The Journey Begins

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The challenge of starting systemic productivity improvements in a facility and knowing where to start is not academically taught and is usually based on experience. Consultants my give you a program that it so large to implement that success is limited. When you decide that your company has used all the conventional methods to improve efficiency and productivity and they have “block and tackled” every avenue to increase outputs, what do you do? The answers are not simple but they all follow the same theme.

The first step is stop and look. Let the processes flow normally and look for two types of changes, systemic and points of production. The first type of change is systemic and you must form a three to five year plan and an initial plan. First observe the flow and identify evident systemic gaps. It could be a process, an element of production (i.e. safety, quality), a product flow, the placement of an order, or procurement. The second type of change is individual points of production changes. You must find three to four small areas of change that will be the example for the changes in the future. You must remember that you probably have not changed the culture of the facility and have not communicated well with your workforce. You need to pull ideas out of employee’s heads for understanding their efficiency roadblocks. These small areas of change are critical for changing the culture to one where employees will be your consultants. The quickness and sincerity of your responses to ideas they give you is critical. If you want to improve, you have a wealth of information in your workforce that will provide you success and them with a sense of accomplishment.

Form a plan that employs the overall systemic changes you want in the long term. Take that overall plan and divide it into smaller sequential system changes that will align your vision and your overall systemic change plan. These systemic changes must be ones that are smaller in nature when you begin your journey to change a company. They must be ones that will improve the processes but also ones that have minimal negative side effects within the workforce. You may want to relocate a department to increase flow. You may want to separate processes and remove production delays by segregating workflows to their proper elements.

The first changes you make must be reviewed with your leadership team to attain both consensus and comradely. After that has been accomplished, you must present your long-term systemic change plan and the initial changes to your entire population to explain how your vision and strategic plan align themselves. Remember to speak with anyone that may perceive your changes as affecting them negatively. The worst tactic is to present material to all your people at a group meeting and someone that is affected being advised at the same time. You need to assure that people are not being surprised and not feeling that you did not speak to them to get their inputs. They may not always agree but they will at least understand you motives and expectations. You can never over communicate. Once you have presented the material to all, act on it. Failure to do what you say will create a perception that management does not do what they say they are going to do.

Creating the correct change path is vital. You need to create a few small changes that will support the overall long-term plan. Remember that any huge change usually takes a long time and your employees are watching to see if things are really going to ascend to a better organization. Several small changes will involve more people and therefore can be more effective to promoting a culture change.
The challenge of starting systemic productivity improvements in a facility and knowing where to start is not academically taught and is usually based on experience. Consultants my give you a program that it so large to implement that success is limited. When you decide that your company has used all the conventional methods to improve efficiency and productivity and they have “block and tackled” every avenue to increase outputs, what do you do? The answers are not simple but they are all follow the same theme.

The first step is stop and look. Let the processes flow normally and look for two types of changes, systemic and points of production. The first type of change is systemic and you must form a three to five year plan and an initial plan. First observe the flow and identify evident systemic gaps. It could be a process, an element of production (i.e. safety, quality), a product flow, the placement of an order, or procurement. The second type of change is individual points of production changes. You must find three to four small areas of change that will be the example for the changes in the future. You must remember that you probably have not changed the culture of the facility and have not communicated well with your workforce. You need to pull ideas out of employee’s heads for understanding their efficiency roadblocks. These small areas of change are critical for changing the culture to one where employees will be your consultants. The quickness and sincerity of your responses to ideas they give you is critical. If you want to improve, you have a wealth of information in your workforce that will provide you success and them with a sense of accomplishment.

Form a plan that employs the overall systemic changes you want in the long term. Take that overall plan and divide it into smaller sequential system changes that will align your vision and your overall systemic change plan. These systemic changes must be ones that are smaller in nature when you begin your journey to change a company. They must be ones that will improve the processes but also ones that have minimal negative side effects within the workforce. You may want to relocate a department to increase flow. You may want to separate processes and remove production delays by segregating workflows to their proper elements.

The first changes you make must be reviewed with your leadership team to attain both consensus and comradely. After that has been accomplished, you must present your long-term systemic change plan and the initial changes to your entire population to explain how your vision and strategic plan align themselves. Remember to speak with anyone that may perceive your changes as affecting them negatively. The worst tactic is to present material to all your people at a group meeting and someone that is affected being advised at the same time. You need to assure that people are not being surprised and not feeling that you did not speak to them to get their inputs. They may not always agree but they will at least understand you motives and expectations. You can never over communicate. Once you have presented the material to all, act on it. Failure to do what you say will create a perception that management does not do what they say they are going to do.

