Is something missing from your business improvement initiative?

A recent study in the UK by Executives Online found that around 40% of UK businesses are currently looking to implement cost reduction, restructuring and business improvement activities. However they found that only 15% of 1250 executives interviewed thought these changes were managed “Quite Well” or “Fairly Well”. In the same survey a staggering 58% rated them as managed “Fairly Poorly” or “Quite Poorly”. The study showed that in the opinion of the respondents, leadership and communication of the change were ranked in the top three most important determinants of success.

We work with organisations that have been deploying processes like Lean Manufacturing, Business Process Reengineering, Six Sigma and internal improvement techniques for many years. What many of these organisations have realised is that while these processes do a great job in addressing the primary symptomatic concerns of manufacturing and service provision, they have concluded that the "human" element is missing and this negatively affects the ability to implement and sustain the process change they are making.

Business improvement processes primarily address factors such as quality issues, manufacturing issues, transactional issues, customer issues, speed and variability issues. However, organisations still need people to make it all work. There is little in these processes that systematically address the very real needs of the people who are the heart and soul of any organisation. We find you can design the best business improvement programmes in the world, but if the people running it and working within it are not engaged themselves, effectiveness will be minimal.

Obviously organisations want the opposite – employees that are highly motivated running their business improvement initiatives approach rather than having to force feed the programme to employees and that is how and why Flint Consulting get brought in to help. We have found one of the most accessible and usable approaches to dealing with the human side of implementing business improvement initiatives was developed by change expert John Kotter (author of “Leading Change” and “The Heart of Change” among other books). Kotter has developed an eight-step process for implementing change within organisations and this model readily fits in with and supports with the systematic / process side of business improvements initiatives.

The first three of Kotter’s eight steps are as follows:

1. Create a Sense of Urgency – Unless employees really understand why the current operating environment is not viable, they are unlikely to embrace the new habits, behaviours and processes needed to make a difference. Leaders also need to behave in a way that demonstrates and supports this urgency.

2. Build a Guiding Team – Too often charismatic leadership or technical expertise is used as the only source of influence when developing strategies to implement business improvement initiatives. However it is critical to include those with credibility and informal leadership influence when trying to “win over” sceptics and develop strategies that address the real concerns of those who will enact the change. Guiding teams with a balanced composition can act as powerful catalysts for change initiatives.

3. Develop the Vision and Strategy – If a vision exists for a business improvement initiative, we find rarely is it written or communicated in a way that builds conviction or supports the sense of urgency developed for the change. Developing a compelling picture of how things will look and feel in the future when the change is implemented is a vital step in building support and guiding decision-making.

The rest of Kotter’s eight-step model addresses the implementation and sustainability aspects of your change effort. To find out more about Kotter’s methodology and how it can support you, why not get in touch with us at info@flint-consulting.com and find out about our approach to helping clients in this area with our “Leading Bold Change” programme?

Based directly on the work of John Kotter, “Leading Bold Change” enables leaders at all levels to engage with their teams to help them to make the behavioural changes required to properly implement and sustain the changes needed when implementing such programmes. As a result of attending a Leading Bold Change programme, leaders in your organisation will be able to:

Identify and clarify a change initiative that they have ownership in leading
Learn how to use John Kotter’s eight-step change process when implementing their change effort
Learn how to get the organisation's attention for this needed change
Create a vision of what would happen if the change is achieved
Identify others with the skills, attitudes and reputations needed for buy-in
Identify barriers to implementation and develop strategies to overcome them
Identify additional changes needed to support the overall effort
Create a Team or Individual Action Plan to focus on achieving this change