New Alignment to Lean

I had my Senior Management team visit various organizations that have embraced Lean. They found it interesting to see how others use Lean and found that to truly embrace it, we would need to change the look of our offices, culture, collaboration, and measures. And, be be willing to stick with it for a decade or more.

What I found most intriguing was the reference to “cultural change”. Through a brief search on the Internet, I found there is lots of talk about cultural changes required for Lean to take hold. None of what I read specifically answers what the changes in a culture need to be. While I might be too close to it, it reads to me like what we are intentionally fostering as a culture and core value anyway. Am I missing something?

          Karl Sigerist, CEO, Crelogix

The question you are asking holds a great deal of insight as to whether the approach to operational excellence (a/k/a organizational excellence, cost reduction, operational efficiency) you are taking will work. The key question is whether your chosen approach is in alignment to your culture.

It is all about “how” things get done. Whether you are using Six Sigma, The Toyota Process, Kaizen, etc. to implement operational efficiency, the better the approach fits to your culture, the better your likelihood for success. All too often, the chosen methodology does not align to the culture and leads to the perceived need to change the culture to align it to the process. 

In my experience, it's typically easier to adjust the process than trying to make significant changes in the culture. Very often, undertaking changes in a company’s culture create unnecessary struggles and unproductive conflict. Approaches to any form of continuous improvement will have much higher degrees of success when they are naturally aligned to the culture. 

That being said, it will be hard to find information on what specific culture changes are necessary. So where does one begin to assess the alignment of the approach to your culture? I suggest starting with exploring the cultural aspects most apparent in the process. These include: 

• How problems are solved, 

• How decisions are made (including who is responsible for them),

• How projects and programs are managed (including role definition, resource allocation, outcome measurement), 

• How teaming typically occurs, 

• How people are rewarded for the outcomes (meritocratic, shared), and 

• Communication.

There are other aspects of implementation such as data collection, analysis, solution development, feedback and measurement loops, that allow you to tweak the process, rather than try to apply it verbatim. While this may take some time and energy, it’s certain to give you value and can save you a great deal of time and energy trying to go back to deal with the unnecessary conflicts that could have been avoided. 

A great place to always start from is engaging in a more in-depth conversation with the team to determine where alignments exist and where they don't. With respect to the visits your executives are making to companies, they will likely discover that each company they are visiting has a slightly different lens. Or, that the consistency of the cultures of the companies they are visiting are very much alike, providing evidence as to what preference of aspects of their cultures best fit the process. They can also learn about the steps each company took in achieving successful implementation, the conflicts that arose, and how they created the necessary change. Take that learning and then apply it to your company. Assessment and improvement always go hand in hand. That's what continuous improvement is all about… first assess, then act.

Lastly, I often see companies go down the path of continuous improvement approaches and getting short-term gains, only to find that the programs dwindle, are not sustainable, and do not deliver the long-term outcomes and effects. This reminds us to stay focused on the ongoing conversation of alignment.

Thank you for joining in the conversation.

Fools in Love

“Why do fools fall in love?” 

          Steve Jackson, Psychologist, Denver, CO

My short answer is, “Do you really have to ask?” (My colleague Theresa Blanding warned me “Of course you’ll get crank questions like this one!”) Oh well, an invitation is an invitation. I expect my chosen vocation to continue to be what it has always been… a grand adventure. Life is one continuous practice. With every sunrise we can expect something new. An experience that reminds us that even the most mundane of moments teaches us something new about ourselves. That is, if we’re open to it. So thanks Steve, for another wonderful moment.

The phrase “why do fools fall in love” was made popular by the song of the same title in 1956 by Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers. Lymon, who at the time was a mere 13 years old, wrote the megahit song that would be covered by a host of popular artists, including The Beach Boys, The Four Seasons, and Diana Ross, among others. The lyrics of the song undoubtedly view the experience of a fool falling in love through a lens of emotional hardship, including embarrassment, humiliation, and the subsequent heartache and melancholy that accompanies it. For a thirteen year-old to have experienced this says a great deal about how foolish we can be about love, at most any age. 

