4 Life Lessons We Can Learn From Our Veterans

On Veterans Day we take time to honor those who fight our nation’s wars. This is a time to honor our veterans, and one of the most important ways we can do that is to learn from their experiences. 

Here are a few universal lessons to learn from our veterans: 

1. We must appreciate our lives no matter what you happen to be going through. Whatever you need to do so is already within you. 

2. We must exercise our Free Will. Make your life count and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that you did not give up as you fought your own enemies…that is how dreams turn into reality and miracles begin to occur. 

3. We must keep hope alive. Hope is intangible, but the ramifications of not having it can devastate many lives; it is the nudge that we need when we least want it, and the salvation when we least expect it. Hope is the fabric we have weaved through years of knowledge, laughter, tears and pain. 

4. We must always believe in ourselves and in our innate power to heal. So doubt your doubts, not your mind, and do what you must to do more than just exist. We owe it to those who have sacrificed so much, but most of all, we owe it to ourselves. 

Though one day a year is not enough to show our gratitude for all that they have done, may we honor and say thanks to all veterans this Veteran’s Day. Remember to always keep them in your prayers for we are indebted to them for their commitment and loyalty to our country. They deserve our affirmation and respect. 

The 6 C’s of Great Teams

Sometimes, when looking outside of our own industry, we discover new perspectives or wisdom that can be applied within our own professional world. In this case, when looking at the topic of workplace teams, it’s a natural to examine and borrow some wisdom from the world of sports, where the strength of a team’s performance is routinely put to the test. 

Legendary football player and coach Vince Lombardi, whose name was given to the NFL Superbowl trophy, once said that “Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” In addition to Commitment, I’ve gleaned five other key qualities that seem to define championship sports teams throughout the decades. 

These six qualities, when applied to workplace teams, can also make for championship performance at your organization: 

Communication 

Effective conveyance relates to team's net results, rendition, and final goal achievement. 

Collaboration-Cooperation 

This encapsulates the sensibilities, orientation, and ethos that drive deportment within a normative culture or team. 

Coordination 

Interdependent reciprocal influences enable mutual cognizance for member within, their roles, and the responsibilities of all. 

Conflict resolution 

Immediately addressing divergence, rapidly organizing deviation, and assisting team members with disparity...arrest disagreements among team members, thereby facilitating goal achievement, overall success, and individual satisfaction while limiting discrepancies in future outcomes. 

Cognition 

True comprehension individually and among the collective, enables effective realization of all other C's within the team. 

Coaching 

Mentoring and leadership engagement with members improves team cohesion and overall performance. 

The first 5 C's can all be acquired and practiced with team training. The seventh C is where these skills are mastered. When team members hold each other accountable for using these skills as they work together, coaching one another for continued development, that's where the magic happens. Think back to any successful team you worked with and this C -- Coaching among peers -- will be apparent. But it, too, is a skill and with a little training, team members can become much more effective.

 

Great teams are made up of collaborative, communicative and cooperative people, those who support and complement each other. When individuals develop to their fullest potential, they contribute more to team efforts. No matter how smart, talented, driven or passionate you are, your success and the success of the company is enhanced by being a part of a successful team.  Incorporate the 6 Cs into your job routine. It will result in a win-win for employees and employers. 

Lean Quote: Respect Employees, Make Them Feel Valued

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.

"The employer generally gets the employees he deserves."   —  J. Paul Getty

Much about the employee experience is directly related to treating your employees well and making sure they have the resources they need to succeed. Bad bosses drive people to quit their job. Managers should focus on being leaders, being a role model and resource for employees, because when this is lacking, it generally leads to a negative experience with the business. Employees are happier when they have a partnership relationship with their boss. It is important for the organization to prepare management for this non-traditional arrangement. When all employees regardless of rank or role view each other as partners, the workplace environment is more open to collaboration. There are four important traits that management should have to facilitate these partnerships:

1.     Put employees first

2.     Connect with employees

3.     Release control when necessary

4.     Aim to improve the lives of others

Positive employee experiences lead to higher employee engagement, which brings benefits to the workplace culture and the organization as a whole. Some companies take the idea of employees as “partners” more literally by providing a way for employees to acquire stock in the company. As employees build real ownership in the company they work for, they will be more invested in the company’s success. When an employee has higher stakes at risk in how well the company is doing, it is more likely that they will work harder and want to contribute more. Once again, if the workplace culture is poor and employee morale is low, then the employees might not want ownership in the company. So it is important to treat employees like partners whether they actually have any ownership in the business or not.

For increased innovation and faster success, collaboration in the workplace is essential. Collaboration is proven to lead to happier and healthier employees; however, it can be difficult to motivate already unhappy employees to participate in collaboration. This ties into how respected employees feel, which is critical to the overall employee experience. After all, collaboration is the assumption that everyone can add value.  Making employees feel valued will increase and improve their engagement, and being active in the company can help them truly understand the importance of their role. Together, these things build a partnership between your employees and your business. The more that employees are viewed as and treated like valuable partners, the more likely it is that their employee experience will be positive and rewarding. Ultimately this creates an engaging work environment in which employees go the extra mile.

