Lean Quote: Action is the Cure for Inaction

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.

"Perfectionism is a disease. Procrastination is a disease. ACTION is the cure." — Richie Norton

Perfection is futile.  To be sure, perfection is the goal but it can not be achieved in one single initiative.

If we all waited for perfection, we'd still be reading by candlelight and riding horses to work. The problem in the real world is that nothing is perfect. It sounds obvious, but it is not quite as obvious.

Often managers spot a chance to do something valuable for their company, but for some reason, they cannot get started. Even if they begin the project, they give up when they see the first big hurdle. The inability to take purposeful action seems to be pervasive across companies. Managers tend to ignore or postpone dealing with crucial issues which require reflection, systematic planning, creative thinking, and above all, time.

For leaders, action is one of the most important traits they can embody.  Taking action means getting things done.  It means seizing the initiative.  It conveys momentum, and energy, and creating something new, something that didn’t exist before.  And this excites followers and others who understand that going towards something is always better than sitting around staring at the wall.

The only cure for procrastination is action. That’s why the first step in creating a successful culture of execution is creating a bias toward action. People who make things happen need to be praised and rewarded. People who don’t should be coached to change, or weeded out. Failure cannot be unduly punished. Unless people feel free to make mistakes, they will not feel free to take bold actions.

 

The Best Meeting of the Day, The Standup Meeting

Photo Courtesy of Visual Management Blog

A stand-up meeting is a daily team meeting held to provide a status update to the team members. This meeting is also referred to as Obeya in Japanese, meaning “the big room”; in agile circles a “scrum” or huddle; and in the automotive industry “fast response”.

The purpose of these meetings is essentially the same:
         • Alignment through communication with the team
         • Identification and remedies for roadblocks

So what do we talk about during the daily stand-up? Well, Yesterday, Today, and Obstacles.

Some people are talkative and tend to wander off into story telling. Some people want to engage in problem solving immediately after hearing a problem. Meetings that take too long tend to have low energy and participants not directly related to a long discussion will tend to be distracted. `

Therefore, focus the meeting using the following format:

         • Start the meeting early in the day.
         • Should last no more than 15 minutes.
         • The entire team should attend (use a delegate or liaison
            for support).
         • The meeting leader (facilitator) should ask these simple
           questions:
                   o What did I accomplish yesterday?
                   o What will I do today?
                   o What obstacles are impeding my progress?

The frequency of stand-up meetings depends on the criticality of items discussed or the urgency of the project. More critical, more urgent items like customer complaints or high level projects may be daily to twice daily while other activities could meet less often. This doesn’t replace necessary team meeting to accomplish the project milestones.

Stand-up meeting provide a number of powerful benefits for teams:

          • Creates a shared language among team members
          • Allows for real-time reallocation of resources
          • Enables a focus on value-creating activities
          • Established a clear work plan for each day
          • Provides a mechanism for cultural change
          • Builds team identity and emotional commitment

From experience I have learned the following tips can help improve the effectiveness of your stand-up meetings:

         • Consider the use of a kitchen timer to ensure your
           meetings won’t last more 15 minutes.
         • A speaker phone can be used to include team members
           that are off-site.
         • Keep the attendance limited to those team members
           who actually create deliverables and perform actions.
         • Include “extended team” members only when their
           activity level on the project is high.
         • Pass a talking stick around so there is less cross-talk.
           (A strong facilitator is beneficial.)
         • Stand around the story/task board so you can focus and
           keep the board up to date as well.
         • Highlight issues but solve them later, this meeting is not
           for extended conversations.

Although, the daily stand up is a wonderful tool for collaboration, it is also useful to highlight a lot of obstacles and things that are stopping the team from reaching excellence. Management’s main role is to remove the obstacles and create conditions for the team to do their work efficiently.

Lean Tips Edition #93 (1396-1410)

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 #1396 - Create Sense of Ownership for Employees

Many companies try to use money as the primary factor to drive employee ideas. This usually doesn’t work well. Employees also need the feeling of ownership—a sense that it is their duty and their right to be involved. Taking pride in their company and knowing that their ideas are helping the company succeed are important motivating factors.

Lean Tip #1397 – Let Them Do Their Jobs

Having your hands in every pot is tempting. Don’t micromanage. Offer guidance, but let employees learn how to do their jobs by actually doing them. An autonomous workforce will keep your company running smoothly, and you’ll free up time for yourself to focus on the big picture.

