Cultural Kaizen

Danger: 10 Kaizen Event Pitfalls

2012-10-02T02:02:00.000-07:00

I have decided to place the warning section first. It seems counter-intuitive from a process improvement stand-point, but in many other aspects it makes perfect sense. Your physician gives you medication warnings before you start your regimen. The FBI have been giving me a warning since the middle part of the 1980s every time I watch a movie. So my kaizen warnings and pitfalls will pre-date the far-reaching presentation my personal kaizen framework.

Concept: The framework of kaizen events is relatively fluid depending on the operations, strategy, culture and leadership of an organization. The pitfalls are an absolute constant!

We will do this Letterman style:

Pitfall 10: Improper Team Selection A: Management Bias- Everyone remembers picking teams for sports in school. The athletic children were always snagged first; I was picked last (big surprise). The tendency of a team leader to select the best candidates is a natural and dangerous one; obviously, we want to succeed. Anyone who has fallen victim to this pitfall, will not feel its affects until after the kaizen. Under most circumstances, the kaizen event will be an earth-shattering success. The final report out will show kaizen stretch goals as blips in the teams rear-view mirror. This pitfall is a cultural time-bomb!

The bomb was set on delay when the team list was posted as follows:

Area A supervisor
Area B supervisor
Area C supervisor
Maintenance Manager
In-bound operations manager
Process engineer
Token front-line associate

The front-line team now views kaizen as a management scheme to force new changes into the organization. If this is the site's first kaizen, it is unlikely it will recover. There will simply be no buy-in.

Pitfall 9: Improper Team Selection B: Improper Functional Cross-section- A natural tendency of the team leader and project chair is to stack the deck with the most functional knowledge possible.

The team list was posted as follows:

Project Scope: Turbine Generator and Auxiliary Systems

A-Shift Turbine Operator
C-Shift Turbine Operator
A-Shift Auxiliary Operator
Reactor & Turbine Maintenance Manager
Turbine Area Day front-line manager

The problem with this team is a subtle one. The likelihood of getting a marginal (5-10%) improvement is very high, but the rapid step change improvement is not going to come to fruition. The aforementioned team knows the process better than any other people on-site. So what is wrong with that? The chance that they are going to question the status quo is slim. They will generate ideas that are small tweaks or automation of existing process. The changes will work, but are unlikely to have a larger ROI.

Pitfall 8: Improper Team Selection C: Various

These are small errors in team composition that are hinderances to culture or buy in of the changes.

Representation by only 1 shift/portion of the site.
All passive team members- It is not a requirement to have all sanguine or drivers on the team. In fact, it is a good development opportunity for less vocal team members to gain some assertiveness! That being said, a team leaders worst nightmare is having a team of six where no one is talking.
Perceived favoritism or discrimination.

Pitfall 7: Improper Team Leader Selection- Selecting a team leader (and co-lead if necessary) can be the event's greatest asset or biggest challenge. There are several things to consider when picking a team lead:

Relationship to the project scope
People Skills

Motivator
Communicator
Trainer

Technical Skills
Organizational Skills
Open-minded

There are no hard and fast rules or specific personality types. Use your best judgement to avoid this one.

Pitfall 6: Inadequate Event Pre-work- There is specific set of pre-work items that need to be completed before the event takes place. Most sites have checklists or databases that exist to "ensure" the pre-work gets finished properly. I can't exactly explain in numbers what good pre-work and bad pre-work is; however, inadequate pre-work is just going through the motions. The solution to this pit-fall is to have a seasoned project chair guiding the leader and meeting once a week prior to the event for 3-4 weeks.

Pitfall 5: Pre-solving the Kaizen- The other side of the the pre-work pitfall is the motivated team leader that already has the solution made up in their mind before the event even starts. If the leader's idea works, then there is no harm in this pitfall. However, the more likely situation is that the singular idea will not work and the kaizen wasted hundreds of man-hours and cultural credits (I will explain this one later!). This is a tricky one to avoid because your brain naturally wants to fill in the blanks of a problem. The best thing the team leader can do is not map out the process until the event starts. The value stream map generates most of the ideas for the solution, so resist the urge to start the map before the event.

Pitfall 4: Kaizen Hedgehog Solution- This pitfall occurs when the team has properly mapped out the process, but hangs their hat on one key change. This is simply a statistical problem. I would much rather have ten 3% changes than one 30% change. If only 7 of the former group pan-out, you still have a 21% gain. I absolutely agree with Jim Collins regarding having a hedgehog concept for the strategic vision of a company; however, during a kaizen, be the fox!

Pitfall 3: Inappropriate Scope- Having too big of a project or too small of a project will also prevent success. Most people know the basic functions of distribution center.

Scoped too large: Outbound logistics
Scoped too small: Single carrier truck loading
Scoped Right: Outbound dock and material handling

If you are confused about which side of the line to err, go with slightly too large.

Pitfall 2: Inadequate Team Training- The kaizen team needs to be properly prepared. Everyone on site should have basic "awareness" training of the kaizen process. The team leaders should receive 10-20 hours of focused training including a mocKaizen(c) (simulated kaizen). The whole team should have an additional 3-6 hours of training before the event. I recommend doing team training on the Friday before an event. The team training should consist, at a minimum, of value stream mapping and basic lean tools

And the number 1 kaizen pitfall is:

Pitfall 1: Inadequate Process Mapping- This one is going to be short, but it is absolutely the most important.

This is an example of a good process map:

Kaizen team member preparing process map for main process and 2 sub-processes

A bad value stream map has the following characteristics:

Macro level process steps
Small percentage of non-value added steps
Doesn't consider all:

Activities
Connections
Flows

Materials
Information

Takes less than 10 man hours to complete

The above process map took over 100 man-hours to construct

Doesn't include individual action step cycle times- BoxTime (c) (more on this later)

Although, there are many kaizen event pitfalls, they can be easily dodged by the proper identification and controls. Unfortunately, I learned several of these pitfalls through experience. Some simple abatement questions you can ask are:

How will this decision affect the culture of the plant?
Have we consulted the front-line team about their opinion of the process changes? The process path leaders?
Is this methodology going to land me up in one of the kaizen pitfalls?

Please leverage my experience and make it your wisdom!

Drive the culture, Drive the process, Drive the bottom line!

Regards,

CulturalKaizen

The Spreadsheet Manager Chapter Three: Initial Engagement

2012-07-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

“H.D., I have Kathryn Dubois on the phone for you.”

“Thanks, Anna!”

Anna and H.D. had been together for about fifteen years. She moved with him every time he changed roles. He actually had it written into his non compete agreements that he was aloud to take her with him each and every time he transitioned. They were a great team; she knew exactly what support he needed to be the most effective and he treated her and her position with the highest level of respect. It was absolutely symbiotic. H.D. knew that he couldn’t get a better assistant anywhere and Anna knew that many other senior executives would be tyrannical in their management approach.

H.D. picked up his office line, “Kathryn, its been years. How are you?”

“I’m doing well; the real question is: How are you?”

“Meh, I’ve been better. I’m running a new company now and I just let my Vice President of Operations go. Our competitors are kicking our butts and there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.”

“Wow, that doesn’t seem like fun,” Kathryn responded, “What made you take the job? I know you can read a financial statement.”

Many moons ago, Kathryn and H.D. had been classmates in business school. H.D stayed in the sales and marketing realm while Kathryn had gravitated into operations consulting. An entrepreneur by nature, she started her own practice shortly after graduating. She didn’t personally handle engagements very often anymore as she gravitated more to executive team training and business development for her firm. This was a special situation and she knew that H.D. wanted her hands firmly on the reigns. He wouldn’t have contacted her if he didn’t.

H.D. chucked, “Yes, I know how to read a financial statement. I noticed there were problems with the company, but I met with the operations executive and he sold me on his ability to fix the problems and how well they were performing against existing measurements.”

Kathryn coyly said, “Interesting. I never pictured you as someone who was able to be sold. What happened?”

“He had a great deal of really interesting charts and he segued into showing how each part of the operations team was focusing on the issues that were relevant to their part of the puzzle. Everything he said made rational sense, but three months later, nothing had improved at all.”

“Firstly, let me ask you, how many measurements, targets or metrics had the previous VP set for his team?”

“They were slightly different for each site, but they were broken up into three basic categories:

1. Performance Targets

2. Leading Indicators

3. Initiatives”

H.D. continued, “There are about ten performance targets for each site general manager. One of our sites has a small manufacturing/re-packaging facility attached to it so that GM has more than the rest.”

“OK, what about the leading indicators? Tell me more about them and how are they different from the performance targets that were set?”

“Well, this is all from an outsiders perspective, but there are another four or five indicators that are being measured and then they are reported throughout the network. I don’t think anyone is necessarily taking any action based on them, but I could be wrong. Maybe that’s the difference.”

“And the initiatives?” Kathryn asked.

“It looks like each GM was given a project to chair. The project completion is tied to their bonus plan. It doesn’t seem like any of them have been taken to completion.”

“This is a little beyond scope, but just so I can see what we are dealing with, are all of the GMs on the project teams?”

“That’s a good question. Standby.”

H.D. rustled through some papers and responded, “Actually, yes. I’m looking at a project charter for each one of the initiatives and every GM sits on every other initiatives team and is the project chair for their initiative. I don’t understand why that’s important.”

Kathryn responded, “I don’t want to get to deep into the weeds right now, but, generically, if there are five GMs and each site has ten to fifteen measurable to attack, chair one project and accountable for four other projects, how much work do you think that each GM will get done on any one item?”