Respect employees, make them feel valued, and create a partnership for lasting success. There is nothing to lose by treating employees well, but there is everything to gain.

Lean Tips Edition #179 (Tips #2896 - 2910)

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 #2896 – Focus on Small Changes

Approach change in small, incremental steps; if you improve by just 1% every day for a year, you’ll be 37 times better than when you started. Test and implement small changes. This increases the speed of improvement and reduces the pressures and risks of implementing a major change.

To this end, focus your improvements on solving the root causes of issues. This allows employees to catch and contain small issues before they become larger and costlier to eliminate, and it prevents the same problems from reoccurring.

Lean Tip #2897 – Document Your Process and Performance Before and After Improvements Have Been Implemented

In kaizen, it’s important to “speak with data and manage with facts.” In order to evaluate improvements objectively, existing procedures must be standardized and documented. Mapping the process’s initial state can help you identify wastes and areas for improvement and provide a benchmark for improvement.

Measuring performance against existing benchmarks allows you to demonstrate ROI from your kaizen efforts and keep the company aligned around improvement. It also allows you to identify areas where your efforts are working–or not–so you can make strategic decisions about future improvements.

In order to measure performance objectively, you should identify metrics that quantify improvements. These may include metrics revolving around quality, cost, resource utilization, customer satisfaction, space utilization, staff efficiency, and other KPIs.

Lean Tip #2898 – Standardizing Work is Crucial to Kaizen

In order for improvements to last, they must be standardized and repeatable. Standardizing work is crucial to kaizen because it creates a baseline for improvement. When you make improvements to a process, it’s essential to document the new standard work in order to sustain the improvements and create a new baseline. Standard work also reduces variability in processes and promotes discipline, which is essential for continuous improvement efforts to take root.

Lean Tip #2899 – Create Your Own Kaizen Guidelines

While there are many resources available to guide you through your kaizen efforts, it’s important to personally understand your company’s kaizen journey. Reflecting on your kaizen efforts after improvements have been implemented is an important part of the continuous improvement cycle.

As you reflect on your efforts, develop your own kaizen guidelines. Start by creating guidelines based on your own experiences improving the workplace. Keep in mind that these guidelines should be for your colleagues, your successors, and yourself to understand the problems you have overcome. These guidelines will ultimately help you as you approach your next challenge.

Lean Tip #2900 – Enforce Improvements

It’s easy for employees to regress to their old ways. Enforcing the changes you’ve made to your processes is important for the improvements you’ve made to last, and it’s key to sustaining continuous improvement in the long term.

Documenting improvements, making sure standard work is up-to-date, and training employees on new procedures can help sustain the progress you’ve made in your continuous improvement efforts.

Lean Tip #2901 – Problem Solving Starts With Clearly Defining The Problem.

It’s hard to solve a nebulous problem you never took the time to clearly define. No workplace is perfect, and there are usually a variety of interrelated problems that can be solved at any one time. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed and distracted during the problem-solving process, go back to step one and make sure you are approaching a singular problem.

Lean Tip #2902 – Focus on the Solutions, Not the Problems.

It’s easy to become hyper focused on the conditions that created the problem. Shifting your focus away from the current problem to possible outcomes and solutions can give you a more positive outlook and open your eyes to new solutions.

Lean Tip #2903 – List Out as Many Solutions as Possible

Try to come up with ‘ALL POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS’ – even if they seem ridiculous at first. It’s important you keep an open mind to boost creative thinking, which can trigger potential solutions.

Coming from many years in industry, it is drummed into you that ‘No idea is a bad idea’ and this aids creative thinking in brainstorms and other problem-solving techniques.

Whatever you do, do not ridicule yourself for coming up with ‘stupid solutions’ as it’s often the crazy ideas that trigger other more viable solutions.

Lean Tip #2904 – Visualize the Problem

Try and document a picture of the process depending on the problem. This may or may not be relevant, but we all know pictorial representations often help. Draw a simple diagram without worrying about technical conventions, specific constraints etc. A simple picture diagram can help visualize the most complex of problems in any area. Use any simple tool like PowerPoint, white boards, sheets, and papers and never shy away from starting to draw these on the fly if understanding a problem is becoming a challenge.

Lean Tip #2905 – Learn from the Past

When you’re approaching a problem, consider any similarities it might have with a problem you managed to solve in a previous role. What did you do to solve this problem? Did it work? How could you improve on it? Learn from your successes and mistakes.

Lean Tip #2906 – Be Simple but Creative in your Solution

Building a simple solution does not mean trivializing the problem which you are looking to solve. The majority of the time, complex solutions are devised for a problem if the above points i.e. understanding the right problem, understanding the fundamentals of the problem, articulating the problem and focusing on the root cause, are not considered.

Give your brain a break, try to baseline your thoughts and stop when you have understood the problem and fundamentals behind it. It is always best to de-clutter your brain and then subsequently attack and approach the problem efficiently. Take a break, then recap and work on a simple solution to the right problem you are looking to solve.

