CI DILEMMA APRIL 2019
CI Dilemma
Back to the drawing board
All attempts at implementing Operational Excellence have barely left the concept stage,
and the senior management are at their wits’ end – unless they can fi nd a better way
We have been trying for years to
come up with a successful
approach to Operational
Excellence. Every couple of months,
someone calls a meeting, and we all sit
around the boardroom table for hours,
desperately trying to come up with a way of
taking our organisation to the next level.
However, none of them have stuck.
We’re very good at coming up with ideas,
but terrible at following them through. As
an example, at our last meeting, we spent an
hour coming up with a snazzy name for the
new lean approach, before we even talked
about what should change.
CI Solution Alex Lewis, director, Unleash & Engage
It’s rare to talk to an industrial company
these days that has not tried to implement
Operational Excellence, Lean or some
version called ‘The xxx Way’. Most spend
years slowly building up their ‘maturity’ –
and even longer questioning why their
well-crafted system does not deliver
sustainable change. We encourage leaders
to focus on the following three steps to
deliver fast and long-lasting improvement:
1Create a belief that the future state is
preferable to the current state, and that it
is possible to make the change. Too often,
change programmes start with the senior
leaders defi ning the vision – this is great,
but this can reinforce a view on the
shopfl oor that change is for ‘them’ not for
‘us’. Engaging front-line teams in defi ning
a vision is the fi rst step to stopping this.
2Co-create the future state: understand
the principles behind Operational
Excellence methods and coach the team
to create a new set of habits which work
for them, aligned to the principles. As a
simple example, a daily stand-up meeting is
a conversation with the team designed to
create clarity of direction. The agenda for
the daily meeting should, therefore, focus
on the few things that need to be discussed.
The more complicated the meeting
becomes, the less focus is allowed on
the key things – the more the format is
prescribed, the less the team are truly
engaged and the less the meeting focuses
on what is important to them. All too often,
companies see OpEx as a set of tools to
be slavishly followed – missing the
point that it is more about
simplicity, prioritisation
and engagement.
3Practice the habits
with intensity and
frequency: once habits have
been designed (and this
should take hours, not days),
they should be practiced with
intensity and frequency.
Neuroscience shows that for an activity
to become habitual, neural pathways must
be created and strengthened through
repetition. As a result, the habit (be it daily
meetings, problem solving, Go-look-see,
etc) must be practiced with intensity (real
commitment) and frequency (at least daily,
preferably more often). This process of
habitualising is helped by having a coach
alongside, you asking questions and
prompting incremental improvement.
But this is coaching, not training. As with
all eff ective change, the improvement and
learning must come from within, so the
We are spending more time in meetings
than doing our day jobs – and the staff on
the shopfl oor have noticed. The more time
we spend locked behind a door, the more
they’re convinced we’re plotting something.
On the rare occasion we’ve actually got
something to the level where we can try
rolling some ideas out, they’ve always fallen
on their face within a month. It’s become
clear to me that we need a better approach
to operational excellence, both in terms of
the time taken to decide on a plan of attack,
and then subsequently when we try
implementing it. Before we completely
write off OpEx, what more can we try?
learner must have the insights and must
establish the improvement themselves.
Our experience shows that the optimum
period for the introduction of a full OpEx
production system is 16 weeks. In that
period, you can truly transform a
business unit, habitualising the
practices required to deliver
operational discipline, lean
practices and culture shift.
Following this period, the
focus must be on sustainment
and continuing to practice
the habit of incremental
improvement. Leadership plays a
key role in this, role modelling good
habits and continuing to ask questions.
This model of change disrupts some of
the perceived wisdom we have all nodded
to in recent decades – large scale change
does not take time; tools and models are
not the answer; change does not have to be
top-down; sustainable change is not about
centrally prescribed standards.
If you want real sustainable change, you
must change your culture. Culture is just a
collection of habits, and changing those
habits happens best when it’s done quickly,
with intensity and frequency. Follow the
steps above and you can transform your
organisation in just 16 weeks.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you agree with our expert? Do you truly engage people in designing their own improvement habits?
Send us your views and you could appear here next month. Email: chris.beck@markallengroup.com
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