Sustain Your Gains
Sustain Your Gains, Accelerate Improvement, Sustain Gains, The People Side of Lean-Six Sigma, by Michael McCarthy, mikemccarthy@sustainleangains.com, Performance Management Publications, 2011
What is the missing piece that signals the difference between technically correct but unsustained systemic change, and the kind of employee and leadership commitment that guarantees that lean tools, as well as the people side, are aligned for continued progress?
Author McCarthy calls out the organizational deficits that he believes undercut perfect execution of the tools. Because anybody can learn how to calculate takt time or run a kaizen blitz, but an integrated enterprise that runs to low inventories, low overhead and scrap, and very high customer service performance, needs the next level of intelligent awareness to enable smooth functioning.
So what is McCarthy’s “missing piece,” that magical additional element that guarantees predictable and consistent results? It is, says McCarthy in Chapter 4, “the people stuff, ” or Performance Management. McCarthy calls the application of people tools ensures success at home and at work, and he points to Preston Trucking, a client that saved an estimated $30M with improved productivity over five years. Here is the root of how McCarthy tackles sustained performance:
Behavior is a function if its consequences, where B = f (Cq). To change behavior, change the consequences for that behavior.
The challenge comes when industry leaders evaluate and plan rewards or consequences designed to change behaviors. Here the author recommends, “To sustain your Lean Sigma gains, put as much planning and execution into consequences as you do into antecedent activities.” In other words, don’t yell louder, don’t expect that a bigger hammer – or a bigger carrot – will get you the results you and the stockholders demand.
Instead, look at Consequences, because old habits die hard. For example, take this test for yourself:
Try to write your signature by removing every other letter. In theory there’s only half as many letters to write, so it should go faster, right? But, because it’s new, you need to practice over and over and over, and eventually you’ll get as fast as you are with your normal signature, and then eventually faster. (Mike Hoseus blog post).
After the program launch hoopla, and the obligatory lean training have passed, how do you recognize and reward high performers and great teams? What is your plan for making employees trust that by adopting a new lean method, they are not guaranteeing increased workload? Part 2 of Sustaining the Gains offers proven methods to build credibility and trust for the change effort, including skills that every change leader needs.
This “people stuff” will continue to be difficult in technical groups. The rules are invaluable:
1. Leaders do it first, then invite others to follow.
2. Brainstorm for ideas
3. Refine ideas with idea building
4. Encourage talk you want more of
5. Discourage talk you want less of
6. Positively reinforce others
7. Hold short, team feedback meetings; (the ideal is daily)
8. Conduct team celebrations
If your group is tired of kaizen, or if you have noticed that people roll their eyes and suddenly disappear when the term “continuous improvement” comes up, and you don’t want to slip back into bad practices, it’s time to look at the people stuff. What American companies are asking their leaders and employees to do is tough stuff, and it may not have been covered in school or post-grad training. For many technical employees, the challenge of growing their people skills, or of managing work teams, might appear as yet another burden imposed on the ordinary task of getting today’s work done. What The Mill Girl likes about this people stuff is that it works in any production operation – whether it’s an office, a healthcare facility, a factory, or even a school. Even when the headcount has dropped to a fraction of overhead costs, it’s still the people who make the decisions, the people who can kill or disable all the best lean methods.
NOTE: for more information on this book, http://aubreydaniels.com/sustain-your-gains-0)