“OK, that makes sense, so what do we do then?”

“Well, you had a great deal of success running sales and marketing for different companies and, I’m assuming, prior to that, you had a great deal of success as an individual contributor. What were you doing to be successful? In each of those roles?”

“Interesting question. In my early career, as a territory manager. I was the king of new business. I was constantly calling on new accounts and revisiting prospective accounts that turned me down. I actually started tracking how many cold-calls I made per month. I knew I had to get around sixty cold calls a month to get 1-2 new accounts. I set a goal to hit sixty every month without fail.”

Kathryn said, “So did you apply that mentality when you were managing a sales force?”

“Yes, I did.”

“How did that work out for you?”

“Well, not so well actually.”

“Hmm.” Kathryn remarked, “And why was that?”

“Well, I would take an underperforming sales person and set a target for cold-calls per month and started to track them on their progress against that specific target.”

“How many of them hit their target?”

“Most of them. However, the performance wasn’t there.”

“Interesting. So what did you do?”

“Well it took me a few years realize this, but some of my team just wasn’t going to make it. I started structuring my compensation plans to drive growth. My marketing manager and I realized we needed new business because our ‘pipeline was drying up.’ I offered triple commission for the first year of new business. You would be surprised how much growth we drove that year. We elected to keep the new compensation plan in place permanently and never had a problem again.”

“Were you still tracking cold-calls at this point,” Kathryn asked.

“Yes we were.”

“Well, what happened to the cold call volume?”

“Nothing really. They stayed about the same.”

“Hmmm. Why do you think that is?”

“I cant say for certain, but it seemed like before that the team was just going through the motions so they could hit their cold call target. Its almost like their heart wasn’t in it.”

Leadership Learnings: All metrics, regardless of form, fit or function can be gamed by a savvy employee.

“So, long term what did you end up doing? How did you manage your sales team going forward.”

“Well I set two targets for each one of my sales managers. Firstly, I set a growth target. Secondly, I set a new business target. I didn’t want the sales team trying to squeeze volume from existing customers so I more heavily weighted the incentive packages towards new business.”

Kathryn scribbled some notes on here pad and continued, “OK, I’d love to swap war stories all day long, but I have another call to get on.”

“So what are our next steps?”

“We need to pull together the operations team for a meeting. I need you to be there for the first two or three hours on day one and The rest of us will have an additional second day. “

“How fast can we get started?”

“I have next Thursday and Friday open on my schedule for you.”

“OK. I will pull all five GMs together. Anna will be in touch with travel arrangements. Let her know what you need.”

Kathryn quipped, “You know that I’m going to hit you for double time to expedite this.”

H.D retorted, “I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

“H.D., I have Kathryn Dubois on the phone for you.”

“Thanks, Anna!”

H.D. picked up his office line, “Kathryn, its been years. How are you?”

“I’m doing well; the real question is: How are you?”

“Wow, that doesn’t seem like fun,” Kathryn responded, “What made you take the job? I know you can read a financial statement.”

Kathryn coyly said, “Interesting. I never pictured you as someone who was able to be sold. What happened?”

“Firstly, let me ask you, how many measurements, targets or metrics had the previous VP set for his team?”

“They were slightly different for each site, but they were broken up into three basic categories:

1. Performance Targets

2. Leading Indicators

3. Initiatives”

“OK, what about the leading indicators? Tell me more about them and how are they different from the performance targets that were set?”

“And the initiatives?” Kathryn asked.

“It looks like each GM was given a project to chair. The project completion is tied to their bonus plan. It doesn’t seem like any of them have been taken to completion.”

“This is a little beyond scope, but just so I can see what we are dealing with, are all of the GMs on the project teams?”

“That’s a good question. Standby.”

“OK, that makes sense, so what do we do then?”

Kathryn said, “So did you apply that mentality when you were managing a sales force?”

“Yes, I did.”

“How did that work out for you?”

“Well, not so well actually.”

“Hmm.” Kathryn remarked, “And why was that?”

“Well, I would take an underperforming sales person and set a target for cold-calls per month and started to track them on their progress against that specific target.”

“How many of them hit their target?”

“Most of them. However, the performance wasn’t there.”

“Interesting. So what did you do?”

“Were you still tracking cold-calls at this point,” Kathryn asked.

“Yes we were.”

“Well, what happened to the cold call volume?”

“Nothing really. They stayed about the same.”

“Hmmm. Why do you think that is?”

“I cant say for certain, but it seemed like before that the team was just going through the motions so they could hit their cold call target. Its almost like their heart wasn’t in it.”

Leadership Learnings: All metrics, regardless of form, fit or function can be gamed by a savvy employee.

“So, long term what did you end up doing? How did you manage your sales team going forward.”

Kathryn scribbled some notes on here pad and continued, “OK, I’d love to swap war stories all day long, but I have another call to get on.”

“So what are our next steps?”

“We need to pull together the operations team for a meeting. I need you to be there for the first two or three hours on day one and The rest of us will have an additional second day. “

“How fast can we get started?”

“I have next Thursday and Friday open on my schedule for you.”

“OK. I will pull all five GMs together. Anna will be in touch with travel arrangements. Let her know what you need.”

Kathryn quipped, “You know that I’m going to hit you for double time to expedite this.”

H.D retorted, “I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

Need Help writing next book!!

2012-06-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO

So the protagonist of the book has figured out the problem in his organization... I'm debating 2 different ways for the story to unfold.

1.) The CEO meets with each one of his 5 site managers and works as a servant leader OR

2.) He hires an old college buddy who he went to school with. She worked for a large consulting firm and now has her own practice. The consultant will work with the 5 site managers

Or any other ideas will be considered....

Please comment/share.

I will send the winner a free hard copy or kindle edition once publishing is complete.

Thanks,

Paul

The Spreadsheet Manager Chapter Two: Beverage Service Time

2012-06-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

PREVIOUS CHAPTER LINK

H.D. simply could not stop fidgeting and the sleep that he wanted was simply out of the question entirely. He was running about 50/50 for getting upgraded to first class based on frequent flyer miles and this time he didn’t luck out and, to add insult to injury, he got assigned a middle seat on a non-stop from Philadelphia, corporate headquarters, to the Bay Area of California, his current residence.

H.D.’s internal dialogue started to get the best of him.

He thought to himself, “What have I done? I just fired one of the most sought after operations executives in the industry and I have no replacement even established. I haven’t even talked to the VP of human resources. Think, think. What do I do next? I have made this major decision and I don’t really have a plan or any supporting information.”

Leadership Learnings: Having an edge so that you can make tough decisions without all the information comes first. Having the resolve to commit to that decision (or to abort when you are wrong at the expense of looking foolish) is where you will be truly tested.

Just about that time he observed the flight-attendant hurrying down the aisle looking ever so annoyed at the yet another passenger was asking her for a special request.

H.D.’s thought bubble continued, “I wonder what the issue is that has gotten her bent out of shape. Was she always like this or was this a special case?”

H.D. didn’t want to hold her up any more so he simply got his diet soda, bag of peanuts and two cookies and let her pass. After she completed her route and stowed her cart, she took unlatched the jump seat in the back of the airplane and proceeded to catch a short ‘break’ while filling out her paperwork.

H.D. waited for the restroom in use light to turn on and he went to the back of the airplane under the guise of wanting to use it next.

He smiled coyly, leaned his head to the side slightly and said, “Hey there. I’m H.D. What are you working on?”

“I’m Jackie; nice to meet you.” She said cautiously, “I have to fill out these beverage cart report sheets after I am done with serving the passengers.”

“I run a pharmaceutical company. Do you mind if I see one. I’m always curious about what different workers use to monitor their business.”

Flight Attendant Productivity Record
Name	Jackie Thompson
Date	3/1/12
Service Time	Type	Time Out	Time In
	Bev	1735	1758
	Dinner	1902	1940

Supervisor Name
Supervisor Signature
Pilot/ Navigator Approval
Final Internal Controls Review

H.D. looked at her log bit puzzled. He paused and thought about it for a few seconds before he spoke, “So, Jackie, how long have you been keeping these records.

“Let’s see, off and on for a couple of years.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well they have been in the ‘require procedure’ for I’d say the last 5 years, maybe, but when we get a new manager, these sometimes become hot button items for us to keep working on. A lot of times we will have meetings where the central scope of the meeting is to talk about the timeliness or completion of paperwork like this.”

“OK, so it’s a management tool.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Do you know what it is used for? I mean… behind the scenes, what are they doing with this information?

“Well I definitely don’t know the purpose of these documents, but I do know how they affect me.”

“Well that’s good; what is that” H.D. said.

“There are three basic things that this document means to me:

1. The management monitors the amount of time that it takes me to complete my beverage service.

2. The management calculates a productivity rate and I am graphed on chart against my peers.

3. They use my productivity as a factor during my annual review.”

H.D. looked even more astonished as he tried to wrap his head around the purpose of this log sheet in general and how beverage productivity would improve the bottom line results of this airline.

“Alright, run through number one. Are there some requirements or standards that you are supposed to maintain for each beverage or dinner service?”

By this time the gentleman who was using the bathroom was long gone along with two or three other passengers.

“Yes, as a matter of fact we do. We are supposed to complete a standard beverage service in fifteen minutes and we also have to finish dinner service in forty minutes.”

H.D. was getting anxious at this point and said, “What happens if you don’t meet those set requirements?’

