Continuous improvement in organisations starts with continuous learning and growth at an individual level, which is why personal development is important.  Indeed, proceeding to achieve sustainable Operational Excellence calls for constant learning, honest reflection and harnessing the full potential of our people to routinely remove constraints, solve problems and find a better way.  Fujio Cho, Former Chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation put it vividly when he said “First we build people, then we build cars”, a notion which is enshrined in the Toyota Way and which remains a cornerstone of Toyota’s thinking and practices.

Respect

More broadly, personal development is a natural consequence of observing the principle of Respect for Every Individual which is the foundation of Lean Thinking. We know that when people feel respected, they give not only their hands but also their minds and their hearts. Respect for every individual is manifested when organizations structure themselves to value each individual as a person (not just those who are useful to us!) and nourish their potential. Great leaders see people for what they can become tomorrow, not just what they offer today.

Leaders

We are all accountable for our own personal development of course, but this does not get leaders off the hook. Leaders should take responsibility and make development of their people a priority, and have a key role in encouraging, supporting, challenging and enabling their people to grow in capability. A key part of this is providing timely feedback, in keeping with the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle. They should also have the humility to accept the need for their own learning and development, and therefore act as role models in this regard. And vitally, leaders should create a supportive and ‘psychologically safe’ environment where it’s OK to make mistakes: learning from mistakes is often the best way to secure meaningful improvements, therefore it’s crucially important not to let blame and personal consequences lead to the covering up of defects, accidents, lack of knowledge, errors or even ‘near misses’.

We at Catalyst specialise in helping organisations unlock their potential and become the best they can be, and believe this is made possible by unlocking the potential in individuals and how they collaborate with others. We do this through our renowned training programmes of course, but also through coaching and mentoring of leaders and practitioners because we know that the most powerful learning is gained by real experience, through application in different situations, failing fast, reflecting on mistakes and feedback, and going again. As Richard Branson said:

“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”

So, let’s all recommit to our own personal development!

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Enlightened leaders, however, consider people and culture to be their most important concern, not just because it’s a principled approach and the right thing to do, but because engaged and empowered people are a key source of competitive advantage. Therefore, these leaders invest as much time in planning and creating a sustainable culture of excellence from the beginning. These are leaders who recognize that their “prime responsibility is to create and manage culture, or the culture will manage them, and they won’t even know the extent to which this is happening” (Edgar Schein).

Culture can be simply described as the prevailing behaviours in an organisation, and behaviours give an indication of what is truly valued. Senior leaders, whilst small in number, influence culture the most: they set the tone and are role models. Furthermore, they can focus on creating the right culture by embedding the right principles – they can be proactive with culture, and recognise that we are the result of our choices. So how can they do this? Here are a few examples…

Leadership Principles. The first step a leader must take in leading culture is a personal “inside-out” journey. Without understanding what the principles mean personally, e.g. respect for every individual, focus on process, seek perfection, constancy of purpose, it becomes impossible to lead the development of a principle-based culture. Whilst practices are based on the “what” and “how”, principles provide the “why” which is essential for sustainable change.

Envisioned Future. A shared, compelling and positive vision of the future should be inspiring for employees and provide a “North Star” and a common purpose which is bigger than any individual. If this is underpinned by a shared set of values (aligning personal values with business values) and desired behaviours we can start to make work meaningful and align the team, creating a “burning passion” inside people. The organisation can then recruit, develop and reward people based on these values, not just skills and capability.

Strategy Development and Deployment. Strategic objectives are required to drive the organisation towards its vision and provide focus and direction over the medium term. These objectives need to be deployed throughout the organisation in a way that creates ownership for initiatives and results at all levels – defining not just the ‘what’ but the ‘how’.

Systems and Processes. The right process delivers the right results. For sustainable excellence, systems and processes should be established which embed the principles and “make it easy to do the right thing, and difficult to do the wrong thing” in a consistent and repeatable manner. This will include a CI framework with performance metrics, visual management methods and standard daily, weekly and monthly management reviews driving appropriate accountability. In this environment, problems become visible and opportunities for improvement rather than mistakes to hide or defend.

Leading culture is about reaching deep inside of people, at an emotional level, to engage with their hearts and souls, not just their heads or their hands.  When people feel empowered and safe (in the widest sense, not just physically but emotionally and intellectually) and that they truly belong, then remarkable things happen.

So how can Catalyst help?

Catalyst can support your culture change and business transformation in multiple ways, for example:

Culture Assessments: We can conduct a comprehensive assessment your current state culture and behaviours at all levels against established excellence models and summarise your key strengths and opportunities for improvement. We can then work with your leadership team to identify priorities and actions required to positively change your culture in line with your vision and strategy.

Strategy Development/Deployment: We can help you establish a management process that aligns, both vertically and horizontally, your organisation’s functions and activities with your strategic objectives. Using collaborative approaches we establish a ‘line of sight’ between individual objectives and the strategic priorities, ensuring all contributions combine to enable successful achievement of strategy.

CI System Development: We can provide a tailored programme of activities and services including leadership development, PMO/governance design and formation, project selection and communication strategy and staff skills assessments and training to build improvement capability.

