Thoughts from CPI Professionals

Carl Jung – A Metaphor about Influence

2011-11-11T17:25:00.001-05:00

Continuing from one of the most important book on psychology: Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Page 49.

“The meeting of the two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: If there is any reaction, both of them are transformed. We should expect the doctor to have an influence on the patient in every physic treatment, but this influence can only take place when he too is affected by the patient. You can exert no influence, if you are not susceptible to influence. It is futile for the doctor to shield himself from the influence of the patient and surround himself with a smokescreen of a fatherly and professional authority. “

#3 Dictum: 2 things –

1. Transformation happens when people are open to each other.

2. If you don’t go into a situation willing to grow and listen, you will not exert any influence. FAIL.

This is another key principle I take into every project, meeting, and facilitation opportunity I have. When you work with others, it can be mutually transformational experience – only if you keep yourself “susceptible/open” to influence. It is up to you as the “conscious one” to not only be open to influence, but be the one who establishes the connection. Only then, can there be a transformative reaction. Yes, it a lot of work to take on the majority of the responsibility, but then as a leader and professional, that is your role and responsibility. People define your success.

I know this is “soft” stuff, but this is how people and cultures change. You cannot change a person, they have to change themselves. Connecting with them and listening is the catalyst that can produce that change. Otherwise, you are in for a lot of unpleasant work trying to change their minds and not their hearts.

Applying Sales Techniques to the Improvement Consultant: Lesson 1

2011-11-06T19:16:00.005-05:00

How often do you find yourself trying to push process improvement? Would you like people to Pull change management from you instead?

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in the selling business. This means we must be personable, knowledgeable and able to provide what our customer wants at a cost they can afford. How well do you know your product? How much does it cost to do business with you? Do people run and hide from you when you are in the neighborhood as if you were sharks in the water?

If you don't know the answer to these questions, chances are, you probably don't stay that busy when it comes to being a change agent. So how can we change that? How can we make your product the hottest commodity on the market?

I recommend learning some selling tools and techniques. Let’s start with one lesson, and see what it does for you:

Lesson 1: Don't be too quick to provide value
Countless times, you will run into customers (project champions) who know nothing about you or your product (Continuous Process Improvement Methodologies). It is very easy to start explaining to this customer all the great things you can do for that person. However, without truly knowing what their need is, how can you truly provide value? For instance, I had a potential champion who I knew could benefit from Lean principles, but in his eyes it was a time waster rather than a time saver. I could have easily approached him and expressed how much time I have saved for other organizations, but that wouldn't have meant anything to him.

Instead, I asked the potential customer what is the one thing he wished he had more of. It turns out he wanted more availability of his instructor pilots. Now, if I didn't apply lesson 1, I could easily explain how I have saved X hours for X organizations. However, saving hours may not be his goal. In addition, how can he relate to X unit. Therefore, I apply some 5-why analysis and figure out the root of his need.

Asking why a few times, I realized this champion was losing his Instructor Pilots to the overburdening of additional duties. Now that I understand what his root need is (eliminating time spent on additional duties to allow more time spent in the air training pilots) I knew where to provide value. I expressed to him savings achieved from other organizations that had additional duties similar to his and all of a sudden I had a believer. This from a person who was one of the biggest non-believers in the organization.

That meeting provided us an opportunity to discover 15-20 projects all aimed at the root need of this Champion. Now I have a customer who will seek me out for their improvement needs rather than me having to peddle my wares.

Try this lesson on for size, and see how much of a virtue patience really is. Finally, if you apply your own tools in the sales call (root cause analysis transformed to a root need analysis), then you can find more than just one sale; you can find a life-long customer.

About the Author: Mark Adams is a process improvement consultant for the United States Air Force. A certified Black Belt in continuous process improvement methodologies, Mark has helped save over 135,000 hours at cost avoidance of $3.1 million dollars in just one fiscal year. Mark has a special knack of approaching projects and adapting tools to achieve results. Mark can be found on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/in/tsgtmarkadams or by email at mark.adamsusaf@gmail.com.

