by Patrick Seaton

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Many managers face open resistance to changes taking place in their organization.  What is most important to understand is whether the resistance is based in a positive or negative spirit.

For those readers who recall my prior column where I talked about How to Change People.  In that column, the first thing to do when trying to change people is to let them change themselves.  The second bit of advice I gave was to focus on the processes so that people would truly understand what an upcoming change means to them and their daily workflow.

As managers, supervisors, leaders, change agents, change sponsors, or change champions, we really can’t force anybody to change their ways.  What we can do is inspire the people to want to adapt their mindset and actions to reach the goals and promises that come from an improvement.  We can provide a safe, open communication-friendly, no-blame culture where people are encouraged to ask any and all questions they have about a change or improvement.

Most people react to change with very simple questions about how their work will be affected and how their world will be impacted.  While they don’t use these exact words, they really are most interested in knowing if their work space is going to turn upside down, or not.  I view these types of questions as positive.  I would even go so far as to say that employees have a right to pose questions like this before they are expected to jump on the support bandwagon for a change.  Even those who have been burned again and again by poor change implementation are not mean spirited.  They are simple very skeptical and need more convincing and information to counter their previous experiences.

There is a small percentage of people who will try to sabotage efforts and resist change efforts in a negative fashion.  Find these people and make sure they do not influence others in the department or company.  However, I caution not to be too quick to judge people as negative unless you have ample information to come to this conclusion.

When I’ve come across change initiatives that have stagnated, I like to bring in the people responsible for effecting the change and have an open dialog with them.  I first review the current state of the situation.  Sometimes I’ll go back to a previous state and show the group how they have grown/changed to get to the current state.  I then flesh out the desired future state with the group.  Once I get everybody to agree on the benefits of the future state, understanding how their jobs will change, I then probe into the obstacles that are keeping them from reaching the future state.

Once the obstacles are identified, I ask the people to provide solutions for removing the obstacles.  Getting their ideas on how an obstacle is “removed” from their perspective and yours may be totally different.  Don’t assume your way is their way.

Now I can tell you that if a future state involves downsizing people and those people are present, don’t expect them to jump on the bandwagon.  While you may not be able to change what will happen to them down the road, you can always coach them for the future and ask them if they want to be part of the change process, knowing their future state.

And if the proposed change will indeed make their life chaotic, unstable, and frustrating, then why would they support the initiative?  Your responsibility at that point is to work through the chaos, instability, and frustration to help them find a calm, stable, pleasing environment.  This may need to be done one-on-one.

So let’s put this into perspective with a very simple example.  Let’s say you wanted to reorganize your office layout three months ago.  Not a huge, life-shattering event to you, but the project has stagnated and nobody has taken the initiative to start the shifting around process.  What could come out of a simple group barrier analysis session is that one key person in the chain of dominoes moving around is unhappy with his/her new location but wasn’t asked for input before the plans were finalized.  While in group session, if that person does not bring up his/her discontent with the new location, then shame on him/her.  If he/she does, then find out what the solution is and see how the request can be accommodated.

The answer should not be to let the project stagnate.  Define the problems, generate solutions, and implement the solutions.

Yes, this was probably a simple example for you.  However, simple changes like this can get very emotional and personal for some people.  What’s a non-issue to you may be a huge issue to them.  Dig in, explore the reasons, and get people aligned to the goal as quickly as possible.

Until next month!

Patrick Seaton
Innovative Management Tools LLC
www.innovmgmt.com
pdseaton@innovmgmt.com
715-340-9606

by Patrick Seaton

This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

The one question I get asked more frequently than any other is “How can you get people to change?” Many managers and business owners I talk to seem to be really stumped by this question. They feel that people are always resisting change, that people want to keep things status quo, and that people fear change.

1. Let People Change Themselves
While there are some very challenging people and change initiatives, changing people is not as mysterious as one might think. I have found that there are seven things to consider when you want to “change people” and the first thing may surprise you – let people change themselves.