Creating the correct change path is vital. You need to create a few small changes that will support the overall long-term plan. Remember that any huge change usually takes a long time and your employees are watching to see if things are really going to ascend to a better organization. Several small changes will involve more people and therefore can be more effective to promoting a culture change.

In the points of production changes, you must address a process improvement project for each major sector of your business. These should be the result of interviewing the people and finding out parts of their job that are troublesome and hindering productivity. They may not be what you think is of the utmost importance but they are the issues that concern your workforce. Accomplishing these is vital to your changing the overall business and a significant step in changing the culture of your organization.

You must remember that you have probably forced as much change through the organization that is possible by your powering the organization forward. You now must take a different tact. Embrace the workforce for ideas and act on them. Regard safety as not only a benefit to the people and company, but realize an unsafe environment will create inefficiencies. As you work down this strategic path you will enact your vision to actualization and display the correct atmosphere and culture.

Finally it is critical not to make this a one-time event. Continue this philosophy and continue to take small strides that will change the overall effectivity of the business. Embrace your workforce, communicate with them continually, and improve the business one step at a time. The time for larger strategic changes will come with time and may result in reorganization of the business. You will weave in all the elements of a lean environment such as value stream maps, kaizens, standard work and 5S in the ongoing change plans. The overall goal is to create a culture that self-actualizes itself to the best in the business sector.

In the points of production changes, you must address a process improvement project for each major sector of your business. These should be the result of interviewing the people and finding out parts of their job that are troublesome and hindering productivity. They may not be what you think is of the utmost importance but they are the issues that concern your workforce. Accomplishing these is vital to your changing the overall business and a significant step in changing the culture of your organization.

You must remember that you have probably forced as much change through the organization that is possible by your powering the organization forward. You now must take a different tact. Embrace the workforce for ideas and act on them. Regard safety as not only a benefit to the people and company, but realize an unsafe environment will create inefficiencies. As you work down this strategic path you will enact your vision to actualization and display the correct atmosphere and culture.

Finally it is critical not to make this a one-time event. Continue this philosophy and continue to take small strides that will change the overall effectivity of the business. Embrace your workforce, communicate with them continually, and improve the business one step at a time. The time for larger strategic changes will come with time and may result in reorganization of the business. You will weave in all the elements of a lean environment such as value stream maps, kaizens, standard work and 5S in the ongoing change plans. The overall goal is to create a culture that self-actualizes itself to the best in the business sector.

This Year’s Production Challenge

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The year has begun. There are several things to be considered when setting your strategic plan in place for the new year. What corrections did you need to make in the last quarter to bring in the previous year as a success. Did those corrections simply accommodate your metrics or did they change the business for the better? A simple example is waste control. At the end of the year, did you not scrap out hardware that you should have dispositioned to attain a cost of poor quality or financial number? Were you balancing your scrap rate against an inventory goal and abandoning better business practices to hit a metric? Did you push high dollar products in front of lower revenue ones that your customer desperately needed? All of these practices are a fault of your prior year’s execution of the strategic plan. The problem with the aforementioned is that you are probably having a very tough first quarter. With that being said, you must analyze what did not execute properly that you have to adjust in the upcoming year.

1. Were your goals too aggressive and based off a desire or ones that had a sound detailed plan that was executional? Many times we set our goals off a desire and not as a strategic plan for improvement. If you look at your projected sales for this year, have you detailed the inventory you will need to attain the increased sales goal? Drill down the data to assure that your year-end projections are based off a carrying inventory that will be required for success. Failure to do so will result in a starved inventory for production in the first month of 2017. Assure that material planning is accurate and that you realize the inventory you need for 2016 is in place that does not deficit the beginning of 2017. Realize that in the last quarter of 2016 you must execute your material properly and not delay material receipts again. Detailed and verified inventory plans are required for each year’s success.

2. Waste planning is essential to success. Whether it be productivity, effectively or scrap and rework levels, your strategic plan now has to be compared to what was executed in 2015. When you set your goals for 2016, you must ask whether they were too aggressive or too lax. Did the goals for scrap materialize or did you hold back execution burdening the upcoming year? If you let your business run and execute to normal practices at the end of the year, congratulations as you did not manage the business to metric attainment. Observe those practices that were successful and which ones required intervention. Determine what the product flow actualizes and understand that unless you have a level three plan that is aggressive for improvement, your goal cannot be aggressive for attainment. A detailed plan for improvement is necessary for any step change and that plan must be reviewed with the responsible managers and the executors of that improvement plan.

