Northeast Lean Conference 2022 Re-cap

This past week I was fortunate to be able to attend one of my favorite annual activities, the Northeast Lean Conference. The theme of the conference this year was centered around amplifying lean, the collaborative effect. I presented with a colleague on collaboration within new product development at the conference. I’ll get to that in a moment but for now I want to take the opportunity to share some insights from my experience at the conference that we can all learn and reflect on.

The conference kicked off with Lee Dickenson, MD, SVP & CQO of Tufts Medicin with a discussion on collaboration in complex adaptive systems. As we have advanced in society from the concept of the master builder of the cathedral to teams of teams for the modern skyscrapers so too is the time for command-and-control styles to be over. No one person or group can know all disciplines in a business. We can break down our silos through collaborative management. We must work together for the best solutions.

Mike Holender, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt at Zoll Medical Corp discussed using A3 as a collaboration method. Our role is to improve the way we do our work as Freddy and Michael Balle illustrate in Lead with Respect with a simple formula:

A3 is a simple, one page problem solving methodology based on lean principles. It provides a structured and collaborative PDCA methodology for problem solving.

Shifting the company culture using A3 thinking starts with the vision. Here’s a roadmap to instill A3.

1. Use A3 language within existing work
2. Start writing A3s for existing work
3. Find promoters
4. Work with management to ask for A3s
5. Teach and coach on A3
6. Find more promoters
7. Continue to spread and scale (leverage promoters)

 

At Karl Storz the workplace culture has dramatically impacted employee turnover with their continuous improvement journey. Steve Escott, Sr Mgr. Warehousing & Order Fulfillment, shared their journey started with an idea board launched (from Northeast Lean presenter in 2017) to allow employees to have a voice with the company. Employees became the biggest advocate to solve problems and improve the business.

Comtran’s Lean journey transited from tools focused implementation to a strategy focused on people. They had to acknowledge the human side of change management. People development is based on the premise of what they called know, show, and grow. They built alignment to company vision/mission through individual development plans and goals. This team approach to policy deployment created collaboration from top-level business objectives to bottom-up improvement efforts.

Mike Matryn, Founder & President of SISU shared his approach to developing successful leaders and building world-class cultures. The primary purpose of management is to maximize the passion, purpose, and contribution of the people to help the organization be better every day.

Purpose – feeling connected to our vision

Passion – reason for being

Performance – accomplishing meaningful challenges

 

Mike introduced a Japanese concept called Omotenashi, which means hospitality. “Omote” means public face – an image you wish to present to outsiders. “Nashi” means nothing. Combining them means every service is from the bottom of the heart – honest, no hiding, no pretending. Omotenashi is about exceptional service and memorable experiences.

There are three elements of management for omotenashi:

·        Environment – management systems

·        Host – leaders

·        Guest – employees

3 steps to creating an Omotenashi culture:

1. Adopt a management philosophy that places people before profit and embraces the role of creating the opportunity for passion through work.
2. Design a daily management system which aligns people through strategy, encourages growth through challenge, and engages leaders as coaches.
3. Commit to a kaizen environment where each person strives to improve the organization everyday and takes pride in their accomplishments.

Bruce Watkins, President & General Manager at Karl Storz, ended the first day with discussion on bad collaboration, no collaboration, and good collaboration. We have all seen bad collaboration. The best outcomes come from collaboration and decentralized teams. Leader can inspire teams with “why” before “how or what” as Simon Sinek’s TEDtalk shows.

Build connections and collaboration in your organization changing your view to an outward mindset.

The 5 most important words are “How can I help you?”

The 2^nd day at the Northeast Lean Conference started with a wonderful presentation from Kevin Hancock, CEO of Hancock Lumber. He described how losing the partial use of his voice to a rare neurological disorder led him to a remote Indian reservation on the northern plains, where he discovered an entire community that did not feel heard. The two events combined to help Kevin realize there were lots of ways for humans to lose their authentic voice in this world. Furthermore, Kevin concludes leaders across time have done more to restrict the voices of others than to honor them.

Kevin took these understandings and developed a new leadership model designed to push power out – away from the corporate center – and give everyone in the organization a leading voice. The result was a high-performing corporate model in which business metrics soared as an outcome of a higher calling.

Leaders create change by becoming the change…

When power is dispersed in an organization, performance improves. Leadership is about giving other people a stronger voice.

There were a number of great presenters at the conference and I only shared a small sampling. Beyond the presentations there is wonderful networking opportunity with like minded practitioners across a number of industries and businesses. GBMP is already working on the next conference.

Save the Date: "It's About Time" on October 3-4, 2023 @ The DCU Center in Worcester MA.

Lean Quote: The Secret to Delighting Customer is Putting Employees First

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.