Lean Tip #1398 - Remember That Hands-Off Doesn’t Mean Invisible

Even though you’re determined to let people carry on with their work, that doesn’t mean you should hole up in your office all day every day. Getting in face time with your employees is just as important as letting them get on with their jobs. Get to know them. Find out what inspires them, what makes them tick, what makes them the people they are. Ask them about their families and passions from time to time. It’ll allow you to build on common interests and connect on another level.

Lean Tip #1399 - Challenge and Motivate Employees

As a leader, it’s your job to take your company in the right direction. But you’re only as strong as the weakest member of your team. Challenge employees to be the best they can be. Give them tasks that put them outside their comfort zones every now and again. Then guide and motivate them. It’s not only a good way to keep your employees striving for excellence; it’s also a way for you to see how certain people will react in certain situations.

Lean Tip #1400 - Involve and Work Through People

Avoid being prescriptive with each step of your approach, rather opting to use a facilitated approach to get support and buy in from the teams involved. Always be open to a team using a different approach though still aligned to the overall objectives. Forcing things down people’s throats doesn’t really work well. Good facilitation should allow for a team to reach a pre-conceived conclusion on their own accord. On the same vein, allow the teams to decide what tasks and actions are to be done and offer to help rather than allocate tasks directly to the different people.

Lean Tip #1401 - Be Transparent to Gain Trust

If your company is doing well and goals are being met, let your employees know. Likewise, if the company is lagging behind in a few areas, make sure employees see the big picture. If an employee has questions about his or her standing, be frank. In short, be trustworthy. How can you expect your employees to trust you if you don’t trust them with certain information?

Lean Tip #1402 – Listen To Your Employees

It can be hard to hear what others have to say if you’re constantly touting your accomplishments and barking orders. Listen to your employees’ suggestions, then do something about it. Continue to encourage, support, and implement their ideas whenever possible. You’re a team, after all.

Lean Tip #1403 - Look Beyond Technical Know-How

Skills can be taught. Character can’t. When you’re vetting potential employees, look for those people who can provide additional value to the company. That doesn’t mean you should overlook technical aptitude, though. Encourage current employees to keep learning in order to stay ahead of the technical curve. Keeping their skills sharp and learning new ones won’t only help them do their job now, but will help prepare them for the future.

Lean Tip #1404 - Respect Your Employees’ Ideas

The real expert at a job is the person doing the job. Your employees will often have ideas to improve the product, service or processes that managers may not spot. But this means that managers and senior leaders need to be enthusiastic about the idea and committed to it.

Lean Tip #1405 - Encourage Employees to Collaborate on Ideas

Employee ideas don’t need to be a solo effort, so ensure that your system allows both individual ideas and collaborative ideas. Collaborating on ideas can improve the concept further and generate additional input. However, you need to encourage a culture where employees are enthusiastic about engaging with their co-workers and unafraid to share their ideas.

Lean Tip #1406 – Promote Responsiveness

Along with good listening, organizations should promote responsiveness — to employees, internal and external audiences, leaders, and more — in good times and bad. Open communication and responsiveness, as well as honesty, helps facilitate discourse with employees with issues and working together to fix them.

Lean Tip #1407 – Set Realistic Goals

You can’t build Rome in a day, and you can’t expect your employees to do so, either. Change is implemented gradually and strategically. Setting realistic goals eliminates unnecessary stress that can hinder quality and quantity of work, create unhappy employees and impede progress in your organization.

Lean Tip #1408 – Promote Insatiable Learning

Insatiable hunger for knowledge keeps leaders, employees and companies fresh and cutting edge. Always be open to learning new things and promoting education for all employees, no matter how much you think you or they already know. Webinars and courses to help with operations and teamwork keep your employees engaged and improve your company’s profitability.

Lean Tip #1409 – Embrace Innovation to Grow

Along with being open to learning new things, it’s important to be ready to implement what develops. Embracing change and adapting to new demands not only keeps a company relevant, but also presents exciting challenges for employees that can make work less routine and even boring. Challenges engage and help employees — not just the organization — grow.

Lean Tip #1410 – Make Work Enjoyable

Make sure employees don’t dread work every morning. Generating a comfortable and enjoyable space, physically and mentally, where employees feel welcome and supported by their peers, is crucial to happiness and productivity. While company growth and profitability may be the overarching goals, you should also be invested in helping your employees grow — whether it is to promote them within your own organization or help them move onto bigger opportunities. These employees will be not only grateful, but also productive and loyal.

Lean Quote: If You Want Engagement, You Must Engage

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.

