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Transcription
Liz and Marco discuss the importance of continuous improvement and answer questions from their audience. They discuss how to prioritize improvement opportunities within a company's processes by considering key performance metrics and involving stakeholders. They also discuss how to overcome resistance to change when implementing continuous improvement initiatives, emphasizing the need for effective communication, providing clear rationale, highlighting the benefits, and involving employees in the process. They share an example of a successful continuous improvement project in HR, where they reduced the hiring process from 30 touch points to just two, resulting in faster turnaround and better candidate selection. Welcome to Lean into Excellence, a Workstream Consulting Podcast. I'm Liz Crescenti. And I'm Marco Bonilla. And we will be your hosts as we embark on our continuous improvement journey. Welcome back to another episode of Lean into Excellence. I'm your host, Liz Crescenti. And I'm Marco Bonilla. And today on our fifth podcast, we've had five, well, four episodes up until today. This is our fifth episode, so we're very excited we've come this far. Did you think we'd make it to five, Marco? I didn't think we'd make it to five. I thought we'd kill each other by now. But we're doing well. We're doing well. But we're here. And we've had some really, really great guests on. And we've had some really great feedback. And we are very thankful for the guests that we've had on. Today we are going to do some Q&A for you. We had our audience, the people listening, write in some questions they have around the theme of continuous improvement and Six Sigma. And we're going to answer them today. So we actually got some really great questions, and we're very excited to dive into that. I'm glad that people are really curious and interested in how they can implement continuous improvement in their work. Yeah. No, that's kind of the running theme. And I think everyone knows how important it is. It's more of how do we execute this. Yeah, how do we is really the question. Right, right. I understand that this is important, this is needed, but it's taking that first step in that execution. So we will dive into that today because that surrounded a lot of questions we received. And we'll just jump in here and start the process. Sounds great, Liz. Let's do it. All right. So our first question of the episode comes from Dan in Memphis. So Dan wrote in. He said, how do you prioritize improvement opportunities within a company's processes? Great question, Dan. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So one of the ways to prioritize, and it's really important to understand that every company has key performance metrics, right, for the year, for the quarter. Something they're aiming to do. So the way you look at opportunities, how does it impact those key performance metrics, right? I mean, there's a focus for the company, and you want to stay on that focus. Yeah, and I think it's important before you begin is consider any constraints you may be coming across, just kind of getting ahead of it. And then, lastly, involving stakeholders in this decision-making process. You've got to start early, and you have to get their buy-in. Absolutely. You have to keep in communication and keeping everyone up to date because you don't want to start the process, get, you know, 75% through, and you have leadership saying, you know, what is this? We weren't involved. Exactly. And then all of a sudden, they put the big kibosh on it. Right. You don't want to be in a silo during this project, right? No. You want to make sure everyone's on the same page. Yes, absolutely. Good question. And a great segue from our last question is this next question from Abigail in Vancouver. How do you recommend overcoming resistance to change within an organization when implementing continuous improvement initiatives? I think we all have experience with this. Yeah, great question, Abigail. So, you know, high resistance to change always happens when you don't communicate effectively, right, especially when you don't involve your stakeholders. So, first, you got to provide clear rationale for the change, highlight the benefits, right, the win-win opportunity, and involve employees in the process, right? You need to get the buy-in, and the buy-in only happens when people understand and they don't fear the change. Yeah, that's the biggest thing is overcoming that fear because if you're just coming in with change, I mean, it's human nature. It's resistance to change. It's not comfortable, and it's not something that everyone's excited about. It's the fear of the unknown. So, try to fill in those gaps for that unknown with as much information as possible. Obviously, you don't want to berate people and just overflow them with information about it, but I think it's important to tailor the messaging for who you're speaking to. Right. Go ahead. No, I was just going to say you have, like, your leadership. You know what they're looking for, right? They're more focused on, you know, what is this going to save us? What is this going to, you know, free up for us? What are the resources that are going to become available for this? And then, also, the people who are, you know, even the hourly employees who you want to show this is how we're going to do this and this, you know, what you're doing is going to make a difference. Being able to tailor, you know, some metrics or some real concrete data for them to see what they're doing, just it will make everyone feel more involved and working towards their common good. Listen, the key is it's not change for the sake of change, right? We need to show that there can be an improvement, and we want them to come up with a solution, right? So this is us listening to them, really, right, giving them the opportunity to improve their environment, the product, the service, the process, whatever it is. So you definitely need to highlight the benefits overall. Yes, absolutely. Great question, though, because I would say 99% of the time, maybe not 99% of the time, but, you