Dream and the Lean Future State – Visioning Success

Strategic Lean Six Sigma and Appreciative Inquiry are powerful change agents within organizations. Mapping the Future State and the Appreciative Inquiry process (4D) step of dream forms a vision of successful change. This new emerging process is called Appreciative Lean Six Sigma.

The Dream element in the 4D model focuses on identifying what the organization wants more of and how that might look. The dream phase of the AI change process is a very power change process step developing clarity and ownership of the future state. This complements the lean six sigma process that focuses on looping the change process continuously creating modified future states. The dream questions and resulting broad picture of success affirms the organization and individuals.

Lean six sigma and business process mapping implementation can become event oriented with organizations losing sight of the vision for the change. Continuous improvement without this firm vision of the future often results in organizations working the process where there is less resistance and elimination of waste in non-strategic areas. Strategic lean and policy deployment is an excellent tool to maintain an organization’s vision. Organizations utilizing strategic lean tools have an excellent opportunity to leap forward utilizing the dream phase of AI.

Dream inquiries broaden and give strategic perspective to the plans and metrics of strategic lean organization. These questions focus on:

• What do we want more of?
• How might the organization (business) look two years from now?
• How might we know we have success in the future?

The deployment of stretch objectives from strategic lean bowling charts take on a broader strategic viewpoint with the asking of these dream questions. The challenge within an organization during this dream and identification of the strategic lean objectives is for all voices to be heard and the dream to unfold over a series of sessions. This grass roots process may require some adjustment for command and control organizations. This change will result in more ownership of the objectives and dream. The strategic lean bowling charts then allows the management to hold the organization on task throughout the year.

The 4D appreciative model during the change phase of dream offers an opportunity to create a vision for the application of lean change. In the 4D Dream appreciative questions using how questions such as “What do we want more of? & How might the organization look two years from now? & How might we know we have success in the future? This leads to definition of success and forms a vision to achieve long lasting continuous improvement.

Future state and strategic objectives used in lean six sigma improvement processes and business process mapping remains a very powerful set of change tools. 4D Dream questions and the resulting vision provide depth to the process. This increases the ownership and excitement surrounding the collective vision.

Discovery and Value Stream Mapping – Powerful Change Foundation

Strategic Lean Six Sigma and Appreciative Inquiry are powerful change agents within organizations. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and the Appreciative Inquiry process (4D) step of discovery forms sustainable change foundation. This new emerging process is called Appreciative Lean Six Sigma.

The Discovery element in the 4D model focuses on identifying the strengths and successes of an organization. This complements the lean tools of value stream / business process mapping. The appreciative questions provide recognition of strengths and confidence within the teams. This affirmation creates ownership during the value stream mapping process while maintaining a perspective of the larger picture throughout the organization.

Value stream mapping discovers and identifies each step of a process from inception to completion. Each process step contains specific elements:
• What work is being done? (value added & waste)
• Who is doing the work? (people)
• How is the work being done? (machine, process)

These process steps are then mapped out in a visual manner and utilized throughout the continuous inquiry process (5 Whys) to determine the value added and waste. These ‘5 Why’ questions focus on discovering a root cause problem and identifying an optimum solution. Analytical tools and measures along with lean and six sigma tools are applied to improve and stabilize the process.

The challenge within an organization during this discovery and problem recognition process is the commitment of the people to the improvement opportunity. Often the value stream mapping is seen as a direct threat to individual security and competence. Complaints arise regarding the recognition of the value of their work and the individual performing the tasks being reviewed in the value stream. Organizations desire maximum buy in from associates during this value stream mapping process. Generally this buy in is sought to be attained through training on the competitive purpose and an understanding of the methodology. Often this leaves an organization feeling unrecognized and in a constant state of being unsettled. This leads to a general resistant to change.

The 4D appreciative model during the change phase of discovery offers an opportunity to create a more positive environment for the application of lean change. In the 4D Discovery appreciative questions using how questions such as “How has this process benefited the organization? Or a people / relational inquiry such as “How have this team achieved successful results through utilizing this process under evaluation?” This leads to affirmation of success and forms a solid base to achieve long lasting continuous improvement.

Value stream mapping used in lean six sigma improvement processes and business process mapping remains a very powerful set of change tools. 4D Discovery questions and stories provide depth to the value stream mapping process. This increases the ownership and excitement surrounding the result, creating sustainable change.

Leadership - Passion

Passion – “Fervor” or “Rage”

Strong leaders bring strong passions in my experience. There seem to be as many leadership styles as there are leaders.

Many management studies have suggested that effective managers are dispassionate fact based executors of lean business process that are continuously being improved. I am a passionate follower of lean thinking and understand the importance of fact based problem solving and establishing standard work in order to build upon the best practice. So we were taught and so I believe.

