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3 Lessons On Change Management From The Stories Of Alan Kurdi, Alexis Tsipras And COP21

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The past year was filled with stories and insights on passion, persistence, perseverance, the human spirit, leadership and more. Here, I want to focus on three events that gave us interesting lessons on change management and can serve as powerful examples for business organisations.

The past year was filled with stories and insights on passion, persistence, perseverance, the human spirit, leadership and more. Here, I want to focus on three events that gave us interesting lessons on change management and can serve as powerful examples for business organisations.

The image of Alan Kurdi and the power of visceral connection

This was probably the most saddening picture of 2015. I am sure everyone who saw it must have been heartbroken and realised how dangerous the world is today. The picture the three-year-old Syrian boy, who drowned with his brother and mother when their boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, became a symbol of the extent of the refugee crisis. While the world was aware of the problem, this picture made a visceral impact. All of us have been seeing the extent of damage in Syria on TV but seeing a cute little boy being swept aside to the Turkish shore connected to all our senses, awakened us.

Anyone seeing the picture [of Alan Kurdi] can almost feel the tragedy and would like to do something about it.

Not surprisingly many world leaders reacted sharply to this event. Leaders such as French President Francois Hollande, British PM David Cameron, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and many others voiced that a lot more needs to be done for these refugees. The image brought focus and sense of urgency to this problem. And countries in Europe, US, Canada took a series of measures to help to settle these migrants.

So how does it connect to change management?

If you are trying to change or improve something in your organisation and wondering where to start, look for events which communicate a sense of urgency to all your employees. See how the need for change can be connected with the senses of all so that they come on board and willingly participate in the effort.

Look at the image of lifeless Alan Kurdi — it is very different from what we had earlier seen of the Syrian war. It juxtaposes two contrasting moods. On one side, there is the desolate figure of the prone child on the beach and on the other there is this bright background of lovely blue serene Mediterranean waters. The contrast of mood accentuates the pain in the image and stimulates our five senses. Anyone seeing the picture can almost feel the tragedy and would like to do something about it.

CEOs, business leaders and change agents keen on driving change should use impactful images to drive engagement on a change effort. For example, an organisation facing major customer issues may decide to embark on a customer performance improvement program. To get employees on board it could use real videos of irate customers which are played across length and breadth of the firm.

CEOs, business leaders and change agents keen on driving change should use impactful images to drive engagement on a change effort.

Don’t we remember the images of the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 and how the event and triggered a debate on usage of nuclear power and created sense of urgency among nations to reduce its dependence on it? The images of Fukushima triggered actions such as Germany deciding to phase out of nuclear power by 2022, France deciding to reduce its share of nuclear power from 75% to 50% by 2025 and Italy deciding a target of 25% of electric generation from nuclear power by 2030.

COP21 and the art of stakeholder engagement

When United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) began in Paris on 30 November, 2015, there was scepticism that it may not achieve its desired objective. Imagine 195 nations coming together, with varying agendas (especially between developing and developed countries) and with memories still fresh of the failed Copenhagen climate change talks of 2009. Not to forget the Paris terror attack, which put a question mark on whether the talks would happen at all. Did we not read reports about how countries like China and India were not coming to the party?

However, the doubting Thomases were proved wrong.

A historic agreement was reached on December 12, 2015, with an aim to curb global temperature rise to below 2°C this century. While this has been hailed as a diplomatic success, I look at as a brilliant example of influencing stakeholders for a change effort. I think this was one of those rare events where participating countries spoke openly, challenged each other, yet never lost focus of the large objective. As was reported in the Guardian, innovative approaches were used to engage all participating members. This included engagement vehicles such as “confessional” (confidential spaces wherein delegates could speak from their heart), “informal-informals” (small group of delegates were tasked to solve a problem) or “indabas” (groups of up to 80 thrashed out disagreements). Not surprisingly this event was awarded ISO 20121 certification for the effectiveness of the processes followed to get desired outcome.

While [the Paris climate deal] has been hailed as a diplomatic success, I look at as a brilliant example of influencing stakeholders for a change effort.

When you are about to begin a change transformation in a business organisation, it’s a must to have a shared agreement on the objective. All relevant stakeholders need to be brought on board. This requires political competence and understanding who is with you, who is not with you and what is it that is stopping them from coming on board. What COP21 teaches us is that all stakeholders are different and a one-size-fits-all strategy to engage them may not work. Various approaches have to be used to engage them. Also, provide stakeholders an opportunity to gracefully unwind their position without causing a loss of face. Without this alignment, embarking on deployment is useless,

Putting leadership on the line — the Alexis Tsipras way

We all know Greece has been going through a financial crisis. In 2015, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras negotiated the third international bailout, which included severe austerity measures, with other European leaders. However, this resulted in a rebellion in his Syriza party, as the hardliners were furious of him agreeing on austerity measures, which he had promised to get rid of when he got elected in January 2015. When he realised he wouldn’t have support from his party, he decided to resign and go for snap elections, only to ensure his Syriza party got a full majority in September 2015. By going for re-election he put his leadership on the line knowing fully knowing well he could lose power.

Make sure the CEO and board support your effort and give you complete authority to do things which could be unpalatable — such as the austerity measures in Greece.

This provides a great lesson in change management. If you are entrusted with a change effort in a business organisation don’t take its ownership until you have complete mandate to change things. Make sure the CEO and board support your effort and give you complete authority to do things which could be unpalatable — such as the austerity measures in Greece.

Before she became the CEO of Xerox, Ursula Burns (read her entire success story here) played a significant role in turning around the company which was in heavy debt in 2000. She was entrusted with the part of the turnaround effort that included changing the way the company manufactured its products. To make this possible, she had a complete mandate of then CEO Anne Mulcahy. The change endeavour had moves which were unpalatable, which included outsourcing company’s manufacturing. This was not easy as it required reducing the number of employees which she made possible by working with the union. The free hand given to her by the CEO and her determination made things possible and by 2004 the company had turned into black and the headcount had reduced from 100,000 to 55,000.

3 Leadership Lessons From Modi’s Surprise Visit To Lahore

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Whether or not Modi’s visit will thaw the relationship between two nations or not, only time will tell. However, it does provide lessons on leadership which can be adapted to the business context. A life in the world of business is riddled with uncertainties and thorny relationships that must be circumvented to achieve what is right for the stakeholders.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden visit to Lahore is being hailed as an innovation in diplomacy, wherein he has gone out of his way to reset the thorny relationship between two nuclear nations. This is truly a masterstroke and even his fiercest critics will be hard-pressed to find concrete reasons to deride. Not surprisingly, the media in Pakistan has hailed the effort, as has that in the US.

Whether or not Modi’s visit will thaw the relationship between two nations or not, only time will tell. However, it does provide lessons on leadership which can be adapted to the business context. A life in the world of business is riddled with uncertainties and thorny relationships that must be circumvented to achieve what is right for the stakeholders.

Here are three lessons that stand out.