“Well… you will certainly here about it at your review and you will likely not get as good of a raise or no raise at all if your numbers are low.”

“Has anything worse ever happened?”

“Yes, the days of mandatory flight-attendant retirement at the old age of 32 from the 1970s is long gone, but sometimes we lose people because of this.”

“What do you mean… Did something happen?”

“One of my closest friends, Rose, was let go because she couldn’t meet the established timeframes for many, many flights. Our old manager really had a bug up her butt for Rose. We need somewhere to retire. Just because Rose was pushing sixty, doesn’t mean she couldn’t do the job. She just couldn’t roll the cart as fast anymore. I mean, seriously, it weighs upwards of 400 pounds.”

Jackie was really getting spun up at this point and H.D. realized it, so he decided to change the direction of the conversation.

“So, Jackie, I have to notice that you seemed just a little bit uneasy during the dinner service. Do you mind if I ask why?”

“No problem. Well... I was running dangerously close to my forty minute target. We recently had another ‘Rose’ situation and I want to keep mu head above water. Me and a few of the other flight attendants have figured out that as long as you are in the middle of the pack or better you will be fine.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mister… do you really care about all this stuff or are you trying to hit on me? If I was ten years younger, I would definitely think you are trying to hit on me.”

They both chuckled.

“No I’m definitely not hitting on you… so what do you mean middle of the pack?”

“Well hold on… you may as well just take a look at one:

She continued, “This one is for the beverage service speed; we have another, that is almost identical, that ‘helps us optimize our dinner service productivity’.”

H.D smirked, “It sounds like you heard that one from someone once or twice before.”

“You have no idea!” she replied.

H.D. took a deep breath and collected his thoughts before saying anything else to Jackie. Running the food service function of the flight attendant’s job using this tight of controls seemed like overkill, but it wasn’t sticking out like a sore thumb in American business these days.

“So, what would you say this measurement drives you to do?”

“Well, I tend to hurry through my beverage service and I guess if you saw me irritated, it probably is that way to the other customers as well. I didn’t realize.”

“Do you think there is anything significant about that?” H.D. asked inquisitively.

“Well, honestly, our current company tag-line is first-class service, coach-class prices. There is nothing first-class about my service. I probably seem like a crotchety waitress from a New Jersey diner.”

They both laughed out loud.

H.D. continued, “We laugh, but its true. This is probably really hurting your business. Personally, I would pay an extra $20-$50 if I had really crappy service during a flight… Um… I’m not saying your service is bad… just in general that having bad service would make me less inclined to use the same airline again… oh geez… sorry ”

“Yeah just so you know… you’re definitely not going to be having a drink with me now.”

H.D. stumbled over his words, “Um… sorry… You know what I meant.”

She smiled at him and casually let him off the hook.

H.D. took a two-minute pause and drifted away from the conversation. He looked at the chart, looked at Jackie and then looked at the other flight attendant who also seemed to be in a hurry.

H.D. exclaimed, “Son-of-a…”

Jackie chuckled and said, “You look like you saw a ghost. What’s going on?”

“I think I just figured something out that has been stressing me out for about the last three months.”

H.D. handed her his card and then replied, “Do you mind if I have a way of getting in contact with you. I may want to ask you a few more questions about your job?”

She glanced down at his card and said, “What do you do at your company anyways?”

H.D. had always tried to remain humble even though he was more excited than ever about becoming a relatively young chief executive.

H.D. quietly responded as they exchanged numbers, “I’m the CEO. I’m really new though. We are having major problems. If I don’t get to the bottom of this and quickly, I’m not going to be there for long.

Jackie looked genuinely impressed and smiled deeper as they parted ways.

H.D. went back to his seat and got his brief-bag out of the overhead compartment. He rummaged through some of the papers and found what he was looking for, the 2011Annual Report/ Filling to the Securities and exchange Commission. H.D had read this report and others like it from front to back about twenty times while interviewing with the LiTek. However, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until now.

Business Learnings: Annual & Quarterly filings of public companies are always at least somewhat of a sales pitch to investors. I have yet to see one that has said, “We made really bad decisions this year and now our financial statement is totally hosed.”

H.D. ripped a page out of the report and was about to tear it up when he paused and said to himself, “No, this is the problem and the solution.”

The Spreadsheet Manager Chapter One: …And I Thought Executives Didn't Fight

2012-05-26T21:09:00.001-07:00

NEXT CHAPTER LINK ----->

“…The bottom line is that you aren’t going to be working for me any more.”

“I don’t understand. I am hitting all of my performance targets that you agreed to during my last review. The board approved my compensation package based on those targets.”

“Are you really coming at me with that? We are losing five-million dollars a month. What do you expect me to do?”

“What sort of severance package will I be getting?”

“The board will finalize my recommendation before the end of the week.”

A Few Days Earlier

Horatio Daniel Collins, who went by H.D. for obvious reasons, had been appointed the CEO of LiTek-Hawley Pharmaceuticals almost three months ago now and Firing his VP of operations was the toughest decision he had made so far. He had no experience in manufacturing or operations in general. H.D. had worked at three different pharmaceutical companies and in many different roles, but they were all in either sales or marketing. In-fact, LiTek’s board specifically selected him to drive sales in the organization based on his track record in other companies. Many people will not make the decision that he made because he didn’t have a candidate identified to take over the operations function. Even worse, the VP of operations had convinced the board of directors that the problems were not related to operations. It was a clever ruse played on the board for many, many years.

H.D. admitted that R&D had been slipping and when the patents ran out on four key drugs that LiTek held, the profitability went into a death spiral. The intellectual property was masking the lack of operational effectiveness.

Pharmaceuticals is certainly not the business where you can miss customer expectations, so the VP of operations set up agreements with third party manufacturing and distribution centers to bridge the gaps and save money, so he stated.

“H.D., are you sure about this? Drake is well respected among the operations community.”

“Absolutely, I honestly don’t know what’s going on in the operations part of the organization yet, but in the two months that I’ve been here all I get from him are rosy stories while are profit continues to drop as sales increase and we continue to lose more and more margin due to the toll manufacturer picking up our slack.”

Another board member quipped, “It looks like to me that our losses are right in line with the downturn.”

A third board member said, “But our competitors are making more and more money. You all know that I used to be a consultant. The first question we would ask on an engagement is: Are the results unique to this company? Our industry is not suffering; this is absolutely an internal problem.

“So if you do let Drake go, what is your plan?”

“Well… I don’t exactly have one yet.” H.D. said begrudgingly.

“How are we supposed to make this decision then?” another one chimed in.

“I know what you are saying. I have been to all of the sites. There seem to be good people in place. I have used my intuition my entire career and its rarely let me down. I am definitely sure about this. I think we would be better off with no leader than a bad one. I will formulate a plan and get back to the board in two weeks after Drake’s termination is effective.”

“Are you worried about intellectual property or any best practices he could take with him to another firm?

“Not so much” H.D. quipped, “If we had best practices the company would be making money!”

The senior board member, Tom D’Agostino, said, “We hired you because we trusted your success and prior track record. I think this is a risky move, but not taking any action is also risky. We are losing too much money to try and nudge this in the right direction. Just remember, firing Drake isn’t going to fix the problem. It could, however, stop the bleeding. We also need you to formulate an aggressive strategy for recovery.

Leadership Learnings: If you chose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

~Rush

I have seen, first-hand, that delaying the decision as long as possible is a good strategy in most cases; however, not acting when a decision is necessary will alienate your team while causing your organization to fail simultaneously.

“I understand and agree.” H.D. responded.

The board meeting adjourned and H.D. couldn’t have been happier. He had his assistant, Staci, set up a meeting with Drake for later on that week. His brain started playing Ping-Pong with the decision he made to terminate an thirty-plus-year operations veteran with a previously stellar track record. After going back and forth in his head for about half an hour and through the entirety of the flight attendant’s safety lecture, H.D. kicked back in his chair for some much needed sleep.

I'm here... now what: New managers primer for developing culture from Day 1.

2012-05-17T01:30:00.000-07:00

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression"

The old ad campaign slogan is absolutely valid when it comes to accepting a new role whether it is internal to your current organization or with a new organization. The first month you are there is of particular importance for site level jobs and the first three to six months carry the same weight for director or C-level positions. The larger circle of influence will increase this time simply based on quantity of interaction. This crucial time frame can either establish you as an effective leader or be the curse that could drive you to seek opportunities elsewhere. There are two key principals that can help a new manager thrive during this period of constant evaluation.

Principal I: Do not make any changes for at least 30 days

This time needs to be considered sacred and untouchable. Communicate to your manager that this process will be occurring and that it is vital to establishing your self as an effective culturally-focused leader.

Firstly, a common misconception that line associates or non-degreed supervisors possess is that their managers think they are smarter than them. You must immediately establish the fact that you appreciate and respect your team, if you ever hope to win over their hearts and minds. It does not matter how many PhDs, engineering degrees or years of experience you possess, everyone that currently is at your new site has more organizational specific experience than you do. Some managers believe in that they need to shake things up from day one to gain respect; this is absolutely polar to what should actually happen. Think about it this way: no one would immediately go to a persons house who they just met and start rearranging their furniture. Making changes during this 30 day period is the occupational equivalent of that.

What you do want to be doing is spending a great deal of time where the value is added. Introduce your self to everyone, ask questions about their time away from work. I like to keep running conversations with every line associate that are not work related. With Henry the operator we have a conversation about driving Jeeps and rock-crawling. With Jaime the sales-person it could be about his kids soccer team. The point is that you want to develop some level of a relationship that exists beyond occupational requirements. The perception needs to be clear that you are a person that places value on human capital.