Carl Jung and Emotional Intelligence: Self Awareness and Social Awareness – Part 2

2011-11-06T12:14:00.000-05:00

Awareness

Carl Jung continues with the emotional intelligence theme and fills in the gap the other 2 elements of emotional intelligence:

Page 49

“Two primary factors come together in treatment that is two persons. Neither of whom are a fixed or determinable magnitude. For this reason, the personalities of the doctor and the patient have often more to do with the outcome of the treatment, than what the doctor says and thinks.”

#3 Dictum: You must be self-aware and socially-aware to have the expected outcome. It is not just about how smart you are.

It is remarkable that Dr. Jung had already understood each piece of the Emotional Intelligence triad decades ago; he just didn’t coin the phrase. Through his profound work, he ascertained that outcome of any joint venture (teacher-student, doctor-patient, mentor-student, etc.) creates the outcome more than just what the “doctor” prescribes. I know that I harp on this everywhere I go, and I do realize that doesn’t mean the practitioner can be uninformed. Believe me, I do worry that we (practitioners) must be somewhat well-rounded and not just have 1 great aspect or approach. We must pull from all aspects, but must follow these well researched truths. We should not be 1-trick ponies.

Yes, it does sound like a paradox (You don’t have to all-knowing – But – You have to be well rounded), and that is why it is so salient :)

Here is the slide I used when speaking at the 2011 Air Force Recruiting Service Senior Leader Conference:

About the Author: Ernie Shishido is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt consulting in the US Air Force’s Air Combat Command's Smart Operations Office with 29+ years of uniformed military service. Ernie can be found on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/in/ernieshishido or by email at er.shishido@gmail.com.

Carl Jung and Emotional Intelligence: Social Relationships – Part 1

2011-11-03T18:52:00.000-04:00

Empathy!

Page 49:

“It isn’t the Doctor’s whole task to instruct or convince the patient, he must rather show him how the doctor reacts to his personal case. The relationship between patient and physician remains personal and within the frame of the impersonal and professional treatment.”

#2 Dictum for me: You must demonstrate empathy. Demonstrating empathy is a key concept to building the social relationship pillar of Emotional Intelligence.

This is so important for CPI practitioners to understand that you must establish the relationship with the champion, team lead, and the team immediately. And remember dictum #1: Don’t try to be the problem solver with all the answers! That is not how you establish a good relationship.

The best way to establish a relationship with new teams and groups is by demonstrating empathy. This doesn’t mean sympathy, where you agree with everything, but empathy means you can feel where they are coming from and you visibly, emotionally, and vocally demonstrate it with compassion.

Just this week, I facilitated 3 separate teams (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) that I met for the first time. The first group was somewhat hostile; they used many of the 15 defense mechanisms used by teams/groups. It took about 45 minutes to work through their conscious and unconscious “pushing back” techniques before we were actually communicating, which meant we started to be productive. This was accomplished by demonstrating empathy with them and their mindsets. In the end, we weren’t all bosom buddies, but we were able to meet expectations and develop the required deliverables.

Fits and Starts

2011-11-01T20:57:00.000-04:00

Yes, I have not written in the blog for almost a year. No excuse. I will tell you that changing jobs and moving locations on 1 January 2011 to create value for a different boss has been very time consuming, but VERY fulfilling. After almost 30 years of military service in the Air Force, starting fresh has been liberating and an awakening to a whole new way of life. Two words: Retirement Rocks!!!

So, here we are, 1 November 2011. What has driven me to start sharing these thoughts again? A book that was first published in 1933 and translated for a 1968 publishing in English: Carl Gustav Jung’s book “Modern Man in Search of a Soul.” I have read over 400 business books in the last 2 or 3 years, but this one book made me feel so ignorant, but so fortunate to find it. Only 50% of the way through with this book and I know there is so much to share. I will start with the first key concept that grabbed me:

Page 49:
It is wise for the doctor to renounce any premature assumptions. (Don’t throw them away, but consider them hypothetical ).

As a lean six sigma practitioner, this has been Dictum #1 for me. Don’t try to be the problem solver with all the answers! I see so many well-meaning practitioners that are either just starting out or ones that truly believe that this is their main job: To be the smartest person in the room and give the answers to the team. It is great to think ahead of the team; my mentoring statement is always to “think 4 hours ahead of the team,” but only on what you will do to help guide them.