1. Take purposeful bets to test ideas

Leadership is about taking purposeful bets even when you are not sure of the outcomes. Relations with Pakistan have been rocky since August 2014 when foreign secretary level talks were cancelled by India. There has also been plenty of criticism about the government’s incoherent Pakistan strategy levelled not just by the opposition but by senior BJP leaders such as Yashwant Sinha too. Even certain sections of the media have taken the position that resumption of dialogue with Pakistan is futile due to the control of the military and due to failed efforts in the past.

The Paris handshake and Lahore visit are great examples of purposeful bets. A leader tries out an idea or thought, clearly knowing it may not work out.

When Modi decided to spend that less than two minutes with Nawaz Sharif in the sidelines of the COP21 summit in Paris, I don’t think it was a chance event, but a conscious effort to take a purposeful bet and test uncharted waters. If media reports are to be believed that Mr Modi walked up to PM Nawaz Sharif. Not only did they shake hands but sat next to each other and spoke for some time. Though the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said it was just an “exchange of courtesies” my sense is Modi purposefully set the ball rolling by this gesture.

Even when he touched down in Lahore, I am sure he knew that there could be criticism at home for breaking protocol. He also probably knew that the talks may not yield something substantial going forward and could even cause damage in the event of a future terrorist attack.

The Paris handshake and Lahore visit are great examples of purposeful bets. A leader tries out an idea or thought, clearly knowing it may not work out. However, he puts his neck on the line and stakes his reputation as he believes it to be the best way forward to test what he strongly believes in. Even in business, leaders have to take such purposeful bets on ideas on which there may not be data of past success. Steve Jobs at Apple is a great example of a leader who took purposeful bets. He said that customers don’t know what they want. He followed his convictions and tested his ideas through products that ultimately were a hit.

Personal chemistry can soften the thorniest equations

PM Modi is a firm believer in building personal chemistry to take relationships forward. Since he has taken office, he seems to have built brilliant chemistry with world leaders, including Barack Obama and David Cameron. This is one of the reasons why the Indian PM commands respect in many of the world’s capitals. Gestures such as hugging his Pakistani counterpart and touching the feet of Sharif’s mother all help to build and solidify the chemistry between them.

Gestures such as hugging his Pakistani counterpart and touching the feet of Sharif’s mother all help to build and solidify the chemistry between them.

When two leaders have good chemistry this is built on mutual respect and trust. They can openly discuss problems, understand each other’s position better and work towards their resolution. One of the outcomes of the Lahore trip was to solidify chemistry with a leader of a country with which India has had a fraught relationship.

Whether a CEO is heading an organisation, a sportsman leading a team or a community leader working in a village, there should be a conscious effort to build chemistry. There is no textbook approach for this, but one must remember that it must be done in both formal and informal settings. Without chemistry the relationship can never be deepened.

KV Kamath, the first chief of the New Development Bank and past chairman of ICICI Bank and Infosys shares a great chemistry with the Ambani brothers. If media reports are to be believed this chemistry helped to resolve the long-standing dispute between the tycoon brothers.

Do what’s right even if it means undoing one’s position

As leaders we take positions in public on issues which we then try to adhere to. This could be something that we do willingly or we are made to do because of the context or organisation wherein we operate. We also know from social psychology that once someone takes a stand there is a natural tendency to behave aligned with that stand. We as humans find it difficult to overcome cognitive dissonance, or the mental discomfort experienced by an individual when they act in contradiction to their ideas or beliefs. This is especially true when the situation changes and past ideas lose their relevance.

Modi often made uncharitable remarks about Pakistan before he became Prime Minister. However, he knows as PM that India’s success is only possible when there is peace with neighbours.

Many politicians have made their career by whipping up an anti-Pakistan sentiment. So for them to look at Pakistan without bias can disappoint their voters – as a result, they continue along the same path.

Modi often made uncharitable remarks about Pakistan before he became Prime Minister. However, he knows as PM that India’s success is only possible when there is peace with neighbours. Hence, he did not hesitate to reach out to the Pakistani establishment with open arms despite what he may have said in the past.

Leadership in the business world is about doing what’s right even if it means undoing positions that one may have taken in the past.. It’s also about overcoming the cognitive dissonance and learning to manage the psychological discomfort within.

5 Takeaways Lean Leaders can Pick Up from India’s dynamic Prime Minister, Narendra Modi– PT II

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In the second instalment of a two-part article, Debashis Sarkar, author, Phil Crosby Medalist and one of the world’s leading lights in the space of Lean Management, details his final takeaways of what lean leaders can learn from top politicians, using a case study of Indian PM Narendra Modi’s first year in office.

To read up on the first part of this article – involving Vision and People Engagement, click here

3. Past experiences should not stop you from reaching out to those who matter

Narendra Modi was denied a visa by the US government because of sectarian violence that impacted the state of Gujarat when he was the Chief Minister there. But when he took over as the Prime Minister of India, he kept aside those bitter events of the past and reached out to engage countries around the world.

His whole effort has been to keep past bitterness aside and reach out to the world to enable India’s transformation. He has been courting world leaders and has developed personal chemistry with many of them. Remember, here is this person, who was just a Chief Minister of an Indian state and has had no experience in diplomacy. Indo-US relations were not in great shape under the leadership of his predecessor – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But Modi seems to have got the relationship back on track and has developed good chemistry with Barack Obama. Not only did he visit the US a few months after taking office, he invited President Obama to India’s Republic Day.

During the 365 days in power, he has visited 53 countries and spent 53 days outside India. During all these visits he has been successful in showcasing a confident and capable India that has not only enhanced its stature but many of these countries have committed significant investment over the next 5 years. More importantly, he has been able to develop rapport with leaders such as Shinzo Abe, Tony Abbot, Xi Jinping, Anjela Merkel and so on. In each of these visits, he has been addressing gatherings attended by Indian-diaspora, to showcase his popularity. What he has established within 12 months of taking office is that he is a transformational leader determined to take India to newer heights. Little did it surprise anyone when Barack Obama praised him in Time magazine calling him the Reformer-in-Chief.

But Narendra Modi also knows how to reach out to his opponents. It’s well-known what sort of views West Bengal (a state in India) has had about him which she has been sharing publicly. But Narendra Modi knows the nation’s interests are more important than personal experiences. Over the last few months he has been able to engage with Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Chief Mnister, and they have been seen together. As a matter of fact she is travelling with him to Bangladesh (West Bengal borders with Bangladesh) in the next few days where a water-sharing pact will be discussed. Another example is the Foreign Minister in his cabinet – Sushma Swaraj. She was a critic of Modi before he became a Prime Minister. But after positive engagement, she has adjusted remarkably well and has been amongst his best performing ministers.

Quite like Abraham Lincoln, Narendra Modi knows how to manage a team of rivals.

With his bureaucrats, he is demanding but he also coaches them on what’s required for a stress-free life while also making sure there’s the right balance between family and the office. He also does not shy away in reaching out to the most junior bureaucrats to seek relevant information.

Narendra Modi also knows listening is a great way to engage team members. Mahesh Sharma, one of his ministers, recently mentioned that in cabinet meetings Narendra Modi is the person who speaks the least in cabinet meetings.

Takeaway for Lean Leaders:

Engaging key stakeholders is a critical element of a lean transformation program. A change leader has to emerge from his personal experiences of the past, however bitter they may have been, to reach out to all those who are required to make the change possible. A change leader can’t be a shy person, he should be out there telling people all what he can do / is doing.

