A culture of excellence

Operational Excellence means People Excellence

I first learned about how important it was to become servant leaders at home and at work by using the Harada Method (https://TheHaradaMethod.com ). It’s very simple to understand the process that initially needs a coach. We just won’t do it on our own. We need a coach to help us break through the many years of rigid patterns that we developed. One pattern most of us have is to think selfishly. The acronym WIIFM, what’s in it for me, develops thinking that the company must do something for me. As leaders, we can’t fight this engrained dynamic. We must become servant leaders to those at work and at home. This is why leadership is hard. Easy to say, but hard to do.

One of the first actions I took, ten years ago, in this direction was to define a small (and almost insignificant action) that I would not normally do. The action is to provide a service to others – not yourself. This action should be a daily routine. At home, you may decide to start washing dishes or putting them in the dishwasher. At work, it could be to make coffee in the lunchroom or to say something nice to a colleague each day. Over the years I have become a servant at work and at home. The results are that I go to work happy, I work happily, and I go home happy. This makes for happy home life.

The beauty of serving is two-fold. One is that you get to decide how to start your journey towards serving others. You get to pick what you want to do – hopefully, you know that this is a service to others rather than a service to oneself. The other is that this small act of kindness starts the journey of becoming a better person to those around you.

My work is a little different than most people’s work. I travel as a keynote speaker and Lean coach sharing knowledge from the book, Developing Lean Leaders at All Levels (https://www.amazon.com/Developing-Lean-Leaders-All-Levels/dp/0991493206 ) and The Harada Method (https://www.amazon.com/Harada-Method-Spirit-Self-Reliance/dp/0971243603 ). My service at work has expanded over the years. It is now part of my DNA. I think about how I can help others regardless of where I am in the world. During my last visit to the U.K. I offered to do a plant tour and provide whatever insight I could. Thankfully a like-minded business professional said, “we would love to have you come to our plant!”

Meet Gordon Pearson (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/pearsongordon/ ). I asked Gordon to share something about himself. Here is what he writes about himself:

I am a continuous improvement fanatic. It is what gets me out of bed every morning. The joy of helping others succeed in making their working lives better and more rewarding and helping organizations succeed never leaves me.

My career has built on these foundations over the last 20 years. I have worked in the pharmaceutical, food, agricultural, and even financial services sectors, always taking the greatest enjoyment and satisfaction in the development of people and the improvement of processes. I have learned and grown in every role and hugely appreciate the support and guidance I have received from many talented and committed colleagues.

Currently, I love being part of the CSL family, working in the influenza vaccination part of the business (Seqirus). How can we develop an excellent continuous improvement culture building on the principles of Lean? That’s the current challenge ??

About Seqirus, he writes:

At Seqirus, we are driven by just one goal - to lessen the severity and impact of influenza, which can reach epidemic or even pandemic proportions with life-threatening consequences. Every year our influenza vaccines help protect millions of people. We find solutions to big, complex, challenging problems, and we see the results in the world around us. Then we do it all over again the following year.

Seqirus is one of the world’s largest influenza vaccine companies. We were created when our parent company, CSL Limited, acquired the Novartis influenza vaccine business and combined it with the vaccine subsidiary, bioCSL.

Gordon also has a fascinating story about his involvement with the book Lean Thinking by Jim Womack and Dan Jones. Please connect with him and ask him to share.

Let’s get back to the beginning. I have been practicing the art of serving which has brought me to the attention of Gordon Pearson, a like-minded enthusiast for Lean. He heard about me from my book with Jeff Liker (https://www.amazon.com/Developing-Lean-Leaders-All-Levels/dp/0991493206 ) about three years ago. When I offered to help a company in Liverpool, Gordon took me up on my offer, and now I am publishing this article to help Seqirus with the question, “How can we develop an excellent continuous improvement culture building on the principles of Lean?”

There are two words in this question that warrant definitions – culture and principles. First, let’s start with culture. Culture, in my definition, is the observable actions and norms of most people in that group. Developing an excellent culture requires deliberate and specific actions that can be defined as excellent actions and are observable.?Excellence in continuous improvement means having a deliberate process for changing for the better. This is easier said than done.

?As I write this article, I just finished another webinar with my Lean sensei. He describes this process as very simple - observing in detail what is happening, and then when you see something wrong (or it could be done better), take the appropriate action. Deliberately having a plan for action excellence must be a minimum standard for developing an excellent continuous improvement culture.

The word principles may have a shallow meaning to some, but as it turns out it is very deep. A principle is defined as truth. A truth that regardless of the business you are in; applies. It’s hard to argue with the five principles of Lean.?Define value from your customer’s perspective, identify the value stream, create flow, pull where you cannot flow, and strive for perfection. These are easy to understand for a thirty-year veteran of lean. I thought I would simplify this by saying that it’s all about the people.

Together Everyone Achieves More: Thank you - from left to right- Gordon, Dee Hamer (Process Lead), Kenichi Okamoto (OE Lead), Alan Hudson (Team Leader), Scott Dake (OE Lead).

People create and improve processes. People are the organic machine in the company that is easily overlooked. From the chemicals in their brain to the signals they send to their body, to the actions they take. People have appreciated in value over time only when they are self-adjusting for the better. Everything else is guaranteed to depreciate over time, but not people.

The key to people's improvement is inquiry – like asking why – with a dash of curiosity. Careful observation is the one skill everyone must-have. Going to the Gemba, or the place where you want to make an improvement, observing deeply the situation, and coming up with questions and solutions to test is part of the action recipe for people development.

What is your action recipe?

How do you train your trainers?

The only system I have found that helps organizations get to this level of action design and execution is the Harada Method. It’s based on the principles of lean only if a lean coach guides the student. The obvious must be said, we need more lean coaches. They are hard to come by. However, developing one means developing five more if the main reason to for learning to coach is to develop more coaches. That is why every lean coach should have the main directive to coach and develop others. Train others as you were trained.

Create lean coaches who help develop others using a systematic approach toward operational excellence techniques.?The first thing to teach any lean coach is to give of themselves and serve those around them. Whether at home or at work, it starts with a small action that is turned into a daily routine, which later becomes a habit.?Lean is easy to say, but not easy to implement. I want to suggest that many companies, like Seqirus, are on their way because they have great lean coaches leading the way.

Why do we improve?

All great companies have two main directives as a vision. One is a business vision, and the other is a people vision. Both must be compelling to cause engagement at the level needed for anyone to use continuous improvement and excellence in the same sentence.

Isn't it enough to strive for continuous improvement?

The Human Resources, Health Safety & Environment departments are integral in providing the right focus. I was told, “here at Seqirus, we save lives.” Now that is having a purpose. Having a purpose at work will also add two years to everyone’s life. Just by being able to answer the question, why do I get up in the morning? is enough to extend your life span. Why not answer this question for every one of your employees when they arrive to work on their first day. We are here to save lives - I love it.

I was so impressed with Seqirus that I decided to type out a few words. Keep up the great work and think about action excellence as the how-to of cultural excellence.

Thank you, Gordon and team, for having me at the plant, and thanks for considering the Harada method as a systematic approach to developing people to their fullest. Action excellence is the pathway towards people's excellence.

Please connect with me any time at https://GeorgeTrachilis.com/