10 Guidelines for Leading Culture Change

Building a Lean culture is not an easy task. A Lean culture starts with managers who understand and believe the implications of the systems view and know the necessity of serving customers in order to succeed. The result of that understanding is a culture where a positive internal environment and the creation of delighted customers go together. It is a culture that naturally emphasizes continuous improvement of processes, one that results in a healthy workplace, satisfied customers, and a growing, profitable company.

The best leaders understand the present is nothing more than a platform for the envisioning of, and positioning for, the future. If you want to lead more effectively, shorten the distance between the future and present. Inspiring innovation and leading change call for more than process– they require the adoption of a cultural mindset.

Implementing Lean Thinking is a cultural change that requires leadership…because in the end it’s all about people. Here are 10 guidelines your leader can do right now to change the culture:

1. Challenge People to Think

If you are not thinking, you’re not learning new things. If you’re not learning, you’re not growing – and over time becoming irrelevant in your work. The most successful leaders understand their colleagues’ mindsets, capabilities and areas for improvement. They use this knowledge/insight to challenge their teams to think and stretch them to reach for more.

2. Lead by Example

Leading by example sounds easy, but few leaders are consistent with this one. Successful leaders practice what they preach and are mindful of their actions. They know everyone is watching them and therefore are incredibly intuitive about detecting those who are observing their every move, waiting to detect a performance shortfall.

3. Take Lots of Leaps of Faith

Making a change requires a leap of faith. Taking that leap of faith is risky, and people will only take active steps toward the unknown if they genuinely believe – and perhaps more importantly, feel – that the risks of standing still are greater than those of moving forward in a new direction.  Making a change takes lots of leaps of faith.

4. Create an Environment Where it is Ok to Fail

Failure should be encouraged! That’s right. If you don’t try, you can’t grow; and if growth is what you seek, failing is inevitable. There must be encouragement to try and it’s ok if you try and it doesn’t work. An environment where you can’t fail creates fear.

5. Eliminate Concrete Heads

“Concrete Heads” is the Japanese term for someone who does not accept that the organization must be focused on the elimination of waste. People feel threatened by the changes brought about by lean. As waste and bureaucracy are eliminated, some will find that little of what they have been doing is adding value. The anxiety they feel is normal and expected. To counteract this, it is critical that people are shown how the concept of work needs to change.

6. Be a Great Teacher

Successful leaders take the time to mentor their colleagues and make the investment to sponsor those who have proven they are able and eager to advance. They never stop teaching because they are so self-motivated to learn themselves.

7. Show Respect to Everyone

Everyone desires respect. Everyone. Regardless of your position or power, ensure you show everyone respect. Everyone wants to be treated fairly.

8. Motivate Your Followers

Transformational leaders provide inspirational motivation to encourage their followers to get into action. Of course, being inspirational isn't always easy. Some ideas for leadership inspiration include being genuinely passionate about ideas or goals, helping followers feel included in the process and offering recognition, praise and rewards for people's accomplishments.

9. Develop a True Team Environment

Create an environment where working as a team is valued and encouraged; where individuals work together to solve problems and help move the organization forward. Individuals who will challenge each other and support each other make teams more successful.

10. Encourage People to Make Contributions

Let the members of your team know that you welcome their ideas. Leaders who encourage involvement from group members has shown to lead to greater commitment, more creative problem-solving and improved productivity.

Constant change is a business reality and organizations must continually adapt to their environments to stay competitive or risk losing relevance and becoming obsolete. For each change, leaders must define it, create a vision of the post-change world, and mobilize their teams to make it.

Fundamentally, a change of culture occurs when people start behaving differently as a result of a change in the climate of the organization. There are many different models of how an organizational culture is shaped by the prevailing climate and how it can be assessed.

Leaders who protect the status quo through control must surrender to change in order to secure the future for their organization. Don’t be the leader who rewards herd mentality, and me too thinking. Don’t be the leader who encourages people not to fail or not to take risks. Be the leader who both models and gives permission to do the exact opposite of the aforementioned – be a leader who leads.

The culture of an organization is learnt over time. It can be taught to new employees through formal training programs but is more generally absorbed through stories, myths, rituals, and shared behaviors within teams. Organizational culture will impact positively or negatively on everything you try to do whether you want it to or not.