4. Performance improvement is just not about output but also about outcome

Narendra Modi wants India to be the world’s manufacturing hub. To make this dream a reality, his government has launched a “Make in India” programme which endeavours to create an ecosystem that can encourage and facilitate world-class manufacturing. To achieve this he is urging all to adopt the philosophy of “zero defect and zero effect”. He wants organizations to just not focus on manufacturing quality but also preserve the environment. He wants India to be an attractive manufacturing location for global companies. This will enable Brand India shines all over the world, increasing the share of manufacturing in the country’s Gross Domestic Product from 16% to 25% by 2022and also generates employment.

But his clarion call has a larger message. What it tells us is that whenever you are catalyzing a change transformation program, look beyond the immediate gains to the larger impact on those around you. So if you are working for a manufacturing organization and working on a project to make the products zero defect, make sure there is zero liquid discharge, zero solid waste, zero air pollution and zero use of natural resources. If you are working in mortgage operations and are working on a lean project towards zero errors, make sure you also keep an eye on its outcome on customers which could be measured by customer engagement or customer satisfaction.

Takeaway for Lean Leaders:

For all lean transformation, it’s imperative to keep an eye on both primary (output) metrics and secondary (outcome) metrics

5. Communicate, communicate and communicate

If people are the engine for a change transformation, it’s communication which helps them to keep the agenda of a transformation live and kicking. As change unfolds it’s important to share with all the progress and what’s happening behind the scene. Not telling the constituents what’s happening can lead to speculation especially when expectations are very high. Also, in many instances the impact of positive change is not felt because people have not been told about it. Who knows that better than Narendra Modi.

For him communication is just not a means to connect but a means to form perceptions. From day one, since he took office, he has been leveraging all possible channels to communicate with citizens: be it TV, radio, social media, internet etc. He has been a great user of social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook etc. and has been urging all his ministers to do so. Not only are these used to share his moods and moments but also to share public policies. He is the second most followed politician on twitter after Barack Obama. He started a monthly radio broadcast called: “Mann ki Baat” (“Straight from the Heart”) which aims to reach rural India through radio. His official website – www.pmindia.gov.in – provides the opportunity for citizens to write to the PM directly and even provide suggestions where required. Both this website and his personal website – www.narendramodi.in – details about his government, his personal life and encapsulates all the accomplishments by his government for everyone to see. When he completed one year in office he made it sure he and his team were all across the country to share what his government has achieved. This provides a big lesson for all lean change agents. While it’s good to focus on execution and outcome, don’t forget to communicate the impact of the outcome to all. Many transformations don’t make the required impact because one has not been able to do the required communication.

Takeaway for Lean Leaders:

While you work on lean transformation it’s good to focus on people, process and outcomes; but don’t forget to communicate with all stakeholders on a regular basis. To achieve this, use all possible channels (such as town-halls, meetings, intranet, video etc.) and do a regular sense-check to see if the communication is effective.

Transforming a nation is much more difficult than the type of lean transformations we do in our organizations. It’s never easy to satisfy the citizens of a democratic nation, they always seem to be changing their goalposts. But from our stand point, the above takeaways are just five ideas that one can pick from a transformational leader like Narendra Modi that can come in handy while we catalyze lean transformations.

References:

Sanjay Narayan, “It’s power to bureaucrats in Narendra Modi govt“, Hindustan Times, Oct 5, 2014

By India Today Team, “Babus’ lethargic functioning is passe, new work culture is NDA govt’s buzzword“, India Today, May 5, 2015

By India Today Team,“Time to Step Out”, India Today, June 1, 2015

5 Takeaways Lean Leaders can Pick Up from India’s Dynamic Prime Minister – Narendra Modi – PT I

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To exemplify what lean lessons can be learnt from top politicians, Debashis Sarkar, author, Phil Crosby Medalist and one of the world’s leading lights in the space of Lean Management, uses a case study of Indian PM Narendra Modi’s first year in office. This is the first of a two-part case study.

Narendra Modi, the current Prime Minister of India, has just completed his first year in office on May 26th, 2015. His party, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), came to power with a thumping majority and over the last 12 months he has taken the reins of the nation; the faltering economy is back on track and the Indian people feel a new energy in India’s transformation program. The world sees a confident nation under a determined leader who is seeking greater heights. As someone who follows Narendra Modi closely, I see him as the world’s Photo by United States government work via Flickr biggest lean leader. Why is he the world’s biggest lean change agent? It’s because he is trying to transform a nation of 1.2 billion people. Like any other holistic lean transformation, this one too has process, people, technology, leadership, behaviors etc.While a lot can be written about his approach, there are five key distilled takeaways which lean leaders can learn from him from his one year in office:

1. Successful Lean Transformations begin with a vision:

Narendra Modi has laid out a vision for India which seems to have engaged the entire nation. With an objective to create “Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat” (“One India, Excellent India” – Modi’s message of unity), he has laid out a vision for areas which will take India to the next level. To give you a peek into some of the elements of his vision:

  • By 2020, Modi wants India to be a “global supplier of skilled workforce”.
  • By 2022, when India celebrates 75 years of independence, there will be “housing for all Indians”, “electrification of all villages”, “employment for all youth”, and the “construction of 100 smart cities” etc.

It’s not that earlier Prime Ministers didn’t have a vision but here is a leader who has been able to excite the entire nation on where he is taking India moving forwards. The difference this time is that he has been able to connect viscerally with the bulk of Indians on what he is trying to do. This was not a one-time exercise but something which is he and his group of ministers communicate on all occasions. This is also one way of putting his neck on the line and holding himself and his team accountable to the nation. His proclamation about vision is just not lofty words but focus on things which every Indian can relate to. None of these objectives are easy but what gives one confidence is that there are well defined plans and metrics for each of the above areas and one already sees actions.

Takeaway for Lean Leaders:
Before embarking on a transformation it’s imperative to script a vision which everyone impacted by change can relate to. This can’t be wordy fuzzy stuff but something which all can understand. What’s most important here is it’s just not sufficient to explain the reason for change but making sure all get connected to it emotionally. Also, if you want the vision to be successful there has to be a solid action plan. Communicate it in public and hold yourself accountable.