Let’s look at the following scenario: An employee (let’s call her Susan) is sitting at her desk on the ground floor on a bright sunny day. A visitor pulls into the parking lot and the sun’s reflection off the windshield comes blinding through the building window and hits Susan right in the eyes. What does she do? Remain as she is, blinded by the light? No. She will most likely change her sitting angle, close the blinds, or move her chair. Does she grumble at the visitor? Probably not. She changes and corrects the situation herself.

Now Susan has just closed the blinds so she can work and her supervisor comes by and tells her, “The quarterly report doesn’t work for me. You need to change it to a monthly report,” and leaves to address her next urgent matter. Susan will most likely grumble because she doesn’t seem have a say in the change. She is being forced to blindly accept the change regardless of what that means to her workload and her process for generating the report. Susan doesn’t support the change as it stands right now.

I don’t think that people resist change. I think they resist being changed when the change upsets their processes, their space, and their day.

2. Focus on the Processes
This step is critical. The majority of our employees are process-minded people. They keep the “machine” (our companies) running as work moves into their workspace, they do their part, and they move it on to the next person. The faster you can bring an upcoming change initiative down to the process level, the better. As we’ve all heard, talk is cheap. However, when you can bring a change idea (talk) down to the level of how it will impact your employees in their day-to-day workload and processes, they can begin to truly understand what the change means to them, the department, and the organization as a whole. Once they internalize the change to these levels, they can express valid concerns or show support and ultimately begin making the change a reality. If they aren’t able to bring the change initiative to this level, they are left guessing what the idea (talk) really means and they are hesitant to give their full support.

3. Secure Employee Buy-In
This is done by involving the employees in the change process, using their ideas and process expertise to your advantage, and by creating a culture where employees are encouraged to raise concerns before a change takes place.

4. Define Internal Positioning
This item might surprise some people, since what it suggests is often either taken for granted or is considered a luxury activity. It is important that all employees clearly understand how they as individuals and how their department fits into the organization and supports the goals of the organization. Developing internal positioning documents create benchmarks that can be used to determine how much an upcoming change will have on the individuals and the department.

5. Recognize Challenges
(This is one of my favorites.) Very often, managers feel as though they are doing their employees a favor if they sugar-coat or minimize the challenges that a change initiative will present.

6. Invest Time Upfront
I am amazed that we feel that we can’t afford ourselves a few hours of planning and preparation time when beginning a change initiative (even when people have concerns and questions) but we always find the time later for 15 hours to undo, rework, and redo the work. Employees would prefer investing time upfront instead of fixing problems later.

7. Use the Proper Tools
And finally, use the proper tools to guide the change process. Find tools, strategies, and training that are designed to connect your strategies and initiatives with the day-to-day workloads. For it is only when these two points are connected when you will begin to realize success with your change initiatives.

So there you go. No rocket science. Just solid people skills and strategies that put a process to that intangible concept called “change.”. Next month we will take one of these topics in more detail – defining internal identity – the luxury item that provides a very critical foundation and benchmark for your employees. Until next month!

Patrick Seaton
Innovative Management Tools LLC
www.innovmgmt.com
pdseaton@innovmgmt.com
715-340-9606

by Patrick Seaton

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Business owners understand the need to introduce long-term improvement initiatives into their organization.  The pay-off that some companies are experiencing is astounding.  Unfortunately, not every company has found the same success.  Subsequently, they give up somewhere in the middle of the journey with lots of money invested and little to show for the investment.  At the same time, the employees have chalked up the improvement initiative as another “program of the month.”

A periodic review of your company’s major processes (called Process Analysis) identifies:
• Who are the people involved in each process,
• If the process has changed since the last time it was analyzed,
• If the process should be modified because of recent changes in your company,
• Where your bottlenecks, pain points, and areas of waste exist in current processes,
• If there is a need to update/revamp/reengineer the process, and
• What improvements could/should be made to improve productivity.

A very important message that you give your staff during a session is “I care about what you do, how effective you are in your job, and how you think things could be improved.”  Additionally, after the process analysis session, the company has stronger reasons and justification for implementing process changes (the actual process improvement activity).

