Change a Culture with Reasonable Expectations

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We all have gone on diets in our lifetime and some of them are successful and others end up as a forgotten resolution. Changing a culture is similar to a diet. First you must have a plan. Cold turkey is usually the worse strategy and miracle solutions just don’t exist. The successful diets and culture changes are the ones taken in small steps and limit expectations for set periods of time.

Culture change will not happen quickly. The struggle you may encounter is competition with consultants who promise a steadfast overall change in a short time span. If you are not gradual in your change, you will fail. How many quality improvement initiatives and programs have come and gone? Most initiatives that are too broad reaching and aggressive fail because of two reasons. It too costly to force huge change quickly and only small steps to improve are sustainable. Initiatives that are too large in scope and possess extremely high expectations have traditionally rolled out and take extraordinary labor resources and cost at a high rate which no organization can afford. Consultant packages that fail are usually too aggressive and ignore the fact that people need a “soak” factor to buy into the changes. Consultants need to justify their results and invoke management by objectives that are not contiguous with culture change. They are on a time schedule to make revenues and measureable results quickly.

You must make several small changes and let them soak into the work environment allowing employees to embrace the changes and see the benefits. This allows management to caress the attitudes of the workforce so that they see the tasks as theirs. Management cannot force a lean journey through presentations and communications. We must put task initiatives in place and work with employees to allow their acceptance and desire to sustain these initiatives. When the first segments of your plan are now sustained by the workforce because they own it, roll out the next set of initiatives. A journey to lean takes years and is an ever improving initiative. Educate, communicate and empower the sustainment of the program.
Leadership cannot roll out a program that is too comprehensive, esoteric and urgent. Employees, and leaders, are creatures of habits and they believe their current methods and current tasks are the most efficient way to achieve results. They view change as a threat to their skill set and intelligence in many cases. We must use their talents and skills to ensure that tasks are complete and transferred from one employee to the next. People will reinforce changes to others if the changes necessary and therefore risks are minimized. We must foster employee’s choices and guide them to the correct path. Leaders need to allow the process to mature and provide ongoing communication. Employees must embrace the change for it to sustain and they will be more successful if they are supported by their peers and leaders. When change becomes the norm, you will succeed.

Know who your informal leaders are. If they are not bought into the process and change, it will not succeed. Once those employees take ownership of the changes they will reiterate the need to others without management intervention. Forced overall change without the organization’s ownership will not sustain. The organization must own the culture and management must be perceived as supporters and “roadblock removers”. Anecdotally, I can speak of corporations that struggled to create common sense culture changes because leaders just rammed their philosophy into the organization. The lack of “buy in” by the general population left the organization with a lack of ownership. Change agents are empowerment drivers and they provide the cheerleading for the organization to change. Dictators do not sustain change by intimidation but create an “us versus them” environment. You must understand that your people want to be the best and complete the best job possible. Empower them to change but give them a reasonable amount of time to own the culture.

Finally, you must reward small successes. The rewards do not have to be huge nor monetary. A simple rewards program that stimulates continual improvement will revive personnel after they have taken extensive efforts to improve the organization. Allow your groups to make mistakes and do not jump in on every error and redirect. If you continually correct your workforce, it will become your program and not theirs. You must think about the lessons in life that we really remember and those that we made errors within tend to be the ones we remember. Your workforce will appreciate the fact that you allowed them to correct their own mistakes and will assure you through future actions that they will not repeat them. Embrace your organization and appreciate all the effort s they take to improve the company. Provide a vision, a strategic plan and then cheerlead the organiz

Five S Implementation

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The 5S initiative is one of the most difficult to accomplish in your lean journey. The efforts to sort, simplify, sweep, standardize and sustain are the backbone of lean. Many companies roll safety as the 6th S, but in reality that is a mistake. 5S is about the lean manufacturing of business. For businesses to treat the safety of employees on the same plane as lean is a critical mistake. In the hierarchy of business and employee needs, employee safety is the most critical and far more important than efficiency and is the baseline of the hierarchy. The emphasis on the 5S is overlooked and considered by many to have aspects that are optional and not necessary for productivity improvements. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Sorting is necessary for several reasons. First a sorted facility reduces inventory waste, eliminate the use of un-standardized tools or parts, and eliminates confusion to employees who are at different training levels. It also increases usable space by the elimination of storage for unnecessary items, obsolete tooling, and duplicate materials. Having the correct tools visually noticeable in each workplace allows both the operators and supervisors to realize any shortages that may exist. If you look at effective assembly operations, tools are placed in the proper places before, after, and during production. Have you ever had the home project and did not return the hammer to the proper place at the end of a project? Then in a couple of months when the next project is started you floundered to find where you left that hammer. The same is said for the wrench on an assembly line. After the daily production is complete, if an operator leaves the wrench in an undesignated location, they will have trouble starting the next day’s production on time. Therefore, efficiencies are dwindled from their optimum. Communication between shifts and workers becomes more effective in a well sorted environment and much of the extraneous discussions and frustrations disappear as everything is where it should be located. Finally, a poorly sorted operation effects the quality of product. Tool substitutions are minimized as all the proper tools are always available to everyone. The application of any incorrect parts or subassemblies are eliminated.