2. Successful Lean Transformations are more about people:

 Narendra Modi knows that if he has to transform a nation like India, he and his group of ministers cannot do everything by themselves. He has to change the moribund culture of government bureaucracy which is the engine for execution. As a matter of fact, a survey done by Political & Economic Risk Consultancy a couple of years back found India’s bureaucracy to be the worst in Asia among the 12 countries which were surveyed. These officers are lazy, lack discipline and were not held accountable for what they do. Over the last 12 months his efforts have been to discipline and revitalize these teams. He has made it mandatory for all of them to be in their office by 9am, stop extended lunch and tea breaks, which were spent resting in parks, playing cards or on golf courses. To drive punctuality, he has ensured a biometric attendance system to ensure 1.23 lakh bureaucrats across 54 ministries come to office in time and clock the mandatory 8 hours in the office. He has made it clear to all of them that their performance will be tracked and he will himself monitor critical projects. The Prime Minister’s office monitors progress through an electronic platform called eSamikSha and even raises alerts if required. This keeps bureaucrats on their toes. He also holds regular video conference sessions with states to ascertain progress. He also told all senior bureaucrats that if they have a good idea and aren’t getting an audience with their minister, they can directly pitch to him. His mantra to this sprawling force that they should move away from ABCD (“avoiding, bypassing, confusing and delaying) culture and adopt a culture demonstrating Responsibility, Ownership, Accountability and Discipline (ROAD). A week after winning the election he hosted 77 of India’s most senior bureaucrats urging them to work fearlessly and proactively. This was followed by presentations from each one of them. He gave his personal number and email to them so that they can get in touch with him anytime. He also urged them to question processes and rules which have become outdated and come in the way of governance. He also told them to be fearless, bold and decisive for which he would back them. He urged them to make sure no files are kept pending and all follow his motto of “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance” which is about simplifying official procedures, using technology supported by a small group of talented bureaucrats. Modi is a strong believer in meritocracy and knows teams are more engaged when teams use their full strength to help accelerate performance. With this objective in September 2014, he shuffled the portfolio of 50 bureaucrats based on past performance, experience, strengths and potential quite like the way any corporate would do. He and his ministers have been applying innovative ways to engage the bureaucracy right: from giving them Sir Alex Ferguson biographies, to organising yoga camps, to sending senior bureaucrats to places where they had served as young officers. For the last case, on their return they are told to submit a report on what had changed and what could be done better. Given the changed work environment, he knows bureaucrats are spending time in the office and the workplace has become more demanding. He has urged them to take it easy, not take undue pressure and balance priorities at work and home. He has also told them to inspire youngsters at schools and colleges on why they should join the bureaucracy instead of more lucrative jobs. All of these initiatives have energized these bureaucrats. They believe their work is being looked at by none other than the Prime Minister. What’s also satisfying for them is that good work will be recognized and they have a leader who cares for them and doesn’t want to use them as robots. This was best summarized by a tweet from a senior bureaucrat: “1st time in my career free, frank & fearless interaction with d pm of d country. Highly motivating! Gr8 flow of ideas!”

Takeaway for Lean Leaders: Beyond the hard stuff of process, structure, technology and tools, which are an important facet of lean transformation, what’ important is to focus on people engagement and their behavior. A change transformation will be incomplete if the leader needs to practice tough love, hold people accountable and reward them for good performance. Those impacted by change need to shun an ABCD culture and demonstrate behaviors around Responsibility, Ownership, Accountability & Discipline (ROAD).

15 Types of Process Excellence Professionals

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How to recognize a Toolophile from a Power–Point Maestro

Process excellence professionals come in a variety of shapes and sizes, says PEX Advisor Debashis Sarkar. Here how’s to recognize them and how you can make sure you use their strengths to your advantage.

Whether they’re experts in improvement methodologies like Lean, Six Sigma, TOC, or not, what binds PEX (aka Process Excellence) professionals together is that they use the power of process to enhance the performance of their organizations. But it’s definitely not “one size fits all”. It takes all types to make a PEX team and it’s helpful to know who’s best at what.

Here are the 15 types of PEX professionals you’re likely to encounter on the job.

#1: The Tool-o-phile

The Tool-O-Phile is a person who loves tools and spends a lot of time gathering knowledge on tools and techniques from methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, TOC, A3 etc. For this type PEX professional, brandishing capability on lean tool is more important than the outcomes of process improvements. One to watch as you can often find him or her using tools in projects even if not required- just to demonstrate knowledge of the methodology.

#2: JDI Pusher

JDI stands for Just-do-it. This type of PEX professional is a person who will provide you the solutions even before complete analysis to a problem has been done. He will encourage teams to avoid the rigour of analysis and just go ahead with the deployment of the solutions (usually recommended by him or her). The JDI Pusher takes it personally if their solution is not implemented. You can recognize this type of PEX professional because they have a tendency to narrate stories about past successes and process knowledge – especially in support of his solution. The challenge? If he is not able to push his idea, he will withdraw and stop participating in the process improvements.

# 3: The “Know-All”

The “Know-All” claims to have knowledge about all methodologies and tools that exist for process excellence. Be it Six Sigma, Lean, TOC, TRIZ, process management, CMMI, COPC etc; he will claim his competencies in all and will have a line or two say on each of them. Whichever one you name, he will nod his head as if he has successfully used it for years. You can easily recognize this type because when told to demonstrate his knowledge by implementation, he will struggle.

#4: The Change Master

The Change Master treats every process improvement initiative as a change endeavour. He is strong in influencing skills and is able to engage teams across hierarchies. He is tool deficient as believes that they are not important so far he is able to manage the trials and tribulations of change associated with process excellence efforts.

# 5: The Power-Point (PPT) Maestro

The PPT Maestro is a person who gets all his power from power-point. His passion is not process-improvement and his involvement at the most is superficial. However, he is in the forefront in leading the encapsulation of the project outcomes in power-point presentations and sharing this with the bosses.

#6: The Thinker

He is a thinker and loves conceptualizing the process-improvement journey. You put him in any organization and he will quickly tell you what needs to be done to enhance its performance. However, his forte is not execution and needs others to deploy what he was conceptualized . He observes and learns from across industry and successfully able to customize offerings for his organization.

#7: The Communicator

He is an individual who likes communicating to all the power of process and what it can do to business performance. He loves evangelizing and sharing concepts of quality. His forte is collecting relevant information and disseminating it to all relevant organization. But clearly deployment, change and engagement are not his cup of tea.

#8: Data Whiz

This is someone who loves data and spends a lot of time playing with it. You give him any information and he would quickly analyse for your reference. He is adept in statistical tools, software packages such as Minitab, JMP etc.

#9: The Systems Thinker

The Systems Thinker is able to quickly connect the impact of process improvement efforts on the big-picture of the organization. Being a systems thinker he is able to quickly tell you how an improvement impacts the other parts of the organization. However, he has dislike for tactical work and would avoid being a part of it

#10: The Deployment Champ

This is someone who is passionate about deployment and able to execute projects on time because of solid project management skills. He gets kick from actions and loves putting out organizational “fires” through process tools. However, if you tell him to think, you may be a bit disappointed with the outcomes.

#11: The Advisor

This is an individual who loves to advise teams on how improvements can be carried out but if you tell him to lead deployment, you could be disappointed. He believes in arm-chair consulting and likes being a bystander when deployment gets done. He is willing to take accountability of results so far as someone else would do the actual work for him.

#12: Trainer

He likes to build capability of teams and is passionate about created agents of change who can do process improvements. He loves training people and gets all charged up when he has to teach a set of people in a classroom. Out of a classroom he’s like a fish out of water.

#13: The Fixer

The Fixer’s approach to process excellence is by short-cuts and building opportunistic relationships with people . You will find him less in process related work and more in finding out about organizational politics. From his friendly demeanour you will never able to realize that he has some motives to achieve. Since his process related efforts are superficial the outcomes that his improvements deliver are most of the times ineffective.

