everything you need to get started with 5S at your company. I have book marked this page and recommend you do the same.

Lean Quote: Relentless Barrage of Why's

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.

"A relentless barrage of ‘why’s’ is the best way to prepare your mind to pierce the clouded veil of thinking caused by the status quo. Use it often." — Shigeo Shingo

A brilliantly simple root cause problem-solving tool, asking why five times becomes easier the more you do it. Adopting this as a default way of looking at things will aid, not only your problem solving, but other areas, too.

Ask the Five Whys to get beyond the obvious symptoms to discover the root cause.
Taiichi Ohno gave this example about a machine that stopped working (Ohno 1988, p. 17):

1. Why did the machine stop?
There was an overload and the fuse blew.

2. Why was there an overload?
The bearing was not sufficiently lubricated.

3. Why was it not lubricated?
The lubrication pump vs not pumping sufficiently.

4. Why was it not pumping sufficiently?
The shaft of the pump was worn and rattling.

5. Why was the shaft worn out?
There was no strainer attached and metal scarps got in.

Without repeatedly asking why, we would likely replace the fuse or pump and the failure would recur. Keep asking why until the root cause is reached and eliminated.

Test your 5 Whys chain with the ‘therefore’ test. Start at the bottom of the chain and say Last Why occurred, therefore the second to last why occurred. Carry on until you reach the first why. If it isn’t true, revise the why chain until you can pass the ‘therefore test’.

 

Daily Lean Tips Edition #79 (1186 - 1200)

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 #1186 - Give People Ownership

Let employees make projects their own, to succeed or fail at. Employees need to be encouraged to create solutions independently of the chain of command. This leads to independent thinking.

Lean Tip #1187 - Make Risk-Taking and Failure Acceptable

Many organizations avoid risk like the plague, and have low tolerance for failure. To give rise to entrepreneurs, leaders and managers need to develop a culture of learning from failure that moves on to the next, more informed attempt…otherwise known as experimentation. Actively encouraging learning is key.

Lean Tip #1188 - Give Employees the Time to Innovate Outside their Current Job Roles. 

Employees of LinkedIn are given three months to pursue and promote new ideas. It should also be noted that some determined employees will go above and beyond the call of duty and develop ideas on their own time.

Lean Tip #1189 - Have a Vision for Change

You cannot expect your team to be innovative if they do not know the direction in which they are headed. Innovation has to have a purpose. It is up to the leader to set the course and give a bearing for the future. Great leaders spend time illustrating the vision, the goals and the challenges. They explain to people how their role is crucial in fulfilling the vision and meeting the challenges. They inspire men and women to become passionate entrepreneurs finding innovative routes to success.

Lean Tip #1190 - Fight the Fear of Change

Innovative leaders constantly evangelize the need for change. They replace the comfort of complacency with the hunger of ambition. ‘We are doing well but we cannot rest on our laurels – we need to do even better. ’They explain that while trying new ventures is risky, standing still is riskier. They must paint a picture that shows an appealing future that is worth taking risks to achieve. The prospect involves perils and opportunities. The only way we can get there is by embracing change.

Lean Tip #1191 - Use Positive Words to Create a Gracious, Polite Workplace in Which Staff Feel Recognized and Rewarded.

Say thank you. Show your appreciation for their hard work and contributions. And, don't forget to say please often as well. You did a nice job on that presentation, Jim. Those charts were easy to follow and gave me a great overview of your progress on the project, Elizabeth. Social niceties and compliments do belong at work. A more gracious, polite workplace is appreciated by all.

Lean Tip #1192 - One of the Best Forms of Recognition is to Provide Opportunities for a Contributing Employee.

Opportunities can take many forms. But, all of them are outside of the normal day-to-day requirements of their job plan. Employees appreciate chances for training and cross-training. They want to participate on a special committee where their talents are noticed. They’d like to lead a team that is pursuing an important objective.

Lean Tip #1193 - Never Underestimate the Value of Sharing Your Time and Building a Relationship with Staff.

They appreciate your genuine interest in their ideas and thoughts about their jobs. They like bouncing ideas back and forth with you and look for your sincere input on their projects and goals. The role of mentor and coach is powerful in training your organization’s culture and expectations. It is also a significant source of experiential knowledge, history, work approaches, and on-the-job training.