3. Plan your sales plan off customer demands. You cannot be overly optimistic in creating the annual operations plan. Base that plan and make adjustments off of the market indicators for the industry you are in, firm contracts that are in place, spares sales that are based off of previous years realizations and firm forecasts, and reasonably project any new product introductions. Being overly optimistic will realize a plan that fails and one that is too conservative will starve your business of resources.

4. Develop a production start plan. At the onset of the year, you will be able to project production starts and build in outsourcing and shared resources. You can also deliver a plan that executes the entire year. That plan will require a review and adjustments throughout the year, but you will be able to project resource and material shortages and the risks associated with them. You must finalize your start plan months in advance to set the demand for material, manpower and process capacities. The failure of many production systems is the inability to project a starts plan and executing it appropriately.

5. Review your plans with all levels of the organization. Include the quality, materials, planning, procurement, and production groups. If possible review that plan with the hourly associates that produce the product. They will either validate the plan and attempt to perform to it or they will point out shortages that you may not have realized. Communicate the entire production plan so that everyone in the organization understands where improvements must be made and when resources will be strained.

Make 2016 a business based off sound date and not from opinions or speculations. The success to you year is based off a strategic plan that executes and is measured so short term adjustments may be made accordingly.

Lean Practices in the Service Industry

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Building a work cell can be confusing and difficult for someone with limited experience. Lets first define a work cell. It can be a manufacturing cell, a service cell or a retail cell. Most of what is described in academia is the manufacturing cell. The rational is that most of academia knows how to invoke the theories of lean manufacturing and the standardization of work. For the purpose of this article, I will describe some of the well know attributes and theories and how they apply to the service arena. Lets take an example in the restaurant business. The work cell can be defined as the person that greets the customer, the taking of an order, and the production of food and the closing of the event.
The hostess commonly looks at a map where table are circled and they determined what is open for seating. They may casually look at server’s load but very little efforts are placed in efficient deployments. Events that will improve efficiency are the size of the groups seating, the time that the previous party was seated, and finally an estimate on the time term of each seating. Let me explain the subjective rating in more detail. If the restaurant is a group of football fans declared by their jerseys, one could assume that in a sports bar or restaurant the term of the seating will be lengthier. This is opposition to those with a very young child that will probably get restless with too long of a stay.

You can observe how the proper placement of people can result in efficiency. The object of a restaurant process is to turn tables, balance server workload and provide good service. Assure that a server has a balance of long stay, regular stay and short stay tables. No one should be sat within the server’s realm within a less than 15 minute time period. A server should have a balance of small, medium and large parties. A simple coding of patrons seating with colored markers an erasable sheet will suffice. The coding does not need to be exact but proper seating will allow maximum seating efficiency. A simple program can be written for a facility having the logic automated. This software would ask three questions and place the customers at the tables they will receive the best service.

The taking of the order should be simplified. Most menus are standard and there always can be a preprinted menu list where a server can check off an item and options. Table orders should always be taken in a specific order, clockwise or counterclockwise, and should always start from a specific point, such as left seat nearest server first. This allows zero error for interpretation of the order and allows anyone to deliver the food. In a perfect work every server would have an electronic pad to directly input the order to the kitchen. However, the cost of implanting this could be more than a facility could afford.

The processing of food should be standardized in some manner so that appetizers do not show up at the same time as the meal or after the meal. In addition, an order should be completed at the same time for a table so that all customers receive product simultaneously. Order processing can be divided into class of food, processing time, food segmentation etc. The primary goal is to assure that there is standard work that assures food is delivered for an order at the same time without judgmental interventions. Standard work can be created in some fashion by the preparers of the food and the serving staff. One of the key initiatives for this effort is the regrouping of the team on a regular timeframe to assure that all staff can contribute to any standard work changes. Visual systems can be employed to assure that the standard work is consistent and handoffs can occur without continuous verbal communications.

