In some Eastern cultures change represents opportunity; they are not separate thoughts. Western cultures have a much more difficult relationship with change; change often represents a threat to one's personal comfort.
Especially in the West, change must be managed. Employees must be made to recognize the need for change, and a culture must be created that rewards taking risks and resists punishing failures, instead preferring to learn from them. Fears must be dealt with directly with effective and plentiful communication to align a critical mass of employees with the new direction.
We can help you determine your employees' readiness for change, improve it with our extensive array of change management tools, and keep your employees moving toward a more productive reality.
Trading Control for Speed and Direction
We as managers expect a high degree of control in our organizations, yet the degree of control is inversely related to the speed at which our organizations can respond to needs. GE's WorkOut process trades some small amount of managerial control for a healthy dose of employee decisioning and commitment.
General Electric developed the WorkOut process in 1989 as a result of deep personnel cuts that gave every remaining employee more work than he or she could possibly do. GE had discovered that reports were generated that were never read, and approvals were required of people too removed from the subject to be familiar with it.
Jack Welch recognized that the people most knowledgeable of a process were those who were closest to it. He knew that employees, given boundaries within which to work and objectives to meet, will work together to find a plan of action that is often better than that developed by any individual. He also knew that employees who are involved in a change will be committed to seeing a plan of action succeed.
Ensuring Accountability
The key to accountability is visibility of expectations and results. Stated commitments tend to be heard differently by different people, and remembered differently over time. Systems of clearly posted commitments, with names and dates, are easier to track and control.
We have guided the implementation of many different visual systems of ensuring accountability, and have found that the critical elements were that they be designed by the group that will use them, and that they are visual. Being visual means they are almost always posted on a wall, rather than in someone's logbook. They are best kept simple, with the use of colors, positions, etc. In most cases the system can be tied to Standard Work.
Recognizing the Need for Change
The overarching strategy of leading change should be to clearly and honestly communicate the business consequences of maintaining the status quo. If you are losing business to a competitor with shorter lead times, or are unable to accept business because you have too little capacity, share that knowledge.
A crisis — current or perceived –– can produce real change. When a crisis occurs the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are available. If the ideas are stale or not well thought through, often as a result of not adapting to changing production realities, the company may continue to slide. If the ideas are fresh and relevant the company can move in the right direction. If the ideas include solutions to the people equation the entire vision will be embraced.
Creating the Right Culture for Change
A culture that accepts, if not embraces, change must often be built. An existing change-averse culture may have arisen from a lack of trust, a fear of failure, or from having too few or ineffective leaders among the rank and file. An outside facilitator, unencumbered by plant history, can often speed the development of a culture more amenable to change.
Trust is built slowly, from a series of kept commitments and straight talk. We have seen instances of trust broken years ago by what most of us would consider a petty action, the response to which festers quietly for many years, and have repaired it through coaching and communication.
Metrics and personnel evaluations can have unintended adverse effects on an employee's desire to try something new. We can help you select metrics that will lead to desired behavior and results, and avoid those that suppress the desire for unified success of the organization.
Managers once thought that employees should follow instructions without question. Today managers want employees who are thinking about how to be more productive and produce high quality. We develop leaders within the employee ranks with those qualities; people who work with you to improve processes and who their peers trust, admire and follow.
Getting Ideas from All Levels
There is tremendous waste when a good idea goes unheard. Toyota has a reputation of trying every employee idea, recognizing that only a small percentage will pay off handsomely. Toyota recognizes that to deny the legitimacy of an idea is likely to eliminate that source of future ideas – perhaps of an important idea – and is unwilling to take that risk. To be able to do this Toyota has educated their employees to improve the quality of their ideas and shares their operating information with the employees. As a result, a Toyota employee will make considerable effort validating his or her ideas before submitting them.
Again, for a number of resons, an organization may have evolved into one in which to remain quiet is the norm. Our well-developed skills of drawing out employee ideas and championing the best ones can help turn that around.
The Question of Rewards
Rewards are a funny thing. The right currency can motivate people to continue to act in the desired way. If the award criteria are not well understood or if the awards are perceived to be arbitrary or capricious any award program can fail.
The best currency for motivating people to contribute – especially when they may see it as risky – is not financial. People are generally well motivated by seeing their ideas taken seriously and – more importantly – tried. They are motivated by seeing that it is within their power to affect improvement. Experiencing the successful result of their ideas will perpetually drive the employee toward more ideas, which brings up the next important topic, that of Control.