know, more often than not, you're going to get some resistance, and you've got to be right in front of it. Yeah, especially early on. You know, if you're trying to change that continuous improvement mindset in the culture in a company, well, you're going to have high resistance at first, right, until people understand how good it can be or how better it can become. Once that momentum starts, I think it will be less and less resistance to change. Then, again, you're still always going to have those few, right, that are always trying to fight the system. But, again, you need to get everyone involved, right? You need to get them to see the light. Yeah, and if you're going to – if this is, you know, a company-wide rollout, I would start small and basically pilot the initiative in an area that you know is going to, you know, be a little bit more compliant and a little bit more open to this change. Right. Because if this is something that you're going to, you know, like I said, roll out, you can show others what good looks like and have kind of a playbook that they can go from and say, you know, this is how this department did it, and this is how it was successful. And I always say, you know, start small and then spread it out. Yeah, successful and not painful, right? Yeah. Even if you got to a win-win situation but was brutal, they're not going to want to go through that again, right? So you're changing the culture one bite at a time, per se. Yes, absolutely. All right. Our next question comes from Todd in beautiful Naples, Florida. He wrote in, can you share examples of successful continuous improvement projects and the impact they had on the organization? Take it away. Absolutely. So, you know, some of the focuses that people tend to think about continuous improvement is on the manufacturing operation side, you know, with the cost initiatives, right, increase in quality, reduce cycle time. But we need to consider that these techniques can be applied anywhere, right? We can talk about marketing. We can talk about business analytics. We can talk about HR. And I have an example in HR. One of the companies I used to work with, we had an issue with hiring candidates. The process was way too long. And what would happen, we would end up offering a candidate a position, but they were long gone. Our process took too long. It was too cumbersome. And they just didn't have time to wait around, right? They had other offers. Yeah, snatched up from someone else. Yeah, not necessarily better offers, but the process was long. Someone who responded and kept the process moving. Yeah, exactly. So one of the crazy things that happens, and I think a lot of people will relate, is the number of touch points that the process of hiring a new candidate, not just the process of getting them in through the interview process, but the selection process and the number of signatures or sign-offs to get them in the door. One of these last projects I worked on, the HR director counted 30 touch points prior to submitting an acceptance letter. Wow. And I can't tell you how many weeks that was, maybe four to six weeks easily. Oh, yeah, easily. I would say that even longer. That's crazy. But we were able to cut it down to two, two touch points. And within a week or so, turnaround. Significant difference when you're really trying to get the best of the best to come to your firm, right? Yeah. It's really, and it affects your brand, right, when they say, you know, I applied here, but, you know, they didn't seem to care, or they just, they must have a really slow process. I didn't hear back from them until I was knee-deep in a new company. Yeah, and absolutely. I mean, they have review, like, review sites like Glassdoor and et cetera that will, you can, you know, be up front and say, this was the interview process, and you can say it took too long. And, you know, it definitely can affect the culture and the brand of the company if it's not a good interview process. Yeah, and you're not getting the candidates you actually want, right? Yeah. So, do you settle for second-tier, third-tier candidates? Well, if your process is so slow and cumbersome, well, that's what's going to happen. And hiring the wrong person can be a very expensive mistake. Absolutely. And you're not meeting the needs of the manager that you put forth the proposal for to hire somebody, right? Exactly. No, that's great. I can't believe they cut it down so shortly. That's fantastic. Yeah, it was actually a pretty clear cut that we had issues with, there's two issues, right? Are there too many people in the process of going up the chain of command to approve a candidate? And then we had these rubber stamp scenarios, right? Even though they, even if they moved that part of it quickly, they weren't really reading it. So, why leave it in the inbox for so long, right? Exactly. Exactly. I mean, just going back to my career and the different interviews I've been on, it's so much, you get such a pleasant experience when it just moves forward, and you just talk to A, B, and C, and then there's the decision. Then you get dragged along, and it's like, oh, we want you to talk to this person and this person, and you need to present to this person, and it's going to be three more months. You're just like, I'm out of here. And it's fine if you decide not to go with that candidate, but if your process is smooth, you can let them go quite quickly, right? I mean, if they're really on the edge of the sea and they're waiting to find out what they got in, you don't want that to linger and linger, right? Yay or nay, but move it along quickly because it's not helping them. All right. Our next question comes from Luca in Dallas, my backyard. Luca wrote in, what are some innovative approaches or tools that you've seen used to drive continuous improvement? So, there are a lot of tools out there, Luca. So, some of the ones I've used and taught in class, not just in the continuous improvement world, but in certain MBA environments, is one is design thinking. It's very useful because it brings in different people from different parts of the organization, right? It's not all the STEM people working on a project. It considers