Some situations involving process analysis are listed below.  Perhaps you have similar situations in your company.

1. Need a Fresh Eye
Jody and Brenda are a husband/wife management team and have owned their framing shop for over 10 years.  Their order fulfillment process has changed over the years, but always as a reaction to specific situations.  Jody’s sales are consistent, but his costs are rising, meaning less profit for the business.  He saw the need to streamline his order fulfillment process and remove bottlenecks so he could be more productive.  However, he wanted a fresh eye to look at the process, since he was so close to the process.

After mapping out the process and analyzing where it was working well, where it was rather clumsy, and where the bottlenecks existed (mostly because of a lack of discipline to be proactive on Jody’s part), Jody was able to see exactly where his problems were.  Based on this analysis, Jody revised his workshop’s layout to improve workflow and he changed some inefficient procedures.  Ten years to create but only four hours to visualize the current state and define ways to improve the situation.

2. Defining a Process
Tim is a writer/editor who recently starting his own marketing consulting company. 

Tim felt he wasted time with potential prospects as they worked their way through the quoting process.  Those that didn’t ultimately take his services often ate up substantial time before coming to a decision.  Tim wanted to see how his process could be changed to minimize his time commitment during the quote phase, while still answering the prospect’s questions – moving them toward a decision.

Using process analysis, Tim realized where his trouble spots were and had specific ways to correct the situations.  The reality was that his process didn’t have enough check points and confirmation points.  He didn’t have enough feedback from the prospect early on in the process to know if the services/quotes offered were getting favorable reviews or not.  Until Tim stepped back and visualized the whole process, he had not realized how little feedback he was receiving. 

3. Unofficial Process
Nick works for a plastics company.  They run many jobs in a day and try very diligently to meet the customers’ demands.  Their schedule is created today for the next day and then distributed to people in the plant.  Everything is fine until there is a schedule change – which can happen several times a day.  The customer calls and needs parts sooner, materials aren’t in-house when the job is ready to run, or materials come in today for a job that should have been run the previous day.  Those changes call for setup adjustments and a redistribution of staff.

Nick wanted help formalizing their scheduling process, specifically in the schedule changes area.  Schedule changes are part of their culture and show their ability to be flexible, but the aftermath of schedule changes was frustrating and inefficient.

Process analysis helped denote a much clearer process for making the needed changes and communicating those changes to the workforce.  The process became an official process for the company and could then be measured for effectiveness.

——————————————————–

Process analysis sessions are a tremendous way for companies to open communication lines in an organization.  People want stable processes that allow them to work efficiently and effectively.  The vast majority of employees prefer a stable workplace grounded in sensible, streamlined processes instead of chaotic settings and situations.

Successful companies manage the exceptions and let the mainstream work flow through their documented, efficient processes.  Without solid processes or regular review of their processes, everything can end up being an exception and eating up valuable time across the company.

Benefits:
1. Lower costs by eliminating unnecessary steps and waste from processes
2. Increase productivity by making sure that processes only include people who contribute to a process – allowing them more time to work on other tasks
3. Improve morale by opening communication lines, minimizing stress and frustration for those who are the process players, and validating employees’ contributions to the organization’s major processes
4. Develop management by giving them a vehicle for streamlining workflow so that resources are maximized and productivity is improved

Best Practices:
1. Conduct a process analysis session for your major processes every 6 to 9 months
2. Make sure that the process champion and process sponsor participate in the session
3. Use a facilitator from outside the area (or organization) to bring fresh perspectives and unbiased suggestions to the group

Until next month!

by Patrick Seaton

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Internal positioning is the process of identifying who and what the organization is at three levels – the organization as a whole, the individual departments, and the individual employees – documenting the information in written documents, communicating the information across the organization, and maintaining the documents as information changes in the organization.  After reading this article, I hope to have given you some good reasons for going through an internal positioning process.