Concurrently with the meet-and-greet, you should be developing a knowledge of the current state of affairs. Make mental and written notes of how the processes exist. Try not to carry a clipboard with you. Carrying a clipboard makes it seem that this conversation is being recorded to be held against someone in a court of law. If you need to make notes, it is better to use your smart-phone or a pocket notebook. The appearance needs to be that you were not intending on recording every snippet of data and that you are getting to know the team not an external auditor

Principal II: Spend time with your new team... in a direct task

Its time to get your hands dirty! I recommend that all managers, whether they are support managers or line managers, spend time actually doing the job that generates (or supports generating) the revenue.

Take at least a day to work in each primary job that exists in your operation. This will serve two main purposes:

You will get to assess the knowledge level of your staff. Does the operator just know that this button makes it turn on or do they have an intimate knowledge of the operational principles?
You will be exposed to the real world problems that your team faces on a daily basis and prevents them from achieving goals.

The cultural themes that you want to establish are:

Perception by your team members that although you aren't doing their job on a daily basis, you are willing to.
As a leader, you respect that the work associated with your team members is important to the success of the business.

Managing this "cooling off period" is not necessarily difficult. The bottom line is that you need to be communicating, "I'm here to make your roles easier, more effective and more rewarding." A great deal of new leaders are communicating, "I am here because you weren't getting the desired results and I have to fix this problem."

Cultural Kaizen Now Available in Paperback & Kindle

2012-05-01T20:11:00.000-07:00

The definitive guide to using a lean transformation to elevate your team's engagement and improve the process rapidly while sustaining the results.

Paperback version available now via: Cultural Kaizen

Kindle version available now via: Cultural Kaizen Kindle

Need a preview? The first 3 chapters are located here!

Please contact me paul@culturalkaizen.com for any questions or comments.

Cultural Kaizen is a business novel that focuses on the lean transformation of a process manufacturing site and subsequent cultural impact of the transformation on the people who work there.
The book's introductory chapters focus on an operations manager's personal struggle while working at a site that has a severely negative culture. The site is undergoing a 'fake lean' transformation (Focused on the tools; not the business process). The first two chapters demonstrate the effects of a negative culture on an employee.
The operations manager is offered a new position as the plant manager of a 'broken' chemical plant. This is a large step for the new plant manager, but he agrees because he will do anything to get out of the negative cultural situation he is currently experiencing.
The plant manager arrives on site and determines that a lean transformation is what the site needs to improve their performance. The plant manager uses his previous experiences as an example of "What not to do?" Above all else, he anchors the transformation with a respect for people. The respect for people was the keystone item missing in his previous role.
The book continues to document the trials and tribulations of the plant leading up through the conclusion of their first kaizen event and ending with a gemba walk one year later.

The major themes explored in the book are:

A focus on the role of the front-line associate and a respect for their position
The effects of a negative culture on team members vs. a positive culture
The process of running a kaizen event, in a process manufacturing site, with a focus on the social and emotional effects that is above and beyond the mechanics of the kaizen process.
Mass production systems vs. lean production systems and their effect on the organizational culture

Author Interview: The Hitchhikers Guide to Lean

2012-04-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

Going lean is more of an art than a science. If there was an easy way to go lean, Toyota would have issued a checklist 35 years ago and implementation would take a month or so. Due to the variability of every company, process and culture, there are numerous paths one can take to initiate the lean journey; once you get started down the road, there are even more choices you can make. So, a checklist won’t work for a lean journey; however it would be nice to have a field guide.

One of my favorite field guides is The Hitchhikers Guide to Lean. I equate this book to a desert survival manual issued by the military. Not every desert is the same, but its sure would be nice to have some principles for collecting water.
I had a chance to do a virtual interview with one of the authors of the book, Jaime Flinchbaugh, to expand on some of the concepts.

CulturalKaizen©: Many companies have started a Lean Journey and, likely, many companies have made many of the mistakes you discussed throughout your book. If a manager realizes that they are in this group, what steps do they take to correct the transformation midstream?

Jaime Flinchbaugh: I think the two fundamental countermeasures are roadmaps and reflection. Reflection is the process by which a team (regardless of what tools you use, but we prefer the After Action Review) explores their recent past, learns from it, and then makes adjustments. When it comes to the lean journey itself, so many people develop a plan, and they execute. They get stuck in the PDCA cycle with Plan, Do, Do, Do - they never Check and reexamine. The Roadmap is a means of developing a multidimensional plan or strategy. This helps you break out of what is often a 1-dimensional strategy, whether that one dimension is focusing on education, or on application. Having a long term roadmap, sometimes out several years with diminishing details the further out you get, ensures that you know how the journey will evolve as you proceed.

CulturalKaizen©: Following up on your quote:

Measurement/evaluation systems dramatically influence organizational behaviors. Unfortunately, the resulting behaviors often conflict with the desired behaviors of a lean initiative. A company should carefully look at what it measures and evaluates, and who is accountable.

A lean transformation can be nebulous at times; how can you tell that you are on the right track quantitatively? What should managers be measuring?

Jaime Flinchbaugh: I don't think you can tell if you're on the right track quantitatively. Of course, your overall performance should be improving, and that's quantitative. However, that is such a massively-multiple-variable equation, there is never a way to truly prove cause-and-effect. Understanding if you're on the right track requires engagement and observation. If you think in terms of metrics, this is what I would use (even though I would never put it to a number): voluntary lean activities to involuntary ratio. Involuntary are planned activities such as kaizen events, or daily huddles on management boards, etc. Involuntary is a team that just gets together to look at a problem in a different way. The more voluntary activities you see, the more you know it is taking hold.

CulturalKaizen©: THE LEAN DEPARTMENT SHOULD NOT BE LEADING LEAN- I absolutely agree with this quote from your book; is there an ideal way to set up your organizational structure to facilitate this axiom. Are there other steps we can take to support the lean department, yet hold everyone accountable for the transformation?

Jaime Flinchbaugh: I believe there are two major points here. First, there is a difference between ownership and execution. Your lean team might draft a strategy, facilitate discussions, provide feedback, and of course help execute the strategy. But ownership is about engagement and accountability, and that must remain with the leadership team. If the leadership team looks to the "lean team" and says "keep us updated once in a while", then you are losing the battle. The other aspect of this question is how you should be organized. Not to cop-out on the answer, but it depends. Each environment is different - it's culture, infrastructure, business conditions, etc. And these factors should drive the setup of your lean team, and how they engage with leaders. It may be centralized or decentralized - I've seen both extremes work when they match the environment. I've seen them reporting to the CEO, and reporting to front-line supervisors, both successful. There is no one right way, but there is probably a right way for your unique organization.

For more great insight into the minds of true lean thinkers, get your copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to Lean.

Kaizen Pictures

2012-03-23T01:02:00.001-07:00

I am going to keep this file updated with kaizen pictures.

Tell me what you think!!!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions at paul@culturalkaizen.com

Naturally Lean?

2012-03-21T20:52:00.002-07:00

Lean in the healthcare world is certainly taking hold. And, why wouldn’t it be? Our country is facing a healthcare crisis of epidemic proportions. Certainly healthcare is a unique business. The supply and demand curve is totally inelastic. When a new technology is brought to the health care arena, the capacity in the equipment is used up almost immediately. I certainly have never been to a walk-in MRI suite.

In the midst of all of this focused improvement, I found a diamond in the rough. The place I am referring to is not in the middle of a grandiose transformation. No consultants have been brought in. No formal training had been done. Yet, the same minor procedure I had done in a different surgical center took three to five hours, whilst this one… well, was much shorter.

Let’s start with a timeline (All times are approximate, I had sedation that day):

Time	Process Steps
9:50	Arrived onsite for a 10:00 appointment
9:57	First registered nurse escorted me to the back
10:03	Vitals signs were taken consent formed signed
10:05	Second nurse started IV for monitored sedation
10:08	Anesthesiologist performed quality check and briefed me about sedation procedure
10:15	Second nurse escorts me back to the procedure room
10:20	Monitored sedation begins
10:25	Procedure starts
10:45	Procedure complete
10:55	Discharge form signed
11:02	We exit the parking lot

How is that possible? How is it that two identical procedures have such substantially different cycle times? The second surgical center hadn’t spent any incredible amount of time working on optimizing their processes. What was the difference?

One word: Flow! For reasons unknown to me, the surgeon had placed a premium on flow. Let’s investigate the timeline a bit further.

Why did the second nurse start my IV? The first nurse called her for assistance when she saw the surgical room was about to be free. No, she didn’t pull a switch, sound an alarm or stop the line. She did, however, pull an andon. She identified that she was behind in tact and took action to correct it. The physician, whether by design or on accident, staffed the production cell with an appropriate number of people.

Lean Learnings: Cutting costs will only get you so far. What is the value of one employee if it permits you to keep you constraint from being starved? Priceless!

Additionally, I heard the first nurse talking to the second nurse, “Thanks for helping out. The doctor wants us to have the next patient ready to go as soon as the previous one walks out the door.”

Again, I don’t know if this was purposeful or not, but the doctor had figured out that he was the constraint. He knew that he could generate more revenue if he kept himself in the value added task longer and he prioritized communicating that mentality to his staff. He also knew that he was the value-added bang of the property. Not in an aloof way, it was obvious he respected his team and they respected him back.