different views of the same problem statement, right? You're trying to find a well-rounded solution. Then there's Agile, Kaizen Events, also have done many of those, right? When you bring people into a room, a huge group, a pretty moderate group, and you deal with the problem at the moment, right? You don't last months and months trying to tackle a problem. Gamble walks, visual management, and other techniques like predictive modeling and machine learning. There are tons of continuous improvement tool sets out there that you can leverage, right? So, each situation is slightly different. If you're looking to develop a product design thinking, and there's other types. It's not just design thinking. Agile, right, depending on which world you come from. There have been others like stage gate processes, et cetera. But there are a lot of tools out there that you can use. So, for someone who's just kind of dipping their toe in the water for continuous improvement, you know, in their job, in their company, what have you, where's a good place to start? Which tool do you think would be a good kind of opening opportunity for someone just kind of starting out? Funny you should say that. And I think we discussed this in Episode 2, was it with Doug Bruce, and process mapping is always my first go-to tool, right? Actually, technically, it's my second one. The discovery phase and actually understanding what the true root problem is, is really important. Because I know I've talked to people who have hired me and said, you know, we know what the problem is X, Y, Z. And I said, well, why haven't you fixed it? Well, because it's not really the problem, it's kind of a symptom. So, this happens all the time, right? So, your key is the discovery phase. But the first real tool is process mapping. Tell me what the process looks like, at least in your view, right? Again, it's not a standalone tool in the sense that you shouldn't do it alone. Definitely have a group of people, because your view of what the process is might not be exactly correct, or it might be slightly different of what someone else does, right? Yeah, exactly. Process mapping, always at the beginning. Okay, that's good to know. And for our listeners, if you haven't listened to Episode 2, and you want to dive into process mapping, please be sure to go back and listen, because Doug does a great job explaining it. Absolutely. All right. Our next question is Nick from Denver. He wrote in and said there was a new group that had a long-term vision at their company, but it won't be effective for several years. His question is, do they bother with a current process map or wait until they get closer to this new vision where they can create the potential new process map? So, Nick, great question. And it's funny, we keep going back to process maps. We might have to bring Doug Bruce back on. I know, it's the end-all, be-all. Yeah, part two, right? It's actually the beginning, not the end-all. The beginning, not the end-all, the beginning. So the question is, and we hear this all the time, do we bother doing something now based on future decisions they've made or future visions? So here's my thoughts about mapping, right? It's always a good thing, right? So here, number one, first of all, it helps everyone understand the current state for all stakeholders, right? We need to get everybody on the same page, right? Second, it helps create an improved process flow with the current constraints. You need to know how you can improve it now, right? You don't want to wait until later. Lastly, you should never put off creating an optimal process from your current state based on any potential future changes, because those things, those plans sometimes never come around, right? Things happen. Business decisions come along and they want to go left instead of going right as they originally planned. Never, never put off what you can do today, right? So what your question is, is it a waste of time doing it now? In big quotes, it's never a wasted effort, ever, ever, ever, right? So I would definitely sit down, and it's not hard. You just got to get a couple people in a room and draw out the map. Draw it out as currently is, and then you can discuss how can you do better, how can we do better. And also doing a current process map can also affect the plans for, you know, the new one. They might see something here currently that would influence or change something. Oh, absolutely. So it's really important to kind of peel back that onion now, because even though you know things are going to change, that plan now can have things in there that's going to affect that change. So like you said, just do it. Get it done, and it's never a waste of time. Liz, you bring up a great point, right? Because a lot of the plans, the future plans, might be based on misconceptions of what the current process is, right? And so sometimes plans for the future are buying capital equipment, hiring more people. You run through the process. You make it more efficient. You find things. So you know what? Maybe we don't need capital equipment. Maybe we don't need to hire more people. Maybe we have all the tools presently that we can. We just need to reallocate them. Exactly, exactly. So, you know, great point, Liz. I mean, I'm glad you looped this back around. Sometimes our future efforts are based on current misunderstandings, right? Absolutely. All right. Our next question comes from Sam in London. Sam wrote in, they recently took on a senior level role. However, their company does not implement any type of continuous improvement initiatives. So she was wondering how she can leverage her role to foster a culture shift of continuous improvement. That's a great question. It's a fantastic question, especially coming from someone from leadership, right? I know. We love that they're interested, yes. And they want to do a culture shift, not even just in a couple initiatives. They want to change the culture. That's fantastic. Yeah. So we don't know where Sam came from. Maybe Sam has experience with this kind of culture somewhere else and knows it's really important for a company to strive or grow, right? So crucial role for a