Finally, a series will determine how the food gets delivered to the customer. The delivery should be able to be completed by anyone in the staff as the orders were consistent and systemic to a seating chart. There are many other details that need to be defined and explained, but the purpose of this paper was to describe how value stream analysis, work cell and flow analysis, and standard work definition can be completed for any industry to improve its efficiency. Always believe in continuous improvement and hold regular reviews where operators of the cell may give their inputs and receive improved operational methodologies.

Plan Ahead and Succeed

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It is the time to set next year’s goals and expectations. You should not wait until the first of the year arrives and attempt to set the plan and goals for new year. We all have completed our pro forma for next year and estimated our EBITs, but have we created our strategic plans that will yield double digit growth? Estimating the financials for the upcoming year will not suffice and allow success. Below is a short list of initiatives that we should look at for the upcoming year.

1. Set your goals for cost of poor quality. Understand how you are going to measure it. Are you going to include the rework, the loss of productivity due to poor quality, customer returns and investigation costs, and repair costs? Whatever you measure in the upcoming year, assure that you show a reduction and have projects with milestones established to begin in January. Do not set yourself up for the next year by having a bad first quarter and chasing the year’s goals to recover those costs. Make your goal a reflection of projects you will manage and not a wish list. Spell out the plan’s expectations month by month with start dates, cost realization dates, project completion dates, and determine who the leader is for each project. Set your report out dates for the next year and schedule the team’s calendars to assure that teams know when they are going to review projects with the executive team.

2. Create a process improvement team and set expectations. You should know where your efficiency losses are and establish which ones you are going to tackle and the order and timeframe for those projects. Set a reasonable amount of tasks. Many businesses will create a wish list that is too large for the staffing. Scheduling too many tasks for your workforce can only lead to frustration, fractured efforts, and a disengaged workforce. Strategically assign those tasks, determine reasonable expectations, and set a detailed review schedule for the plan’s events on a regular basis. Become involved as a leader because your workforce will prioritize their efforts by the attention and involvement your leadership displays in the upcoming year.

3. Assure that you have an active environmental health and safety plan to improve the safety and ergonomics of your operation. Remember, people want to be treated fairly and they will engage more if you are concerned for their well-being. Strive to improve the ergonomics in the workplace. Recordable and lost time injuries are bad for a business’s reputation and finances, but they also can disengage a workforce quickly. Care about your employees and make it a passion to evolve the workplace to a safer environment. Embrace their concerns as you would your family members. They are your livelihood. If you do not have a methodology to collect the employee’s risks, hold a “stand-down” for four hours to collect ideas from employees. Take those ideas, Pareto them by risk to employees and aggressively burn them down. Assure the plan attacks these on a monthly basis. Form subcommittees to address these ideas. Everyone in the organization can take ownership of a task as safety is everyone’s job.

4. Train your employees early and on a repetitive regular schedule. You should have already met with your employees and determined their training needs. Now you must schedule a plan to deliver on those internal and external needs. Do not leave this as a human resource task. It is a leadership responsibility that our reports are enriching themselves each year. You may want to look at your most unproductive weeks in the previous years and declare them training weeks. This allows you to write off the week from deliveries and profit based on poor historical performance. Typically, the first week of the year, the week of July 4th and Labor Day week are poor performers as the previous quarter has just ended and people include additional vacation days to long weekends. Put training into this week and declare the week as a non-production week. Planning this activity allows customer commits to be maintained by overproduction in prior weeks and planned delivery commits pushed out of these weeks where possible.

5. Create production start plans that are visual and observable to all employees. Plan on Gemba walks daily and review these start plans. These plans are critical to success. If you start on time, you will finish on time. Don’t leave the plan’s execution to the planners and materials department to manage. All directly involved employees must understand the plan, discuss it daily at Gemba walks, and assure that procurement, operations, quality, and the materials department understands when the production starts for every job. This is critical for mixed model production. This plan is should not be in a notebook but must be displayed on some visual system that all employees can monitor. The more visuals you have in your company, the more self-managed it becomes.

Remember that strategic planning will assure 2016 will be better than 2015. Don’t wait until the year begins to invoke the plan as you will have an overly burden the last two quarters of the year. If you have not already shared your vision and plan with the entire organization, do it early in the year

Where Do You Begin?