So, what is it that makes fools fall in love? Love is at the core of our being. Our shared desire is to be accepted and loved for who we are and to love others in the same manner. Aside from money and physical wellbeing, there are two things in life that we hold dear and cause us anxiety when we don’t have enough of them. They are love and time. Of these, time is not limitless and so we want to spend it doing what matters most to us. Naturally, and for the most part, this involves how we spend time with those we love. This is one of the great insights that become clearer with age. It is the reality that the time we have to spend with our loved ones is not infinite.

Fortunately, unlike time, which has the distinct boundary of human life connected to it; love has a sense of infinity (i.e. I love you bigger than the whole wide sky; I will love you forever; My love for you has no end.). Love is timeless as it is deep, an emotion that lives in our hearts and souls. Love is the common language of mankind and lives at the core of our being. Is it foolish to believe that this is not true? Does this create an unachievable fulfillment of a desire and need? When it comes to love, isn’t everything possible? If I believe that love is stronger than anything, can you prove to me that I am wrong? Or am I just being foolish?

This thing we call love can get pretty complicated. The answer to the question does not need to be a complex one. It’s simple. We all want love. And at times, we all act like fools. These are both within our capacity and realm of simply being human. And so, if you’re going to be foolish about something, it may as well be love. The problem is that as much joy and happiness that love brings us, it can also be the source of heartache and deep emotional pain. Nevertheless, it is likely true that it is better to be a fool in love than to not have loved at all. 

We’re all fools and we all fall in love. It’s why fools fall in love.

Passive Aggressive Cultures

I meet many cultures in business in the Seattle and Redmond area (Pacific Northwest) that have a strong passive aggressive culture.  Leadership at these companies are stuck in that results are promised but commitment and follow through are weak.  What is recommended as a way to quickly stop the nonsense and help people grow up a little bit and get on with creating a performance based system that is fair, trustworthy and a lot more fun to work in?

          David Dunnington, Our Best Work

Passive aggressive behavior can come in many forms. It typically shows up as noncompliance, negativity, and a failure of people to not act responsible or accountable. Among others, it can also show up as indirect and direct sabotage; forgetfulness; withholding of information; withdrawal; and procrastination. It not only undermines performance, it also effects cultures negatively and tests the ability of leadership.

Passive aggressive behavior is the result of conflict. Not only is it a type of conflict behavior, it is also an indication that there is a conflict that is unresolved. In your inquiry, you hit on three main issues that are worth exploring.

The first has to do with the weak accountability that results when leaders do not confront conflict and passive aggressive behavior in a timely manner. Or, they don’t deal with it at all (the latter of which we see all too often). Leaders need to learn that confronting conflict is one of their main priorities. Good leaders address and manage conflict effectively. And they do it in a timely manner. In my experience, it is the key skill required to becoming a great leader.

The second is that passive aggressive behavior can easily permeate a culture. This is directly the result of leaders not confronting conflict and letting disagreements and misalignments spin out of control. How teams and organizations deal with conflict is the key influencer of culture. Leaders are responsible for role modeling and reinforcing the behaviors that are acceptable and unacceptable in the culture. If they don’t confront conflict and passive aggressive behavior, they are granting permission for it to exist. Hence, it becomes a key trait of the culture and its accepted norms.

The third aspect is that which addresses what is fair and reminds us that cultures can be fun to work in and offer trusting environments to work in. Such cultures offer people the ability to express themselves freely, without fear of retribution or negative consequence. Again, it is up to leaders to take the responsibility to be open and treat people with mutual respect. This involves listening, helping people to succeed and always being open and candid about what people are doing, and whether it fits the desired culture. All too often, leaders fail to see their own relationship for the passive aggressive behaviors of those around them. Leaders that fail to confront conflict are acting passively aggressive. It just may not be as obvious to them.

