A Deliberate & Calculated System of Improvement

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“A goal without a method is nonsense.” – W. Edwards Deming

One of the key aspects of lean that many people have difficulty grasping is that it is more deliberate and calculated than the traditional approach to business.  Once a target or objective is set, lean provides a framework for mobilizing and organizing the team to make it happen.  In a cultural sense, lean thinking leads to an almost obsessive drive to improve.

As an example, it is fairly common for leaders to set a vision for an organization that’s creative or inspirational, only to leave its achievement to chance.  The barriers and roadblocks to meeting the near-term targets become distracting and interfere with efforts to focus on longer-term objectives.

By What Method?

I remember hearing W. Edwards Deming repeat the phrase, “by what method?” during his seminars.  It is a simple question that is so critical to driving the organization toward achieving an objective.  In effect, it forces efforts to the process to be used to achieve desired results rather than focusing only on the result. 

When approached with a lean mindset, setting a vision is only the first step of a long and deliberate process of making it a reality.  The vision becomes more than a creative or esoteric statement that is only considered when remembered or convenient.  It becomes truly integrated into the organization’s thinking and everyday operation.

The process for making the vision – or any long-term objective – a calculated and deliberate effort includes asking the following questions:

• What are we trying to achieve? What is it we want to happen and by when? Clarify the objective in terms that everybody in the organization can understand.  This is where ambiguous or imprecise statements are translated into specific objectives (e.g., translating a 10-year vision into 3-year objectives).
    
• What’s the plan? What are the gaps between where we are and where we want to be and what are we going to do to close them?  At the highest levels, this includes determining and deploying the targets throughout the organization.  At the business and operational levels, it means determining the steps to achieve the targets.
    
• How are we going to measure progress? The long-term objectives are often expressed through lagging – or results-based – measures.  Although it is critical to understand and watch the lagging metrics, the information they provide is after-the-fact and too late to correct the problems that are blocking success.  Because of this, it is critical to establish leading measures that are closely tied to the plans.  When clear and well connected to the plan, the leading measures will provide information to the team early enough to change course before results are affected.
    
• How are we going to mobilize the team? This includes communicating the plans up and down the organization to make it very clear how the team expects to achieve the objective.  Most people understand the importance of communicating downward but, what is often missed is the importance of communicating the plan upwards through a catchball process.  Leaders should have a clear idea how the team expects to achieve the plan to feel comfortable that the objective is understood and that the effort will not compromise aspects of performance outside of the team.  Catchball is also an opportunity for the team to express concerns about meeting the objective, and to ask for help from leaders.
    
• How are we going to stay focused on the objective? How are we going to hold ourselves accountable?  Making a vision a reality requires much more than communicating or deploying the statement into the organization.  There needs to be a firm meeting rhythm around the objective to follow progress and determine actions when results are not occurring as expected.  It forces the leadership team to clearly understand where the organization is on its journey to achieve its purpose.
    
• What adjustments are needed to stay on track? Nobody understands the future well enough to develop an iron clad plan that will lead to long-term improvement.  Because of this, the journey will require adjustments along the way, and knowing when and how to adjust is critical to staying on track toward success.  Understanding when and what to adjust comes from successful application of the previous five questions.

The above questions comprise a system of improvement that makes the long-term objectives truly achievable.  The process can apply to local process improvements or the organization-wide drive toward the vision.  When applied correctly and consistently, it can create the discipline to stay focused on a vision and shift it from hopes and wishes to a deliberate and specific plan to improve.

Applying PDCA to a Lean Deployment

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This blog is moving!  Please read future posts at http://leadingtransformation.wordpress.com.

 

Anyone who has read many of the posts on this blog will probably notice that I'm a little obsessed with the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle.  There is good reason for this. I believe that understanding and internalizing PDCA is an absolute necessity to have any chance of achieving a sustained lean transformation.

