Employ Improvement Initiatives 1 Making Change Last ! Tips on making real change happen. - Jay Watson

Employ Improvement Initiatives 2 Laying the Foundations for Accelerating Change Management Overview

Employ Improvement Initiatives 3 When is Change Most likely to be Successful? When a company is in trouble-Major financially issues, or having serious issues with a key customer who may pull the account. (Also known as “The Burning Platform”.) A new leader takes over the business, and the company adopts his new and radically way of doing things because he is the boss. Remember it is a lot easier and less stressful not to change.

Employ Improvement Initiatives 4 1. SO WHAT IS YOUR REASON TO CHANGE? 2. HOW COMMITED TO THE CHANGE IS YOUR RGANIZATION? 3. ARE YOU IN IT FOR THE LONG TERM? 3. ARE YOU IN IT FOR THE LONG TERM? For change to be successful, the Benefits of Changing has to be perceived as Significantly Bigger Benefit than not changing at all.

Employ Improvement Initiatives 5 Past Issues To make change last, one has to do more than have a kick-off meeting, and explain how the tools are used with an occasional follow-up. For a culture to TRULY CHANGE, in most places IT WILL REQUIRE MANAGEMENT TO ACT DRAMTICALLY DIFFERENTLY. That’s why the burning platform or a new boss HAVE SHOWN A GREATER CHANCE OF SUCCESS.

Employ Improvement Initiatives 6 Some Basic Steps to Change To ensure change has a higher chance at succeeding, one needs to determine the maturity of area, before a project can go ahead. Step 1 Has a foundation to handle change been built? Step 2 Has the group been formed into cells or teams around a process and held responsible for their actions?

Employ Improvement Initiatives 7 Foundation Basics 1 Leadership must establish a clear company vision and goals. (This information everyone in the organization knows and understands.) Survey all levels to find out where the company is at. 2 Leadership must show understanding of the vision and show some MAJOR Commitment. (Get on the floor and get involved!) 3 Leadership must involve the employees at all levels. (Cross functional teams include multi-levels) 4 The plans & processes need to be clear and robust. 5 Have a Communication System from top to bottom and vice versa. (A survey should be taken early in the process at all levels to determine current condition.) 6 Leadership must provide an Infrastructure that handles change. ( Budget, Organization, Goals, Responsibilities, Plan, …)

Employ Improvement Initiatives 8 Surveys Before beginning, one should know the current state of all levels of the organization. (Upper, and middle management as well as floor personnel) What programs were tried in the past, what worked, what didn’t work and why? Teams, Quality Circles, Kaizen, Total Quality, RCCA … How each level feels about each other and the various programs. What each group thinks are the MAIN customer issues What each group thinks are the company goals and vision What are the key metrics at each level, imaginary or real. To ensure the highest probability of success one needs to know about the past as well as current situation.

Employ Improvement Initiatives 9 Review Survey Results Once the survey is completed, analysis should be performed How did the metrics, vision, goals, customer issues and why things did or didn’t work compare for the different levels. This will hopefully give you some insight as to why the different groups feel about each other. A FMEA might want to be used to try and track the failure modes and thereby try and prevent future failure of these changes.

Employ Improvement Initiatives 10 Step 1 - Foundation This is the basic and is the MOST IMPORTANT step. Unfortunately, this step is usually skipped due to time and one of the major causes of change failing. If a proper foundation has not been built, the change will crumble and the structure that was put in place will give way to the original way of doing things. A foundation usually doesn’t happened overnight, it takes time to build trust (in both directions) and for the employees to believe that the “Program of the Month” is being changed.

Employ Improvement Initiatives 11 Step 2 - Forming Teams However once the foundation has been put in place, these are some of the basic steps. 1 Organize people around a process to form a team. 2 Set boundaries for the team that expand as the team matures. (What decisions are the teams empowered to make.) 3 The team manages the process. 4 The team is held accountable for the process. (Action items include; Who, what, where, when things are to be done and followed -up.)

Employ Improvement Initiatives 12 Step 2 - Continued 5 The team is responsible for improving the process. 6 The team goals are in line with the Company’s. 7 Train the team in team building, managing conflict, decision making and Lean/ Six Sigma for starters.

Employ Improvement Initiatives 13 Summary Ensure a foundation is in place one needs: Corporate Vision & Goals Management Commitment Involve the employees A clear plan and processand Infrastructure for change Ensure the team is organized around a process. The team manages the process The team is accountable The team improves the process Goals align with companies and Train team members Remember if you perform a survey, you better make sure some changes are made or next time it will be even harder.

Employ Improvement Initiatives 14 Making Change Last ! Tips on making real change happen. - Jay Watson