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You have taken on a new position or decided that a step change needs to be made to improve your business’s efficiency. Where do you begin and how do you make the transfer effective without slowing down the business to an unprofitable margin, alarming customers with late deliveries, or creating a total disarray of the business? We have witnessed many businesses over the years go through a restructuring plan that has severely effected the business in a negative financials and has forced the owners to recoil initiatives. These businesses then pull back to a ’year over year’ small percentage change and never make the step changes necessary to evolve the business thereby capturing new markets. There are steps that can be taken and a strategic plan that can be developed whereby all owners know what is expected and the pace of which improvements will occur. The following points must be considered to be successful on your journey.
1. You need a Vision that states where you want the company to evolve to in one, three, five and ten years. That vision must be accepted by the CEO, COO and the Board of Directors.
2. There must be a yearly strategic plan. This plan must be clear and must state details, expectations and risks.
3. Know your risks and the impacts of them. Divulge them at your strategic plan discussions. Too many plans are overly optimistic and do not inform the owners of the inherent failures that can happen to even the best strategy.
4. Contingency plan every avenue of defined risk. It is acceptable to have different levels of risk in your plan. Categorize them and all high and medium risks must have contingencies constructed ahead of time to ensure that the effects are minimized.
5. Do not change the plan to hit financials quarter points. You can adjust your strategy to accomplish the tasks necessary but you must not chase a metric for a quarter point and change your strategy in a haphazard manner.
6. Assure you understand how changes affect costs, workers and managers. Minimize wastes of people waiting, overproduction, procurement or idle equipment, and excessive stagnation and transportation of product.
7. Process change one piece at time. When you process change in too many areas, you cannot understand the data and the attributes. Therefore, you cannot construe a cause and effect relationship as the changes and their effects are muddled together.
8. Use Kaizen bursts to implement small changes to a larger value stream improvement.
9. Realize that new capital is a financial drag. The more the expense that capital incurs, the more cost structure you must absorb immediately. Think small and less expensive. Anyone can engineer a process with the most elaborate equipment. A good plan is one that uses current resources and equipment with some intermediate investments.
10. Realize that this is not easy. Never become discouraged. A failure or setback is merely an opportunity for improvement. You can accomplish the tasks if you plan out your process improvements. We tend to apply these improvements to the manufacturing world. In reality, the service industry needs the same overhaul and drive for efficiency.

The End of the Year is Here

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Businesses will make serious decisions in the next few days. Some will decide whether to let their business run normally strive for the best outcomes, take small (not game changing) steps to improve and then finish the year using the same standard practices they have used during the entire year. Other businesses will look at the metrics for the year to date, change processes for short term results to manipulate the metrics, change their normal processing significantly for the end of year and manage the metrics. The first method of being “hands off” the metric management is the best way to lead an organization. If manipulation of the business to attain results is necessary, then the business is not adhering to standard processes or the processes are flawed and need improvement. One must take into account that year over year needs for improvements will not be documented nor will the numbers reflect the true business. Refrain from changing the business at the end of the year.
1. The true metrics will reveal strengths and weaknesses of your business
2. The results of this year will evaluate the success and weaknesses in your strategic plan
3. The shortcomings of the year will give direction to next year’s plan
4. The successes will give you opportunity to celebrate and realize your strengths
5. The year end results will reveal where your talent deficits are in your organization

Leaning Out a Mixed Model Assembly Line

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One of the more challenging industries to get lean is the mixed model, made to order, assembly production lines. We all have read the success in high volume production lines with options but what if you are producing several distinctly different products on the same line. It becomes a challenge as each station needs to be level loaded for the processing time so the overall cycle time remains consistent. There are several pieces of ground work that must be accomplished prior to any indoctrination of lean processing. While this may seem like a huge task that will take significant time to complete, the manager must remember the basic elements of success – a vision and a strategic plan that states which product line is approached first. Your vision should state what the perfect production line would resemble and the plan will state the cadence of products and the sub-steps to completion. You must remember that cellular or assembly processing must call for the same processes to be followed each time a product is produced. Repetition makes it easier to control quality and also allows you to track whether improvements have a positive or negative effect.
1. Value stream map each assembly
2. Create sub assembly operations and co-locate them to the line in a balanced process and cycle time
3. Break out and balance the tasks
4. Layout inventory, tools, workbenches so that tasks can be eventually and linearly be produced
5. Create inventory feeder line strategies and kits for common sub-assembly operations
6. Define and set in place Standard WIP
7. Create standard work
8. Determine the proper spacing in the flow. Make every a incorporate a “U” shaped cell (Rabbit Chase)
9. Cross train operators
10. Create standard work for the “load versus operators” necessary to meet Takt time
11. Determine the vortex operations and assure that all operators are trained in these operations
12. Assure that there is contingency planning for excess load and equipment failures

While these are not the only elements that must be addressed they are the basics for your journey’s inception. Do yourself a favor and benchmark other and similar industries. Most manufacturing facilities are eager to share their successes and you will not be re-inventing your entire operation as you can use the “Best in Class” practices. You must remember that this is not easy and you will never be complete in your leaning of the lines. After each iteration, you will discover new avenues for improvement.

