Targeting Change

Preparation and education on a changing environment can help ensure a successful Lean Transformation

By William (Bill) A. Schreiber, Vice President, MANTEC

We keep talking about Lean Enterprise, Lean Transformation and ProActive Management. And when you observe narrow and deeply into an organization embracing any one of the three, it’s all about change. There was a time when company decision makers had a simpler goal for themselves and their organizations and that was stability. Most owners wanted little more than predictable earning growth. Leaders could deliver on those expectations through annual exercises that offered only modest modifications to the strategic plan. Prices stayed in check; people stayed in their jobs; life was good.

According to John Jones, “Market transparency, labor mobility, global capital flows and instantaneous communications have blown that comfortable scenario to smithereens.” In most industries – and in almost all small to large companies – heightened global competition has concentrated management’s collective mind on something that, in the past, it happily avoided: CHANGE. To be leading edge in today’s business climate we must manage the company’s environment to develop a company culture that just keeps moving all the time.

A continual changing environment presents most company decisions makers with an unfamiliar challenge. Lean transformations in most organizations occur with conventional focus on devising the best strategic and tactical plans. But to really succeed, they must have a complete understanding of the human side of change management – the alignment of the company’s culture, values, people, and behaviors – to encourage the desired results. Plans themselves do not create value; value is realized only through the trained team members who are involved and responsible for their outcome while performing their tasks, methods and processes within a changing environment.

Long-term transformation (Lean Implementation) has four characteristics: scale (the change affects all – holistic effects of improving customer service), magnitude (significant alterations to the status quo), duration (the journey to world class excellence is endless), and strategic importance. It is proven that companies will only harvest the rewards of Lean principles when change occurs at the level of the individual team members.

Many decision makers know this and worry about it. When asked what keeps you up at night, company owners involved in Lean transformation often say they are concerned about how the team members will react, how they can get their team members to work together and how they will be able to motivate people to sustain continuous change. They also worry about retaining their company’s unique values and sense of identity and about creating a culture of commitment and performance. Any company decision makers that fail to plan for the human side of change often find themselves wondering why the best-laid plans have gone awry.

Please note we are using “team member” in reference to an employee. Any Lean organization must create a team environment. The single employee focus or individual responsibility is not cultivating a Lean culture. Any problem solution is a process of holistically reviewing how the solution or change will affect the entire organization and service to the customer. Therefore, we must create a culture of teaming to solve task, process or method change.

There is no single methodology that fits every company but there is a set of practices, tools and techniques that can be adapted to a variety of situations. We encourage a systematic approach educating your team members in the use and tools of Lean. During the education process, the team members will become aware of opportunities for change and realize what will change in their working environment. This prepares the entire organization to understand the Lean journey process. The decision makers must understand that their team members must also comprehend why traditional ways of achieving a task, process or method outcome must change to stay in business. Preparation and education on a changing environment will give greater security in sustaining a Lean Transformation.

In a Lean implementation, leaders as well as team members may be feeling their way, coaching less from experience than discovery as they go. Sensing that the work culture must build up to Lean, leadership may first do something to engage people on problem solving, become familiar with process visibility and improve teamwork as a way of life.

For example, they may institute The 5S System: Workplace Organization and Standardization before starting on Value Stream Mapping a product family. In addition, a big cultural leap, like moving from an independent craft tradition, can be painful and time-consuming. We all agree that the human side, learning new patterns of working and thinking is a huge hurdle. Some team members will not understand or be comfortable with the changes. Per Bill Ziegler, “There will be C.A.V.E. People. (Citizens Against Virtually Everything).”

Change is both a company journey and a very personal one. People spend many hours each week at work and many think of their colleagues as a second family. Individuals (team members) need to know how their work will change, what is expected of them on a continual Lean journey, how will they be measured and what success or failure will mean for them and those around them. Decision makers should be as honest and explicit as possible.

People will react to what they see and hear around them and need to be involved in the change process. Highly visible rewards and recognition should be provided as dramatic reinforcement for embracing change. Managing or removal of team members standing in the way of change will reinforce the company’s commitment.