Constraint management is an integral part of establishing flow in any organization. It doesn’t take six months of training and a purple belt to understand the concepts of flow and value. It takes a unified team focused on the right priorities!

First Three Chapters of Cultural Kaizen

2012-03-19T03:03:00.000-07:00

1. The effects of a negative culture

"Come on, come on! Send... Finally." For some reason, unbeknown to me, my network always lagged after hitting the send button on the end-of-shift report to my peers and site leadership. I said cursory good-byes to my team and genuine ones to my production assistant, Ty; he was the only bright spot that existed within the night-shift management. I basically ran to my high mileage SUV and proceeded to exit the parking lot and drive- one state away- to my bed. I can't conceivably call it a house because I would only get about four-and-a-half hours of sleep before driving back for yet another exercise in futility.

It was about 7:00 am when I the button on the automatic garage door opener. As I unbuckled my seatbelt, I discovered the aromatherapy of bacon grease coupled with hot maple syrup and butter. I gave, what my wife, Nichole, coined, a "less than 50% smile." As a former cheerleader, she took personal responsibility for pumping me up when I had a bad day. Unfortunately, this was becoming the standard instead of the exception. I polished off my blueberry pancakes, kissed Nichole good night, and jumped into bed for my nap.

As I was driving down the turnpike to go back to work, something hit me. I had been in my role for over a year and I was totally frustrated. Uncontrollably, I started crying and I just couldn't bear going back in. I loathed my boss, Tony, and everything he stood for. He was condescending to me in every way possible. He was playing the other two managers on my shift and me against each other. This mentality between second line managers was ubiquitous. Everyone was at each other’s throat and in ninja-style competition. This type of behavior was encouraged and even praised. The more negative performance management documents that I wrote because my front-line team hadn’t hit their productivity numbers, the better my superiors received me. The more production that I was able to squeeze out of my team by riding their backs throughout the shift, the better congratulatory email I received from the site leader. What was really starting to eat me up inside was that I was good at it; I was ranked the top new manager on site. I had always been good at playing the proverbial game, but in about year I had terminated thirty people. I don’t know if the rabbit hole goes this deep, but it almost seemed to be a positive thing when you terminated an associate for not hitting quality or productivity metrics.

Slight Digression

The company I worked for was in the middle of a lean transformation. This lean system is one that I have coined a "check-the-box-system." For example, you want to have front-line associates on the team of a weeklong kaizen event; this company would have 1 on a 10-person team. "Check!" It is 5S rollout time. "Check!" Look at our new kanban system that helps us pull material (at the expense of a ten percent throughput reduction). "Check!"

You get the idea.

During the first kaizen event that I led, I poured my heart and soul into improving one of the most manual processes in the building. We spent the first day and a half mapping out the process while being coached by a Japanese sensei from a well renowned consulting company. We were trystorming like crazy on day three and four on day five we all stayed late to finalize the remaining changes. We were so proud of hitting our target metrics that were set as stretch goals. I think I got a grand total of twelve hours of sleep during that week, but after all of that effort... the change died. The culture of the site was so bad that no one would embrace the change. I had hand selected line associates from the correct departments to help drive the changes, but it was just not enough to overcome years of bad programming.

Back To My Road Trip

So, there I was about seven miles from work and I called off with a personal day. I had never in my life felt this way before. I had always prided my self on being an excited, motivated and energetic person; the culture that was omnipresent at this organization had left me a shell of a human being.

I made a U-turn and suddenly the tears were gone. I never let Nichole know that my tears were directly catalyzed by the impending doom that was the last five miles of the turnpike. I knew she would understand, but she isn’t the type of person who is going to sit down next to you and rationalize your problems. She is more of a fix-it girl.

I should have seen this coming: The next day my wife had made me an appointment with a psychiatrist. This only led me to further have self-doubt and fear about my career and home life. Was I a failure? Why is this happening to me? I was scared and, worst of all, had no plan to get out of this mess.

Leadership Learnings: People are not the soft side of business. They are the only side of business. When you boil everything down to where it needs to be, all you have are people.

2. The Therapist and The Recruiter

We weren’t speaking while we were driving over to the appointment that Nichole had scheduled for me. I wasn’t exactly mad at her for scheduling the impromptu visit, but I cannot safely say that I was thrilled. I had never seen a psychiatrist before and at this point it seemed about a million miles from ideal, but the constant crying and self-loathing behavior was far from what any reasonable person could consider normal.

Whenever there was silence between us, Nichole felt it necessary to fill that dead air.

“So, Dr. Kitari is just going to be asking you some questions… I think. I don’t think it will be that big of a deal, hopefully it will be quick and we can get some lunch before you have to go back to work. Are you going to speak to me today?”

“Yes.” I responded begrudgingly, “Just give me some space right now… I’m having a tough time at work.”

Dr. Kitari’s office was nestled into a small shopping center next to the local mall. I signed myself into the front-desk and had a seat amidst the sea of unfamiliar faces and waited for my name to get called. It hardly seemed like where I was supposed to be in my life; I mean, how did I end up here? What had changed in my life to turn me from the happy, life of the party to a bitter person who was angry almost all of the time?

“Good Afternoon!” Dr. Kitari said. She was a middle-aged Asian-Indian woman with a mild accent.

I smirked casually at her and said, “Hello.”

I was rather embarrassed at the fact that I had received a ‘referral’ from my wife. I had no idea she even knew to call the number on the back of the insurance card to get an authorization before she scheduled an appointment.

“What seems to be the problem?”

“Well, my wife made me this appointment… I am trying to manage through my problems as best as I can.”

“Ok” said Dr. Kitari, “What would your wife say is the reason you are here?”

The List as She Saw It

“Hmmm… that is an interesting question; she would probably rattle off the following”

He calls off of work because he doesn’t want to go.

He cries on the way to work.

He is angry most of the time.

He sleeps all day during his time off.

He has lost all of his interest in socializing with our friends.

Things that used to give him joy suddenly do not any longer.

He doesn’t spend time with our son.

“That is pretty much what she told me.”

Dr. Kitari scribbled some notes onto her pad and looked pensively at them for a brief moment.

“Have you ever thought about suicide or made a plan?”

I started to tear up and responded with a reluctant, “Yes, I have.”

Dr. Kitari scribbled some additional notes; I think it is required for a psychiatrist to scribble between questions. I can’t be sure, but it all seemed very staged.

“So, do you know why you are so unhappy?”

The Power of a Negative Culture

“That is simple; my job is sucking the life out of me.”

Again, the scribbling continued. “What part of your job is making you unhappy?”

I responded, with what I thought was a clever quip, “Its not my job that is making me unhappy; I am making me unhappy. My job is just putting me in an environment where attaining that happiness is very difficult.”

Dr. Kitari made some additional notes, but commented, “You are avoiding the question; what is difficult about the job. There is no right or wrong answer.”

I proceeded to give her the following list:

1. Management is encouraged to disregard the importance of the front-line employee

2. There is a cutthroat, zero-sum game competitive nature that exists among managers.

3. Management is encouraged not to trust front-line employees.

4. Performance is managed with mostly sticks and very few carrots.

5. A healthy amount of workplace fun is discouraged

6. General air of negativity throughout the site

7. Copious amounts of micromanagement present and expected

I realized at this point that I had lost her. I think she expected me to say I was being harassed or I was having performance problems. Quite the contrary existed. I was the number one rated manager on site and I was totally miserable. I received daily emails from upper management praising how successful my improvement projects and shift performance were. Again… totally miserable! She wrote me a script for two different antidepressants, an anti-anxiety drug and some sleeping pills. At the behest of my wife, I did start the regimen of medicine; she was sincerely worried about me.

The Phone Call

Let’s flash forward two weeks. I had now been immersed in my dual-diagnosis and subsequent prescriptions and was doing somewhat better at dealing with the environment I had been sentenced to endure. My production assistant, Ty, and I were getting read for the start of our shift.

“Ty, make sure you staff line ‘A’ with enough people tonight and make sure that you stay on top of them. I don’t want our rates to slip this close to review time (Managers tend to have short memories- I was becoming fond of exploiting this fact).”

“You got it boss” said Ty, “I will stick Derrick on the line as operator; he will put up big numbers.”

This is the drill that Ty and I went through night after night. He was one of the most effective junior managers I had ever met. There wasn’t anything I could throw at him that he couldn’t handle with ease. It is the best working relationship that I have ever had; it was the eye that existed within the cultural hurricane that was spinning around us. I taught him a lot and learned even more from him.

After about thirty minutes of this back and forth between us, we had the shift ready to go for the evening. Then suddenly, the phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number on my caller ID; usually I would send something to voicemail during work, but I decided to pick it up.

“Hello,” The unfamiliar voice responded, “Hi! This is Clark from UGA Recruiting. I have a client who is looking for an experienced operations manager to run a small plant. Might you be interested?”

I had about a thousand thoughts in my head during that short phone call. Should I be making a move? I really hate it here, but the money is good and the benefits are better? Can I handle more responsibility? Could I really run my own site?

I quickly gathered myself together and exclaimed, “Absolutely, can you call me back tomorrow around 8am. I currently work the night shift.”

“Sure, I will talk to you then, could you forward me an updated copy of your resume in the meantime?”

That was the fastest nightshift I ever had at work. I could literally taste the freedom.

3. first day, new job

I drove my Toyota down the hill from the hotel we were staying at and turned onto the interstate. I hopped of about three exits down and waited at the light to turn into the main entrance of the plant.

