Seeing the Power of Continuous Improvement "Working Live"

For over a year now, BT in the UK has been heavily sponsoring the implementation of Continuous Improvement methodology, tools and coaching. My experience of this to date has been limited to using some of the tools and techniques, but I was turned on to it significantly three years ago, after a friend of mine invited me to a site visit to DHL in the UK, where they had just implemented Lean methodology across their SSCs. Whilst the tools, KPIs, data and process maps were hugely impressive (and intimidating), what really struck me more was sitting in with one of the teams during their brief morning performance huddles. It wasn’t the tools and the data that impressed me, rather, it was the simplicity of a team jointly engaged … looking at how they were performing as a team, individually and collectively … sharing ideas about how to tackle daily issues … checking how they were doing against their process improvement targets … and also finding out how each of them was feeling. It was the power of seeing the team working "live" on their collective and individual performance goals through the forum of the daily team huddle that made such an impact on me. The beauty of it was that they were dealing with complex dynamics of individual + team + performance tasks – but in a very simple, practical way. When I realised the sponsorship and coaching support was now available for BT, I did everything possible to secure a slot for our SSC in Budapest to be the pilot, not only for the SSCs but also within Finance. I got all the necessary people engaged and we planned a start date for April this year. So now, all I had to do was to explain to the local managers and teams how fantastic Continuous Improvement and Lean was, and they would all be shouting, "Yes, Jamie, let’s do it! It’s the best thing ever!" Well, that’s what I thought…. Facing the harsh reality of changing patterns After we held a "local engagement" session with the managers and teams, I realised that not everyone feels the love of CI and Lean. I was curious as to why. There was a mixture of responses: a lot of positive energy from people who could see the chance to get really involved in this and gain some empowerment, but also a lot of challenges, such as: "I have seen this before in other SSCs – it doesn’t work very well." "Why would we work on something that might result in us losing our jobs?" "I really have no time to work on this project – I have too much work to do." "We already have improvement initiatives, and there isn’t much left we can do." The initial temptation for managers in this situation is to try to convince, sell, and "get across" the message that CI is the way to go and that this will be the way we do things. Certainly, that’s sometimes the pressure we feel from the those at the "top" – just get it done, deliver, do it. My struggle was the realisation that if people saw CI as a management dictated initiative, I would have to question how effective it would be in the long term – would it fizzle away quickly? And what existing patterns would this reinforce, moving from one initiative to the next? Would it make it harder for something new? The dance of facilitating change So, as facilitators of change, what do we do when facing such dilemmas? When we realise we are seemingly caught in the "middle" of needing and wanting to pursue an initiative that we genuinely feel is beneficial to the organisational system? We feel huge pressure from those at the top, and at the same time we want to listen to those who feel helpless at the "bottom", and we want to take their concerns seriously. Classic change theorists will talk about sponsorship, burning platforms, what’s in it for me etc., but these can sometimes give you the illusion that change is a "painting by numbers" game. It’s at times like this that it would be wise to take pause and reflect before jumping in and reacting to any one particular view. It’s the "middles" like me who get that wonderfully unique perspective of being able to see upwards, downwards and sideways. Instead of seeing that as a horrendously thankless position, we should, rather, ask ourselves, ‘what is the best intervention I can make on behalf of the whole, together with my colleagues who share my passion and vision?’ What I think is best in these moments is to participate in constructive dialogue with my peers in the middle of the organization. Ask them whether they can see the potential of this initiative; whether we could join together to create enough collective disruption and engagement to influence leaders, other managers, and staff; and whether we could continue to take a stand for what we believe is the right thing for the benefit of the many. This is what I think it means to take a leadership stance. It has nothing to do with needing power or having power, but it is all about being prepared to take a stance on something. So what will we do next? Really, it’s a mixture of things: to continue the formal training and communications, but at the same time work more informally at a local level, with the managers, providing practical opportunities for people to get involved in SIPOC and Voice of the Customer sessions, and experience having a voice and being listened to; and to allow people to play with the tools and ideas in a safe space, right from the beginning. I always start out with the classic change planning methods, but as I get older, I realise that planning is ok, but knowing when to let go and improvise and work with the natural organisational forces that exist – rather than fight against them – is what counts. It doesn’t make it easy to explain the work to senior leaders, but sometimes they just need to trust that you know what you are doing and nurture an initiative, not interfere with a heavy hand. You can’t force seeds to grown faster and to bloom, but you can give them the best environment to give them every chance to do that. [inlinead]

Seeing the Power of Continuous Improvement "Working Live"

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