Many will disagree with me, but long term success is built on a foundation of helping the team help itself succeed, period. Giving the answers, if successful, is a short term recipe for failure.

Falling Up vs. Burning Platforms: Culture, Mindset, or Stimulus?

2010-12-04T23:08:00.000-05:00

(Perspective 2 in a series of weekly perspectives on Structured Problem Solving)

Last week in Part 1 of this series on Structured Problem Solving, we introduced the Turning Adversity into Opportunity Mindset. This week we will enlarge our knowledge of “Falling Up” and discuss its lesser cousin “burning platforms.”

Do you remember the 3 Paths in Falling Up?

There are two scenarios to illustrate this concept:

Scenario #1: Falling Up. Think of yourself as an employee (or company) in today’s tough economic times and you’ve just been laid off (if a company, you’ve just declared bankruptcy). Conventional thinking leaves you with two outcomes:

1. How can I survive this? Reactive in nature. Not very positive.

2. Woe is me! Worst case scenario and very negative.

However, there is a third option!

3. Use this adversity as a way to not only pick yourself up, but as an opportunity to get better than before. You create your own future! Real transformation happens here.

Remember, we often undermine our ability to tackle our challenges when we don’t use other options. We become helpless. We create self-fulfilling prophecies. This is a sure fire route to failure and what positive psychologists call “learned helplessness.”

Scenario #2: Burning Platforms.

This is similar to scenario #1, except the adverse event hasn’t occurred yet and you face a looming black cloud (for the Federal sector this is the Secretary of Defense’s Efficiency Cuts). Again, conventional thinking leaves you with the same two outcomes:

1. How can I survive this? Reactive in nature. Not very positive.

2. Woe is me! Worst case scenario and very negative.

Again, there is a third option!

3. Use this looming adversity as an opportunity for growth and get even better.

However, the difference in this scenario is the “looming” condition. This is where I disagree with many change advocates who enjoy using (or just talk about) burning platforms as catalysts for change. When working with teams, there are differing levels of social engineering going on. Using looming, negative events is a very reactive and poor way to get teams to gel for lasting success. Yes, they may band together to get the problem solved, but once the looming event passes or a decision is made, most teams go back to business as usual.

Is that real change? Have you affected the culture? In my book, NO.

But I digress, the key here is that we must create an organizational culture that considers problems (even looming ones) as an opportunity to improve, which leads to the key methodology in our Lean Six Sigma Practitioner Professional toolbox: Structured Problem Solving. Perspective three in this series will look at Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC), and Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA). I will leave you with a thought from Shawn Achor, the author of The Happiness Advantage:

“…..And above all remember that success is not about never falling down, or even simply about falling down and getting up over and over. Success is more than about simple resilience, it is about using that downward momentum to propel ourselves in the opposite direction. It is about capitalizing on setbacks and adversity to become even happier, even more motivated, and even more successful. It is not falling down, it is falling up.”

About the Author: Ernie Shishido is a Master Black Belt with the US Air Force’s Business Transformation Office with 29+ years of uniformed military service. Ernie can be found on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/in/ernieshishido or by email at er.shishido@gmail.com / ernest.shishido@pentagon.af.mil (until 10 Dec 2010).

Delving Deeper: Levels of Culture

2010-12-02T22:39:00.000-05:00

(Perspective 2 in a series of weekly perspectives on Building a Culture based on CPI principles)

Last week in Part 1 of this series on Building a Culture based on CPI principles, we introduced the concept of Your Culture is Your Brand. This week we will define “culture” and critically analyze the significance of addressing cultures in the context of “levels.”

Culture is everything. Good culture= Zappos success. Bad culture= Enron failure. Good culture neglected= Toyota quality problems. Do I have your attention now?

Defining Culture. To practice what I preach, I attempt to start every kaizen event or enterprise-level project by defining the major term for the week in order to baseline foundational assumptions. Predictably, a gap exists amongst team members. To define culture (and delve deeper), the guideline I use comes from my Sensei (John Allen of TSD) who had me study Edgar Schein:

“[Culture is] ... a pattern of shared basic assumptions (values, beliefs, norms) that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.”