Flashback

A vision hopped through my head of the interview that got me here. Waiting in a small conference room at the corporate headquarters. I pondered my resume for about five minutes. What kind of presentation was I going to make to the executives that would be handing me the third degree?

I was astounded to talk to a human resources business partner first. I new from that moment on that this was not going to be a standard interview. This went on for about eight hours. I cannot remember exactly what was asked of me until the Vice President of operations asked me, “What is your strategy for running a plant.”

I took a longer pause than I normally would take in an interview and finally answered, “I want to put systems in place to work myself out of a job.”

He looked at me quite a bit puzzled and said, “How do you make that happen?”

I thought about how miserable I was in my current role and I looked over the table and said to him, “I know how to create an environment to make people want to come to work and give it their all.”

I realize that was a bold statement, but, if I knew nothing else, I know what a negative work environment is. My thinking was that I would do exactly the opposite of that and we would be OK.

Back to the Stoplight

So there I sat after moving my entire family across the country waiting for the stop light to turn so I could show up to my new life. It finally flickered from red to green. I slowly accelerated to the gate surrounding the plant. “Good Morning!” the guard Marcos exclaimed.

Marcos was about thirty-five years old and had a permanent smile plastered about his face. I would come to appreciate his evergreen smiles over the next several months. The consistency and predictability of our “running conversations” made driving through the gate that much easier.

Leadership Learnings: Be that constant in your teams life. A lighthouse, if you will, always burns with the same level of intensity and consistency. Your team will grow to appreciate those traits in you.

Back to the Interview

“Do you have any questions for me?” the vice president asked.

I am accustomed to getting that question in every single interview I have ever been a part of. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do” I retorted quickly “Why is the plant manager position vacant?”

The executive paused and then said, “Look, I don’t want to discourage you; the plant needs serious help. We let the previous plant manager go.”

He paused for a few additional seconds and continued, “The culture at the plant is atrocious; there is zero buy-in to any programs we put in place, productivity is down significantly, customers are unsatisfied and we just had a string of injuries over the last few months. I finally had to let the plant manager go. The production manager was offered the job, but he was afraid to step into a new role for fear of being fired.”

“OK, that makes sense. I have one more question and then I should be finished.”

Again, the executive looked puzzled and replied, “What is your question?” I paused for a few moments and asked, “Will I have 100% support for my methodology of improving the plant culture?”

I think my frankness slightly offended my future manager, but I knew I could not mince words if I was going to uproot my family and take on a challenge like this. I also knew that if he was being this vocal about the state of affairs of the site, it would be significantly worse than he was communicating.

“If you can turn the plant around, you will have my 100% total support; quite frankly, my job is depending on it, but I have dozens of other plants in my span of control.”

Back to Marcos

Based on the conversation I had with the vice president of operations, I had not expected the warm welcome that Marcos had given me. He verified my ID and proceeded to let me onto the facility. I drove up to the site and parked my car in the employee parking lot. As I walked passed the front entrance, I noticed a curious site; immediately next to the two disabled parking spots was a sign that read plant manager. That sign coupled with the VP’s statement about the site culture spoke volumes about how the previous person had run the site. I walked by the sign and shook my head in disbelief. I noticed few noses pushed up against the glass as I walked into the building, but they quickly returned to their respective computers.

As I entered the lobby I noticed two things. One, the lights were basically off throughout the building. There was some serious need for a spruce up. Two, the sign in sheet for the plant was blank for the last month or so. I signed my name into the book and rang the bell. Out popped a tall gentleman in his late forties with a company uniform on and a radio coupled to his ear.

“I’m George; I am the production manager here.”

“Awesome! Good to meet you,” I responded.

George proceeded to tell me that he had my office prepared and that all my on-boarding paperwork was ready to go to HR. I sat down in my new office for a few minutes to get my bearings.

I called George’s office and said, “Can you get the management team in here around noon for a meet and greet? Also, can you point me in the direction of a good pizza place; I want to go pick up some food.”

George sounded a bit puzzled or confused; he finally said sure, “We will be there at 12:30 in the conference room! The best pizza in town is from a place called Pacino’s. Do you want me to have purchasing pick it up?”

I still can’t believe I said this, I had heard all my managers in the military regurgitate this line, “Its OK George, I will get the food. I still work for a living.”

A few hours later, I drove down the way to pick up the pizza for the team and realized that I had absolutely no idea of what I was going to say during our first meeting. I would have a dozen or so people looking to me for answers and I hadn’t event been out to the floor yet.

Cultural Nuances and Mitigation Strategies

2012-02-20T18:02:00.000-08:00

In any operations environment there will be challenges unique to that particular industry. However, there are some challenges that remain constant regardless of organization type.

Two of these cultural challenges are functional friction and inter-shift rivalry. Functional friction exists between departments to some level at most major organizations. An example of this in a manufacturing or operations organization occurs between production (operations) and maintenance functions. Anyone who has spent any amount of time working in either environment has heard process operators complaining about equipment that doesn’t run correctly and, conversely, maintenance technicians present the argument that production continues to break it. The problem exists due to a lack of ownership. Production is traditionally held accountable for getting product “out the back door”; maintenance is held accountable for “keeping the equipment in good working order.” (This relationship exists between other support functions and operations as well. E.g. Human resources, sales, safety, finance, etc.)

Strategies For Minimizing Functional Friction

Incorporate cross-functional training into the onboarding process. Having support staff spend a few weeks in each operational area is time and money well spend. The same goes for operations as well.
All functions should be held accountable for revenue creation in some shape or form. Referring back to the maintenance technician example, Maintenance managers can be held accountable for production targets. If managed properly, this will have a collaborative effect between production and maintenance.

The other area that ubiquitously exists in production (operations) environment is inter-shift rivalry. Multi-shift operations is occurring more and more frequently in today’s changing economy. Multi-shift operations provide for better asset utilization when large capital expenditures are not viable options for many companies. Front-line managers are your best defense and detection that inter-shift rivalry is building.

Signs Of Inter-shift Rivalry

Complaints by team members that a specific shift isn’t “pulling their weight.”

Note: Complaints are traditionally heard during managers normal working hours. Beware, a potential bias can be created by first (day) shift regarding the other shifts behaviors

Exclusion of off-shift team members during company activities/ team meetings
Setting the next shift up for failure (purposely or through salutary neglect)

Strategies For Mitigating Inter-Shift Rivalry

Inter-shift Communication: Communication between shifts is paramount. If twenty four hour coverage is utilized. It is well worth the time required by having a shift to shift transition. During the changeover meeting the biggest thing that needs to be covered is exception reporting. There is an agreed upon standard (formal or informal) that each shift is responsible for; if the standard is not met due to operational considerations, the reason needs to be discussed during changeover. I have literally seen two opposite shift team members almost come to blows over the trash not being taken out. A little communication goes a long way!
Team Based Performance Targets: Eliminate individual shift performance targets if possible. Having a production target of 1,000 widgets for each shift has the side effect of minimizing teamwork across shifts. A much better method is using daily targets such as 3,000 widgets per day. Then, the importance of setting the next team up for success can be emphasized much easier.
Cross-shift teams: Give different team members the opportunity to work with people that they don’t normally have access to. A kaizen event is a perfect time to get this done.
Shift Rotation: Although this one can be taxing on management, It can be beneficial to have shift-team members work different shifts over the course of their employment. Some companies rearrange shifts and departments every year effectively. Standard work and proper cross-training are doubly important if this strategy is utilized.

All of us will have individual spins on these cultural nuances. The most important point is to recognize when they are occurring and take action to prevent business disruption.

Please share individual examples of cultural nuances in the comments section below.

Are We There Yet? When Does Preparation Stop & Improvement Begin?

2011-09-30T00:50:00.000-07:00

The common question that I am tasked with answering is how much preparation is required before transitioning from the Cultural Katalyst© phase of the life cycle to the Cultural Kaizen© phase. Unfortunately, there is not an easy answer to give, because every organization is unique in terms of form, fit or function.

Short annoying, cryptic in the voice of Kane from Kung-fu Answer: It takes as much time as is required to properly lay the foundation for improvement.

Uber Short Answer: 2-6 Months

The real answer is dependent on the following characteristics:

Organization Size
Strength of the training system utilized
Relative enthusiasm of the leader
At what point your first lean leader is identified
Initial level of management buy-in
Initial level of frontline associate buy-in

The rest of this chapter will reference the following diagram:

For those who have taken Intro to Marketing and have so perceptively noticed that this is the Product life cycle: Good Job! I have another text that equates the PLC to almost everything; history, war, marriage, and many other benign topics follow this same model. Additionally, the skilled entrepreneurial manager learns how to stack S-curve on top of S-curve. Steve Jobs built a legacy by stacking S-curves to feign exponential growth (Yes, logarithmic would be a better description fellow techies... seriously though- stop trolling!)

Back to topic... Given the following constraints:

The first kaizen event is the knee of the curve
Starting the Cultural Kaizen© Cycle too early will prevent the team from getting enough lift and, like other flavor-of-the-week programs, will fizzle out or be seriously diminished.
Starting the Cultural Kaizen© Cycle too late will stifle the creativity and excitement. Its the equivalent of having a cannon with too long of a fuse; people eventually unplug their ears and get disinterested.