Analyze, Standardize and Simplify

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Whether you are in a supermarket, bank, hotel, car rental facility, or any service industry you may have noticed the lack of performing any work that is not efficient. When there are issues that are not standard, people stumble through the process and virtually annoy the customer. The same is true in all facets of work life and the answer is the same. There is no standard work for performing the operations, a lack or training in the unusual circumstances, and the lack of proper management planning. In many articles and books, the focus on value stream mapping and standard work is manufacturing. In reality, it affects our entire culture and lives. Little is done to assure that processes are defined and standard work created for variations to those processes. If a price change needs to occur in the supermarket or if the use of an alternate fixture in manufacturing occurs, the results are the same. The cashier should have an easy step by step menu on how to correct minor variations in processing a customer and the operator should have standard work and work arounds for the unusual cases.
Where do you begin? Take the time to hold an event and create a value stream map. Within the map flow all the work-arounds and unusual processes. Display the rework loops to a normal process and the turn backs to both internal and external customers. Assure the value stream displays reality and not opinions or the engineered belief of the process. When the map is complete, review it with everyone and assure every element in the process is addressed.
Next, compare the process analysis to reality. Witness different people performing the process on all available shifts. The variation to the process will allow you to observe the lack of clarity in your processes and the variations that can occur. Take notes and communicate with people to get input about the variations. Compile your observations and review with your entire team to determine the correct method of processing. Then recreate your future state standard work to the optimum process.
When creating the future standard work, you must consistently “step out of the box” to review if certain current steps are necessary and whether simplification of operations can occur. Always look into a leaner mentality. There is always a way of eliminating waste. Whether is simplified operations, reduction of movement, elimination of non-value added steps, or simply reducing the variation of processes by mistake proofing them, a streamlined process is the only way to operate. In the service industry, there tends to be a focus on arduous step by step intervention. For instance, checking into a hotel, standing in line and waiting can be annoying. Why isn’t there a kiosk that with the swipe of your credit card your reservation is verified and simple questions are asked on preferred accommodations (i.e. King, Queen, Floor Preference, etc.) and number of keys required is entered and the keys with the room number drop into a tray? While not all travelers may prefer that type of service, an option can lessen the lines and wait for those that do want the face to face intervention. When the waitress sits you at the table, why isn’t there a portable tablet that allows you to enter drinks and appetizers that would allow someone requiring quick service to place an order in simple easy steps? This would reduce the wait time for a waiter/waitress. Many companies are beginning to make changes and those that do make those changes are grabbing market share from others. Some medical businesses are beginning to make the change through kiosks, defined stations for check in, and lines on the floor to eliminate confusion. These all are ways to simplify the experience and eliminate unnecessary steps and costs.
Look at your service, processes and methods of operation and determine where to start. Takes small bites of you process into consideration. While manufacturing is focused on lean processes, do not believe that it is only for those types of businesses. Make your business unique and streamline it through standardization. These changes do not require a massive effort but if you do not begin the process, you may be left behind in the market place.

Inspiration – The Secret to Effective Management

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There are many times we can make an impact on a business, but there is always the question of motivation to the workforce. Before you can inspire people to excel, you must first understand your workforce. I have written extensively on understanding both the paradigm or the organization and the perspectives of employees. If you do not understand the workforce at every level, you cannot motivate and inspire them to strive to be the best. You must understand your organization, understand what makes them excel, and then put the plans in place to motivate them. This is not a short process and requires communication at all levels of the organization.
1. Understand that almost everyone can be motivated.
2. Shake off pre-judgment of employees. No one gets up in the morning wanting to do a bad job.
3. Recognize success
4. Reward success in some manner
5. Give the employees the “What’s in it for me?”
6. Communicate with employees. Share challenges, goals, visions, strategic plans. Get input.
7. Realize that people are your greatest asset.
8. Socialize at all levels. Employees are people. They have children who take gymnastics, play football etc. A short social relationship will open communications to new levels.
9. Protect your employees for safety hazards
10. Provide growth opportunities for employees.
11. Be genuine and honest with employees.
12. Be ethical in your management.
If you follow these elements, you will begin to get your employees support and create motivation for them.