However, passion is an essential ingredient of leaders. I submit without a leader or group of leaders that are passionate about their product or customer or company they will not be able to sustain competitive advantage for a long period of time. The world changes too much There must be the passion found in the vision and foresight to make leaps of logic to meet new challenges and challenge organization paradigms.

I submit that behind every dispassionate fact based manager is a leader who has great emotion for his business, his belief system, and his vision. In fact, the best management teams have had a passionate visionary at the head with strong fact based dispassionate managers following his/her direction. The passionate manager’s fervor is kept in check by the reality of the managers implementing the strategy while having the fun and the thrill generated by the passion of the leader.

Passions in an organization are a powerful force for good or ill. Passion by its nature is disruptive and if not clearly articulated can be damaging on change adverse management teams and associates. Consistency is the hallmark of an effective passionate leader. I have experienced some who are angry and fly into rages because their passions for the business are so strong. They are effective as long as those below them understand their vision and passion and implement the plan consistently. Few can pull this style off, because without the passion of commitment to the group success, this style is seen as self-serving and egocentric damaging the core of the business.

An example of effective passion is a pastor friend of mine, who is totally committed to taking this successful church and leap into a modern form of worship as a radical change in worship style. He is the picture of passion for the church and passion for each individual person in the congregation. He is enthusiastic and joyful, tackling issues head on unafraid of change. When you are with him, you feel his fervor and want to follow his vision.

I have been blessed with working in my career with business leaders that have passion for the business and the customer. I have tried to emulate those examples and have formed a passion for my customers and businesses. I think those who have worked with me on my teams have seen that passion for the vision articulated and had fun along the way as we worked so hard to achieve those goals. So how do you gain that passion?

Eliminate inconsistency in your vision that you passionately articulate. Passion without integrity and consistency will leave a hollow and egotistical ring in the ear of the team members.

Provide a clear and consistent message of the strategic objective, why we are traveling there, and how you, the leader will support the team in arriving at the leap ahead destination. Say the message with fervor!

Motivate the team with an avid voice, constantly moving them forward through encouragement and clear communications on barriers and problems as well as successes!

Develop a strategic lean process to keep the team on track and make corrections within the context of the ardent direction put forward in support of the customer, product, associates, and business vision!

Envision the leader’s passion catching fire within the group and providing leaps of progress with sustained competitive advantages for the business!

My final thought: When you are passionate about the major commitments of your life, including your career, you are freed to have fun and enjoy life!

Lean Deployment - Identifying Leaders

Identify – “Recognize” or “Discover”

Lean organizations are thirsty for new leaders by the nature of continuous improvement and team dynamics. The constant thrust to improve the process and change the standard work for the better forces the organization to discover new talent as well as recognize when current leadership needs to evolve.

Comprehensive succession planning in a lean organization is a key component of sustaining competitive advantage through identifying raw talent, nurturing that resource, and aggressively filling roles within the dynamic lean organization. Even small organizations, perhaps especially small business need solid succession planning. The small business has less room for error and waste in the identification and nurturing process.

Good succession planning evolves from the performance management system where fact based assessments are made of current contributions as well as an extrapolation of future development potential. These two performance factors are unique and both must be built into the model. An individual may be a consistent performer with excellent results, but possess the desire or abilities to grow in leadership. Conversely an inconsistent performer could exhibit the potential for leadership advancement by knowledge and flashes of brilliance.

What are the components of a lean succession plan?

• Key leadership positions within the business are identified by not only the title, but enhanced by the key success characteristics for the role.

• Incumbents are identified for the characteristics possessed as well as their gaps. Development plans are made to fill those gaps.

• Successors are identified within the organization and their gaps of the key success characteristics are identified. Development plans are made to fill those gaps and opportunities are planned to evaluate their potential.

• Successors are segmented by timing categories, such as READY NOW; 1 to 2 YEARS; 3 to 5 YEARS, to develop long term strategies.

• High Potential associates are identified, with the observed potential of developing through more than one level up in the organization.

• Succession plans in lean organization, do not have to be about pyramid upward mobility. In flat matrix based organizations, lateral positions should be considered for the development process based on the success factors.

• Senior management and ownership leadership needs to embrace succession planning as an essential process for sustained competitive advantage in lean organizations.

Good succession planning:

Eliminate wasted energy on misplaced development and confusion by introducing key success factors into the management development process.

Provide a rigorous identification process to compliment performance evaluation and development processes within an organization.

Motivate senior management to develop incumbents with gaps in critical success factors; associates who need training or experience to take future leadership roles; identify and groom high potential individuals.