Leadership Development and Coaching: We can deliver bespoke workshops with leadership groups and 1-1 coaching to build competence and capability and help develop role model leaders who exemplify the principles and vision you are seeking to create.

Accelerating Transformational Change: In the face of increased volatility and uncertainty, we can help you maximise the opportunity for effective and rapid organisational change/transformation. This is typically achieved by assessing the organisation’s readiness for change, supporting leadership in navigating through the challenges of change and transformation, and coaching and guiding leadership in their role and the specific behaviours required to model and accelerate the change, including articulating and reinforcing the ‘why’.

Best Practice Visits: We can facilitate best practice visits and tours to ‘experience excellence’ with world-leading host companies. These include ‘go look see’ visits to operational areas and the opportunity to interact freely with leaders and associates at all levels in the organisation, and to learn and be inspired by the ‘art of the possible’.

E-mail us at info@catalystconsulting.co.uk to schedule a conversation with one of our consulting team or to arrange a visit to your site for a diagnostic/review meeting.

The post Creating a Culture of Excellence appeared first on Catalyst Consulting.

Continuous improvement (CI) is not about tools, techniques and projects applied as a formula, it’s about principles and behaviours. The tools and methods of CI themselves, whilst important, too often become the goal itself, rather than the means, leading to a disconnection from the original (higher) purpose and hence fragmentation and disillusionment. Consequently CI, under whatever label, is considered to be “just another programme” and fails to take root.

Sustainable* continuous improvement is enabled by a culture of setting standards (for all processes), exposing problems, raising issues to management, being curious, learning through failure and empowering front-line staff to improve using the scientific method. It is built on the foundations of respect, humility and trust referred to in my previous blog, where organisations benefit from more engaged and energized people. We can think of such principles and the organisation culture as the soil in which we can grow our continuous improvement system, and the people needed to drive it. The role of leadership is to nurture and encourage that talent: CI is about achieving better outcomes through better people. This is not established overnight or through manipulation… as Stephen Covey put it “Quick fixes won’t work on a farm”.

One of the principles key to continuous improvement is ‘focus on process’. The right process delivers the right results, and a genuine focus on process means working to manage the process inputs, developing the best standards, making abnormal conditions visible and enabling true root cause analysis for any issues rather than blame, i.e. asking “why?” rather than “who?”. The consequences of focus on process are less waste, consistent performance, and an ability to improve. The consequences of focusing on results only (especially by leaders) are that the process is considered secondary, and therefore the standards will not be respected and results are unsustainable.
Change is an ‘inside-out’ process, and a new way of thinking can only be learned by doing. Therefore leaders need to develop ‘focus on process’ behaviours and mindsets for themselves first, including their own daily standards and routines, and then subsequently for others. If focus on process is combined with respect, humility and other guiding principles then we can cultivate true continuous improvement and accelerate our progress towards sustainable excellence.

*Sustain v.tr: support, encourage, give nourishment to (Concise Oxford Dictionary)

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• What is Lean Six Sigma?
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As the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics have demonstrated, unlocking our own potential, and that of others, must rank as one of the most powerful and inspiring human experiences. This takes on even greater significance when the achievements exceed, even ‘smash through’, our often unconscious expectations or assumptions.

Lean Six Sigma tools like Assumption Busting can help us break throug

h our own paradigms and self-imposed limitations to open up new possibilities. But how can we encourage this type of mind-set and behaviour on a more routine basis, that is, embed it as part of our organisational culture? This is more than a quick fix of course, and needs to be enabled through leadership behaviour in terms of establishing trust and building empowerment.

For this to happen and become sustainable, there are (fortunately!) some guiding principles which leaders can reflect on and place at their centre as their “true-north” compass. Change is an “inside-out process” starting with each of us taking responsibility as individuals. The principles I’m referring to are universal, are timeless and have consequences. Particular examples of these leadership principles are ‘respect every individual’ and ‘lead with humility’, and they provide guidance on ideal behaviours.

Rooted in Lean thinking, respect for every individual goes well beyond simply being courteous and polite to everybody, but means acknowledging their value, nourishing their potential, listening more than speaking, and encouraging them to try something new.  As Eric Reis, author of The Lean Startup, says “Respect means ensuring that everyone in the organisation knows that their contribution matters.”

Lead with humility, a key characteristic highlighted by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, is exemplified by welcoming the ideas of others, being willing to change when learning something new, trusting others to make good decisions, and giving credit to others rather than claiming it for yourself. Leading with humility opens the door to more meaningful conversations, and helps maximize the contributions from others.

To change behaviours and organisational culture leading to sustainable performance improvement, people need to know what to do and how to do it of course, but they also need to understand the ‘why’. Real empowerment occurs when principles and practices are applied at all levels in the organisation: the practices (including tools) guide us in what to do, the principles guide us in why we do it. And hence organisations can truly begin to exceed expectations and realize their potential.

In the next blog in this series we will look at some key principles which are particularly relevant in supporting Continuous Improvement.

Find out more

• What is Lean Six Sigma?
• Lean Six Sigma Training
• About Catalyst

The post Achieving Potential through Principles and Practices appeared first on Catalyst Consulting.