Work Life Balance is a Key to Success

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Work Life Balance
One of the more difficult complications a leader will face is the maintenance of a healthy work life balance and how to create balance for employees. We must assure that employees also are not driven to an unhealthy lifestyle. As a leader, we can also become consumed with the job and drive ourselves to an unhealthy, unsustainable level of workload. A leader can become so absorbed in attaining goals that we raise our expectations of our team to an unhealthy level. To assure that we allow employees time to recharge themselves and become more productive, the following options should be considered.

Leadership Rules:
1. Allow employees to telework as needed. Allowing an employee the flexibility to carry on operations when employees can’t get to the office because of family complications and/or bad weather has an extreme payback. Conceptually we may think that people will not be productive while working remotely, but studies show the temporary relief will invigorate the employee’s outlook on work and will allow someone’s self-worth to increase. However, as a leader you must set guidelines as to the amount of time that is allowed and the requirements to participate on mandatory meetings.
2. Give employees the necessary technical tools to be effective. Offer to pay for part or all of devices that are necessary for the employees to stay connected. Studies show that employees will stay connected for longer hours if they have the devices that allow email and other communications to occur after hours.
3. Avoid directing employees from using the company’s high tech products for business use only. Past practices told employees that devices were only for business use. Unless restricted by information protection, the past practices have proven ineffective. Employees would shut the company’s cell phone off after hours and use their personal phones thereby limiting the benefits of having the device.
4. Set the standard that employees should not be called or emailed while on vacation unless it is urgent. Define what is considered urgent and do not violate it. Employees need the time to recharge themselves and need to feel that it is acceptable not to engage while on vacation. This also allows others to step up and demonstrate their worth and encourages their growth. If it is necessary for an employee to be available while on vacation or during down time, assure that the hours are limited. Contingencies should be planned so that there is someone that can assume the roles necessary.
5. Leaders and executives should never be off the grid for extended times. Employees must feel that they are not abandoned when the executive is gone. Emergencies do arise and leaders do need to make decisions. Employees will respect the executive’s need to be out and will not overburden them. If a leader does not accept this premise, then they are not executive material.
6. Set the standards to your team for communications when they are out. Texting and calling is for urgent issues, emails are for routine problems, and on line access to group folders is low priority. Never use social media (i.e. Facebook, Instagram etc.) to communicate company issues.
7. Establish face to face communications for important issues. This is the most effective communication and most of these can be preplanned.
8. Respect that people are different. Everyone has different priorities and we cannot expect everyone to accept ours. Let the employee return a call at a later hour if they are home. Employees have personal lives and they need you to respect their life as they respect your needs.

General Rules:
1. Manage your time. When you show up to work, know your priorities and know how to assure what is reasonable to get accomplished within the day or week. Delegate out the remainder to assure it is completed. Make time for hobbies, passions, and relationships. Few of us live for work alone and it is not healthy to do so.
2. Take time for you. It is important to remember that all your free time does not have to be available time. Enjoy some alone time and time that you do things for you. Have a social life and schedule social activities where the phone is off. Enjoy weekends and vacations. Take specific parts of those times that you are out of communication with work. Let it be known in advance that you will not be available and then follow through and don’t be available. Arrange for coverage during these times for urgent issues. Post the contingency contacts and do not violate those times with work calls.
3. Make time for your family. Set those times aside for just them. Follow the same coverage rules aforementioned but give them the one on one time they so need and deserve. If you parenting partner is tied up in work, do not abandon everyone by getting involved with work issues. Ninety nine percent of the issues that come to you can be delayed or postponed for an hour or two. Make family time special and assure them that they are a priority by not being involved with work.
4. Get your home chores done. Take time for them and plan them. Be specific in the tasks you will take on and plan them out. Take on the least favorite task early in the week as that will allow the task to be taken on without the burned out feeling from a busy work week. If you leave hard tasks for when you are exhausted, they will become more burdensome and irritating. Realize that some tasks will have to get hired out to other people so only plan for a reasonable amount of work to be completed by yourself.
5. Finally, take care of yourself. Eat a healthy diet, get enough sleep, make time for relaxation, exercise, volunteer, and be balanced person. Know when your life is out of control and if needed seek professional help.