Simplifying the operations are key to the lean process. This effort also reduces inventory as designers attempt to use common hardware that is readily on hand. This prevents special orders for unnecessary products. This also eliminates waste due to difficulty in using unique items and improves quality as options for misapplication become more limited. But the simplification goes further than design. It includes the arrangement of the workspace and encompasses shadow boxing tools and standardizing the best tools for the job. The development of simple jigs and fixtures improves the quality of product as a standard method of locating features is in place. Jigs can be designed with the same basics and mere detail changeovers accommodate mixed model production. As a manager, we should also drive the organization to the simplest functionality by reviewing each step of the operations with engineering, operations and quality concurrently. Do not merely accept the design from research and development as seldom is efficiency and productivity taken into account.

Sweep or shine is essential for several reasons. First and foremast is ensures a safer workplace. The cluttered workplace is one that is doomed for trips and falls. Clean and bright workplaces have a psychological effect on workers that is positive and is one where we are proud to employ ourselves. The lack of lighting can lead to poor morale and inefficient work. Shine can also assure that tools are in the proper condition for usage at all times. The lack of lighting also allows undetected visual defects and therefore the bright and shiny workplace is less apt to produce and ship nonconforming hardware. I painted all my machines white in a company. Initially, the thought of white machines that remove metal was frowned upon because it was not sustainable. As each machine showed a leak, the leak was fixed to prevent the need to repaint. That triggered an improved TPM program which reduced downtime by 21%.

The most difficult is the standardization of work. This effort integrates the sort, weep and shine and simplifying efforts. It ensures conditions do not deteriorate to the former state and facilitates the implementation of the aforementioned. The standardization of work ensures that work is performed the same way time after time and integrates an improved quality and predicable delivery plan. It is difficult to create the standardization of work and it is very time consuming. You must segment your workplace into sub-sections so that smaller successes can be declared and celebrated. It is essential that the format for the standardization is easy to implement and that any software you use is ready to use for its purpose. Do not use ad hoc programs as the documentation and implementation is difficult and strangling the organization with complicated programs will exhaust personnel. Eventually, your standard work will allow you to predict how many people are needed to attain takt time for work cells and will assist in allocation of resources necessary to attain customer commitments.

Making a habit of properly maintaining correct procedures and installing the discipline to regress requires that all personnel including management pay attention to detail. The consequences of not allowing employees to correct standard work when needed, to clean, sort, straighten the workplace, and allowing an environment of sustainment will deter any advancement of the lean systems your put in place. It will evolve a culture where employees will consider your journey as another program that went to the wayside and will make any revitalization of the effort more difficult.

Stepping into a New Leadership Role

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One of the most difficult situations that a leader can be placed into is the new company, new role, and new organization. How you begin your new path is certainly one of the most important aspects of your team’s perception, willingness to change, eagerness to resolve, and conquering the pessimism. The first ninety days are critical to your success and not phasing in correctly can create damages that can take a year to recover. You must look at your leadership team from their paradigms and realize the impact and reservations they may have with you. There are certain Do’s and Don’ts that come with your initial participation within the organization. Be aware of them and do not make these common mistakes.
1. Don’t – Do not make any immediate changes to the organization. The first mistake you can make is to change a culture you do not understand.
2. Do – Become a sponge for fro understanding the business. You cannot make a strategic plan for a business that you do not understand. It takes time to understand the paradigms that the business is run within and the informal and formal communications, relationships, and interactions. Understand the business well before you come to conclusions.
3. Don’t – Do not overact to immediate relationships and alliances. Initially, you will be approached by and included into some casual conversations and invites. Do not refuse them but take the communications you receive as a perspective. Too often, we form early relationships but find out that they may be tainted or ones with ulterior motives.
4. Do – Reach out to the quiet and standoffs. Some of your best employees will be those that are quiet and reserved. These employees may be your best contributors so reach out to them, start conversations, and ask for input.
5. Don’t – Do not discuss your plan within the first sixty (60) days with anyone. It is essential that you arrive to your plan based on observations and inputs. However, discussion of that plan may change the way people act and react in their current operations and therefore your understanding of the work paradigms may be thwarted.
6. Do – Speak with customers to understand their concerns and observations. Speak with all customers at all levels including the ones that receive your products and perform additional tasks on them. Speak to suppliers to understand their perspectives and working relationships. Ask for honest feedback so that you can improve relationships. Some people may be conservative in their feedback and not want to hurt existing relationships. Ask for detailed information that is not only subjective but one based on data driven questions.
7. Don’t – Jump to immediate conclusions. Take the first (60) days to absorb information without forming any conclusions. If you form a preliminary option, it could allow you to roll additional inputs to support your theories.
8. Do – Reach out to all levels of the organization. The golden nuggets are usually hidden deep with the rank and file. Hold skip-level meetings and all hands meeting also. They can be invaluable in your understanding of the business.
9. Don’t – Rush the process. Form a strategic plan over time and base your opinions, actions items, and plan direction on data. Don’t make purely subjective decisions but validate your opinions with data.
10. Do – Enjoy the process as it is the building blocks for your success. Review the plan and vision with your leadership team and assure that you have consensus. This is the first steps to your success as a leader and your will be rewarded if you complete the transition successfully.