Success Starts with Effective Problem Solving

Murphy’s law is an adage that broadly states: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." It is therefore inevitable that businesses must solve problems. The success of a company can depend to a large extent on the ability of its staff to solve problems effectively, both in their day-to-day work and through innovation. This applies not only to senior management, but at all levels in an organization.

It's not enough simply to teach effective problem solving techniques. The working environment has a very powerful influence on the individual's ability to solve problems effectively and it needs to be supportive and stimulating.

Possessing good problem solving skills does not make people automatically use them to the benefit of the organization. They need encouragement, support and guidance in applying them to the organization’s problems. This can be achieved through:

• Commitment to Innovation
• Systems and procedures
• Reward
• Good communications

The most effective system is where all staff is informed of specific problems which the company faces in reaching its business objectives, and are notified of the results of evaluation of the ideas that have been submitted.

Just because you’ve got a hammer, doesn’t mean every problem’s a nail! We’re often tempted to apply the tools that we know in order to solve the problems that are in front of us. But just because you’ve got a tool doesn’t mean it’s the most appropriate one to use. Always ask, is this the most appropriate method to tackle this problem? Would a more simple “Just Do It” approach be adequate or do we require more robust data analysis in order to get to the heart of the issue? A pragmatic approach is better than one that attempts to pigeon-hole everything into the same approach.

Identifying the right root causes is necessary, but unless you then implement a solution, you still have a problem. Double-check to be sure your solution plan really will eliminate the causes you’ve identified, and then execute the plan. It’s easy to get distracted by other projects once you get to the implementation phase and never finish.

Problem solving requires two distinct types of mental skill, analytical and creative.

Analytical or logical thinking includes skills such as ordering, comparing, contrasting, evaluating and selecting. It provides a logical framework for problem solving and helps to select the best alternative from those available by narrowing down the range of possibilities (a convergent process).

          

Creative thinking is a divergent process, using the imagination to create a large range of ideas for solutions. It requires us to look beyond the obvious, creating ideas which may, at first, seem unrealistic or have no logical connection with the problem. Don’t be afraid to consider new or even unusual solutions to your problem.

Effective problem solving requires a controlled mixture of analytical and creative thinking.

Although it’s generally understood that it costs more to deal with crises than to prevent them, many companies do not recognize and reward those who push past the symptoms to the root causes, preventing future occurrences. If you want to focus on prevention, be sure to reward those who do it successfully.

Don’t be disheartened if you’re unable to solve the problem as quickly as you would like to. Taking your time to find the right solution, when you can, is always preferable to jumping to conclusions or rushing into making decisions. Remember to keep those who need to know (e.g. your team members or line manager) updated in terms of your progress, and to manage their expectations throughout the problem-solving process.

Once your problem is finally solved, take some time to reflect on which aspects of your approach worked, and what you would do differently next time. When you are faced with a problem ask yourself: How can I use this? What is the good thing about this? What can I learn from this? What hidden opportunity can I find within this problem? You may be able to apply some of these approaches the next time a problem arises.

We are all faced with problems to solve in our workday. We are often not in control of the issues we face at work or home. Problems just present themselves. And chances are the issues you're facing aren't so cut and dry. Having the right attitude can make the difference between success and failure.

You can find at least two ways to look at virtually everything. A pessimist looks for difficulty in the opportunity, whereas an optimist looks for opportunity in the difficulty. Unfortunately, many people look only at the problem and not at the opportunity that lies within the problem. Everything is possible with right attitude behind you to push you forward.

Success in your business and for that of your company is a matter of effective problem solving. If you do one thing well this is paramount.

Lean Quote: Understand Your Customer’s Needs and Expectation

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.

"People do not just buy things; they also buy expectations." — Albrecht and Zemke

For any business the customer is the lifeblood. Every process and every action internal or external should ultimately result in the value addition to the customer and the customer’s delight. Therefore it is essential that the customer needs, wants and expectations are identified before you embark on a quality building program.

Since the customer is the only reason you have a job, if you are not willing to satisfy the customer…then you might as well go home; you are not needed. Remember that perception is reality with customer service. If your customers don’t see your organization as one that engages in customer-focused behavior, then you are not providing exceptional customer service. Treating your customers as valued individuals is often more important than price.

