In the third of our series of nine blog posts about the reasons why change programmes based on Lean and Six Sigma fail to achieve the results organisations are looking for.
This post focuses on the top ten ways that leadership action or inaction brings down programmes. I would welcome your thoughts on these points:
1. Failing to engage the organisational leader
If the organisational leader (CEO, MD or other) fails to engage, the process will grind slowly (or quickly at times) to a halt!
2. Failing to appoint a board level sponsor
In some cases this will be the organisational leader, but in larger organisations it will be an operational director who will take on the role of sponsoring the improvement programme - without this board level person the improvement project does not have a voice in the organisation.
3. Not setting an effective scope for the improvement
All improvement programmes have to be scoped effectively to focus the organisation and also ensure that by making one change it does not impact negatively elsewhere in the organisation. It is the role of Leadership Teams to help shape the scope of improvement.
4. Failing to communicate the reasons for change
Simply not communicating the reasons for the change will lead to unexpected resistence from the front-line teams.
5. Penalising failure (or complaining about perceived failure)
Failing to support the team by either demonstrating displeasure with their efforts or penalising mistakes is a sure fire way to disengage the staff.
6. Changing things from on high
If the team have designed a solution, having a leader change it back or to something else without consultation will demoralise the team. If they did not have all the facts then the project was not scoped properly or the wrong team were chosen!
7. Failing to celebrate success
When the team do have a success, the role of leadership is to support them, celebrate it and set them the next goal. Sometimes, leaders fail to even show up for closing briefs - just imagine the impact on the team!
8. Not releasing the resources or setting unrealistic timescales
Massive improvement can happen with minimal budgets but the most important resource in the improvement process is the human resource and failing to allow people the time to make the change will doom the team to failure. Making big improvements requires effective resources to be available!
9. Creating mixed messages
If an organisation commits itself to improvement via (say) Lean or Six Sigma and then chops and changes (for example 'We don't have time to do the Lean project this week' or just imposing change) will send mixed messages to the team and demonstrate a lack of faith from the leaders in the improvement process.
10. Too Fast or Too Slow
Individuals take time to adjust to a changed way of working - don't drive them too fast! They also like to feel a certain amount of tempo and to feel that things are actually changing therefore don't drive it too slow.
Well, these are the top 10 ussues from our experience - what are yours?
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