Improving Your Improvement Programs

What CEO’s eyes wouldn’t light up at the prospect of improving productivity and product quality while also saving millions by reducing waste and defects? But if improvement programs are going to have an impact, they must be cross-functional in their approach.

Improvement programs affect every core business process and cut across organizational boundaries such as marketing, engineering, finance, manufacturing and sales. It’s up to leadership to make sure these changes are embraced and not resisted.

The most common mistake leaders make is rushing things. In our task-focused business culture, it’s understandable that leaders fail to see how profound an impact an improvement program can have on employees. If you focus only on the balance sheet, you’ll miss the human effect these programs have on people’s responsibilities and objectives.

The price leadership pays for haste is high. However, because the cost is invisible – delays in improvements, internal conflicts, unproductive meetings, and time spent overcoming resistance – leaders rarely identify the root cause of the problem. Typically, they’ll blame the improvement technology – “It’s too complicated, or we’re different, or process management is just a bunch of hooey!” – rather than identifying the real reason for the failure.

The number one reason these improvement programs fail is because leadership doesn’t get cross-functional agreements in place before implementing them. Failure to do so leads to disappointing results and can cost your organization millions.

Even more damaging is the mistrust and cynicism that results when employees see that the company’s executives do not universally support improvement programs. That’s why they cynically label management’s efforts as “flavor of the month.” As a result, workers do not take these programs seriously and tend to put in a half-hearted effort.

How do you implement a Program Partner Agreement?

As with most organizational efforts, you must start at the top and build a partnership with the stakeholders. As you discuss the implementation of the program, you’ll want to develop a formal Program Partner Agreement. This agreement is made between executives, and forms the backbone of implementing the improvement program.

Conduct a formal meeting that includes anyone who will be affected by the improvement program. (It might be helpful to review your Core Business Process Model to be sure you haven’t overlooked someone.) Make sure you include your enabling processes – human resources, information technologies, and finance – as they will feel changes as well.

Review the reasons for initiating the program. Make sure everyone understands why you are doing it and agree it’s the strategy you want to use.

Develop a Strategic Framework specifically for the program. What is the Vision of the program? What will it look like when you’ve arrived? What is the program’s Mission? The Mission describes how you’ll accomplish the vision. Establish your Strategic Directions. These are the broad areas you will focus on to accomplish your Mission.

For example, if you are planning to implement a Six Sigma program, you might develop a Strategic Framework that will look something like this:

Vision
Reduce product defects making us the premier choice of customers while increasing overall productivity and profitability for the business.

Mission
Successfully implement a Six Sigma Program that positions us to achieve our Vision while building our teamwork and collaboration skills.

Strategic Directions
Establish a cross-functional culture that is trained and rewarded for implementing the principles of Six Sigma.
Link the programs measurement system to departmental and corporate scorecards
Prioritize functional objectives to support the goals of the Six Sigma program

The benefits for building a Strategic Framework are numerous, but the single most important benefit is building ownership within your team. Without this sense of ownership and common vision, people tend to act independently, which diffuses the energy and support these improvement programs need to succeed.

It also provides an opportunity for the team to talk about how the program will affect the people and processes of the organization. It will provide time to address conflicts in priorities, objectives, budgets and other issues that erode support. A Strategic Framework is an excellent tool for making your team stronger and more effective as it faces the unique challenges of the improvement program. Remember that you’re trying to take away as many distractions as you can from the real work of making sweeping organizational change.

After you have the Strategic Framework in place, you now have the structure to begin to build your implementation plan. This is where you identify the tactics that will make your strategies become real.

For example, if we examine the first Strategic Direction – Establish a cross-functional culture that is trained and rewarded for implementing the principles of Six Sigma – you can identify several tactics.