#14: The Chronicler

The Chronicler loves to study process excellence pursued by organization or individuals and chronicle them for others. He studies & researches organizations, practices and teams; and understands why they are doing what they are doing. He puts his findings in articles or books for others to read and learn.

#15: The Silent Force

He is a quiet individual who talks less and wants his results of process improvement do the talking. His knowledge and ability to deliver results is valued by those around him. Typically his silence is mistaken for incompetence but when he is in working on a project one can see a craftsman in action.

Most individuals will have a mix of many of the above traits but they will tend to fall into one category or another.

Have you found any other types of PEX Pros in your team? Do share with me if you have found more that than the 15 above that I have listed.

5 things process excellence professionals can learn from nurses

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In honour of the recent World Nursing Day, Debashis Sarkar looks at five things process excellence professionals can learn from nurses.

You all would probably agree that nursing is probably among the noblest profession on earth. Since Florence Nightingale laid the foundation of transforming nursing from that being a domestic service to that of a profession in nineteenth century, nurses have been serving humankind.

Every time I see a nurse in action, it amazes me to see how caring and compassionate they are as they navigate through multiple duties which could be as varied as comforting patients with pain, delivering babies, changing saline bottles, inserting a catheter, consoling the relatives of someone who has just died, cleaning soiled patients, listening to the traumatic stories of patients and so on.

Nurses are real heroes who work behind the scenes to keep us all healthy while keeping patient’s needs central to everything that they do. For nurses patients are their customers and the commitment with which they serve is something that many of us would have felt. We often don’t realize but they help us to navigate some of the most difficult moments of our lives.

So in honour of the recent World Nursing Day (May 12th), what are some of the things which process excellence professionals learn from nurses? While the list can be large I have picked five of the most relevant:

#1: Advocacy

As a patient advocate, a nurse stands up for the patient’s needs and makes sure that the care provided is in their best interests. As nurses continually interact directly with the patients they are well placed to understand what impact decisions about care will have on their patients.

Process Excellence Professionals (PEX Pro) also need to be advocates – but of the customers (i.e. the end customer) of the process. When we’re improving only a part of a process we can sometimes forget the impact on the end customer and this can be quite disastrous. For instance, if we’re looking at improving the accuracy of the “cash cheque” process at a bank branch we want to make sure that we’re focussing on the entire experience. Otherwise, measures we put in place to improve accuracy may make the process less efficient and pleasant from the customer’s point of view. When facilitating improvements, it’s imperative to always keep this customer in mind and think of any process from their perspective.

#2: Patience

Having patience is the hallmark of a good nurse. In an emotionally charged environment like a hospital, a nurse needs to be calm and manage the difficult emotions of patients on one side, ensure hospital’s need for being operationally efficient are taken care off and also carry out the instructions of a demanding doctor. Under such circumstances if a nurse looses his/her calm, things can go awry. Hence, it requires a nurse to always keep the larger picture of compassion and care in mind and not to do anything that could make them dysfunctional and impede rational thinking, despite all the stress and workplace and managing the various constituents.

What process professionals need to learn from here is that they need to be patient as they try managing the various stakeholders. Sometimes these individuals could be irrational, demanding and even rude. It’s important to keep calm and not get emotional about these reactions. You must always keep the larger objective of the process excellence endeavour and demonstrate emotional resilience to manage varied situations.

Also, just like it can take a long time for a patient to get well, process professionals must be aware that the culture of process thinking takes time to grow and embed in an organisation. There is no magic formula to make it happen. One has to be at it and over a period of time it becomes a part of the organisational fabric.

#3: Passion for education

Nurses are just not care givers but also health educators who play the role of educating patients on what need to be done to maintain a healthy life. They also act as teachers for other budding nurses, provide mentorship to fellow nurses and provide latest knowledge and information from fields such as medicine, medical technology, customer-service, healthcare legislations etc , so that nurses are updated.

Like nurses, process professionals must focus on continual learning and teaching. They need to focus on creating cadre of change agents who can contribute in process excellence efforts. A successful process excellence deployment is one in which process efforts have become a part of business-as-usual activities of an organisation. And this would happen through repeated training and awareness facilitated by PEX Pros.

#4: Adaptability

For a nurse every day is different. They face a wide array of situations. Patients can come in one of the most vulnerable and dark moments which makes them often unpredictable and irrational. There could be days a patient may arrive with complex medical condition which could be a matter of life of death. There could be varying medical procedures that they need to administer. To summarize a nurse’s life is filled with uncertainty and they need to wade through varying operational environment for which they need to demonstrate adaptive leadership.

This is a great learning for PEX professionals who also need work in varied settings. For a process professional no day is the same. Sometimes you can be dealing with an aggressive sales team or a demanding CEO, the next it’s an indifferent shop-floor worker or disengaged staff. Successful PEX professionals are just not “tool-heads” but change leaders adept in adaptive leadership.

#5: Detail orientation

Nurses are detailed oriented. They have a great eye for details so that even little things are taken care of that can impact a patient’s health. Missing even a small dose of medicine or a step in a medical procedure could be fatal. An effective nurse can decipher even minor symptoms which could indicate the deterioration of a patient’s health. It’s the little things that the nurses do contribute towards healthy recovery.

Like nursing professionals, process excellence leaders also need to have an eye for details. It’s the focus on little things that ensures a great outcome. While embarking on a process endeavour a PEX leader should list all the small and big things that need to be addressed to make sure the final results are desired. For example, if the focus is enhancing customer experience in a fine dining restaurant; the focus has to be on food quality, food presentation, aroma, ambience, wait times, staff-friendliness, staff-knowledge, interaction with chef, valet-parking, location of the restaurant, approach to reservation, display of food history etc. It’s all these little things that add up to experience.

To summarize, if nurses are responsible for quality of human life, the work of process excellence professionals is to ensure the health of an organisation by focussing on the process management system.

Taking over as Process Excellence leader? Ten things you must do in the first 90 days

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What you learn about your company in the first couple of months as Process Excellence leader is critical to determining how effective you’ll be, argues contributor Debashis Sarkar. Here are the 10 things you can’t afford to not to know about your company.

So you are just about to take up a new job as process excellence leader in a company. Congratulations, you’ve just entered a role where you have the ability to help your company get better financial results, make life at work easier for your co-workers, and transform the way that your company serves its customers.

Process excellence can be a powerful force for good in an enterprise, but many new process excellence leaders struggle to make their presence felt in the business, leading to frustration and sub-optimal results.

That’s why it’s critical that you use your first couple of months on the job focusing on what’s most likely to set you up for success.

So what are the things that you need to do in the first 90 days to makes sure your landing in the organisation is smooth landing and you start making impact? Here are the ten things you must know about your company:

#1: Know your company’s performance

Begin by going through the company’s annual reports to understand its performance over the last few years. Focus on metrics as revenue, cost, cash-flow, gross profit margin, net-profit margin, inventory turnover, return-on-equity, working capital, accounts payable, accounts receivable etc.

The relevance of the metrics could be based on the industry that your company is in.

Beyond financial metrics focus ascertain the performance on customer satisfaction, employee engagement, corporate social responsibility etc. The effort should to have a feel on what’s going on well for the company and what needs improvement.