"Your number one customers are your people. Look after employees first and then customers last."   —  Ian Hutchinson

Of course, the customer remains king, but employees are the ambassadors of a brand. Whether the employee approaches the customer with a smile or with a sigh makes a big difference in the customer experience. After all, the employee is supposed to put the customer first, but if this employee is not happy with his or her work, this will inevitably reflect on the customer.

The time has come to work on enriching the employee experience just as we do the customer experience. It’s all about giving them a feeling of fulfillment and joy. Without that experience – one that evokes an emotion, a memory, some identity – employees will simply view their paycheck as a commodity; no different than bread at the supermarket.

You cannot have employees without customers or customers without employees. It’s like the chicken and egg conundrum: they both came first. Customers and employees are inextricably linked. Burning your employees out at the expense of customers’ satisfaction, as an example, throws that balance out of whack; its a losing proposition that you cannot sustain.

When you take care of your employees, they will naturally take care of your customers. Rather than making your customers the top priority in your company, make your employees the focus. An employee who is satisfied and sees how much you value their work will, in turn, take care of your customers.

Conversely, if you put your customers above your employees, you might wind up hurting those customers in the long run. Employees who see that you care more about the clients they serve than you do about them will not provide the same level of customer service. They will cut corners and care less. Make sure your employees are happy and provided with the tools they need to succeed and the rest will take care of itself.

Work on your employee experience, and those employees will be able to better deliver a quality customer experience.

Putting employees first has great value that cannot be overstated.

Lean Roundup #160 – September 2022

A selection of highlighted blog posts from Lean bloggers from the month of September 2022.  You can also view the previous monthly Lean Roundups here.  

 

Rethinking Strategy – Bob Emiliani shares new book Wheel of Fortune about  learning how to improve the process of developing business strategy, executing business strategy, and learning from strategy failure.

 

Robot Day – Bruce Hamilton talks about all thing AI and how it related to continuous improvement and elimination of waste or not.

 

How The Project Charter Evolves – John Knotts explains that a Project Charter should not be created and then tucked away inside of a filing cabinet or drawer but needs to evolve with the team.

 

A Simple Plan for Starting Your Lean Journey – Steve Kane shares 4 steps to point you in the right direction to get started by focusing on fundamentals.

 

The 7 Cs: Characteristics of a Leader to Create a Chain of Learning – Katie Anderson looks at the 7Cs of impactful leadership allowing you to approach problem-solving – and achieving needed outcomes while developing people –  in the most intentional way possible.

 

This is NOT Lean: Lean Staffing – Christopher Roser explains that “lean staffing” is actually not a lean thing and does not show respect for people.

 

A Mystery Solved! That Photo I Use to Talk About Standardized Work and Workarounds – Mark Graban discusses standardized work and the many workarounds people create.

 

10 Tips for Getting the Most Value from Value-Stream Mapping - Judy Worth shares 10 key things to keep in mind for ensuring your organization reaps the performance gains it can deliver — including improvements in performance and teamwork.

 

How Purpose Shapes Culture – Richard Sheridan reflects on the struggles and rewards of building a leadership culture that elevates human energy.

 

Why Coaching is a Core Skill of a Lean Leader – John Shook says if "learning by doing" at the gemba is the best way to learn lean thinking and practices (and it is), coaching is THE skill leaders need to enable more effective, more efficient learning.

 

Expanding the Purpose of Catchball – Josh Howell explains how catchball helps get the job done while building capability simultaneously.

 

The lean answer to uncertainty - Michael Ballé says in the face of uncertainty, when it’s hard to see the road ahead, we can still make things better day after day by embracing kaizen – until we are out of the woods.

Lean Tips Edition #193 (#3106 - #3120)

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 #3106 – Think Differently

Ideas for change can come from a process or policy that you have come across that may be improved or appears to be no longer fit for purpose. Choose something you and others genuinely care about. Keep it simple; you are testing small scale change not trying to do ten things at the same time. You may decide to do a project against a known standard; but this will be a real-time, dynamic audit with the real possibility of making a difference in a short space of time rather than the traditional approach we have become used to.

Lean Tip #3107 – Be Clear and Focused

Have a clear vision and objectives so everyone understands what you are doing and why. Using SMART goals (which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) should help you achieve this.

Articulate your vision and try to find the hook that makes them want to get involved as well. For example, what new skills they may acquire and the rewards for participating, such as team recognition or leadership.

Lean Tip #3108 – Make a Change and Evaluate it to See if it Worked

Use a straightforward measuring process so there is no doubting the improvements made. It's important to know the baseline activity before you start so you have a number of points of comparison and keep measuring little and often. Two data points are not enough. Record your results on a run chart so you can see the changes taking place over time.

