Volume 1 Edition 10: Prophet of Continuous Improvement

?Welcome to another edition of the Traveling along the TLS Continuum newsletter. This week we want to take the question about attitudes towards continuous process improvement a step further and address your expectations in entering the improvement effort.

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Many organizations begin the continuous process improvement effort by acquiring the services of a process management professional to serve as a consultant on the effort. The question becomes what are the expectations of the organization regarding the consultant? You have two simple alternatives. The first is that you are hiring someone who will tell you like it is. Someone who can tell you this is what needs to be done and this is what will happen. Alas you are looking for the prophet of the continuous improvement effort. If you have hired someone who can do that you have missed the point of the process. If you are expecting someone to carry you along the path to improvement you have the wrong view of the process,

?My role as a continuous process improvement consultant is not to be the guiding light. My role is to show you the path and let you take the journey as an organization with my guidance along the way. Mike Rother, in his book Toyota Kata, explains that this view has two parts that need to be traveled in unison.

?Improvement Kata

?Your first task is to gain the knowledge of the system. This is obtained through scientific inquiry. Identifying the current state of the process and gain some perspective as to what you expect the system to produce that is not currently achieving. In between is the experiment stage where you have identified what is critical to your success and begun to implement strategies that are necessary for you to get there. This represents Mike Rother’s gray zone.

?Coaching Kata

?The second part of my job is to guide you along the TLS Continuum. Not taking the path for you but being there in a support role. I do this by following the steps of the Shu Ha Ri. We begin by letting you experiment in finding a solution. Then my role becomes the role of the teacher. I will ask you a series of questions.

Stage 1: In the beginning

These are the ground basis questions.? First, we ask you where you are now? You have a problem, what is there a problem? Where do you want to be? Finally, as the gray zone demonstrates what is holding you up from going forward?

?Stage 2: The experiment

Conduct the experiment. Maybe use the Tachii Ohno Stand in a Circle exercise. Observe the system and see what is going wrong. As Ohno said, if you can’t find the problem you have not looked hard enough. Be prepared to answer my questions. I will not tell you what you should have observed. I want you to tell me. My questions at this stage are going to be centered around what did you observe? Why did you observe it? Why did you do what you did? Why does the process behave the way it does?

?Stage 3: The “end “game

At this stage, I will be available for guidance if you need it. In reality you are fully capable of doing things yourself. You can answer your own questions. You can develop your own solutions to an issue. As your consultant I will be there if you need to gain some additional help, but it is your game now. You have developed your own path along the continuum. One that is unique to your organization and your stakeholders. It is a path that is yours to own. It is a path that you can take pride in improving going forward as circumstances change as they will.

?Need assistance with your own journey down the TLS Continuum? Drop an email to [email protected] or book a time at https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/TRavelingalongtheTLSContinuum@ NETORG5223078.onmicrosoft.com/bookings/ and request a half hour free Microsoft Teams session with us to discuss your situation and how we may be able to help.

?About the author:?Daniel Bloom?knows HR and Change Management. He’s a speaker on transformational HR, a strategic HR consultant and trainer. Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter. The best strategy that I ever undertook was earning my SPHR and the Six Sigma Black Belt. You can? start along the same path as we present live our ?six week Road to Operational Excellence - The Human Capital Edition Yellow Belt Certification course..

For more information visit https://dbaiconsulting.com/tls-continnuum-master-seminars

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