# 2: Know your board members

While you may not have interaction with the board members on an on-going basis, it helps to know them especially if you need to take the board through an enterprise-wide change program which needs their blessings. Having known the names of the board members it helps to know their views on change programs. This will help you to prepare for possible questions in case in you need to take your change-program through them.

#3: Know your company’s products and services

Spend some time getting to know the various products and services your company offers and their contribution to overall revenue. For the key products ascertain their stage (launch-growth-maturity-decline) in a product-life-cycle curve. I always use the BCG’s growth-share matrix to place the various products in one of the four quadrants designated as dogs, cash-cows, question marks and stars.

What this does is make sure that your “process improvement” efforts are focussed in the relevant product areas. It does not make sense to focus on products / services which are not relevant for company’s overall performance. While looking at products do not forget to get an idea on their distribution and delivery system that takes it to the customers.

#4: Know your key competitors

This is an important exercise to know the key competitors on how they perform on key metrics. Especially ascertain how do customers perceive their products or services and how does you company’s offerings compare with them in eyes of customers. Probe deep to understand what makes the competitor’s products better in the eyes of the customers. Is it price, user experience, reliability, features, after sales-service etc.

#5: Know your key customer issues

Look at all the customer issues being faced by the company. Browse through customer complaints, feedback and what makes the customer unhappy today. Try to unfurl specific chronic issues that are unresolved for quite some time.

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#6: Know your company’s core processes

Understand the core processes of the company and those that directly help in achieving the strategic business objectives. Ascertain the “state” of each of these processes and where they are on a maturity continuum. Specifically, see if there are metrics to ascertain their health on an on-going basis.

#7: Know your company’s track record of change programmes

During formal and informal interactions with leaders understand the past experience with change program. Were they successful, what are the challenges and what were the critical success factors? Ascertain if there are any other change program currently underway.

#8: Know your process change capabilities

Take stock of whether there are trained resources who can be involved in process improvement efforts. These resources could be green belts, black belts, lean change agents, jonahs etc.

#9: Know the influencers and the detractors

Keep your eyes and ears open to pick up clues on leaders or individuals whom you need to take on board to make the change program successful. Also, find out individuals who could be potential detractors in your change program. It’s imperative to make a list of these influencers and detractors in your notebook. Remember, influencers and detractors can be at any level of the company.

#10: Know what you see

While you go around the company keep observing and listing what you see. Look for both the obvious and more subtle things going on in the workplace. Things that you could observe could be inventory pile-up, lack of alignment, disorganized offices, customer queues, charts / graphs etc. Remember, your observation does not end in 90 days but it sets the tone of what you would be doing going forward.

During the first 90 days make it a point to write down everything that you gather. Take copious notes and go through them at the end of everyday.

While the company may have an on-boarding plan for you, it is imperative that you make your own focus areas. Be a bit pushy and reach out to people to understand both the explicit and implicit things of the company. Your main objective in the first 90 days should be to know the company and the elements that can contribute towards your process improvement endeavour.

What do you think? Are there other things that Process Excellence Leaders must learn about their company in their first 90 days on the job? What else is critical to your success?

The Eight Habits of Effective Process Excellence Leaders

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A lot is written about process excellence, writes columnist Debashis Sarkar, but one area that has not been covered in much detail is what actually makes a great process excellence leader? It’s not about the tools, he says. Here are the eight habits of effective leaders.

For many of us being a process excellence leader is about mastering the tools and attaining certifications in the domain of six sigma (belts), lean (master), TOC (Jonah) etc. While these skills are required, what makes a successful process excellence leader is demonstrating skills and behaviours beyond the methods. It’s not the technical skills but the adaptive skills that makes a PEX Leader successful.

Here are what I consider to be the eight habits of effective Process Excellence leadership:

Habit #1: Ability to Zoom-in and Zoom-Out

Leaders need the ability to zoom-in and zoom-out: zoom-in to get into the core of an issue and zoom-out to see the larger picture. It’s essential to have this focus so that when looking at a problem (or an opportunity, as I like to call them), to understand the strategic imperatives of business and which processes need to change to make an improvement. You need to be able to quickly see how the details of individual processes connect up with the big-picture of the business. In everything that they do, PEX Leaders need to be system thinkers who see problem solving in the context of the larger business system and how this affects other parts of the business. This not only helps ensure that improvements in one area aren’t negatively affecting another, but also ensures that all process improvement work is supporting the strategic objectives of the business.

Ultimately, as I wrote in an earlier column – How to tell if you’re a process centric organization – leaders of process excellence should be able ascertain how the strategic and tactical efforts in process improvement will impact the overall performance of the company. A key deliverable of a PEX Leader is to script a holistic improvement roadmap for the next couple of years that enables a company to achieve its strategic vision.

Habit #2: Ability to engage

Process improvement is as much about convincing people to change as it is going around and changing processes. The ability to engage other people, therefore, is essential. Process Excellence Leaders must be able to persuade the CEO and other senior leaders to adopt process excellence practices for business improvement. This is about being able to sell performance-enhancement ideas to leaders based on the explicit & implicit needs of the business, and then being able to support them start-to-finish to catalyze the changes necessary.

The key word here is “catalyze” which is about the business leader owning the deployment while the PEX Leader acts as a coach. Leaders of process improvement need to be comfortable both with C-level executives as well as teams at middle & junior management. Senior leaders look at him as a trusted partner while people at junior and middle management look at him as an inspirational leader who is able to motivate them to adopt process-practices for eliminating some of the deep chronic issues that they could be facing. The PEX Leader should be able to provide visibility to teams on how their efforts impact the strategic objectives of the company.

Habit #3: Ability to manage change

This is about treating a process excellence rollout as a change program and doing everything to make sure it sticks in the firm. It includes getting the organizations’ attention to the process excellence agenda, catalyzing the required sense of urgency and gaining true buy-in by winning over the hearts and minds of people.

The Process Excellence Leader does not keep the people who oppose the process agenda out of his way but proactively gets them to the table to understand their concern and even allows them to find holes in the way he is proposing the deployment. PEX Leaders need to treat those who attack us with respect and engages with them to allay their concerns. We are able to successfully manage a wide-range of behaviours that oppose / raise doubts about the process agenda. One of endeavours of the PEX Leader should be to work with the CEO to build a change-ready company that is able to wade through the changes in the environment.

Habit #4: Ability to understand financials

Process Excellence leaders need to demonstrate to the business the financial value of the work the team is undertaking but also understand how process improvement work affects the financial of the company.

PEX Leaders need to understand not just basic financial statements but also the relationship between them and the derived ratios. For example, if a cost-income ratio is a key metric tracked by top management in a bank, the PEX Leader works towards finding which processes can improve this ratio.

Conversely, if there are financial measures that top management should be tracking, but aren’t, the PEX Leader should be able to highlight this and argue why a particular measure is important and what impact process improvement will have on the measure.

Habit #5: Ability to Coach

The ability to help others become better is a key skill which PEX Leaders should master. We are in the business of not only improving processes but also helping to improve businesses. A key part of that is ensuring that we are building up capabilities and skills in others in the business. PEX Leaders should be able to coach those in the process improvement team but also those who are not direct reports as well as peers and top management of the firm.

