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The Three “I”s to Improving Organizational Performance
The Three “I”s to improving organizational performance
In these challenging times it is imperative that companies are focusing on how to improve their operations. This means looking for more effective and less wasteful ways of doing all things. I have an acronym consisting of three easy to remember “I”s. They are as follows:
- Information
- Involvement
- Improvement
I will go into more detail on each of these points below.
Information:
– Provide clear roles, goals, and expectations for everyone. Fuzzy expectations means fuzzy results.
– Provide clear and candid feedback on an individual level as well as performance of the organization. This is in the form of metrics, personal work goals/ targets, customer complaints, scorecards, awards, etc… Do not make the mistake of only providing feedback on the negative. Employees need to hear the positive as well.
– Provide clear instructions on how to perform work as well as any additional information or resources needed to effectively perform the work.
Involvement:
– Involvement of the workforce is probably the biggest factor in creating effective culture changes, improvements and developing an effective quality system. When these are created and implemented in a vacuum they will be far less effective and supported.
– I am a firm believer in involving the workforce in as much as possible. Some examples include internal auditing, layer process audits, problem solving, improvement initiatives, QMS/ process development, process development (where feasible and value added), customer visits, presentations, setting goals & targets, etc…
– An involved and engaged workforce also reduces resistance to change.
Improvement:
– If we are not improving both as individuals and as a organizations we are falling behind. Those that are maintaining the status quo will soon find themselves behind their competition who is improving.
– Improvement teams and individual improvement programs can be a great way to improve quality, improve safety, reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction and make for a better work environment.
– For those that are certified to ISO 9001, TS 16949 and other ISO based systems, improvement is a requirement. Many companies have reaped huge rewards and savings by the implementation of improvement initiatives as described above. Once we have implemented a good “process based QMS” with objectives that are measured, we can then use these measurements to improve the way that we manage our company and our quality system.
– In addition and related to the 2nd “I” (involvement) it is a great way to engage the workforce as well.
Here is to improvement!
Mark
Structure – Important in quality and life
Structure – The key to almost everything
“Why is structure so important?”
In my attempt to try to find relationships and consistent concepts that apply across many areas of life and quality I found myself analyzing my fitness program that I am doing with some friends currently.
Approximately 6 weeks ago, three friends and I decided to go through a cycle of a very popular home exercise (DVD based) program by Tony Horton. After six weeks into the program all four of us are getting the results that we intended. I started to analyze the program, our motivations, etc… to determine why that was. As other quality professionals well know, developing and implementing a new quality initiative, quality process or even a quality system may not always take us where we planned. I started to analyze the approach of this particular exercise program to look for clues. Here is what I came up with:
1) Clear Goal – There is a defined goal and a measurement of success. In the case of the exercise program, my objective was to reduce my body fat percentage, waist circumference and lose a little bit of weight.
2) Starting measurement (base line) – We all took specific measures prior to starting so that we were able to determine if what we were doing was effective. This is equally applicable in quality and in business as it relates to improvement projects or initiatives.
3) A strong enough purpose or “why” – As a motivational speaker once said, with a strong enough “why” the how becomes easy. In this case my “why” was to improve my health, which is a very strong motivator for me personally. I want to live a very long time. As managers we have to determine the “why” for any initiative that we are looking to implement.
4) A clearly defined process – In the case of the exercise program every day in the 90 day program is clearly defined as to which body parts, how many repetitions, how many sets, which days you have a rest day, cardio, stretching, etc… As a matter of fact, there is even a daily eating guide.
5) Removal of the “hassles” or hurdles – Our group set a specific time every day that we met for our exercise session which took the guessing out of it, and allowed us to make a long term schedule that our sessions fit into. Because we were working out at a friend’s house, we did not have to worry about gym hours or crowds either.
6) Ongoing measurement of the process – We took weekly (and even more frequent) measurements of our measures on some weeks. This allowed us to take action if we needed to quickly. This also reinforces the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle as well.
7) Correction – If we were not getting the results that we planned and measured weekly, we modified our approach. This took the form of more cardio, cutting back on certain foods, or amounts of foods. This is also crucial in our jobs/ roles as quality professionals. This reinforces why measuring our projects, processes, etc… is so important.
8) Reinforce the program/ objective – This is very important in any initiative, not just exercise programs. We used social media messages, posts, etc… to continuously talk about what we were doing, share interesting information, video clips, etc… related to the goal and process. This can also be accomplished in our quality roles by spending time out in the work areas, talking to the employees as to how their jobs are going, results of customer feedback (good and bad), posting, scorecards, etc… That which gets talked about and measured gets done.
9) Make it a habit/ standardize it – This is challenging in exercise programs, health and in improvements in general. It is easy to back slide into what we were doing before. Regarding the fitness program, we already have our next 2 programs scheduled. You have to make health and quality a permanent process. In the manufacturing/ quality world this can take the form of audits (LPAs), internal audits, error-proofing, mistake-proofing, 5S, control plans, procedures, etc…
As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, there are many related areas in life and being a quality professional I am always looking to bridge the two. This area just reinforces this concept.
Here is to improvement.
Mark
Company Culture Is Management Controlled
Some of the most commonly cited mechanisms for changing company culture are as follows:
1) Formal statments of mission, vision, quality policy, values, etc (These are set by Management).
2) The physical design and organization of work spaces (desk layout, cubicles, no walls, departmental segregation, etc..) (These are set by Management)
3) Slogans, sayings, language used, etc… (Driven by or accepted by Management)
4) Deliberate new employee orientation, socialization or training programs (Set by Management)
5) Reward systems (promotions, awards, status symbols, etc..) that are reinforced by the organization (Set by Management)
6) Company stories, legends, tales, etc.. that are talked about and cherished by key people at key events. This is used to reinforce what is thought to be important to an organization. (These are also Management reinforced)
7) Organizational structure or systems (org charts, etc…) (Designated by Management)
8) Organizational Goals – leading to departmental and personal goals (Established by Management)
In analyzing these it becomes apparent that the culture that exists within an organization is determined mainly by Management either directly by policies or by what is reinforced on an ongoing basis.
Keeping this in mind, it reinforces the fact that company cultures can be changed if Management is willing to commit to doing what it requires to instill these new beliefs, attitudes and actions and has the right Managemt personnel in place that support these values.
Even with the right personnel in place company culture change can still sometimes take a period of time to have the desired results.
As is the case with many company initiatives culture definitely starts at the top.
Mark
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