Stumbling on the Journey to Excellence

As companies progress on their journey to organizational excellence, there are proud moments for sure. Moments people look back on with fondness and a deep sense of "We actually did it!"

But let us not forget that there are times when the organization, or the people within it, take a tumble due to a misstep. It is worthwhile to take time and reflect on these significant learning opportunities. It's actually not a bad thing to document them as case studies for internal consumption, so that all may learn by the opportunities presented therein.

Here are some things to consider when you find stumbling within your own organization, whether it be the enterprise, the business unit, the site, the team or the work-cell.

When you stumble, start by asking these questions

Where are we at right now?

When the pursuit of excellence becomes overwhelming without many achievements, take a moment and investigate the overall health, vitality and relevance. The simplest way to investigate this is to review the system in which your work is constructed. This would require a formalized system, identifying it as a Work, Improvement or Management system and the five (5) required communication tools for a healthy, vital and relevant system, i.e., Standard Work, Reports, Feedback, Schedule and Improvement Log. If you've not formalized your system, that - by itself - could be the root of your problem with stumbling. If your system is not formalized, then take the time to map and formalize it. That is an excellent review process in and of itself. Once formalized, prevent or at least minimize future stumbling, by reviewing the system on some measure of frequency. I've a client that has each system owner review their system on a quarterly basis, providing opportunity to find ways to improve the system and prevent stumbling.

Are we providing the right amount of training for those working within the system, and at the right pace?

This is a critical question. The purpose of training is to build capability. We are not only speaking of capability with respect to doing the work. More importantly, we should be building capability as to improving the work. If we are not doing enough training on improving the work - such as problem solving techniques, basics of understanding business, KBIs and KPIs, etc. then the work becomes less interesting. Mundane. Stale. Morale drops. Absenteeism and turnover increase. All of which are reasons for stumbling.

If we are doing too much training, we may be overwhelming our people with information overload by giving them more training than they can assimilate on the job. This is especially true of training to improve the work. Identifying the right pace requires managers to have a keen understanding of their people and the capabilities for each person, including their appetite for change.

Another area of too much training is a symptom of consistent stumbling, but for various reason. When we conduct root cause analysis, we don't get to the true root cause and assume the root cause is that people were not trained enough. So the countermeasure, or CAPA, becomes "more training." This is usually preceded by more specific instructions in the standard work, which creates greater opportunity for more stumbling, as it makes the work instructions more prescriptive. And the cycle feeds on itself. I worked for a company that called "more training" and "improved work instructions," do better countermeasures. Do better countermeasures were despised in that organization because you cannot measure a "do better." One way to prevent this is to look at the stumble from a systems perspective: Is the system mapped? If not, map it. When was it last reviewed? If a long while review it. In the review of the system, with respect to finding the root cause, the following question must be pervasive: What within the system allowed the stumble to occur? Find that and you are, by default, improving the system. And preventing "more training."

Have we plateaued after achieving the next, or a critical milestone?

Organizational excellence is a long game. Executives, Managers and Team Members who understand that, are both patient for results and rigorous in preparing for them. Hitting a "best" or targeted milestone in performance is a function of planning and preparation. I take you now, back to understanding, mapping and reviewing systems. I was recently asked by a client how to establish a baseline for improving a system. They seemed always to default to the aspiration of the system. The aspiration is a reality aspired to. I can aspire to run a marathon. Doing so does not mean that I will run a marathon. I first have to do the work of understanding my current capability. This is a map of sorts. What does my doctor say about my health; a map. How far can I run and at what pace before I cannot run any more? A map in a literal sense. These are baseline values. Once I have that data, I can look at what good looks like. I can join a running club and consult with people of my age and build who actually have run marathons. This is benchmark data. And gap analysis. Now I may build my plan around what I know, or seek out further expertise by enlisting a coach to help. The same is true for mapping and achieving milestone performance. Look at the system. Understand it. Review it. The more skilled and disciplined you become in this process, then you will find precision in understanding the system and predicting new levels of performance and how to achieve them. Be sure to celebrate the victories, but find appreciation for the journey which fostered them and open your mind to finding success in creative ways.

Once you've mapped your system, it's time to take action

Remove the pressure

There will be times when it is hard. People call in. Markets shift. It sounds cliché, but keep in mind to find joy in the journey. It's not a sprint. No journey is. Most have arduous turns in them. Recognize and embrace that before they arrive. Build in time for a social release with the team. A social event, especially in a neutral place, over a meal, removes social barriers and creates shared experiences, by which people bond. This bonding enhances empathy and understanding, which in turn enhances performance. Some organizations call this "team building." I despise the use of that term for a social event. Team building has it's merits as well and should be engaged in. But as opposed to a social event, which is free in its form, effective team building is structured and has a purpose or goal for the team, clearly specified, and for which the event is designed to achieve. Either of these two types of events, or a combination of them, will help remove the pressure and reinvigorate the drive for performance.

Slow down

I realize that to some value stream managers, this is heresy. And in my career, I've been at risk for being burned at the stake for speaking it. However, there is truth in the value of slowing down. Many years ago, I worked as an operator on a production line that produced process cheese at about 30,000 pounds an hour. Things moved very fast, but we learned that we might be more productive, producing less rework at 28,000 pounds an hour. The Shingo Institute gives an example an organization that had a plant value stream that was focused only on the number of units produced. This was irrespective of quality and created a great deal of scrap. The metric was changed to the number of good units produced. The line on the value stream slowed down, but the actual productivity increased and scrap became nearly non-existent. Sometimes you actually need to go slower to go faster.

Remember the "why"

Again, I realize this is somewhat cliché. What makes it cliché is its overuse without regard to what the actual why is. The why is most often spoken of in terms of the moment as a matter of expedience. Understanding your system helps establish the real why. As part of the exercise of mapping a system, we ask our clients, "What is the aim of the system?" Then we ask if that aim is aligned to the strategy of the business unit, the plant and the enterprise, in that order. This helps align the system with other systems within the organization. When this alignment, those working within the system can see how what they do is a direct link with the purpose or "North Star" of the organization. Organizations that clearly understand this across the enterprise, often have folks on the shop floor talking about how what they do, "Saves Lives" or drives "Same Day, Next Day" for the customer, regardless of what they do at their work cell. They can see the why and they can articulate what they do every day in terms of the why.

Conclusion

Following these questions and guidelines are in no way a guarantee you will never stumble. Nothing is. But by asking these questions, by considering these actions, by mapping, understanding and reviewing systems you own within your organization, you will certainly minimize the number of times you stumble, and recover far more quickly when you do.