Lastly, you make mention of the Northwest region of the country. Maybe it is something in the water? My observation is that these types of challenges exist in all organizations and teams, regardless of geography. In the end, “a quick way to stop the nonsense” relies on leadership not putting up with passive aggressive behavior and confronting it the moment they see it (including their own). It begins with asking why and exploring the root causes. It requires leaders to act responsibly, to take action, and as a result, not let passive aggressive behavior become a norm of culture.

Thank you for taking part in the conversation.

Earned Incentive Program

What is the best way to distribute an earned incentive program in a service organization, by percentage of annual salary or evenly per employee?

          Marcia Faschingbauer, Excargo Services Inc.

When it comes to earned incentive programs, there are several considerations that I suggest you undertake diligently. With respect to whether the incentive is paid through a percentage of salary or evenly per employee is relative to the culture.

The short answer is that offering an incentive for the performance of an entire organization or team, with each individual benefitting from the outcomes of the whole, has a much different effect than making the incentive individual to each person’s performance. And, one can expect a difference in how members engage one another in how they team. This includes how they collaborate, share ideas, and support one another. This is what leaders often wrestle with when implementing incentive programs and why it is important to align the program to your culture, and how you want people to work with each other.

In a more participation oriented culture – one in which every member is contributing to a shared outcome and the emphasis is on shared reward – the even distribution is a more aligned approach.

In an expert culture – one in which each individual is responsible for their own performance – paying a percentage of the individual’s salary that is commensurate with the performance outcomes is more aligned. The better the individual performance, the higher the percentage and the lesser the performance, the lower the percentage. Rewarding everyone at the same level can easily undermine the desired effect of everyone being individually responsible for performance.

Along with making sure the program fits your culture, there are some other basic considerations that you’ll want to pay particular attention to, including:

·     

• Linking pay directly to performance outcomes in a measurable way, using measurements and performance outcomes that are clearly articulated and easily tracked.
• Identifying and articulating clear standards for the performance and making sure that definitions of success are well understood. It’s sometimes easy to track numbers while failing to measure how they are attained or whether the proper quality is demonstrated. This is particularly true in service environments where it is important that the results are in alignment with other operating and customer service standards.

• Be sure that the performance goals tied to the incentive program are achievable. A stretch goal for the sake of having one is never a good idea. Yes, the performance goals have to be meaningful and challenging. They also have to be achievable. Good incentive programs build to higher levels over time, leveraging past and present success. Remember, what gets done and rewarded, gets done again.
• It’s important to communicate clearly and communicate often. Letting people know where they stand is important. It’s hard to beat a good scorecard or dashboard. It’s even better if the employee or team can be part of the reporting process and always aware of the performance outcome (and again, how it links to the incentive).
• Good programs are reviewed often. Don’t be afraid to make adjustments as you go. It’s important to be transparent and if changes need to made, to act in a timely manner. Otherwise you may have a conflict on your hands that may be hard to recover from.
• Don’t overlook the importance of establishing clear timing. Periodic bonuses and payouts are only as good as the consistency and timeliness with which they are executed. The closer the incentive is delivered to the performance, typically the better the impact. Immediacy creates a sense of urgency, motivating people to want to do more.
• In service environments, often the impact of quality and customer relationship improvement can be overlooked. While more difficult to track, these are key elements of performance improvement and should not be overlooked.
• Lastly, be sure to offer the required training and coaching. You want people to achieve higher levels and you want to everything you can to help them receive what they deserve. It’s in the best interest of the business to do so.

That being said, I am also a big fan of spontaneous reward. A form of a more casual approach that leverages timeliness and shows people you’re always paying attention and willing to reward whenever you can. This approach also requires leaders to pay more attention to what matters most… building and developing talent.

Thank you for joining in the conversation.