Identifying who and what the organization is at three levels:

Level #1: The Organization

Most large organizations have an internal communication and positioning guide while most small and medium-size companies do not.  The communication and positioning guide serves as the main repository for information that defines and describes who and what the organization is.  The wording is precise and deliberate since many subsequent documents are created using the text.  Items such as catalogs, press releases, website text, company presentations, and annual reports might contain verbiage from the communication and positioning guide (CPG).  In many cases the CPG highlights products, taglines, and product benefits.  The CPG might also include information on competition, company philosophies, and industry trends.

An organization-level CPG gives everybody a single source of information and maintains focus and clarity.

Level #2: The Departments

The next level that merits the development and dissemination of CPGs is the department level.  A few examples of how a CPG at the department level proves to be a useful tool are as follows:

The New Employee: Imagine a new employee entering a department.  That person may be given the company CPG to review (if they are in a position that will have customer contact on a regular basis), but most traditional training plans call for shadowing a few people in the department, meeting some people from other key departments, receiving some computer program training or product introduction (if needed), and reading handbooks, department procedures, and policies.  After a few days of this, the employee starts a more intense shadowing process in order to learn the ins and outs of the department in detail.  Eventually they are on their own, receiving input and feedback from the supervisor and other department staff.

From the employee’s point of view, even if s/he came from another company with similar products, as soon the shadowing process begins, we can begin to overwhelm the new employee with terminology, names, details, acronyms, and reading material.  The employee’s desk or work area often becomes a dumping zone for anything and everything that somebody else deems important to their learning.  However, those little bits of information are not tied together in any logical flow or presentation.

Had the department gone through the process of developing a CPG, including such things as names, terminology, major processes, special policies, workflow diagrams, org charts, internal customer information, and other topics, the new employee training program could be much different.  For example, the new employee would be able to read and digest the org-level CPG and the department-level CPG to get a global understanding of the two levels.  The terminology and acronyms that current employees use freely and without explanation would no longer be totally foreign to the new employee.  Having process flows on paper and an org chart to refer to would provide a visual that so many people need.  The CPG would also ensure consistency as to what information is being presented to new employees taking away the “I never heard that before” problem. 

This only scratches the surface on how a CPG can help new employees.  I’m sure that with some guided reflection you will come up with other benefits.

Department Alignment: For senior management, having department-level CPGs is an effective way to keep departments properly aligned and focused.  By comparing the CPG from each department, a senior manager can identify duplication of activity or resource, inefficient processes, inconsistent priorities, or policy issues, all of which need addressing.

A Benchmark Document for Change: As we all know, many people tend to think the worst when a change initiative is announced.  People often assume that the change will impact them greatly and then, often without facts to drive discussions, use emotions and suppositions to determine if the change will be good for them and the department.

With a department-level CPG in place, the department supervisor or manager could introduce the change and immediately refer to the benchmark document to assess how much, if at all, the proposed or announced initiative will impact the department.  If the change doesn’t impact department personnel or processes greatly, make sure people know this so they don’t react only with emotions.  Properly qualifying an upcoming change can minimize conversations between employees that are driven on emotions and do little more than waste precious time.

However, if after referring to the department’s CPG, it is determined where and how the proposed or announced change will impact the department greatly, then the supervisor has the opportunity to immediately discuss how the change will impact the people and the processes and begin planning how to effectively manage the change.  By using the CPG content as a benchmark (factual information), people will have facts to counterbalance the emotions.

Level #3: The Individual

The majority of companies have job descriptions for their employees.  Job descriptions provide useful knowledge as far as duties and responsibilities are concerned.  However, job descriptions do not cover topics such as a visual as to where the person fits on the org chart, the major processes the person is part of, a synopsis of how the person contributes to the department’s goals and the organization’s goals, or who this employee most interacts with within the organization.  While they may seem like details, by documenting this type of information (and several other points) in an employee-level CPG, the employee gains a tremendous amount of pride knowing that their contribution to the department and to the organization is validated and valued.  The CPG also provides a unique level of detail that the supervisor can use to communicate with his/her manager about employee value-add activities or use the information to realign tasks as needed.