How do you ensure that you start at the right time? The same way that a nurse checks you in at the ER. They read vital signs that are mainly objective (except the "What is your pain-level on a scale of 1-10") and make a judgment call based on available information. Sometimes patients get mis-triaged (I don't know if thats even a word), but the large percentage fall with in the mean. Additionally, starting your first kaizen is not like flying a jet; there is a reasonable room for error.

CK Triage© is the process of evaluating whether or not your organization is ready for the first kaizen.

First things first: CK Triage© is an art, not a science. I am going to list the guidelines for the two basic parts of the CK Triage© process, but there is no checklist or spreadsheet that will give you the exact nano-second you should be in transition. It will take practice to get yourself able to accurately determine the pulse of your organization.

Part I: Is There a Leader in the House?

There are two possible scenarios that will take place for your first kaizen event:

You will identify a leader in your organization who will run the event
No leader will be present and you will have to run the first kaizen yourself.

Ideally you will find a leader in your existing organization to run the kaizen, because the change will be more profound if it comes from the grassroots of the organization rather than the Cultural Katalyst©. You want the rest of organization rooting from the sidelines and cheering on their home grown kaizen team.

So what are the criteria for evaluating potential suitors?

This is a qualitative ranking chart only. I could have done something nifty like assign a weighted point value to each and made some ranking table, but it would not get you a better perspective on suitability.

Lean Tool Utilization: Throughout the Cultural Katalyst© portion of the transformation, the team will be exposed to training on the different lean tools. During this endless fissure of training, a potential leader will want to to take a good idea and run with it. Do not stop them!
Kaizen Event Enthusiasm: This one is fairly self explanatory; what you are looking for is someone who is excited about the unknown. Running a kaizen event can be a bit intimidating (It certainly was for me when I ran my first event).
Existing Cultural Integration: The bottom line with this category is that you need a leader who already has some level of respect from the team that is not generated by positional authority.
Bias for Action: Lean Leaders take action. They realize that there is very little that can't be undone if a bad call was made. The take the seeds of knowledge you give them and scatter the lands with them... and they bear fruit.
Ownership: Your lean leader takes ownership of their area. You do not have to tell them to get something done. They take care of these things by themselves because it is the right thing to do.

Note: Many of these traits can exist in a member of the organization, but they can be blocked out by years of bad culture. As you start to turn the culture around, these leaders will let their true colors show, but it will be subtle at first.

Part II: Can Someone Take my Organization's Temperature?

Getting the pulse of the balance of your organization is a little bit more tricky. You have to recalibrate your thinking about ten degrees. You have to turn every communication with your team members into a datapoint. Roaming the shop-floor/cube farm/warehouse has to be strategic. You should continue having conversations with all of your team members.

Note: Do not print a list of everyone in your organization and make rounds with a clipboard. Most people get uncomfortable when someone is talking to them and making notes. It must make them think about the last time they were pulled over.

And the criteria are:

Kaizen Knowledge: I use a multi-faceted approach to my kaizen training because people learn in different ways. At a minimum, every associate should have kaizen overview training and lean tools training. In your ubiquitous communication meetings, you can try quizzing associates about different topics. There responses will let you know:

The strength of the organization's buy-in to the transformation.
Where you need to spend your time teaching.
If there are any barriers to change

Associate engagement during interactive training: I call this the dental exam. If you have to pull-teeth to get answers/interaction... its not going so well.
Reception to lean tools implementation on the shop floor:

How is the team feeling about the small process improvements you are making?
Are you getting comments such as:

"This material handler replenishment system really helps us now"
"I like having tools available at every workstation... searching for 20-30 minutes is so frustrating"

Kaizen Kard© Submission: How many associates have turned in a suggestion regarding a process improvement for their or another area?

By looking at these few characteristics, you will be able to determine whether or not your organization is primed. Again there is no cookie cutter system of right and wrong. However, you can feel the inertia building in an organization as the transformation takes on a life of its own.

Most how to chapters are written with no contingency plan in mind; so I wanted to leave you with some tangible actions incase you really can not feel the inertia building.

Break Bread with the team: There is something special about taking time out of the day to eat with the team. Have a catered lunch for each shift team and just spend time with them. People will start to ask you questions regarding kaizen and lean tools. Answer them quickly and then try to drive the conversation back to what people do when they aren't at work
Conduct 1-on-1 Interviews with every team member: If you haven't read It's your ship by Michael Abrashoff, you are missing the boat (no pun intended). Captain Abrashoff took the time to interview every single one of his crew members to find out their goals, dreams, strengths and weaknesses. Take 15 to 30 minutes with every team member. I promise this time will pay dividends in growing cultural momentum.

Regards,

Tactical Plan of the Cultural Katalyst(c)

2011-09-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the last post kind of left you wanting for more, because, quite frankly, I have read plenty of text talking about the strategic aspect of, or theory of, organizational culture. I have also read very in-depth models of organizational behavior such as Situational Leadership that are, in my opinion, overly contrived for day-to-day applications.

Let us review the overarching Cultural Kaizen(c) improvement model:

As we previously looked at the strategic aspects of the Cultural Katalyst(c) required to turn the tide, now its time to dive into the nitty gritty!

So the model might look menacing at first, but we will break it down piece by piece. There are a couple of guidelines to keep in mind:

While the front-line will generally embrace changes that improve the quality of their workplace, your managers can feel alienated if you don't include them in the development of the strategy. This can be alleviated by doing the following:

Weekly leadership/management team meetings discussing the process.
Have one of the management team become the first kaizen leader on-site.
Keep an open-door policy with your management team.

There will always be situations that arise that have not been planned for. Keep the following in mind:

Treat everyone with honesty and respect.
Over-communicate to remove fear and doubt.
Ask and answer questions copiously.

WARNING:The 5 facets of the Cultural Katalyst(c) Tactical Plan must be executed simultaneously while staying in the framework of the strategic Katalyst(c)

Kaizen (also lean tools and other needed area) Training: You must equip your untrained minds with the proper information they need to succeed. It is time to start training in the following areas:

General Kaizen Awareness training- Overview of what the kaizen process is and how it will affect the site and team members.

Generally about 2-3 hours in length
Every associate on site should attend
If any member of the team has experience with kaizen or lean tools, try to include them in training

Kaizen Leader Training- Select approximately 10% of the team to participate in kaizen leader training
Lean Tools Training- I recommend highlighting a separate tool every week or so and training on that tool during your Ubiquitous Communication Sessions
Safety Training- (as discovered during your gemba walks)
Leadership/People Skills Training- Sometimes your managers can be rough around the edges. It might be time to polish them up a bit

Ubiquitous Communication: As discuss in the the strategic portion you should have communication in the following intervals and these communications should consist of

Consistant format
Specific Purpose
Discussion Regarding the Katalyst(c)
Improvement Plan

Lean Leader Identification: During this time you should be looking for someone who can be your first kaizen leader. Some of the characteristics are:

Driven
Embraces change
Excited about the lean tools
Asks questions during kaizen/leader training

Small Process Improvements: During this time, you need to start putting some small wins under your belt. I can't give you an exact road-map but here are some guidelines to follow:

Try to make the process improvements come from either:

A front-line associates idea or
A current lean tool you are training on.

Make the improvement a tangible change- it is very easy and very boring to change a procedure. You want a physical tangible structure that is a totem to your progress.
Try not to drive the change yourself. This is one of the litmus tests you can use on your potential lean leaders to see if they are your person. If they get the change done without any (or minimal) assistance, you know you are finding your winner!

Gameplan for the transition to the Cultural Kaizen(c) Cycle: This is the time you need to be game planning with your management team for the next step in your transformation. Some of the items that need to be addressed are:

Process check for the Cultural Katalyst(c) Tactical Plan
First Kaizen event-(I will be writing an entire blog/chapter on this)

Project scope
Kaizen Leader identification
Timing

Feedback from front-line associates/supervisors on the culture

How is the team doing?
What problems/challenges/opportunities are occurring?
Is their front-line associate buy-in?

Validation of the small improvements

The tactical aspect of any plan or strategy is very important. Execution will make or break your transformation. Remember, nothing happens until someone takes the appropriate action.

Regards,

Cultural Kaizen(c)

Strategy of the Cultural Katalyst(c)- The spark that lights the fire

2011-09-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

I have read in countless management books that having the right culture is key to getting the strategic vision of the company off the ground. Other gurus talk about the key to succeeding is facilitating a "culture of trust." I have yet to read any text that gives a concrete set of action steps to develop this kind of culture other than nebulously stating "First you must define your ideal culture."

The other quote that I have heard is, "Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got.” Mr. Drucker makes a valid point, but what do you work with if you have a culture of:

Missed deadlines
Lackluster productivity
Mistrust
Compliance, not commitment
Bias for inaction
Lack of innovation
No backbone
Overtly Political
Low Standards
Segmented Business Silos
Lack of Ownership

I literally walked into the first meeting of a new endeavor and thought I was going to pass out because due to the lack of engagement. So, if you have a good base-line, I would say that it is possible to "work with what you've got," but, otherwise, lets build a new dynamic!

OK, so assuming that you don't want to highlight the strengths of the aforementioned team, how do you get the team in motion? How does the momentum get created?

Without a Cultural Katalyst(c), the fuse will not light!

There are two types of Cultural Katalysts(c) that occur in an organization:

Organic: These natural events are brought about by business or organizational change. These events must be capitalized upon by the organizational leader or they will be considered a missed opportunity. Two examples of this would be Winston Churchill leading his people through the plight of the Nazi invasion.