Lean Tip #3109 – Engage Your Team

Improvement is a team activity. Therefore, an essential step in getting started is to engage in dialogue with your team. Make time to talk about what matters to people and involve them in solutions. No one person has the skills or knowledge to come up with a solution on their own. Identify the benefits to the team, customers, and employees, which will help with buy-in. If you don’t have buy-in from your team, you will likely fail, no matter how good your idea is.

Leaders must actively support and make time for improvement processes, in order for it to take hold and flourish. Enable your team to openly share information and encourage people to take action where it’s needed. As a leader, you can create a culture where your team feels connected and empowered.

Lean Tip #3110 – Commit to Change 

Most importantly, you need to enjoy the experience. Lean makes change a real possibility, which is both empowering and satisfying for everyone. Finally, don’t worry about what you don’t know or it being perfect the first time. You will learn by doing and your skills will be developed as you go.  Celebrate your successes and your failures, as there is valuable learning in both.

Lean Tip #3111 – Take a Tour

Sometimes we learn best by first witnessing the success of others. See the benefits of lean in action. It is not difficult to find organizations that will allow you to see their lean implementations (referred to as the Gemba walk). Take detailed notes of what is highly effective in their Lean implementations, ask questions, and get as much valuable information as you can in order to help you formulate you own Lean strategy for implementation.

Lean Tip #3112 – Discard Conventional Fixed Ideas

Part of problem solving is thinking “outside of the box.” Encourage fresh perspectives and ingenuity in your team in order to develop innovative ways to forward Lean manufacturing without changing what is already efficient and successful. With such a rapidly evolving climate in manufacturing, sometimes conventional thought is what leads to the problem in the first place!

Lean Tip #3113 – Provide the Right Supplies, Tools, and Training

Although it’s often taken for granted that a shop floor has what it needs, I’ve seen facilities where employees have to rummage through dumpsters to get simple supplies like grinding discs. From bad documents to missing parts, dropped balls are rampant in almost every industry. By correcting this problem with the right materials, tools, information, training, and work environment, a wide array of inefficiencies will simply evaporate. Your employees will jump to support any good-faith efforts that eliminate the inconveniences they experience.

Lean Tip #3114 – Enlist Believers.

A system-wide change must be powered by team members at all levels of the organization, not just upper level leaders.

The best lean implementations are mandated and supported top-down and put in place bottom-up by enabling the people who do the work to redesign and improve their work.

Find and enlist an army of recruits who will work under the guidance of your leadership team. They will establish the systems and processes that enable both structural and behavioral change.

Lean Tip #3115 – Leave a legacy

Many executives are passionate about what they do and care about making a lasting impact on their organization.

Implementing a process improvement culture can make a real difference to business teams and to the success of an organization. Execs are well-positioned to leave a legacy with the support of engaged teams who are executing processes aligned to the business strategy.

Lean Tip #3116 – Encourage Peer Recognition

Encouraging peer recognition is an effective way to ensure that your employees feel recognized and appreciated for their contributions. Instead of an annual, top-down approach, peer recognition programs empower employees to recognize and reward one another on a much more frequent basis.

Crowdsourcing employee recognition makes celebrating the myriad achievements and contributions of all the members of your team much easier, more organic, more genuine, and much more realistic to accomplish.

Although peer recognition is one of the most effective methods to ensure employees know they're appreciated, there are many other complementary initiatives you can implement that dovetail nicely with it.

Lean Tip #3117 – Highlight Employees When You Can

Whenever you get a chance, highlight your employees. There are a few different ways you can do this. Many companies use social media to highlight employees who are doing something special. Those employees then share that information with their friends and family, so you’ll get more eyes on your brand. This is a win-win for you and your employees. You can also highlight an “employee of the week,” which allows you to recognize employees more often than an employee of the month.

Lean Tip #3118 – Never Underestimate the Value of Sharing Your Time and Building a Relationship With Your Team

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 #3119 – Provide Opportunities for Contributing Employees

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 in 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 #3120 – Recognize the Person, Not Just Their Performance

When we think about the content of a recognition message, we usually associate it with praising an employee's performance. For example: "Great job on exceeding our targets for the quarter!"

But, the problem with only praising performance and productivity is that it can make your message's content feel impersonal.

Ultimately, to boost the impact of appreciation, a recognition message should add a few words about the soft skills they brought to the table. In short, be specific.

"Amazing job exceeding your targets for the quarter! We are so impressed by your creative problem-solving and work ethic."

As you can see, recognition and appreciation messages at work are most impactful when leaders highlight what the employee did differently. When someone sees you and understands you as a person, it's a great feeling.

Lean Quote: Take Time to Watch the Leaves Turn

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.