leadership, right? So a couple things you got to remember. I think we might have mentioned some of these before, right? So one is setting clear, very clear expectations how to get here, how to get from here to there, right? So how is that process going to look? How much time do we need to adjust people's expectations and roles and responsibilities? Provide support and resources. We need to be able to empower employees. And one of the most important things is we need to recognize and reward contributions, right? We know this could be successes, absolutely. There might be some failures, but we're going to learn from those and how to do it better. But we definitely want to recognize those who made the efforts, right? So lead by example, empower employees, provide support and resources, and setting clear expectations up front. All right. Our second-to-last question comes from Adam in Chicago. Adam wrote in, how do you sustain momentum and engagement in continuous improvement efforts over the long term? So love this question. He's thinking long term. It's what we say all the time. It's not just an initiative. It's a culture shift, and it's not something that's going to be a one and done. We want this to be sustained long term. So, Marco, what are your thoughts on this? So, you know, it requires a few things that companies tend to let slide once they launch continuous improvement efforts. One of the things is regular communication. You know, regular communication is vital for a company. Another thing is celebrating and sharing all success stories across the firm, right? You want them to understand that there is some win-wins going on in the company, right? Continuous training and development are absolutely a must. And address any challenges that come up throughout any of these processes, any of these continuous improvement efforts, right? Address them at the moment. The big one, the most important, is fostering a culture of learning and experimentation, right? So we want individuals to be applauded even if the results weren't exactly what they had hoped for. It's okay to misfire and still feel supported to try again, right? You don't want people to feel a negative sensation if it didn't turn out exactly what they wanted or what the company had hoped for. Yeah. You want them to try again, right? The effort is there, and that alone is a win. Like you said, just celebrating all the little wins. I know one company I was working with, they would have a monthly email that would go out company-wide kind of what's going on in all the departments. And they would have a specific section for their continuous improvement initiatives and what was happening and the little wins. And just having that in the forefront always I think is really important because when you're always reading something about it or you're celebrating the little wins, it's just going to keep engaging the employees, and I think that's very important. Yeah, and let's take it a little further, and it doesn't have to be so impactful across the company. So if you're in a position of leadership, you're almost sometimes not visible to those that are in those trenches. Just go down to the person who did a really good job and pat them on the back. Not everyone needs to see it, but the person who did the work, who made the effort, feels good, right? They realize it's not something you're showcasing in a magazine. You're just getting an attaboy, right? So a little pat on the back. Those feel good, too. Yeah, absolutely, right? It doesn't have to be this big celebration, which is great when we talk about celebrating sharing success stories across a firm, but it's really that personal touch, right? Yep. All right. We're here at the last question. We have Sean from Boston. I don't know many people in Boston. Do you, Marco? I do know a lot of people in Boston. I know a lot of Seans in Boston, too. Lots of Seans in Boston. What advice would you give to someone just starting their journey in continuous improvement? So, Sean, for someone starting their journey, right? If I was going to give myself, my younger self, some advice prior to going down this path, a couple of things, right? So you've got to focus on learning the fundamentals in principle of continuous improvement, right? I would highly recommend seeking a mentor, someone who you respect who can help you improve your knowledge base, right? That's key, because you can't go at this alone, right? Grow your experience. So when possible, offer to assist with any improvement projects regarding products, services, or processes, right? Dive right in. Offer. The more you do, the more you'll feel at ease. Feel comfortable diving into parts of a business that you are not familiar with. That one's sometimes tricky for people, right? They want to stay in their small silo world. Of course. And learn to identify waste, right? And with that, not just identify, but make a plan of action so you can be part of the solution, right? And I guess the key is understanding that everything can be improved. If you keep that in your mindset, the journey to continuous improvement never ends. Absolutely. Marco lives it every day. Every single day. Well, thank you so much, everyone, for listening to our fifth episode. I hope you enjoyed and learned a little something with our Q&A session. Just a reminder that new episodes are released every other Wednesday. And you can find us at WorkstreamConsulting.com. And why don't you go over to our LinkedIn page? We're at Workstream Consulting. It's a great resource because we post every day on there. So please go on over and follow us on LinkedIn. And always feel free to like and subscribe. And we'll see you next time. Identify and eliminate process inefficiencies for cost reduction and optimized resource allocation directly impacting your bottom line. Our training nurtures future leaders who understand the importance of data-driven decision-making and process optimization. Drawing from global best practices, we empower your team to streamline processes, reduce waste, and increase productivity for enhanced competitiveness. We're not just consultants. We're your exclusive partners in process improvement.