Reflections on Successful Leadership

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As we walk the path of guiding organizations to success, we need to question whether we are successful. Too many leaders are greatness in their own minds and they measure success merely by business metrics. As they progress down their strategic plan, one day they are woken to realize that their workforce in disengaged, reacting only to commands, lack empowerment, seek others to represent them, and are disillusioned with what success resembles. That leader will first defend their actions and accuse the workforce of being lazy, not motivated, and simply a reflection of a poor work ethic that is a culture problem. They will increase demands and employees will react slower and with resentment. Have you ever worked for a leader like this? We all have. They end up failing and hurting companies that take years to recover. They are the egomaniacs of the world. Every other sentence is “I”. They may not have started out this way but have slipped into a false sense of self-worth and accomplishment.
There are ways to stay away from the slide as a leader. You are nothing without your empowered, engaged workforce. You cannot lead a defeated organization using the same tactics that defeated them. Below is listed ways to avoid slipping into the trap.

1. Communicate every day with someone in your workforce. A regular conversation with the people from all levels of the workforce is necessary to keep a pulse on your organization. The continued communication develops relationships and allows you to receive feedback in a real time manner.

2. Don’t dismiss criticism. There are disgruntled employees everywhere but you cannot merely dismiss complaints as those of a poor employee. There is usually a shred of truth in every complaint or statement. It may be exaggerated and at times or may be something stated with an ulterior motive, but examine what is said. Do not over-react to every comment but place some credence in it and examine if what is told you is the truth.

3. Hold regular multiple group meetings. All Hands meetings should occur monthly, sub-groups should meet weekly and work groups should have a meeting format on a daily basis. While the finance world will measure this as indirect labor charging that shows a loss, the resultants for improved productivity will far exceed those small losses. There is no format for everyone. Some people will not speak out in a large group and some will feel secure in those groups and give constructive feedback. Small groups can also be intimidating for some people and there are work group clicks that will stop some from speaking up. Finally, hold regular skip level meetings on a regular basis. They should be a minimum of quarterly intervals. Skip levels eliminate the presence and intervention of middle management. People will speak more freely in these meetings and you will receive different feedback. Caution: Do not overreact or make promises to fix problems in these meetings. Doing so will result in group leaders and middle management feeling betrayed. You are there to gather feedback, describe your vision and strategic plan, and create list to investigate.

4. Be honest, loyal, ethical, and have principles each and every day. Do not deceive your workforce. There are always business situations that do not allow you to unveil everything to the entire workforce but you can merely state “I cannot comment on that now”, “We have not made final decisions regarding that matter and when we do we can discuss it”, “I understand your concerns and when we have answers to those we will discuss at the next meeting” etc. Do not lie. Your workforce will lose your trust and everything that is discussed at meetings will be merely dismissed as a possible misrepresentation.

5. Walk the walk of you employees. Walk their job with them for an hour every year. Learn what their job is and understand their challenges. While you walk their job with them, realize they are people that work to live. They have families, children, parents, schooling issues, financial burdens etc. Talk to them as a human being and a leader. Nothing makes someone feel valued more than when you walk the floor and can say, “John, how is the boy’s baseball team doing?” Mary, how is the daughter’s gymnastics coming?”, “Harry, how is mom doing”. It may seem impossible but you can easily take 250 hours a year and dedicate it to this activity.

6. Protect your workforce. Watch and listen for unreasonable management and team leaders. Pay attention to safety and join a safety committee. Realize ergonomic challenges. Prove to people you care because you do care and react quickly to safety issues. People are your greatest asset and protect them like the jewels they are to the organization
Be a leader that people embrace. Reward, recognize their achievements, thank them and show them they are important. If you do not understand or agree with most of these items, you are on a path to failure. Don’t delegate these items to others-walk the walk each and every day.