Develop the raw leadership material based on fact based success criteria in a standard work regimen. Fill the current and future needs of the continually changing organization.

Envision a flexible and evolving organization that constantly upgrades the leadership talent in a systematic and cost effective manner.

My final thought: Leadership is the life blood of the lean organization. Identify talent systematically and nurture the human value.

Lean Deployment - Managing Performance

Performance – “Accomplishment” or “Achievement”

Performance appraisal methodologies are constantly under pressure in the best of circumstances. During the stresses of difficult business environments, they are more difficult with less time available, traditional factors of success skewed by the crisis, and the impact of a poor evaluation resulting in potential job loss.

The associate being evaluated questions the criteria for the factors of performance. The performance evaluation is utilized to determine merited salary increases and in a downturn the retention of the position. Normally given once a year, the timeliness is called into question. The supervisor evaluator may not be trained in evaluation of the work or not gifted at communication.

Lean organization struggle with performance evaluation. A lean organization thrives in an environment of continuous improvement. The organization needs a process to evaluate the human capital both as individuals as well as a team. The very nature of constantly improving process renders the traditional once a year model based on behaviors obsolete and counterproductive.

• Lean tools need to be understood. That knowledge or understanding should be a component of every individual’s evaluation. A preferred methodology to capture this performance is to recognize education and training achieved in the use of the tools through a certification process. The colored belts of the Six Sigma process or Champion certifications of lean systems should be recognized.

• Elimination of waste from the process remains the cornerstone of continuous improvement. Recognition of participation and leadership of kaizen events should be recognized during the evaluation process.

• The individual and team evaluation should be fact based with data utilized to determine relative levels of success. A formal presentation of each kaizen should be reported out to supervision and senior management, characterized by achievements, improvements, and further actions.

• The evaluation should be focused on improvement and involve all interactions associated with individual and team performance. Supervisor, peer, and subordinate evaluation of leadership, communication, and team dynamic, and behaviors should be components of the evaluation.

• The gathering of the fact based data should be once a quarter at a minimum, when the business results are gathered. Team and individual data noted using the team business results as the basis. Both the supervisor and the associate are responsible for contributing separately into the data pool, so performance gaps can be identified early and corrected.

• The 360 feedback should be twice a year so improvement can be made and corrective actions identified. Expectations between the supervisor and associate should be established in a fact based plan. Tie both group and individual improvements into the evaluation focused on the organization’s objectives.

• The supervisor’s ability to manage the performance evaluation process should be a key component of his/her evaluation along with measurements of team success.

A lean organization’s performance evaluation system should:

Eliminate an evaluation process that does not center around fact based outcomes and behaviors. Gather the data throughout the year as a matter of standard work to eliminate as much of the bias and emotion of the situation.

Provide a structure for performance evaluation tied directly to the business objectives for the team as well as the individuals. Provide timely feedback on behaviors and results that are helpful or harmful to achieving those results.

Motivate all the participants in the evaluation process to embrace the continuous improvement of the associate with as much enthusiasm as improving the flow of work through the organization. People are motivated when they see their efforts as resulting in success.

Develop the performance evaluation process to be timely and complete. Define success factually and evaluate the individual’s efforts at contributing to the success. Bring all the evaluators of performance together in a 360 evaluation.

Envision a comprehensive evaluation system where the human capital appreciates in value to the organization through a fact based continual improvement process.

My final thought: Spend as much or more energy integrating the associate evaluation process into your organization as the business system. People are the key to sustained competitive advantage.

Leadership - Execution

Execution – “Perform” or “Achieve”

Some of us are not perfect, I’m not, and maybe you aren’t either. I exercise daily and eat a balanced portion controlled tasty diet at home thanks to my dietitian spouse. I have fully established a standard process and I have executed consistently in the last six months. The results have been measurable and quite rewarding.

So why am I drawn like a piece of metal to a magnet, when I venture out on a road trip and pass a McDonald’s? Rather I stop at the McDonald’s for my large diet coke and invariably eat two double cheeseburgers and large fries. Maybe you have a similar magnet in your life where you venture out of the successful execution of your personal health regimen. Variations in process or a failure of execute a plan result in consequences to the organization or body in this case.

Lean business system and six sigma protocols are designed to reduce the variations in the process through continuous improvement. Still there are always variations, the business environment changes, the nature of the product changes, something always changes! So if you have a great standard process, do leaders make a difference in execution?

Definitely! Take McDonald’s where I earlier established my vast experience. I had the occasion over the few weeks to observe the culture of execution at two different McDonald’s at various times of day for a week. (Spouse was visiting her mother)

Both restaurants were relatively new and basically identical in layout. McDonald’s had deployed their legendary standard work so all the food was made on the same equipment, the process metrics were all the same, uniforms were the same, and the training manual was identical.