The first Cultural Katalyst was simply the act of Churchill becoming the new leader. Had he not taken ownership of the situation immediately; the current administrations practice would have been sustained.
The climate of Europe at the time could have been enough for the current leader to rally the team, but he did not.

Induced: If you have been stagnant in your role for quite some time and you are deciding to change on your own, do not fear; this is the case for many managers or (positional) leaders. You have to rally the organization around a potential threat/change that could occur or insert someone into the organization

Warning: Do not lie to your team; they WILL find out and they will NEVER trust you again!

The Cultural Kaizen(c) improvement process will be initiated in one of four ways:

New Manager, Organic Katalyst(c): A new manager at a site level is a small organic Katalyst(c) in and of itself. A new CEO is a large organic Katalyst(c). That said if their is a known organic Katalyst(c), such as a market decline, in addition to the management change, the team will automatically assume that the business is in trouble. The approach that needs to be taken is, "Change is coming to help save the business. Can I get a commitment from you guys to work with me so that the business will thrive (survive)?" It is also important to read the New Managers Primer to temper this enthusiasm/strength with solid relationship building skills. Remember, you have to show your team why these changes are occurring and that it will benefit everyone.
New Manager, Induced Katalyst(c): This is a tough situation to be in because, if you are not careful, the team will think that you are only making changes to stroke your own ego. Reference the New Managers Primer and err on the side of longer before you make any changes. When you induce the Katalyst(c), I recommend over communicating about "the why." Two techniques you can use are:

Have your manager come on site and deliver your plan and edify it to the team as a whole.
Bring in some of your old team (preferably front-line supervisors that you are grooming) to work for you and have your team be your messenger to the work-force.

Existing Manager, Organic Katalyst(c): This is probably the easiest situation to manage if you have a decent relationship with your team and even if you don't, it is a great time to set things right.

Positive Relationship Strategy: "Team, everyone knows that we've faced some challenges due to the drop in the economy. I have been working with my superiors to help get us moving in the right direction"
Neutral to Negative Relationship Strategy: "Team, I have made a lot of mistakes in the past; Please forgive me. We have some challenges in our business right now, and I want us to be able to work through them together."

Note: I recommended this strategy to someone and they told me that they received a 1-on-1 thank-you from over about a dozen team members.

Existing Manager, Induced Katalyst(c): This situation generally occurs when the manager is given an ultimatum that they have a fixed amount of time to turn the business or their team around. The Katalyst(c) is organic, but only affects one person. One of the ways to combat this is through perceived internal competitive pressure (This is generally true if a manager is given an ultimatum). "Team, the other sites are kicking our butt. I have been here a while and quite honestly I have been resting on my laurels. I have been competitive for most of my life and lately I've lost that edge. I want to turn this place around so that our site can go back to being the go-to site."

The important thing to remember is that every culture is different and every strategy will need to be tweaked slightly. Do not get married to the exact verbiage listed above. Above all, I do not recommend using the words change unless you are in a legitimate business crisis; use the words ideas, thought-process, or do a short Cultural Kaizen(c) overview. People only immediately change in high stress situations. I equivocate this to: "Yelling at some one that you don't know while there house is on fire is great; otherwise, its not."

Lastly, you should be having face-to-face group meeting with your entire (to clarify, this means the night shift too, if you have one- changing the culture requires a commitment) team, based on your organization size, in the following intervals:

The goal is to be totally transparent with your team so that unity will be created among the team and sub-teams. Many leaders find that after starting these meeting, they are so helpful that they perpetuate them indefinitely.

We have spent a good deal of time discussing the strategic thought process of the Cultural Katalyst(c). Next Stop: Tactical Cultural Katalyst(c) framework!

Regards,

Cultural Kaizen(c)

Cultural Kaizen Improvement Model Overview

2011-09-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

Change Does Not Happen by Accident!

Many managers think that sitting in a conference room with multiple functional directors is the key to organizational success. At the end of a two-day fiasco, you will certainly have deliverables such as the following:

Exhaustive list of key performance metrics, indicators or goals
A cleverly crafted paragraph that will look absolutely fabulous printed underneath a company logo and hung on a 3' x 5' banner
Possibly even:

Specific strategic initiatives for functional departments
Capital planning
Intellectual property usage planning
New product development focus

Something happens between the end of the aforementioned meeting and the next scheduled meeting. The goals, KPIs or strategic initiatives never manifest. What prevents the well-intentioned plans from coming to fruition. The problem is related to chemistry: There was no catalyst.

Cultural Katalyst(c): Some whole-heartedly attempt to execute the strategic direction of their senior managers. The problem is that the manager fights years and years of cultural programming and it is difficult, at best, to beat the programming of dozens or hundreds of associates who are locked into their current state of affairs.

There are multiple Cultural Katalysts(c) that can be capitalized on to start the cultural improvement process. Some of these are organic and some have to be induced. Once the katalyst is in-place, driving the cultural change becomes less dependent on random success and more about executing a plan. Consider the Cultural Katalyst(c) as primer a wall before applying the paint.

Cultural Kaizen(c) Cycle: The usual approach to continuous improvement is haphazard at best. One of two strategies taken by organizations is:

Option 1: Get a consultant to solve our problems of Continuous Improvement

While this might seem as a detractor from one of my chosen professions, it is the absolute truth. You cannot put all of your eggs in an external basket or you will be reliant on that basket for ever. A good consultant helps their clients put systems in place so that they can sustain their gains and cut the expense of the consultant

Option 2: Throw some mud against the wall and see what sticks.

This is also the flavor-of-the-week improvement process. You have heard this occur in familiar fashion such as: "Let's roll out 5S" or "GE uses six sigma; we should too." Its obvious that unfocused attacks cannot possibly build a culture OR improve the process.

The Cultural Kaizen(c) Cycle takes process improvement to the next level by developing an overview of your organizations process and culture. The process improvements will be strategically mapped and the cultural impacts of each process will be considered and leveraged to create the maximum possible benefit.

Sustainment Cycle(c): Although continuous improvement is a lifelong journey, the step-change that occurs from before the Katalyst(c) to after the initial push of the CulturalKaizen cycle must be perpetuated. There are an additional set of tools that must be utilized once the bar has been raised. This is the single biggest opportunity to fall backwards.

The above is an overview. We will discuss each in detail in the next 3 posts:

The Three Legged Stool: An Overview of the Cultural Kaizen Model

2011-09-13T17:06:00.000-07:00

Many (successful) organizations are forged on the principal that there exists one singular priority that the team focuses on in unison and perfect harmony. Other (less) successful organizations have a myriad of key-performance-indicators that tend to dilute the efforts of their respective teams.

Now, most organizations, of any mass, are by some degree successful. I default to the Stephen King definition of success (in literature): If you write something, and someone sends you a check for it, and the check doesn’t bounce, and you’re able to pay your electric bill with that money, you’re a successful writer; however, I am assuming that those reading this are looking for a stepping stone to the next level.

The perfect metaphor for developing the foundation of world-class organization (success) is the three legged stool. No relationship correctly highlights the equal importance of each of the components as this model. Going a step further, a one or two legged stool are both equally useless and the four legged stool provides no more utility than its three legged counterpart.

The 3 Legs:

Culture: Mr. Druckers Quote: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" might as well be considered a commandment in the management bible. The best laid plans or process improvements have been ransacked by work teams gone awry. Conversely, a strong team can make a mediocre project work in the short term to be transformed into an exceptional idea, in the long term, by collaborative thinking.

Two benefits of a Positive Culture

Improved number of employee suggestions- Observe a new engineer's first month on the job. They will establish a lay of the land and then begin hunting for ideas. It is more productive to have a pool of ideas and choose the best ones of the pack. My current assignment averages 1.5-2 suggestions per employee per month. I am not satisfied with that number, but not disappointed by it either.
Change management is less apt to be a problem. It is very easy for a team of associates to make and idea not work if they don't appreciate its merit. No one knows all of the reasons for change resistance; lets just assume it is a little bit of fear coupled with a little bit of anger. A positive culture will enable most of the associates to embrace the change and other associates will be influenced by their peers.

Kaizen (process improvements/innovation): Obviously, from my team's namesake, I am partial to the Toyota production system and kaizen methodology. However, there are times when this is not the answer to your problems. Companies tend to look for a magic bullet that will cure all of their improvement/problem woes. Quite conversely, every improvement system needs to be tailored to the company and its respective operations. An example of this adaption is the recent manifestation of the Honeywell Operating System (HOS). For almost 2 decades companies have been trying to emulate Toyota or GE and, finally, Honeywell took the principals and developed a methodology to custom fit their culture.
That being said, The reason that I gravitate towards kaizen as a key to improvement is because kaizen and culture go hand in hand. If done correctly, adding kaizen to your team is like feeding a cultural fire with gasoline! There is nothing that can compare to a team of associates diving deep to fix a problem in their personal workspace. It is empowering, gratifying and uniting simultaneously.

Leadership: The last leg of stool is leadership. It is very easy to say that leadership is an important part of every site, plan or organization. Think back to your last job interview; how many leadership questions were you asked? The fact remains that even when hiring top management, most people are put into position because of technical competence, not leadership ability. Which of the two is more important when trying to take an organization from average to world-class? Strong Leadership solidifies your gains and stabilizes your team during times of crisis.

The 3 legged stool is the foundation and support for the strategic direction & operations of the organization. This model can be applied on a global basis or as deep in an organization as site level. Strong organizations, at any of these levels) have strong cultures, strong process improvements and strong leaders.

Regards,

CulturalKaizen