"If you want engagement, you must engage." — Karen Martin, The Outstanding Organization: Generate Business Results by Eliminating Chaos and Building the Foundation for Everyday Excellence 

People choose to become engaged if they have sufficient opportunity and motivation. Having said that, there are things you can do to help. You can create the conditions so that people to do things because they want to, rather than because they were told to.

Do you get a steady flow of ideas from your team? Are they pro-actively coming up with ideas for doing things better in your area? for your customers? Though this may take time to develop, the way to get this going is two-fold: 1) demonstrate your interest by listening to all ideas and 2) demonstrate your commitment by implementing the best ones. Take steps to turn their ideas into action as often as you can. And empower your team to act. Give them the latitude to do it themselves.

Engagement for the sake of engagement is just that. Happy employees are good, but happy employees that contribute to the business by performing in exceptional ways are better. It’s also critical to remind employees and management that engagement is a two way street – the company will do great things for employees and employees will do great things for the company. Very few companies get this right, but those that do create a virtuous cycle of employee engagement where the company does more for its people and the people do more for the company which in turn causes the company to do even more for its people.

Without your employees, your company simply couldn’t do business. Employees keep the company running and keep your customers happy. You can increase employee engagement by actively acknowledging the wonderful work they do as a team. You can also show employees how they make a difference beyond the company’s core business mission by highlighting the impact of the company’s philanthropy initiatives, corporate volunteer programs, and other charitable giving. Recognizing these causes reminds employees they’re making a difference beyond their place of work.

 

5 Ways to Improve Employee Engagement

Employee engagement doesn’t come from a suggestion box. Employee engagement is a workplace approach resulting in the right conditions for all members of an organization to give of their best each day, committed to their organization’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organizational success, with an enhanced sense of their own well-being. Engaging employees is the process of enabling them to think, behave, act, react and control their work in more autonomous ways, as to be in control of one’s own destiny.

Engagement may not be a new concept to you, but many organizations experience problems because they don’t know how to ‘live it’. Most corporations, however, fail to recognize and empower their most important assets: employees. Engagement in the workplace is an often-misunderstood concept. Employee engagement is a term that many managers and organizations think they understand, but few actually do, and even fewer really put into practice.

Here are 5 ways that you can improve employee engagement in your organization:

1.     Encourage open communication

You can get insight into what things are important to the employee by using surveys, suggestion boxes and team meetings. Be open-minded and encourage them to express their ideas and perspectives without criticism. This means putting into practice everything you have learned about effective listening. Address their concerns in the best way you can.

2.     Support employees in their work and growth

How many of you have responded to a subordinate’s idea as brilliant or even good. Success begets success. You can support employee growth by providing education and learning opportunities, cross training, coaching, and any other interactions that support employees’ personal development.

3.     Collaborate and share on problem-solving

When employees get the idea that their manager or leader is the one who has to solve all the problems, it takes away from their sense of empowerment, and ultimately is likely to decrease engagement over time. Encourage team members to take responsibility, and work through problems or issues on their own, or collaboratively. It’s not the manager’s job to fix everyone else’s problems.

4.     Share More, Not Less.

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.

5.     Culture of Continuous Learning:

Last but not the least is culture of continuous learning. Companies with higher number of knowledge workers grow at much higher pace as compared to competition and their growth is mostly sustainable. Training programs, workshops, brainstorming sessions, and focus group discussions can help employees improve their knowledge. In addition, this process provides peer-to-peer learning opportunities that result in improved performance.

Employee involvement cultivates an atmosphere of collaboration, increases retention of talented staff, and intensifies dedication and commitment. Employees develop a sense of ownership over proposed changes when they are involved.  Employee engagement can not only make a real difference, it can set the great organizations apart from the merely good ones.

Empowering employees is the ongoing process of providing the tools, training, resources; encouragement and motivation your workers need to perform at the optimum level. If your organization is looking for a way to speed processes and still produce quality materials and services, focus on employee empowerment. When you show an employee you trust them, and give them timely information and the authority to find solutions, they will be able to solve problems and provide solutions more rapidly than someone without that empowerment.

Engagement for the sake of engagement is just that. Happy employees are good, but happy employees that contribute to the business by performing in exceptional ways are better. It’s also critical to remind employees and management that engagement is a two way street – the company will do great things for employees and employees will do great things for the company. Very few companies get this right, but those that do create a virtuous cycle of employee engagement where the company does more for its people and the people do more for the company which in turn causes the company to do even more for its people.

What other advice would you suggest? How do you get engagement in your company?

