Knowledge Fulcrum

In the last year, there are few companies who’ve not had to react in some way to the recent turbulent economic events.  In fact, many still are operating from their heels.  Perhaps your organization is still in a reactionary mode.

At what point do you and your employees realize it’s time to look for different ways of doing the work — and getting back into a proactive stance?  Maybe the time is now to start implementing a Continuous Improvement (CI) initiative to help your people get back on their toes again.

Other than the obvious financial reasons to implement such a program (e.g., cost savings — by doing more with less) there are a few other factors to consider.  1st – awareness will never be higher among your employees for why change is needed.  Today employees are thankful to still have a job; they’re also looking for new ideas and resources to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently.

2nd – the economic crisis is providing the prefect motivation for all parts of the company to work together towards a common goal.

3rd – everyone in the organization is aware of the need to add value to your customer to ensure that the customer continues to do business with your company.   Whatever the reason, based on my experience implementing improvement initiatives (both as a business owner and as a consultant) — there is no better time than right now.

So, where do you start?

Assess – you must start to see how your organization adds value to the customer and where the waste exists.  We’re not used to thinking this way – we do our jobs everyday and don’t always think about the little things that can add up quickly.  Assess which functional areas are most critical at the moment – those that can add the most value to the customer or that are your biggest risks.

Train — provide tools, resources and training to all your employees.  That may simply be accomplished by providing articles and blogs like this.  Or you may choose to utilize outside resources such as consultants or facilitators.  Whichever way you go – your employees will need to gain knowledge that effectively implements changes in your company.

Plan – Next, plan out your CI initiative.  Start with small improvements that will help to get your people up to speed.  If the improvement seems too big to bite off at one time, then break it down into smaller pieces.  Also, start with a smaller group of talented people who come from diverse parts of the business rather than with bigger groups.  In my experience, trying to implement CI programs company-wide is a recipe for disaster.  Once the initial group gains experience and confidence, then expand the size and number of CI teams.

Implement – This is where you try a lot of different things.  Just like anything else – it takes failing to find success.  As someone once told me — fail fast because that means you’re close to success.  Also, be sure to to identify the specific targeted improvement metrics (e.g., 30% reduction/improvement) you would like to get.  If you don’t put a number down, then it’ll be difficult to gauge your success level with the improvement initiative once it’s completed.

Validate – Verify your results.  Did you gain the improvement you expected?  If not, why?  Don’t give up on the work even if you’ve gained some benefit but not your target.   There’s always room for more – so don’t stop until you find the additional corrective measures that get you to your goal.

Standardize – Once you’re satisfied with your improvements, then memorialize them and make them your new standard.  This includes building in systems to verify that all employees are trained on the new standard and that you take the time to spot check each other’s work.  Improvements are difficult means to create new habits, so building systems into your CI program will help new improvements stick over time.  Don’t let the old ways of doing the work creep back into your organization.

The bottom line is this: there is no end point.  CI programs are iterative processes of assessing, training, planning, implementing, validating, standardizing your activities.   Now is the perfect time.  Start making improvements now – you’ll be impressed with how much opportunity exists inside your businesses today.

It always seemed that change never happens as quickly as we would like.  In fact, I would say that most of the people I know or associate with are all people I would consider to be open to change.  Yet, I would also say they struggle with how slowly change actually happens.  Does this mean we all, in fact, are not open to change?

Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years about change – specifically in the context of organizational change:

• Change is slow and tends to be frustrating for most people involved.
• It’s often hard to tell how “change” is going.
• There seems to always be more people against change than are for it.
• Factions in the organization try to kill change before it takes hold.
• Feedback frequently comes from why “change” won’t work.
• It always feels like the change is failing right up to the point when it starts to take hold.

I would imagine that this list seems quite familiar to many of you.  So, what?  Maybe these ideas will help everyone embrace change:

• It’s the journey not the destination that counts.  There will always be opportunities for change.
• We all are responsible for making improvements.
• Before coming up with solutions try asking “why” five or more times.  You are likely to be surprised as to what the root cause actually might be.
• Encourage involvement from everyone when brainstorming solutions.
• Don’t waste time explaining why an improvement won’t work.
• Focus on improving existing processes without “buying” solutions (if we just had this software, this tool, this…).
• Don’t waste time trying to implement “prefect” solutions, just make incremental improvements.
• Think immediate implementation – if it will take a year to implement it’s less likely to happen.

Now more than ever our orgainzations are in need of change.  In many cases it’s a matter of survival.  Share these ideas with the people you work with and start making improvements today.

Perhaps the best book I’ve read for anyone who uninspired in their work or is looking for work.  Innovative, on point, and best of all you can read it in less than an hour.  I’m buying extra copies so I can give them to people I know who are lost.

At least watch the trailer…brilliant a trailer for a book.

What does your employee feedback program look like?  Do you have one of these boxes in your office?  How do you gauge the mood of the employees in your organization?  Do you know what’s getting in the way of your people’s performance?  How do you know?   Let’s start over – why should you care? 

First, I’ll start with why some  employee feedback programs don’t work:

• Feedback systems are black boxes.  Ideas and suggestions either never get seen or fall on deaf ears.    If you aren’t willing to take action, then DON’T ASK FOR SUGGESTIONS.
• Feedback isn’t timely.  If the system is designed to gather information, but it’s not noticed or acted on immediately, then the problem either already did its damage or has grown into a bigger problem. 
• Suggestions are poorly defined.  Too often, employee feedback systems are only used to vent personal issues about peers, managers and customers and don’t identify the core operation or process that is broken.  
• Lack of accountability.  Most systems don’t provide any feedback loops to ensure corrective measures are identified, implemented and standardized.
• Feedback is ad hoc, not systematic.  If you don’t make it a priority everyday, or every week – then feedback systems won’t stick long-term.

If you’re still unsure as to the benefit of good feedback systems – then perhaps you can read a bit more about world-class organizations that implement feedback systems that produce results (Thanks, Verne!).  

Now the good news.  This doesn’t have to be rocket science – here are  a few tips to get you started:

• Make it a habit.
• Keep it anonymous.
• Make it about what, not about who.
• Good systems ask for feedback on corrective measures that will work; good systems are not just looking for complaints.
• Don’t shoot the messenger – if you aren’t ready to hear the brutal facts, then go to another website.
• Make sure the issues are visible so EVERYONE can weigh-in on what issues need addressing first.
• Never, ever stop!  It’s continuous improvement.
• Offer rewards when improvements save the company time, energy and money.  It only works if everyone has a stake in the outcome.
• When you listen – don’t defend but keep an open ear and mind to what your people have to say.

Today more than ever we all need to work together to identify and solve the issues that are holding our performance back.   Employees and owners can no longer look to the other for the answers - we need to work together to make our organizations and ourselves stronger, better and more effective.