Lean Tip #1194 – Create a Recognition Culture.

It’s easy: Just make recognition something you measure. One of my old bosses started every management meeting by having every supervisor share two examples of employees they recognized or praised that day. At first it seemed cheesy and forced, but we quickly embraced it.

Plus there was a nice bonus: Peer pressure and natural competitiveness caused a few of us to help our employees accomplish things worthy of praise so we had great stuff to report.

Lean Tip #1195 - Hold Yourself Accountable.

As a leader, it’s your responsibility to keep your employees motivated and engaged. Put in the time to learn about each of your team members so that you know what incentives and rewards are most attractive to them. When the time comes, provide successful employees with recognition and rewards that are specific to them.

Lean Tip #1196 - Educate Your Workplace.

Like any other business strategy, ongoing education of the workplace is critical in establishing awareness, developing skills, and institutionalizing the needed mindset and behaviors to bring about effective change. It is no different with Continuous Improvement. Expect and overcome resistance to change with ongoing training, reinforcement of expected behaviors, and recognition of those who are learning and doing.

Lean Tip #1197 - Establish an Enduring Culture.

For continuous improvement to work, there must be a relentless focus on and commitment to getting things right. Adaptability and an action oriented leadership team are inherent components of a continuous improvement culture. Resistance to change exists in all organizations to a degree and it must be recognized for what it is, an impediment to improvement.

Lean Tip #1198 - Establish Improvement as a Core Value.

Establish the core values that comprise the continuous improvement culture such as a focus on supporting the customer, teamwork throughout the extended enterprise, receptivity to evolving continuous improvement concepts and tools. These core values will create a sense of belonging and a common vision for all involved.

Lean Tip #1199 - Communication Planning is Essential for Improvement.

Ensure regular communications to foster collaborative interactions among leaders, stakeholders, and practitioners at all levels. Take advantage of communications techniques appropriate for the information being conveyed. Where needed, schedule face to face meetings and where not needed, use the communication and collaboration tools and capabilities of the enterprise to keep all members updated and involved.

Lean Tip #1200 - Use a Consistent Approach for Improvement.

A consistent and structured approach for project identification and execution will provide the organization with the ability to identify, select, and manage continuous improvement projects. The continuous improvement project process should also provide post-closing process steps to continually refine the improvement project methodology and to act upon the lessons learn from the project effort.

Not Every Meeting Needs To Be A Meeting

Many organizations suffer from meeting-itis: poorly-run and inefficient meetings that go on too long, happen too often and include more attendees than need to be there. No one likes long meetings or too many meetings for that matter. Not every meeting needs to be a meeting.

Business blog Harvard Business Review knows a thing or two about unnecessary meetings. While meetings feel productive because everyone’s in the same room talking about the project, they inherently get in the way of actually doing anything. So, HBR suggests, before you call for a meeting, ask these questions:

Have I thought through this situation?

Do I need outside input to make progress

Does moving forward require a real-time conversation?

Does this necessitate a face-to-face meeting?

If you answer “No” to any of these questions, then a different course of action could be taken first. An online chat can help you answer questions quickly, or for more in-depth conversations, scheduling a phone call or video conference can work well.

Every day, we allow our coworkers, who are otherwise very, very nice people, to steal from us. I'm talking about time. Your time. Your time and that of your organization is valuable. Some say time is more valuable than money. Time can't be saved. It can only be spent! We spend it at the exact rate of one minute per minute. We can’t spend more or less no matter how hard we try. We can’t spend more than 5 minutes in five minutes, and we can’t spend less than 5 minutes in five minutes. Our rate of spending is fixed. All we can control is where we choose to invest our time.

Meetings are a useful tool when they’re actually necessary, but if you’re just going to waste an hour talking about things you could easily answer on your own or with an instant message, your productivity comes out at a net loss.

One of the biggest challenges to meeting effectiveness is we are essentially creatures of habit. We do things this way because we have always done things this way – status quo. In a Lean environment we need to learn to “see” the wastes in our business including how we conduct business like meetings and find better ways to do these activities.