Avoiding Scope Creep
A few months ago I met with a group of very enthusiastic employees at a small company. They had several ideas on ways to improve their organization. These ideas ranged from simple to very complex. To help narrow down the options, the team took part in an exercise to affinitize (group together) and prioritize (ranking high to low) the various projects. The team identified the top three projects and, with the help of management, reduced the list to one project. As the team began their work, someone mentioned that one of the projects that had not made the priority list would be a good match for our project. There was a large discussion about how we could incorporate the new project into the ongoing work. While this sounded like an easy problem to correct, it really became a hotly debated subject. Many times while developing a project a team runs into “scope creep,” where the original project is expanded to other activities and/or departments. This has also been referred to as a team trying to “boil the ocean,” or fix all problems at once. It is critical that a team, with the guidance of the team leader, set the parameters of the project (which items or areas are in and out of scope) at the beginning of the project. This will help to keep the team on track and increase the odds of successful project completion. 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...
Read MoreSmall but Mighty
I’m convinced that the greatest obstacle to improvement in today’s corporate world is our obsession with “BIG” projects. If it’s not going to immediately save the company a million dollars, then it’s not worth pursuing as a quality improvement effort. In asking for these rare BIG ideas, leaders unintentionally “freak out” their employees. Faced with significant workplace change, even if it is a positive one, employees tend to fear the future. As a result, staff hunker down. The flow of creative ideas simply shuts down. The best way to create a culture of creativity and innovation is to cultivate small changes that don’t create fear. What’s the smallest change we could easily make to improve this problem? In his book Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Engagement (3rd Ed.), Mark Graban illustrates how several organizations empowered their employees to do exactly that — make small changes to improve their workplace: Using 5S to create an identical layout for hospital nursing stations, so that when staff transfer between stations they can work more efficiently because the layout is the same. Alerting hospital staff to the emotional state of a patient who just delivered a stillborn infant by putting an unobtrusive visual indicator, such as a small angel emblem, on the patient’s door. Redesigning a doctor’s office check in area to make it more convenient from the patient’s perspective. Once employees have the opportunity to participate in small changes like these, they gain confidence and build problem solving skills. Then, they are more likely to discover larger changes, and be ready to take them on. From a time perspective, it’s often easier to find 20 minutes or an hour to work on a small problem (and a small solution) here and there within the work day. As a result, many health care organizations have demonstrated that, through gradually working on small ideas (literally thousands of them), they can still save millions of dollars a year. Now that is a BIG idea! 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...
Read MoreAvoid Swimming With The Sharks
I recently had the pleasure of watching one of my favorite James Bond movies, Thunderball. I especially enjoy the scenes where Bond is exposed to the sharks. As expected, Bond is able to defeat his captor Emilo Largo, retrieve the atomic bombs, and get the beautiful girl. Often, when beginning a new continuous improvement (CI) project, it feels like you are entering shark-infested waters. It is common to discover one or more influential people (shareholders) that are not as enthusiastic about your project as you are. One of the best ways to avoid or mitigate these potential conflicts is to perform a stakeholder’s analysis. By asking the members of the CI team to identify potential allies and detractors, the team can determine how best to work with each stakeholder so as to gain buy-in and support for the project. This can be done in many ways, including direct communication from a team member, or group updates delivered at predetermined stages of the project. By working with possible critics to ensure that their concerns are addressed, the CI team can help to lessen and/or remove potential roadblocks to the project and therefore enhance the probability of the team’s success. 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...
Read MoreThe Secret Sauce Behind Six Sigma
A few years ago a popular fast food chain ran ads which included a list of components with which to build a hamburger. One of the items in that list was what the company referred to as “secret sauce.” This was the ingredient that gave the hamburger its distinctive flavor and a great marketing concept. Just as the fast food company had its “secret sauce,” all organizations do too – in their employees. In the April issue of Quality Magazine, management expert and ASQ Fellow Jim Smith shares from his experience of more than 45 years in operations, engineering, research and development and quality management. Although Six Sigma tools can play a key role in an organization’s success, he says it’s really the human factor that makes the difference in a company’s ability to effectively manage its challenges and improve its operations. Companies that champion quality improvement have committed, passionate teams that are focused on creating best practices. It’s the chemistry of these staff members in their drive for excellence that makes the difference. Jim highlights several key elements of successful teams, including: A team must be given the authority to generate results and attain its mission. Team members should be selected for their knowledge of the process being reviewed, not for internal “political” reasons. Team members are critical to every step of the process, from gathering and analyzing data, staying connected with front line staff and deciding the next steps for improving the process. Never underestimate the importance of teams. Constantly emphasizing an improvement mindset must become the way an organization operates day to day. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Jim’s article. It’s a great reminder that quality improvement tools are important, but are useless without the dynamics of an effective team. 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...
Read More
Recent Comments