As you look at the words in bold, the definition seems straightforward enough, but the rub comes in during the analysis. Most people talk about culture in broad terms, knowing that it is important, good for success, a great goal to strive for, and requires a decade to develop. That is ok, but those are superficial interpretations. To truly undertake a culture change effort, one needs to analyze and differentiate the level in which the culture manifests itself, as it is crucial to creating and executing a successful change effort. I cannot stress this enough.

I’m a visual (and auditory) person, so let’s show the chart again to point out the different levels of culture:

1^st Level – Artifacts. Sees, Feels, Hears. I am sure you’ve seen places where signs hang that say “Quality is Job#1” and “Think Safety 1^st,” or you hear a certain type of music playing in the hallways, you see everyone wearing a certain style/type of clothing, or notice how everyone communicates to each other. Can you make a good assumption about the real culture at this company? It is like judging a book by its cover. You can, but is it wise? Would it be fair or smart to think a company was not innovative because their office layouts and their dress were stodgy? That is what is meant by hard to decipher.

2^nd Level – Espoused Beliefs and Values. This is straightforward and must not be misunderstood. To be an espoused value or belief, it cannot solely be trumpeted by the CEO, but evolve by:

1. Actual joint action on the belief/value by the group (not just the CEO)

2. The proposed value/belief action must create real success in solving problems.

3. Finally, it achieves social validation. I.E. If you don’t comply, you become part of the “out” group (excommunicated).

Essentially, these are your company’s strategies, goals, and philosophies acted out. However, there still can be some large areas of behavior still unexplained.

3^rd Level – Underlying Assumptions. This is where actions stemming from company beliefs and values are taken for granted. These assumptions are non-confrontable and non-debatable!

Now, you can see why analyzing culture and developing change actions by understanding levels is so powerful. Understanding culture at this level helps us understand what the true culture is and what we are up against. Understanding at this level is priceless, but we seldom delve this deep.

So, for an organization to learn something new in this realm (the deepest level of culture), requires us to resurrect, reexamine, and possibly change some of the more stable portions of our cognitive structure – How we think. And that is the subject of Part 3 of this series: Current way of thinking vs. a Continuous Process Improvement mindset.

P.S. Let me know and I will gladly work with you to share Edgar Schein’s book, Organizational Culture and Leadership. Once you read it, it will change your thinking about culture.

Connecting is at the Heart of Developing People: Relationships

2010-11-30T18:42:00.000-05:00

(Perspective 2 in a series of weekly perspectives on Lean Six Sigma Mentoring/Coaching principles)

Last week in part 1 of this series on Lean Six Sigma Mentoring/Coaching principles, we introduced the concept of Explosive Growth and how you generate it: Through Leaders Developing Leaders. This week we expound on the ingredients that produce the glue and the environment to successfully mentor and coach: People + Connection = Relationships.

The wording in the title is very intentional: Connecting at the Heart.

People. Regardless if you are manufacturing cars, fixing planes, providing service at a hotel, seeing a patient, doing transactions at a bank, investigating a crime, or running a back office, People are the Company. No matter what we do, we do not lead machines, paperwork, or any other inanimate object: We lead, mentor, and coach human beings that have Hearts. If you see any company mantra, vision, or mission statement that reads “People are our competitive advantage,” “People are our greatest assets,” or something to that effect: RUN. I could provide you loads of data, but all you need to know is that when those companies hit a hard patch, their layoff actions speak louder than words: “People are our greatest liabilities.”

Connection. Going back to the virtuous circle diagram, see how the inner circle now overlaps with the middle. For those who have “think 4 hours ahead of your student/team mindset,” you can see how powerful a Venn diagram can be to illustrate points:

In a nutshell: Leaders engaging people create connections and relationships. We cannot begin to discuss mentoring and coaching principles, even more importantly, successful coaching and mentoring until we can fully grasp that that you must get at the heart of people (people are the company) and the only way you can do this is with engagement and trust to build an enduring relationship.

Relationship. No relationships = No Mentoring and Coaching.

As a CPI Leader, you cannot even begin to have the mentoring and coaching discussion until you understand that you must have a relationship with your people:

Successful mentoring and coaching begin with a great relationship with the people you work with. In the next perspective, we will discuss and define what successful mentoring/coaching is and a way to measure it.