To know more on coaching I would suggest you go through my earlier column: 13 Essentials of Coaching for Process Improvement

Habit #6:Ability to understand customers and spot trends

Ultimately, we’re in business because we have customers. When customers become the centre-stage of a process excellence endeavour the undertaking gains a greater magnitude of importance – everyone in the business can and should have a sense of how their role serves the end customer. A process excellence initiative can die when primarily targeted towards internally focused objectives such as cost cutting, efficiency gains, etc. while a process excellence journey is long lasting when it is designed around customers.

PEX Leaders work towards improving the value delivered to the customer. We must work with other leaders in the company to design a suitable value proposition for the customer and make sure that each part of the business works in tandem to deliver the customer promise. We need to keep an eye on the emerging trends that impact customers and help the CEO to design a business-strategy with the customer at the centre.

Habit #7: Ability to embed capability

The real power of process improvement starts when business units have the skills necessary to make improvements and changes to their role.

Part of our role is to put ourselves out of a job by building capability and embedding required skills within business units so that they can pursue the process improvement efforts for enhancing the performance of the business. This includes making sure that best and brightest employees are involved in process improvement, teams get time to carry out improvement work and they get recognized for accomplishing business outcomes by using the power of process. Excellence in process excellence work needs to be made a criteria for career growth. Each of the business units and functions should have adequate number of change agents in improvement approaches such as Lean, Six Sigma, BPM, Triz, Small Group Activities, JIT etc.

Habit #8: Ability to guide teams on tools and techniques

A PEX Leader should be adept in the key improvement approaches and should be in a position to guide teams when required. While it helps to have deep knowledge in process improvement practices, you shouldn’t worry if you’re not a master of any of them. What is really required of PEX Leaders is the ability to ask the right questions and understand the technical output of teams. Remember, when the job of a PEX Leader is to engage and provide strategic inputs, it’s fine if the PEX Leader is a bit “tool deficient”. You need deep experience in change management.

Do you agree that these are the eight habits essential for PEX Leaders? Is there anything I’ve left out? Join the discussion by leaving a comment.

13 Essentials of Coaching for Process Improvement

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As organizations embark on their process improvement journey, one of the things that they seem to forget is to focus on coaching skills that creates change agents, says Debashis Sarkar, author and Asia’s pioneer in Lean for services. And that’s a mistake, because you need change agents who can embed a problem-solving into the daily routine of the firm. Here are the 13 essentials to creating real process change agents.

True learning happens through repeated practice. Take an athlete learning to play football, for example. A player may be able to learn the strategy and some techniques of the game in the classroom. But it’s not until he gets out on field and starts trying to make them happen that we can say he’s really starting to understand the game.

And just getting the experience on the field isn’t enough. An athlete that wishes to truly perform and master the game must be constantly improving his techniques, his strategies, his understanding of other players on the field. Can he do this on his own? In some exceptional circumstances, perhaps. Would it help if he had the assistance of a coach to guide him? Undoubtedly, yes.

Similarly, building world class problem solvers requires that they practice their techniques under the guidance of an experienced coach. Classroom sessions and simulations are all fine – and an essential part of the learning process – but skills get sharpened in the workplace by solving real life problems. The objective of coaching is to help your employees hone those skills and behaviors that facilitate continual improvement.

Even the best athletes in the world require the feedback and guidance of experienced coach – yet many companies either underestimate the importance of coaching their employees, or they fail to get the ingredients right to achieve desired results.

So what are the essential components of coaching change agents for successful process improvements? Here are 13 essentials you shouldn’t ignore.

Essential #1:

Coaching is not HR’s responsibility

The responsibility of coaching for process improvement (PI) cannot rest with human resources. It’s the line leaders to make change happen where ownership should reside. However, when an organization embarks on a PI journey; the ownership for creating these change agents often rests with the corporate PI leader. To begin he should coach senior leaders to become coaches for PI.

Essential #2:

Give them real business problems

The best way to coach a person is to make them solve real business problems. It’s through problem solving with guidance that a person builds skill and mastery in tackling business challenges,

Essential #3:

Deliver coaching on the “shop floor”

The majority of your coaching should happen in the workplace where the process and the teams are operating. This ensures that there is a clear link between what the employee is learning and the environment in which he is to act on it. In case of manufacturing companies this would be the shop-floor while for service companies this would be where the process is operating or the service delivery to customers is provided.

Essential #4:

Help them break the problem down into parts

Teach the coachee to break the final outcome into milestones or target conditions which need to be achieved on the road to achieving the final outcome. This not only ensures regular focus on the process on its way to achieving the final outcome but also makes sure that actions are taken early if things go off the rails. Review progress using a PDCA structure.

Essential #5:

Review progress frequently

The coaching process should be take place frequently – it’s important to review progress frequently and given feedback to the coachee. The coaching process should happen at least after the achievement of each milestone or target condition. Even shorter periods of time between sessions is recommended.

Essential #6:

Let them think for themselves

Never provide answers to the person you’re coaching. Your approach to teaching has to be through a series of questions that helps the person to find the answer. The coachee should learn through his own discovery as he works on the projects and works on the questions posed by his coach. The process of asking-questions to help the individual come up with their own answers – also known as the Socratic method – unfurls the thought process of the coachee.

Essential #7:

Teach them not to assign blame to individuals

Inculcate into the individuals that you mentor that problems happen because of process and the system not because of people. So whenever someone reports a problem or blames someone, the first response has to be to go and look at the process / system and not to point the finger at any one individual.

Essential #8:

Help them learn to see

Teach the change agents the power of observation. The coachee needs to be taught to look for both explicit and implicit things in a process. Can this be taught? Yes, it can be. Observation is just not about the process but also about the customers, the context in which the process functions, etc.

Essential #9:

Highlight the importance of the “softer” skills

Beyond technical skills on tools and methodologies, it’s imperative to `teach the coachee change management skills. The reason why process improvement fail when teams do not seem to apply proper change skills.

Essential #10:

Reflect on what’s gone well and what hasn’t

Every coaching session has to have a slot for reflection. The coach spends times with coachee to reflect on what went well and what requires improvement in the journey of problem resolution taken so far.

Essential #11:

Take ultimate responsibility for ensuring success

The responsibility of success of the project rests with the both coach and coachee. While the coach may not provide the answers to the coachee, he is responsible for the outcome of the project. An organization serious about PI should scrutinize the acts of the coach if the project is ultimately not successful.

Essential #12:
Write it down

Use a document to facilitate the discussion during the coaching process. While an A3 document is ideal for this but one can create any other simple document which encapsulates what has been accomplished so far, next steps to be taken while keeping the larger objective in mind. The A3 sheet really helps as it is a simple easy to read one-pager that captures the entire project which gets built through an iterative process.

Essential #13:

Know what you’re talking about

The Coach cannot just be an arm chair consultant dissociated from the context. While he may not provide all the answers, he has to have pretty good understanding of the problem to help the mentee find the way forward. Without this understanding a coach cannot expect to do a good job.