Customer focus and service excellence is everyone’s responsibility, not just those that have direct contact with them. Organizations that are recognized as exceptional providers of customer service are the ones that have incorporated these customer-focused behaviors into their daily operations.

Customer “satisfaction” does not simply happen; it is an effect. Quality is one important cause of the customer satisfaction effect, along with price, convenience, service, and a host of other variables. The more our daily actions and long term plans are driven by meeting customer expectations, and the more we evaluate our work based upon these expectations, the more we improve customer loyalty and advocacy. This relentless focus on the customer is the path to sustained growth and profitability.

 

Daily Lean Tips Edition #81 (1216 -1230)

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 #1216 - Establish Quality Circles

Quality circles are an empowering alternative to keeping employees boxed within the narrow confines of their compartmentalized functions. Choose a group of talented employees who are skilled at problem solving, and give them a work-related challenge you're trying to solve. Let them analyze the situation and present solutions. The more they do this, the stronger they become.

Lean Tip #1217 - A Proactive Company Culture Drives Employee Initiative

CEOs and top executives should develop a proactive company culture to ensure employees stay motivated to take initiative. They can establish and drive this type of culture through leading by example. Employees should want to be leaders in their workplace because they truly believe in the visions and goals presented by their company culture and top management.

Lean Tip #1218 - Empower Them to Think Differently

While it’s important to set clear goals and responsibilities, the key to having a successful business and engaged workforce is to empower all your employees to make decisions on their own. Make sure employees are comfortable and confident asking questions, bringing forward new ideas and even taking a different approach that may fail. Out of that failure will come knowledge and longer-term success.

Lean Tip #1219 - Create a More Inclusive Environment

If you really want to empower employees to be leaders in the workplace, create a more inclusive environment for them. Employees who are encouraged to give their opinions — and believe their insights are valued by top management — will feel more comfortable taking charge. An inclusive workplace acts not only as a resource for management to help grow business, but also to promote employee growth as well. Everyone wins!

Lean Tip #1220 - Create Opportunities for Employees to Shine

While every company is pleased to have natural-born leaders, others may need a bit more prodding. Empower those employees by providing them with a bit more freedom to pursue to their passions. Then give them the opportunity to demonstrate their work to other employees.

Lean Tip #1221 - Develop an Environment that will Encourage Continuous Training

Foster an environment that will make your employees see that the future of the company lies within continuous on job training. You should replace the idea of initial training with ability to develop and become a better equipped employee. Coming up with this kind of environment will empower your employees thus giving them the self motivation that will drive them to the need of improving themselves. Your business culture should be built around employee improvement and satisfaction. Integrate continuous on job training in your daily routines so that it can stick. Remember, employees that are encouraged by the fact that there is a good environment within which they can grow have high chances of being loyal to the company hence better productivity in the end.

Lean Tip #1222 - There has to be a Good Communication System for Improvement

The key for finding areas that need to be improved or adapting to all your employees needs is through having an excellent communication system. There has to be clearly defined channels of communication within the company to facilitate better flow of information from employees and the management team. You have to give your employees well defined goals and directions on ways to improve on their expertise. Also remember that for better communication within the organization, the communication has to be two way; getting comprehensive feedback from your employees as well communicating ways that will help them improve as part of the continuous training strategy.

Lean Tip #1223 - Learn Something New Each Day

Approach life with a beginner’s mindset and look constantly for one new tidbit or a new way to expand your expertise or knowledge. Be open to learning and at the end of the day reflect on what you learned or sometimes maybe even relearned. Document, meditate or contemplate the ideas you have learned to help ingrain the lessons learned. Then you can decide how to put it into practice.

Lean Tip #1224 - Teach Others to Learn Yourself

You learn what you teach. If you have an outlet of communicating ideas to others, you are more likely to solidify that learning. Start a blog, mentor someone or even discuss ideas with a friend.

Lean Tip #1225 - Put Learning into Practice

Skill based learning is useless if it isn’t applied. Reading a book on Lean isn’t the same thing as doing Kaizen. If your knowledge can be applied, put it into practice. Set out to do something you don’t know how. Forced learning in this way can be fun and challenging.