In summary, people want to feel as though they are contributing in a positive manner to their organization’s goals and future.  One very powerful way to accomplish this sense of contribution is to affirm the importance of their positions in the organization by focusing their attention on the importance of their position, as it relates to the larger organizational goals.  By taking the time to develop and maintain positioning documents at all three levels – organization, department, and individual – understanding how and where employees add value to the organization becomes obvious.  Moving forward, it is much easier to see how all the pieces can fit together to make future goals a reality.

Next month we begin talking about the three Ps that are at the root of both change initiatives as well as problems – People, Processes, and Planning. We will discuss the P that is nearest and dearest to your employees’ heart – People (i.e. Themselves!) 

Benefits
1. Bring and keep everybody in the organization on the same page.
2. Communicate how all the employees and departments fit together to support the organizational goals and vision.
3. Reduce training time with new employees as they use the benchmark documents to learn various aspects of the organization, understand how their department fits into the overall organization, and realize how their individual position is part of the big picture.

Best Practices
1. Begin with the organizational level document first – create the vision and framework for the departments.  Review and revise every 6 to 9 months.
2. Have each department create their positioning documents as a department, then have senior management review the documents to make sure all critical information is presented.  Review every 6 to 9 months, as the organizational version is updated.
3. Proceed to the employee level, coupling the positioning document with a job description to create a very powerful information source.  Review every 6 to 9 months, or as positions duties and responsibilities change substantially.

Until next month!
 

Patrick Seaton
Innovative Management Tools LLC
www.innovmgmt.com
pdseaton@innovmgmt.com
715-340-9606

by Patrick Seaton

   This article was first published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Small business owners certainly understand the need to introduce long-term improvement initiatives into their organization.  The pay-off that some companies are experiencing is astounding and certainly helps pave their path into the future with more profits, more flexibility, and more stability. 

Unfortunately, not every company has found the same success.  While companies strive to be lean and mean through improvement initiatives, the changes can be overwhelming for the small company that doesn’t have somebody on staff who can fill the crucial role of “Change Champion.”  This champion role is either divided among several people or is just one of many hats a single person wears.  The bottom line – the initiative does not progress as hoped and lacks the momentum needed to really change the company’s culture and processes into those of a world class company.  The end result?   Many companies give up somewhere in the middle of the journey with lots of money invested and little to show for the investment.  At the same time, the employees have chalked up the improvement initiative as another “program of the month”

If this resembles your situation, there is a way to bring long-term improvement initiatives back into your organization.  You need to focus on the three Ps – the People, the Processes, and your Planning / Preparation routines.  This month we will focus on People.

Focusing on the People is a great way to show your employees that you care about them.  A periodic review of what your employees do in their jobs at the task level (called Task Management) will highlight the following:
• How many “hats” they are wearing and what kinds of “hats,”
• If the workload is balanced across the staff,
• Which tasks employees are completing without fail,
• Which tasks they aren’t able to complete, and
• If it makes sense to move any tasks to others in the company.

The above list is only a few of the outcomes that can be discovered during a short, 3 to 4 hour task management session whereby all the department employees or team members participate in a facilitated group activity.  A very important message that you will give your staff is “I care about what you do, how you feel about your job, and how you think things could be improved.”  The reality is that we don’t spend enough time talking to our employees to know the nitty-gritty details of how they really feel about their jobs.  Task Management is the perfect way to open that dialog and find the pain points.  By focusing on the people and their issues through task management, emotional situations were diffused and employees felt much better about their jobs and their supervisors.

Task management sessions are a tremendous way for companies to open communication lines between employees.  As one session participant once told me – “We talk everyday, but we are so busy with daily work that we never really have time to discuss our real issues.  When we are in a [task management] session, we really talk and resolve our issues.”

Task management sessions should be run every six months with the same group of people so ensure that workloads are balanced.  The sessions also make sure employees understand what tasks need to be considered priority in order to meet the department and organizational goals.  A wonderful book titled The Paradox Principles sums it up so nicely – “Create a great organization one employee at a time.”  Task management drills down to the issues that matter most to employees.  By addressing these issues, employees are much more willing to support the organization’s long-term improvement initiatives.