The execution of the process and the results could not have been starker. The first restaurant X was a pleasant place to dine and Y was a chore to leave unstressed. Y had more associates running around consistently bumping into each other. X and Y used almost exactly the same words of greeting, but you felt like X associates cared about what you ordered and your day was going. Y never listened to your answers to their questions asked from the manual. X had eye contact and seemed to take more time with you. Y always seemed rushed to get to the next customer in the long line. The appearance in uniform was dramatic: Y pressed and professional; Y hanging on the associates. One drink area was messy (Y) with straw wrappers and spills, while the other (X) always seemed to shine.

Execution is about enabling your team to translate the standard work and continuous improvement into a culture of high expectations for achievements. There is a case to be made that while successful managers perform the basic operation of the organization. Leaders create a culture and expectation for consistent execution of operational excellence, even in an environment of difficult economic conditions or operational stress.

Eliminate the distractions and uncertainty from the work environment that impact the core of the performance expectation.

Provide a culture of high expectations for the team’s execution of the spirit and not just the words of the business process.

Motivate the team members to embrace the standard process as the way to satisfy customers and lead to success, not just follow ‘stupid’ rules or repeat ‘empty’ words.

Develop a culture that allows enthusiastic execution of the organization’s strategy. Make it fun to come to work, as well as delivering a consistent high quality product.

Envision a clearly defined and understood work practice that manifests itself in sustained excellent results.

My final thought - Larry Bossidy, in his book Execution sets out an excellent frame work for “the discipline of getting things done”. A great read for all levels of managers in forming a strategy of performance within their group.

Leadership – Invigorating Strategic Vision

Vision – “Dream” or “Foresight”

In the bible, Joseph with his cloak of many colors in the Kingdom of Egypt was asked to interpret the Pharaoh’s dream. The outcome of that interpretation was a plan for the next fourteen years through times of abundance and times of famine. (NIV Bible Genesis 41:25-40) The Pharaoh was so impressed with Joseph’s ability to present a workable strategy over the following fourteen years that he raised Joseph from a prisoner to the second most powerful man in the Egyptian Kingdom.

Theological discussions aside, the lesson for the value of insightful and actionable strategic plans is clear. Strategic advantage for an organization can be gained from a comprehensive plan that is properly executed. Leaders that possess the foresight to create and invigorate an actionable strategic plan are rewarded with sustained competitive advantages.

The key to invigorating a strategic vision is to create an actionable vision that promotes not only the execution of the business strategy but insists on leaps of progress tied to the organization’s core objectives. Today’s difficult economy drives many leaders away from their strategic vision. Day to day tactical imperatives overpower the already stressed and depleted leadership resources.

Only organizations that have weaved the strategic vision + plan + lean deployment together in the fabric of their culture will continue to look forward and take advantage of opportunity leaps. An integrated transformational model that employs this strategic lean deployment systematically reviews its competitive market position, maintains accountability for results, and challenges the status quo.

An example of the transformational model in action:

I was speaking today with a friend about business development for his Company’s products into a closed but lucrative market. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of his products alongside the entrenched competition. The gist of the analysis was the Company’s products were high quality and more comprehensive, while the competitors were quality products delivered as set packages at a lower price.

We discussed the size of the market, potential customers, and market share by the participants. The strategic gap analysis opened an opportunity that had not been identified in the past because strategic lean deployment was not integral to the Company’s culture. The Company had previously …

• Identified the market for their products as deliverable to their client organizations through the human resource function after penetrating the client through senior management
• Considered their competition to be the handful of other firms supplying similar products and services using this methodology
• Calculated their market and their market share by the total dollars of products and services provided by these rival firms and the customer.

The strategic gap analysis suggested the Company was missing a major opportunity by not identifying the in-house human resource function as a competitor. The in-house human resource function produced services and programs that substituted for the Company’s products. This significantly expanded the size of the potential product market. An actionable strategy suggested penetration potential for complimentary, strategic alliance, or cost effective substitute products and services.

Eliminate exclusive short term survival thinking from your organization.

Provide a business system that integrates an actionable strategic lean deployment initiative into their day to day key performance indicators.

Motivate leadership to embrace new ideas of customers, markets, product management, and order fulfillment using lean thinking and strategic planning.

Develop a culture of accountability for strategic initiatives as well as traditional performance metrics.

Envision a proactive business model focused on the opportunities of the future as well as the imperatives of the present.

My final thought: Thinking strategically ‘out of the box’ is more important during difficult times when the world is closing in on your company.