Lean Tip #1226 - Pay Attention to and Engage People in Conversation to Demonstrate your Sincere Interest.

Participating in courteous conversation is a powerful relationship-building tool. Staff will find the fact that you take time to engage them in conversation rewarding and recognizing. You also set an example when you establish courteous interaction as an expectation in your workplace.

Lean Tip #1227 - 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 #1228 - One of the Best Forms of Recognition is to Provide Opportunities for a Contributing Employee.

Opportunities can take many forms. 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. They are happy to attend professional association meetings and proud to represent your organization at civic and philanthropic events. They’d appreciate the green light relative to implementing an idea they have for increasing morale in your workplace. They are eager to stop doing portions of their job that have become rote in favor of new goals and assignments that stretch their skills and build on their abilities.

Lean Tip #1229 - Employees Want to Know That They Have Done a Good Job – And, Especially, That You Noticed.

Employees want to be thanked and appreciated, every day, it can sometimes seem. But, a leader of employees makes other people feel important and appreciated, so frequent recognition sends a powerful message. The foundation of this successful relationship is the leader’s ability to make people feel important. This is critical when a manager’s success is dependent on whether employees want to follow him. In addition to words of appreciation, a manager’s actions speak loudly to employees about their value. Keep your commitments to employees.

Lean Tip #1230 - Link Recognition With Performance Goals.

The key is to promote behavior that will lead to better attitudes and improved performance. Therefore, every manager must know how to tie recognition with individual goals and the company objectives. If safety is a corporate goal, be sure to reward individuals for avoiding accidents or coming up with a new system to prevent them by making safety a priority. Connecting the recognition and a specific behavior helps drive future performance which will play a key part in achieving those corporate goals.

Problem Solving Starts With Defining The Problem

Accurate problem statements save time and effort by focusing the team on root cause identification. A well-stated problem statement is a clear and concise statement that describes the symptoms of the problem to be addressed. It speeds a robust corrective action process by identifying potential root causes and eliminating bias and noise.

Unfortunately, many don’t take the time to accurately define the problem. Here are three common errors in defining a problem:

1. Stating a solution in the problem statement

Bad – We need a new furnace because it doesn’t stay warm.

Good – The temperature is 20 degrees below specification.

2. Too large of a problem

Bad – The quoting process takes too long.

Good – The spare part quoting process takes 5 business days.

3. Vague problem statements

Bad – Customers don’t like the product.

Good – Customers returns of product X are 35%.

Consider the check engine light in your vehicle. It gives you a warning that there is a problem but it is poor at defining the problem. The light can come on for a number of problems. This doesn’t help you solve the problem and usually means you have to bring it in to a repair shop.

The problem statement is a clear and concise statement that describes the symptoms of the problem to be addressed. Defining the problem statement provides three benefits for the team:

• creates a sense of ownership for the team
• focuses the team on an accepted problem
• describes the symptoms in measurable terms

Accurate problem statements save time and effort when they contain all these elements:

• Keep it brief
• Avoid technical language
• Quantify the problem – Don’t solve it!
• Explain the costs
• Define the scope
• State the consequences/benefits of possible solutions

The following four guidelines are effective in creating a problem statement that is clear and concise:

Define the problem - In the problem statement, team members define the problem in specific terms. They present facts such as the product type and the error made.

Identify where the problem is appearing - Identifying where the problem is appearing, or manifesting, as specifically as possible helps the team focus its improvement efforts.

Describe the size of the problem - The size of the problem is described in measurable terms.

Describe the impact the problem is having on the organization - The description of the problem's impact on the organization should be as specific as possible.

The truth of the matter is that the more specific the statement, the better the chance the team has of solving the problem. An inadequate problem statement can lead the team down a dead-end path. When defining the problem statement try to avoid these four common pitfalls:

• The problem statement should not address more than one problem.
• The problem statement should not assign a cause.
• The problem statement should not assign blame.
• The problem statement should not offer a solution.

Another simple and effective method of defining a problem is a series of questions using the five W’s and one H approach (5W1H: who, what, where, when, why, how).

Who - Who does the problem affect? Specific groups, organizations, customers, etc.

What - What are the boundaries of the problem, e.g. organizational, work flow, geographic, customer, segments, etc. - What is the issue? - What is the impact of the issue? - What impact is the issue causing? - What will happen when it is fixed? - What would happen if we didn’t solve the problem?

