Sustaining Improvement: Is it a pipe dream?

I have prepared this piece jointly with Simon Phillips.

There are two questions that seem to be most commonly asked by organisations who are looking to change the direction of there business; namely:

Where do I start?
and
Why is it so hard?

Research quoted by Henley Management College stated that the UK wastes around £25Bn per year on improvement programmes which go wrong and our own research, collated from a number of sources, suggests that upwards of 80% of all improvement activities will fail.

With ‘Lean’ becoming the improvement tool of choice within a wide range of sectors, including Financial Services, Armed Forces, NHS, Public Services and the Service Sector, it is already becoming apparent that these sectors are suffering from the same problems with implementation that were first seen in ‘Lean’s’ home, manufacturing.

Whilst organisations have focused on the tools of Lean, everything from adapting 5S and SMED for office and service environments, there has been little thought applied to the methodology of implementation – namely, ‘Where do I start?’

Further analysis shows that many of the reasons why Lean Improvement Programmes fail can be traced back to decisions and actions either taken or omitted prior to the start of the change process – broadly these decisions can be classed as:

§ Issues surrounding the planning and application of the tools
§ Issues around the engagement of people and the communication of change
§ Issues around the development of managers to drive the change
§ Issues around the leadership and management systems and behaviours to support the change

Therefore, perhaps the secret solution to making Lean improvements work lies in having a defined methodology to enable people to be able to understand the Lean Journey (answering the ‘Where do I start?’ question) and a plan of attack to create the right organisational environment to enable the improvements to take hold (answering the ‘Why is it so hard?’ question)?

Well, the answer to the questions above is ‘possibly’ because it all relies on having the expertise to answer the questions that arise – such as ‘What is the right methodology for my business?’, ‘What is the best management structure for my business to support the improvement?’ and ‘How do I overcome organisational inertia?’

Sadly, most people who look to implement Lean (or Six Sigma for that matter) come from an engineering or ‘tools’ background, meaning they fully understand the logic of the improvement tools but often do not have the expertise to address the cultural change and organisational development aspect or impact of what they are proposing. Alternatively, the facilitators come from HR/People/Change Management backgrounds and provide expert facilitation for the teams but little in the way of actual direction. Either approach is normally doomed to failure, either dramatic or gradual.

Therefore, the real secret to success is to combine a strong methodology with supporting activities designed to align the organisation behind the change and back it up with an approach based on a strong understanding of the tools of improvement and the ability to inspire and coordinate individuals and teams.