Be creative in your problem solving. This has got nothing to do with how much creative ability you have, it’s basically about thinking of solutions from a different perspective rather than a perspective with which the problem you are looking to solve was built or on how the problem came into existence. This is quite an important message and is highlighted in one of my favorite quotes from Einstein.

Lean Tip #2907 – Don’t Settle for the First, Most Obvious Solutions

Because problem-solving strategies often need to be found and implemented quickly, it can be tempting to use the first solution that comes to mind. But is it the most innovative? And does it have the ability to solve the problem permanently? You don’t have to ignore or reject the first strategy that comes to mind, but be willing to park it until you’ve completed your problem-solving steps and have considered the alternatives.

Lean Tip #2908 – Engage the Best People

When you’ve found the best problem-solving strategy for the task at hand, know how to engage the best people and resources to resolve the problem. The best skills may come from an internal department, from external contractors or freelancers or from a combination of both. Knowing how and when to engage the best people is a key problem-solving skill.

Lean Tip #2909 – Be Efficient at Testing and Learning

Be prepared to test the best problem-solving strategies efficiently and learn from what is applied. Document the process from beginning to end to understand what works, what doesn’t, and the point at which solutions failed to solve the problem. Having comprehensive documentation will be beneficial when you do find the right solution, and will serve as a valuable guide for colleagues and teams who may later face the same challenges.

Lean Tip #2910 – Identify Problems Before They Occur

Someone with brilliant problem-solving skills (and very likely the respected leaders you admire) will have, over time, developed the ability to identify problems before they occur. While this doesn’t mean they can always be avoided, it does allow more time to establish and implement the best problem-solving strategy. This special skill also relies on extraordinary knowledge of an organization, its values and processes, the industry it exists within and broader market trends.

What Makes A Great Team?

A good team is the foundation for any high-performing business. Superficially, a thriving team looks very much like any other. However, it is what occurs unbeknown to a mere observer which separates a good team from the best team. The attitudes, the behaviors, the interactions, the language and the environment all add up to create a thriving team.

All teams, naturally, are different. All teams, too, will be fluid and evolving structures; people come and go (including team leaders); challenges or priorities change; the dynamic constantly adjusts. To that end, creating a thriving successful team is something that, as a leader, is never ‘done’ or completed.

Nevertheless, successful, thriving teams do tend to share a range of characteristics and attributes. Here are some surefire ways to build a team that will work together and produce results.

1. Desire to Learn

Have an open mind on your project and desire to learn new techniques.

2. Mutual Trust

Ability to express views and differences openly without fear of ridicule or retaliation and tolerance for others to do the same.

3. Mutual Support

Accept help from others on the team and give help without being concerned about prerogatives.

4. Communications

Ability to openly discuss and constructively react to existing problems impeding teams progress towards goals. Listen as well as talk.

5. Team Objectives

Be personally committed and work together toward the team goals.

6. Conflict Resolution

Accept conflicts as necessary and desirable. Do not suppress them or ignore them. Work them through, openly, as a team.

7. Utilization of Member Resources

Utilize individual and team abilities, knowledge, and experience fully. Accept and give advice, counsel, and support to each other while recognizing individual accountability and specialization.

8. Control Methods

Accept responsibility for keeping discussions relevant. Maintain the integrity of the team operation.

9. Organizational Environment

Respect individual differences. Do not push each other to conform to central ideas or way of thinking. Work hard. Keep the “team climate” free, open, and supportive of each other.

To have a great team, there is no surefire recipe for success. A combination of solid leadership, communication, and access to good resources contribute to productive collaboration, but it all comes down to having people who understand each other and work well together. Not every team needs that one superstar player to excel. Having the right mix of trust, ambition, and encouragement among your team members is crucial. To cultivate, share and embed these in your team is now your mission.

Lean Quote: If Human Beings Had Genuine Courage, They’d Wear Their Costumes Every Day, Not Just on Halloween

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 human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween."   —  Douglas Coupland

Well, it turns out that courage has a lot to do with leadership. Or shall I say, leadership has a lot to do with courage.

It turns out that courage may separate out the effective leaders from ineffective leaders and can be the differentiator whether a leader has influence or not over those they lead.

Now let’s unpack this idea about courage and leadership.

First, let’s look at the definition of a leader for a moment: a person who has commanding authority or influence. And a common definition of leadership is : the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.

Second, let’s go back to the definition of courage again: mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear or difficulty.

Now if we were to have some wordsmith fun and combine the definitions of leader, leadership and courage together in one sentence, I’d come up with something like:

“A great leader is someone who has influence and can effectively motivate a group to act towards achieving a common goal because they have mental and moral strength and will persevere and withstand danger despite their fears and the difficulty of the challenge.“

As you can see now, courage is not something outside of or a small component of leadership, it’s the foundation of good leadership and great work cultures. And organizations who embrace and value courage significantly increase their competitive advantage because they value their culture and the people in it above all else. And that in turn is the driver of their sustained and long term success.

So if you’re a leader and you’re looking to invest in yourself and your team as a way to become great leaders, I would suggest to start with courage and see where it takes you.