A few weeks ago, I had a lengthy discussion with a friend about an organization to which we both belong. He was lamenting the fact that the organization has been losing members over the past few years. He went on to tell me about some of his ideas to improve the organization so as to increase the number of people participating in the group.
One of the suggestions that my friend had was to utilize Lean Six Sigma (LSS) to correct the problems seen within the association. Unfortunately, he ran into a problem that many novice continuous improvement (CI) practitioners face: the urge to use LSS for to correct non-process-related problems.
All organizations, be they a business, civic, religious, or any other type of association, are established on basic tenets such as patient care (healthcare) or product production (manufacturing). How those tenets are fulfilled is the actual operation of the institution. The tenets of the association are usually based on philosophy and as such are not appropriate targets for CI.
I recommended that my friend focus on the activities related to how the organization operates, especially as it relates to membership and the daily processes and tasks. Hopefully this will lead to a voice of the customer discussion that will bring to light some of the issues related to members leaving. As for the organization’s basic tenets, leave those discussions to the philosophers in the group.
How are you helping your employees to work smarter by reducing the amount of time they spend on non-productive activities and correcting errors? If your business processes need a “check-up,” please email me at michael@leadingchangeforgood.com! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive workplace.
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