"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn."   —  Elizabeth Lawrence

Seasons change and each one beckons a new energy. Autumn, when the light is equal to the dark, is a period of both abundance and surrender. It invites you to celebrate your bounty – the fruits from the seeds you planted in the spring. Then, it reminds you to be grateful, demonstrating both the impermanence in nature and the possibility of regeneration.

So, pause to watch the leaves turn. Take time to reflect on the cycles of life. If you have received great favor, then determine how you can share the love. If your harvest was not as robust as you would like, then start planning for next season.

Just as leaves fall from the trees, it’s a good time to consider your strongholds and shed anything that doesn’t serve your spirit or may be holding you back from reaching your highest potential. As you let go of dead weight – whether it be habits, beliefs, activities or even people – you make way for new growth. You may just fall into a more vibrant version of yourself.

You’ve been working hard and playing hard. A great way to prevent burnout is to create space and time for yourself. Fall offers us a colorful window to sit and take in Nature’s work, to revel in the beauty that truly is all around us. Enjoy the peace, quiet, and beauty that autumn brings.

Autumn is the Season for Reflection and Gratitude

A new season greets us. Fall has arrived, and with it comes crisper air, warm sweaters and blankets, and natural beauty. For me there is a special magic in this season.

Leaves begin to burn into an explosive palette of colors, a crisp and cold air is blowing, the days are shortening, pumpkins are appearing announcing Halloween.

Symbolically, Autumn is a time for reflection and gratitude.  It's time to slow down and remember where we are coming from and where we're going.  It is time to reap what we sowed in the spring and time to commit to new projects.

Autumn leaves remind us to slow down and enjoy the life going on around us, right this moment. It’s a time to reflect

As leaders, we spend a great deal of our time looking for the right results – planning, measuring, and refining.

Again, these are often all necessary essentials if we are going to be effective in our roles. However, these results are not the goal of true leadership. They are simply the by-product of the true goal – helping people grow.

Autumn, and the measured slowness it brings, naturally creates an opportunity for us to simmer down, hit pause, and actually relate to our teams. It’s a time to remind ourselves that they are the resource, not the vehicle used to produce the resource.

Take time to interact with your people, all without agenda or expectation. Invest time in deepening your knowledge and understanding of who they are, what their hopes and dreams might be, and how you can help them become the people they were always meant to be.

Regular periods of self-reflection help leaders ensure they’re headed in the right direction with regard to engaging their teams, making progress on their own leadership development, and creating a legacy that is sustainable over the long-term.

Whether you are in a leadership role, an aspiring leader or you just want to be your best in work and life, the habit of reflection can build self-awareness, efficacy, and resilience. If done with purpose and intention, it can help you establish and achieve more meaningful goals and prepare for the new year ahead.

6 Tips For Building a Collaborative Work Environment

Nowadays, many employers cite collaboration as a key employee skill. It's a great way to encourage people to share knowledge and resources. It can provide great opportunities for cross-training and networking, and can even improve employee engagement levels.

Collaboration means working together with people from across the business to achieve a shared goal. Although similar to teamwork, a collaborative partnership is not hierarchical – everyone has equal status, no matter their seniority. You can collaborate with members of your own team or from other departments, as well as contractors, clients, or even other organizations.

Collaboration can demand a lot from people. It means being open-minded, listening to other people's opinions and putting personal agendas to one side. So, it's essential that you try to encourage collaboration across your organization. You can do this by:

Share knowledge, insights, and resources. Knowledge, as they say, is power. And if knowledge is shared amongst your team, they will feel more empowered to contribute on an even playing field.

Leading by example. People watch how you act. If you aren't afraid to listen to new ideas and offer solutions – even when it makes you vulnerable – you'll encourage others to do the same.

Building trust. Collaboration can stall when people don't feel able to open up. Combat this by setting up team-building activities, and encouraging people to give honest and constructive feedback. This will help to strengthen team bonds, to create a sense of shared responsibility and to give people the confidence to speak up.

Fostering a creative culture. Creative thinking underpins good collaboration. It can help to drive innovation and allows you to avoid groupthink. Encourage this behavior by making use of creativity tools and processes.

Achieve "Buy-In". While some people will jump at the chance to collaborate, others may not be so keen. They might see it as an imposition on their time and be worried about the extra work or stress that it could bring. So, before you ask someone to collaborate think about how it can benefit him or her. Identifying the wider strategic goal, like fine-tuning a process to increase income, can be persuasive.

Get out of the office. Getting out of the office regularly helps teams build relationships based on mutual interests rather than what they share in common within working hours. It helps employees see each other as humans rather than just colleagues.

Team collaboration is the cornerstone of any successful business. Collaborative workplaces see increased levels of trust, a more engaged workforce, and improved performance. Running a collaborative team environment is no simple feat. It takes a concerted effort to integrate co-operative values throughout your whole company's ethos.