Benefits
1. Lower costs by balancing workloads, minimizing OT, and eliminating duplicated or unnecessary tasks
2. Increase productivity by defining clear roles and responsibilities, realigning tasks to employees with better skills or more interest for the tasks, and immediately looking at how changes impact the employees’ at the task level
3. Improve morale by opening communication lines, minimizing stress and frustration for those who handle more tasks than others, and validating employees’ contributions to the organization’s goals
4. Develop management by giving them a vehicle for “getting the right people on the bus and in the right seat” as well as giving them the opportunity to dig deep with their staff to learn the issues that mean the most to them

Best Practices
1. Conduct a task management session in each department every 6 to 9 months
2. Make sure that the department supervisor or manager participates in the session
3. Use a facilitator from outside the department (or organization) to bring fresh perspectives and unbiased suggestions to the group

Patrick Seaton
Innovative Management Tools LLC
www.innovmgmt.com
pdseaton@innovmgmt.com
715-340-9606

by Patrick Seaton

   This article was published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Have you ever thought about the difference between Firefighters and Pyrotechnicians? 

Firefighters: They wait in the firehouse until the alarm goes off.  Then they race to the scene of the fire, put it out, and then go back and wait for the next fire.  Despite the fact that they do occasional fire safety education, they are reactive in their work.

Pyrotechnicians: They select the fireworks that will go off, the sequence, the music, and the timing.  They are totally proactive in their jobs.

So what are you?  What about your staff?  What did you hire?  What is supported and recognized in your company culture?  What do you need to drive your company forward?

What I offer to you this month is to consider if you have trained and conditioned your employees to be the consummate firefighter, while urging them to become better pyrotechnicians. 

The problem is this.  Proactive skills are exactly that – skills.  They need to be learned, practiced, and fine-tuned if we are to be good at them.  When we are constantly fighting fires, we may only have a few short minutes to put on our “proactive” hat.  Just when we think we’ll have time to do something proactive – DING! DING! DING! The fire alarm goes off again and we rush off to put out the next fire.

Another thing that really perplexes me is the following:  Why is it that we very often rush through, or skip the planning stage of a project?  Instead we get so excited to jump right in and begin “doing something” and/or we say that there isn’t enough time to plan it all out. 

And when a project is assigned to us, why we are urged to get quick answers and results?  We feel pressured to start “working.” 

What I don’t understand is that while we don’t/can’t/won’t take the time to plan up front for 2 or 3 hours, we almost always hit the point in the project when we need to “regroup.”  “Regroup” has become a common phrase in companies today.  We “regroup” because things aren’t going the way we anticipated.  How is it that we can always find the 15 hours (or 10, or 20) needed to undo the work that was done, fix the problem, redo the work, and get back to where we were before we “regrouped,” but we rarely find the time for a couple hours of planning up front?

Taking the time to plan and prepare for upcoming changes, projects, and strategic initiatives does not have to be complicated.  Remember that people accept change better when there is a focus on processes, when they are included in the process, when they are allowed and encouraged to ask questions or voice concerns, and when they feel that there is a plan in place so that they don’t have to “regroup” later.

So if you really want people to be proactive and help drive your company forward toward a great future, create opportunities for them to build and hone their proactive skills.  The first step to becoming proactive is to learn to plan. 

Until next month!

Benefits
1. Lower costs by eliminating rework and “regrouping”
2. Increase productivity by making sure there is a plan and people know their priorities that will bring them closer to the goals
3. Improve morale by opening communication lines, minimizing stress and frustration for those who typically don’t have a role in the planning process, and validating employees’ contributions to the organization’s strategic goals
4. Develop management by giving them a vehicle for learning how to be proactive

Best Practices
1. Conduct a planning session every major project or initiative
2. Make sure that the goal is clear and attainable (stretch is OK)
3. Make sure the project or initiative champion participates in the session
3. Use a facilitator from outside the area (or organization) to bring fresh perspectives and unbiased suggestions to the group

Patrick Seaton
Innovative Management Tools LLC
www.innovmgmt.com
pdseaton@innovmgmt.com
715-340-9606