It surprises me when I see a lean deployment plan that doesn't incorporate PDCA at its core. When this happens, the implementation often lacks the flexibility to address the unforeseen issues that can stall or even kill the effort.

Although there are some elements common to virtually every lean transformation, there is no magic formula.  People, organizations, and business environments differ, and it's impossible to understand and take them all into account when developing the deployment plan.  Also, since people internalize and adopt the philosophy at different rates, flexibility is necessary to continue moving forward.  The PDCA cycle naturally builds continual checks and adjustments to assure the effort succeeds.

 

HOW TO DO IT

 

Besides increasing the probability of a successful transformation, applying PDCA to a lean deployment is an excellent way to demonstrate how the cycle is used to accomplish a major business initiative.  The steps, based on a Hoshin Kanri approach, include:

PLAN As with any improvement effort, a lean deployment plan must begin with clarifying the objectives and vision, as well as an idea of the current state of the organization to understand the gaps that need to be addressed so a plan of action can be developed;

DO  The plan must include clear steps, responsibilities, and timelines in order to be implemented effectively;

CHECK  Understanding whether the action plans are proceeding on schedule, as well as their effectiveness in enabling the stated objectives to be met are necessary to keep the transformation effort on course;

ACT  Based on the results of the CHECK step, the plan continues as designed or adjustments are made to address areas of weakness.

Modeling and coaching behavior are perhaps the most important aspects of leading a lean transformation effort. Attempting to get people to adopt PDCA thinking in their daily work without utilizing it as part of the plan will lead to frustration, confusion, and disappointment with the deployment altogether.

Strategy Deployment: Hoshin, PDCA & Drucker

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NOTE:  This blog is moving!  Please read future posts at http://leadingtransformation.wordpress.com 

In another chapter from the book of simple concepts that are difficult to implement comes the story of strategy deployment.  Over the years, I have seen some great business plans that failed to deliver because of the inability to stay focused and drive them into the organization.

Hoshin kanri is a process focused on setting direction, developing plans, and managing implementation.  Progress on the plan is continually reviewed to understand when adjustments are needed to achieve success.

There have been many books written about Hoshin Kanri that cover the subject in great depth.  And since I could never adequately cover the topic in detail in a short blog post, I’ll try to hit on what I consider to be the high points of the process.

Hoshin & Drucker

Much of the hoshin process appears to be aligned with Peter Drucker’s method of strategy deployment.  I have always considered the strength of Drucker’s approach to lie in his technique of continually asking a few simple questions to get people focused on what’s truly important.

What are we trying to achieve?
How are we doing?
What are we doing about it?

Hoshin Kanri follows a similar approach through the application of the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle to business planning.  Deploying strategy requires an obsessive focus on the few high-level objectives that are critical to success.  Utilizing Drucker’s simple questioning technique within a PDCA framework helps maintain focus by increasing understanding of the following:

PLAN:  What are our objectives?
DO:  What are our plans to meet objectives?
CHECK:  How are we doing?  Are our results meeting objectives?
ACT:  What are we doing about it?

Another benefit of PDCA in strategy deployment is that it drives home the idea that business planning is not a once per year exercise.  It is an ongoing process that needs continual reflection and adjustment to succeed.  There is no "new" plan each year - there is only a new revision that has been adjusted to account for progress and changes in the environment.

Deploying Strategy

 The initiatives that are developed from the business plan also go through the PDCA process to assure they continue to progress.  When doing the CHECK on each of the initiatives, the team should follow the general approach listed in the exhibit.  By creating the initiatives, the team is predicting that completing them will result in meeting one or more business objectives.  Because of this, it is important to review whether the initiative is progressing as planned and, if so, whether or not it is driving the desired results.

Although the Drucker questions appear simple, the answers can get fairly complex.  The key is to provide enough time to reflect on the answers in order to keep people focused on objectives.  The effectiveness of leadership, after all, lies in the ability to simplify complexity.  Whether using Hoshin Kanri or some other method, it is critical to utilize some type of framework that enables this to occur.