5 Reasons Why Suggestion Boxes Fail

Many organizations want to harness the ideas for improvement that naturally exist in their employees. Suggestion boxes are a common, but ineffective, way to engage employees in continuous improvement. They’re usually implemented with the best of intentions by managers who genuinely want to hear their employees’ improvement ideas, but the boxes fail to produce the desired engagement. Most of the reasons suggestion boxes, or any idea collection process, do not work effectively come down to a combination of process, culture and communication related issues. If you’ve tried to implement a suggestion box system in your organization before, it likely failed due to one of these reasons:

1. Lack of Follow-up
If employees feel you’re not going to seriously consider or implement their ideas, they are unlikely to participate actively. Not only will your employees be unhappy with the organization’s apparent lack of follow up, but this will likely decrease overall employee morale. Employees aren’t going to exert discretionary effort sharing improvement ideas, if they don’t know what happens to them.

2. No Recognition and Reward
A great way to increase employee engagement in continuous improvement is to recognize people for their involvement. Employee recognition doesn’t need to be anything big or fancy - a pat on the back or a high five is enough to encourage the participating employee and promote the engagement of others. Suggestion boxes make this difficult, though, since there’s no public acknowledgement for submitted or implemented improvements.

3. Too Hard to Submit Ideas
Imagine this scenario. You’re a busy front line worker, running around all day trying to get your work done. You have an idea for a way that would improve your. Do you a) Stop working, write it on a slip of paper, run across the department, and drop it in a box, or b) Implement it in your own work... if you remember... maybe. If you’re like most people, you don’t go out of your way to submit ideas that likely won’t be followed up on anyway. If no one is submitting ideas into your suggestion box, your system is failing.

4. Hard to Share Improvements
The best way to spread continuous improvement in an organization is to broadcast improvements. Announcing the impact and recognizing the person who made the improvement encourages others to get involved, and sharing new best practices expands the reach of each idea. With a suggestion box, leaders have to take the time to notify all of the right people about new improvements. Busy managers don’t often take the time to reach out to individuals like that, so the improvements don’t spread.  

5. Doesn’t Promote Engagement
There are several ways to promote the engagement of employees in continuous improvement, including to recognize and reward those who have participated already, broadcast improvements to share best practices, increasing visibility into improvement work to identify high- and under-performing areas, responding quickly to employee engagement, to name a few. Suggestion boxes certainly don’t help with any of these behaviors - and often, they directly interfere with them. Good luck spreading continuous improvement with a stagnant box on the wall.

Suggestion boxes are a bad way to approach a great concept, and the desire to engage employees in continuous improvement shouldn’t be abandoned because that method failed. Instead, I’d encourage you to look into real employee engagement.

The pitfalls of an ill-conceived employee suggestion program are multiple, legendary and most frequently - avoidable. With organizational commitment, clarity and ongoing communication employee engagement can positively impact your bottom line and your employee motivation and enthusiasm.

Lean Quote: Quality is Not Just a System, It is a Culture.

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 is not just a system. It is a culture." — Haim Berman 

Corporate culture, safety culture, quality culture, lean culture, … We talk about culture all the time but what is it?

Culture is the environment in which you work all of the time. Culture is a powerful element that shapes your work enjoyment, your work relationships, and your work processes. But, culture is something that you cannot actually see, except through its physical manifestations in your work place.

Culture is like personality. In a person, the personality is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, interests, experiences, upbringing, and habits that create a person's behavior.

Culture is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people. Culture is the behavior that results when a group arrives at a set of - generally unspoken and unwritten - rules for working together.

In a healthy business culture, what's good for the company and for customers comes together and becomes the driving force behind what everyone does. Culture determines what is acceptable or unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong, workable or unworkable. It encompasses all learned and shared, explicit or tacit, assumptions, beliefs, knowledge, norms, and values, as well as attitudes, behavior, dress, and language.

An organizations culture shown in

(1) the ways the organization conducts its business, treats its employees, customers, and the wider community,

(2) the extent to which freedom is allowed in decision making, developing new ideas, and personal expression,

(3) how power and information flow through its hierarchy, and

(4) how committed employees are towards collective objectives.

Company culture is important because it can make or break your company. Companies with an adaptive culture that is aligned to their business goals routinely outperform their competitors.

It affects the organization's productivity and performance, and provides guidelines on customer care and service, product quality and safety, attendance and punctuality, and concern for the environment. It also extends to production-methods, marketing and advertising practices, and to new product creation. Organizational culture is unique for every organization and one of the hardest things to change.