When - When does the issue occur? - When does it need to be fixed?

Where - Where is the issue occurring? Only in certain locations, processes, products, etc.

Why - Why is it important that we fix the problem? - What impact does it have on the business or customer? - What impact does it have on all stakeholders, e.g. employees, suppliers, customers, shareholders, etc.

How - How many parts are involved? How are you going to solve the problem? Using what method or techniques?

Each of these answers will help to zero in on the specific issue(s) and define the problem statement. Your problem statement should be solvable. That is, it should take a reasonable amount of time to formulate, try and deploy a potential solution.

Einstein was quoted as having said that “if I had one hour to save the world I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.” This quote illustrates the importance that before jumping right into solving a problem, we should step back and invest time and effort to improve our understanding of the problem.

A well-stated problem statement speeds a robust corrective action process. It helps identify potential root causes and eliminate bias and noise. Accurate problem statements focus the team on the root cause of the problem. Only once the root cause is found can continuous improvement permanently eliminate it. Defining the problem statement is the first step in this process.

Lean Quote: Quality Comes Not From Inspection But From Improvement

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.

"Quality comes not from inspection but from improvement of the process." — Mary Walton

Unfortunately, there are not enough organizations that understand quality. Quality is not additive or final. It must go beyond the product or service. We cannot add it at the end of the line or inspect it into the product. At best that is only a false sense of security. If we want a quality product it must be made with quality processes by quality minded people.

Nothing is perfect and everything can be improved. We must continuously review how and what we do in order to find better ways of doing it. This means accepting the occasional mistake and having the courage to admit it, along with the strength of mind to find a better way of doing things in the future.

Generally the most effective way to achieve quality is to avoid having defects in the first place. It is much less costly to prevent a problem from ever happening than it is to find and correct the problem after it has occurred. Focusing on prevention activities whose purpose is to reduce the number of defects is better. Companies employ many techniques to prevent defects for example statistical process control, quality engineering, training, and a variety of tools from the Lean and Six Sigma tool kit.

Process-centric thinking does not have to be overly complex. Sometimes, all it takes is a thoughtful examination to uncover significant areas for improvement. Rather than tolerating mistakes and repeat errors, facilitate process-centric thinking to continually improve, correct, and overcome execution difficulties.

Start with the idea of preventing defects, not waiting until they are identified and correcting them. Many companies have an active Zero Defects policy where defect prevention is paramount and quality inspection is almost just a verification of what they already know – that the product is defect free. If we can start with quality and maintain that quality throughout the process we will have a quality product.

 

Quality is Defined by Customer

Like beauty and truth, quality is in the eye of the beholder, your customer. Quality is an ever evolving perception by the customer of the value provided by a product. It is not a static perception that never changes but a fluid process that changes as a product matures (innovation) and other alternatives (competition) are made available as a basis of comparison.

Quality and excellence are not what you say they are.  Quality and excellence are what your customers say they are.  Customers of your products and services define quality!

Quality involves both hard and soft numbers. Actual quality is a hard number that companies often have measured precisely. It is quality from the point of view of the manufacturer. Perceived quality and expected quality are soft numbers that measure quality from the customer point of view. Perceived quality is the quality of product received by the customer. Expected quality is the quality expected by the customer before receiving the product. These three measures form a product quality model: perceived quality = actual quality - expected quality. To keep perceived quality above zero, managers should: define customer needs through talking with customers; pay attention both to customer desires and expenditures of resources; realize that industrial engineering and human behavior both have impact on product delivery; and emphasize processes that have the flexibility to respond to customer feedback.

Customers want quality that is appropriate to the price that they are prepared to pay and the level of competition in the market.

Key aspects of quality for the customer include:

•           Good design – looks and style

•           Good functionality – it does the job well

•           Reliable – acceptable level of breakdowns or failure

•           Consistency

•           Durable – lasts as long as it should

•           Good after sales service

•           Value for money

The objective of “Quality" is to satisfy the ever-changing needs of our customers, suppliers and employees, with value added products and services emphasizing a continuous commitment to satisfaction through an ongoing process of education, communication, evaluation and constant improvement.