In an ideal world, the process excellence journey should involve top management becoming such coaches and demonstrate the desired behavior through their actions. Early in the journey, it may be difficult to get everyone in the entire leadership team demonstrate the right coaching traits. In such a case we should at least make sure that at least one or two leaders (preferably the CEO) coach in the manner that we just discussed.

And who should take the lead to create these coaches? The Corporate PI Leader / PI Sensei or if this role doesn’t exist at your company, it’s worthwhile hiring in external consultants.

Seven Signs Your Process Improvement Initiative Is Failing

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Many companies start the process excellence journey with a bang, says Debashis Sarkar, but fail to sustain the gains. In this PEX Network interview, Sarkar, author and Asia’s pioneer in Lean for services, looks at the causes of failure, details the seven signs that your process improvement initiative is dying and suggests the characteristics essential to a healthy process improvement culture.

PEX Network: How healthy are the majority of process improvement programmes out there?

Debashis Sarkar: It’s very difficult to generalize because it’s so specific to an individual company. But one thing that I’ve seen over the course of my time in operational excellence is that many companies start the process excellence journey (in the garb of Lean, Six Sigma, BPM etc) with a bang. Then after a few years the initiative loses steam. After a few years the leaders don’t seem to see benefit, the organization does not seem to be interested and the process excellence teams struggles to keep its relevance.

This tends to happen especially when the focus is on tools and methods, rather than on the underlying management thinking, routine and culture of the organization. The problem with many firms is that process improvement is just about doing projects; what they need is a holistic approach that has a systemic impact on the organization.

As a matter of fact, to say that process improvement is a programme is not correct. That would mean that it has an end but a process intervention is a journey without an end, constantly changing its complexion as it moves along.

PEX Network: What are the symptoms and the causes of a failing process improvement journey?

D. Sarkar: The symptoms of a failing process improvement journey could be many but the common ones are:

Symptom #1: The CEO has lost interest in Process Improvement

While someone may say that once a process improvement journey has achieved maturity, it no longer needs to be on the radar of the CEO. I do not agree with this view. Whatever the size of your company, if process improvement is delivering real value to the business, the CEO will at least review it once a month. If the CEO loses interest it is an early-warning sign that the Enterprise PI Leader is not focused on those improvements that will deliver high impact value that makes the executive team sit up and take not. The onus is on the PI Leader to communicate those results to the CEO and top management..

Symptom #2: Superficial commitment by leaders

This is demonstrated in number of ways such as delegating the ownership of PI to subordinates, not being a part of project-selection, not finding time for reviews, making the right noise but not backing with action etc. These symptoms could be related to a history of past work by process improvement teams not living up to the expectation. Remember, the mindshare of business leaders must be earned – it cannot be demanded – especially if there is no mandate from the CEO.

Symptom #3: Improvements Are Reported But Not Felt

PI teams often report huge benefits but if the impact is not actively felt by the customers or other chronic business problems do not seem to have been addressed, then cynicism can quickly set in. If this is happening it’s time to evaluate your focus – the improvements you’re reporting on may not have real benefit to the business.

Symptom #4: People are asking: “What happens after…?”

Alarm bells should be ringing if people ask “What happens after….(Lean, Six Sigma, fill in the blank)?” because this implies that your current activities and methods will cease and you will move onto something else. This often happens when you follow a methodology centred deployment. For instance if your focus has been Six Sigma, leaders could ask “what happens after Six Sigma?” The corporate PI team is expected to take out a new rattle (i.e. new methodology) from their bag of tricks. To counter this, make sure that you have a larger roadmap in place so that people can see the bigger picture.

Symptom #5: PI only being done by Corporate PI teams

If PI is only being done by corporate PI teams instead of business units, it clearly shows that the relevance of PI has not taken root. Any improvements you make are in danger of being lost the moment you step away.

Symptom #6: Focused On The Tools And Not the Philosophy

If the focus of your process improvement program is tool and method based – you’re at risk of focusing on hitting the nail with the hammer rather than the overall objective of building a house. While you’ll have isolated sucess if there is no effort to change the underlying management thinking and culture of the firm – which are like the foundations of the house – there’s a chance that all the walls you’ve built will collapse when you’re not there to keep hammering away at them.

Symptom #7: Using Process Improvement for Cost Cutting

The worst thing that can happen is a drive to use Process Improvement for cost cutting and head-count reduction. You want people to travel less and you do it in the name of Process Improvement etc. There is a difference between cost-cutting and cost-optimization. The latter is getting benefits in cost by looking at underlying processes while the former is cutting cost and put an attire of Process Improvement around it. Process Improvement for cost cutting is a recipe for quick death of your process improvement endeavour – and a surefire way to build up resentment the next time corporate leaders announce a new process improvement initiative.

PEX Network: What are the questions that business leaders should be asking themselves to health-check their journey?

D. Sarkar: Top management should ask themselves the following 5 questions on a regular basis:

  • Who owns process improvement in the company – Is it the Business Leaders or the PI Team?
  • Is the Process Improvement journey serving the dual objective of delivering business results and developing exceptional leaders?
  • Are we focussing on the management thinking and cultural dimensions of Process Improvement?
  • What sort of engagement, collaboration and involvement do we see of the teams in Process Improvement?
  • Are the general noise levels around critical business problems going down?

PEX Network: And if you’ve asked yourself these questions and run a symptom checker and things aren’t looking good…what are immediate steps you get take to get your “journey” back in form?

D. Sarkar: I think in such a case you need to get back to the drawing board. The business leader should immediately take the help of a coach / sensei or Corporate Process Improvement Leader to put together a holistic plan.

A healthy process improvement journey manifests itself in number of ways, the top ten ones being:

#1. Committed business leaders

Leaders must be proactively leveraging process excellence for business improvement and must be engaged in supporting process improvement activities.

#2. Supporting Values and Leadership principles

Employees across the business hold values and leadership principles that facilitate process thinking. Leaders must “walk the talk” and exude these values and leadership principles.

#3. Process Improvement (PI) Roadmap

The company has an agreed road map that anticipates the expected direction and goals for the next few years.

#4. Beyond Tools

Process endeavour is focussed on management thinking, routines & culture…and not on tools.

#5. Change Agents

There are a large number of practicing change agents within business units with competencies in domains such as BPM, Lean, Six Sigma etc.

#6. Living Infrastructure Pillars

Established and living infrastructure-pillars that helps in sustaining the gains comprising elements such as Rewards & Recognition, Knowledge Management, Communication, Audits, Dashboards etc.

#7. Not Just Manufacturing / Operations

Process thinking impacts all functions such as manufacturing, finance, sales & distribution, marketing, IT, product development etc. It does not just live in the domain of operations or manufacturing.

#8. Spreading Process Improvement Deeply

Wherever deployment has happened it is organic, deep and is a model. This is because company wide deployment cannot happen at once, it has to happen in phases and such models act like laboratories to showcase success.

#9. Involvement of diverse teams

Involvement of teams in Process Improvement is across company hierarchies ( bottom, middle and top), function, and just not an endeavour of the Process Excellence teams.

#10. Leadership Development

Process Improvement is looked at as a leadership development process and we are using it to help develop exceptional leaders.

Remember, whatever approach you take it has to be able to make a sustainable systemic impact on the business.

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