I think most good leaders are promoting Rapid Results and do not even know it. They are naturally thinking about how things could be:
Easier
Better
Faster
Cheaper, in that order
These four goals are from Shigeo Shingo, a Japanese industrial engineer who was considered as the world’s leading expert on manufacturing practices and performed miracles at Toyota. I am fascinated by these simple goals. Shingo’s work led to LEAN processing. There are many great books that describe his work and how to implement his ideas.
Processes get stale for many reasons.
Technology changes but the process does not.
A long-term staff person just keeps using the same process.
Not asking the Five Whys.
Technology Change Example:
A multi-million dollar accounting system was purchased but never used to full capacity because the old process was dumped into a new system. (There are so many leadership fails in this example it makes me cringe.)
I’ve Always Done It This Way Example:
I have worked here for 15 years and have always done it this way. Staff may not be thinking about how can things get better. It just never crosses their minds to suggest a change.
Not asking the Five Whys Example:
No joke, this exact example occurs once a month with me.
Me: So why do we do this?
Them: An audit finding
Me: Which audit?
Them: An outside audit.
Me: When?
Them: About 10-15 years ago.
Me: Can you find the audit?
Them: Sure
We recently found out that the “audit” was actually a consultant report making a vague suggestion. Now in all fairness, these are well intentioned staff who are trying to protect our business. They think they are doing the right thing. They truly think it was an audit finding that they were trying to correct.
So why are good leaders who recognize that everything could be a little bit better not doing something about it? Well, that is easy. They are busy. Very busy. They only see the edges of the process and just know it could be better. They are not actually doing the process. They supervise the person who may supervise two grades lower the person who actually does the process.
So the better question is why are middle managers not doing something about it?
Although top leaders are excited about process change, I find that middle managers are not. I am talking about each department leader’s #3. I am over generalizing, but in my experience I find this level is where the rapid results enthusiasm wall is built.
Many of the procedures are written by staff at this level, and they feel some ownership to their original work.
Staff is in a supervisor role but not a leadership role, so they do not know everything else that is being planned. They are working with a limited knowledge set.
They are not seeing the value in spending time changing this. What do they get out of it?
Personal note: I am naturally a process nut. I think a lot about how I use my time at home and work. It is personally important to me to be efficient. At first, I thought this was all about efficiency. I actually love making a list and “banging” through it.
But over years of working through the idea of continuous process change, I now feel like it gives me and all other employees control over our work. Patrick Lencioni in Three Signs of a Miserable Job talks about the importance of measurement and staff having control of their success. When you have the ability to make changes, actually ENCOURAGED to sniff out waste and change it, you have some measure of control of your personal success. We actually tell employees that if they cannot measure the change, they should not make the change - knowing every improvement can be measured. A few examples include: hours saved, money saved, less waiting at the copier, less paper purchases, faster time to get original signatures, etc.
There are many resources on how to make LEAN processing work in your workplace. I happen to refer to process change in all its forms as “rapid results” or “continuous improvement.”
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