For virtually everyone change means hard work, risk, and the need to learn new ways for unproven benefits. Change is one of the most difficult things for humans to readily accept.  Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change” which holds true for culture change.

Fortunately, there is a formula that provides insight into how to successfully facilitate change:

L x V x K x AP x A > R = Change

Where:

L = Lever: Find a sense of urgency by identifying a crisis in which action is the only choice.  It is necessary to overcome inertia.

V = Vision: How you would like things to be in the future, this is the “True North” thinking.

K = Knowledge: Learn the skills necessary to facilitate the change. Find a change agent.  Understand and disseminate the lean knowledge.

AP = Action Plan: Actions and strategies needed to move the organization toward the vision.  It is important to begin as soon as possible with visible activity.  Often, a great start is to identify and map your value streams.

A = Alignment: Communicate the why and how of the vision to inspire people to want to try to achieve it.  As  you gain momentum you need to expand your scope. Apply strategy deployment (Hoshin Kanri) to facilitate horizontal and vertical alignment.

R = Resistance: People tend to naturally resist change.  Reduce resistance by making the change known, easy, beneficial, and popular.

To ensure successful change all of these elements are needed.  If an element is missing you won’t get change but rather something short of that as shown below:

Lever x Vision x Knowledge x Action Plan x Alignment = Change
.………. Vision x Knowledge x Action Plan x Alignment = Status Quo
Lever x                Knowledge x Action Plan x Alignment = Confusion
Lever x Vision x                         Action Plan x Alignment = Frustration
Lever x Vision x Knowledge x                         Alignment = False Starts
Lever x Vision x Knowledge x Action Plan                        = Resistance

There is no quick solution for creating a lean culture.  Successful initial implementation and ongoing maintenance of process improvements, among other things, requires overcoming the resistance to change.

This post was authored by Tim McMahon, the Founder and Contributor of A Lean Journey Blog.  Tim’s blog site is dedicated to sharing lessons and experiences along the Lean Journey in the Quest for True North. He is a lean practitioner, leading continuous improvement efforts for a high tech manufacturer of fiber optic cables and assemblies. Tim teaches problem solving skills, lean countermeasures, and how to see opportunities for improvement by actively learning, thinking and being engaged.

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Tags: change management

Too often we forget the basics. And we pay dearly for it.

One of the basics of a successful lean transformation, heck any transformation, is change management. When it comes to stuff like that, I defer to the experts for insight into the “how.”

John P. Kotter, author of Leading Change and A Sense of Urgency and co-author of several other great books, is a change management, or should I say change leadership, expert.  Kotter identifies an eight-stage process for creating major change. There’s obviously a lot to discuss behind each one of the stages, but for now, the list is a great start.

1. Establishing a sense of urgency,
2. Creating a guiding coalition,
3. Developing a vision and strategy,
4. Communicating the change vision,
5. Empowering broad-based action,
6. Generating short-term wins,
7. Consolidating gains and producing more change, and
8. Anchoring new approaches in the culture.

It’s great stuff and hard to argue against any of it, in total or at the elemental level.  But, lean leaders routinely fail (I’m guilty) to follow this game plan (or other proven change management game plans by folks like Daryl R. Conner). I believe that there are a handful of reasons for this lack of adherence, including:

• Degree of difficulty (and/or leadership impatience). Change is hard (one of my better statements of the obvious). Applying the rigor of a proven multi-step process, in the short-term, just seems to make it harder and delays getting into the action of changing processes, value streams. organization structures, etc.  Q: Isn’t there a short-cut? A: Not if you want to be successful.
• Lack of humility. This can be translated as, “I know what I’m doing…I don’t need no stinkin’ process.” Of course, you never actually hear people say that, they just act that way.
• Drift. At the launch of any sort of transformation, everything is shiny and new – full of hope…and I dare say, the promise of change. But, shortly after the launch, things can get very messy.  Even if an organization applies best practices to optimize the chance of success from the perspective of learning and leverage while managing technical and human resource related risks, there will be no shortage of  problems. Amidst the fog of issues and challenges, it is very easy to lose one’s change leadership bearings. Urgency can make leaders “forget” or procrastinate when it comes to living the basics of change leadership.

So, what to do? Study what the masters of change leadership teach relative to strategy and technology.  Apply the rigor and build it into the overall implementation plan relative to timing, level of effort and ownership  (for example, provide yourself and your team with the requisite time to develop a vision and strategy). Religiously conduct frequent formal and informal PDCA checkpoints to keep yourself on track and to identify necessary adjustments. Use an external coach to keep everyone honest.

Change leadership is hard enough. Don’t handicap yourself and your organization by ignoring best practices.

Related posts: The War Room – More than an Interior Decorating Statement, The Post-Value Stream Analysis Hangover

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Tags: change management