Chapter 3

Learning to DRIVE

In This Chapter

Taking a look at the DRIVE model

Shaping the plan and getting the measure of things

Building skills and capability

Considering the soft stuff

This chapter begins with more detail about the DRIVE model and the route to an organisation’s True North. The transformation journey takes time. Leaders will need a genuine understanding of the organisation’s customers, effective teamwork and appropriate communication, as well as managers who clearly understand their role in managing and improving process performance and equipping their staff with the skills they need.

Importantly, transformation will also involve an understanding and appreciation of the ‘elements of change’ – the importance of the ‘soft stuff’. Without it, success is unlikely.

Introducing DRIVE

We provide an overview of the DRIVE model in Chapter 2; it’s a systematic approach to ensuring a successful transformation journey to True North. Chapter 2 also defines what we mean by True North, explaining its use as a metaphor for where the organisation needs to be.

In this section, we describe the five DRIVE phases – Define, Review, Improve, Verify and Establish – which are illustrated in Figure 3-1.

Define

In the Define phase, you recognise the need to transform and describe your current state – where you are right now, warts and all. It’s possible that the picture you uncover may prompt the need for transformation; now you need to ensure that you really understand what’s happening currently. This will help you provide at least an outline vision of where you want to be – the future state you want to achieve.

You need to make the vision really clear by identifying True North, as we describe in Chapter 2, and create a maturity road map that will help identify the stages of your journey. We provide an overview of capability models in the ‘Taking a Mature Approach’ section of this chapter, but Chapter 14 provides more detail, introducing a capability road map that links to the DRIVE model. Not only will this map plot your route, it will also help you assess progress and make clear that the journey may well take some time.

Review

In this stage, you focus in on your strategy and identify the strategic essentials you need to achieve. Strategic essentials are the vital few essential general statements of direction for the organisation in the medium to long term.

In part, this phase is also a bit of a reality check. Given where you are right now, you need to consider whether the proposed journey is feasible or is possibly too ambitious. This is a serious question and you need to be honest in your assessment and reply.

Assessing your capability to achieve the necessary changes means confirming the gaps that need closing and at least some of the actions that will be needed along the way to close those gaps and progress towards True North. In light of this knowledge, you may have to go back a stage, to Define, and scale down your aims, or you can progress to the Improve phase knowing exactly what needs to be done, perhaps augmenting your resources by bringing in new and experienced people or developing appropriate and timely training plans, for example.

Before moving on, however, an appropriate governance system must be established to ensure that everyone is clear about what needs to be done and who is responsible for what. As well as appointing people to select and review the projects and actions necessary for the transformation process, someone must also be in charge of the normal day-to-day running of the business.

Improve

The Improve phase is divided into three distinct parts. The first two parts make sure that you don’t start your journey in an unplanned rush. Everyone needs to be clear on the direction they’re going in and their ultimate destination. They must understand their own role and those of everyone else.

Prepare

You’ve already identified the strategic essentials in the Review phase. Now you need to break these down into critical objectives and agree the key areas of focus. This process is described in Chapter 8, but essentially you need to specify what the strategic essentials actually mean.

You’re aiming to establish a ‘from this to that’ picture that everyone can visualise and relate to. One way of doing so is to create a first draft of the X Matrix, which shows how the various actions and projects fit together. The X Matrix is a key document in the transformation process and is described in detail in Chapter 8.

In developing the critical objectives and focus areas you’re beginning to pull together the elements needed to lay the foundations for everyday operational excellence (EOE) that will result from better managed processes and a culture of continuous improvement (CI). See Chapter 12 for more information on everyday operational excellence and how to achieve it.

The strategic essentials, critical objectives and focus areas define what the organisation will work on and this information needs to be cascaded across and down the organisation. Chapter 8 shows how the strategy deployment architecture can be structured and tasks appropriately allocated across the organisation. How this is done will depend on the nature of the focus areas and the structure of the organisation. Everyone in the organisation must work together in the journey to True North.

Shape

The Shape phase translates critical objectives and focus areas into specific projects and action plans. The catchball process comes into play here. Catchball is a metaphor describing how the leadership team ‘throws’ their strategic essentials, critical objectives and key focus areas down to the next level of management to assess what it means for them and their direct reports. These managers will determine what they believe each of their teams and reports must do to be able to achieve the various objectives, before sending the ‘ball’ back to the leadership team for their verification and agreement. The ‘circle of catchers’ increases as managers throw their ideas back and forth from one level of the organisation to another as the detailed action plans, projects and supporting measures are shaped and finally agreed. The catchball process is simple, but not necessarily easy. It involves listening to the people responsible for the actions and results and accepting that their input may well lead to amending plans or timescales. Actioned properly, catchball is a great way to secure buy-in and increase the understanding of what’s needed on the journey to True North. The catchball process is described in more detail in Chapter 8.

Now that the improvement projects, action plans, and those responsible for them have been identified, measures can be agreed upon and the X Matrix updated.

Implement

Now that everyone is clear on who’s doing what, it’s time to get on with it and make it happen! In the Review phase, the organisation assesses its capability to achieve the changes. So, in practice, the Implement phase might well begin with the allocation of people to project teams, and the training and up-skilling of staff to enable them to successfully complete the agreed actions.

Verify

As with any series of action plans or projects, progress and performance against plan need to be monitored. The DMAIC process, which we describe in Chapter 1, has tollgate reviews at the end of each phase, for example, and benefit reviews after the Analyse, Improve and Control phases.

Scheduled review meetings must be set up with the project champions or sponsors. In light of these, remedial action may need to be taken or plans and timescales adjusted.

Establish

The Establish phase has parallels with the Control phase in DMAIC. You’re looking to secure and hold the gains, identify the lessons learned, and look for opportunities to replicate the success elsewhere in the organisation.

Step by step, you’re enhancing the organisation’s capability as you develop and evolve a culture of continuous improvement, building on the foundations of everyday operational excellence and managed processes. The DNA of the organisation is improving step by step.

Creating the Framework

Almost regardless of the extent to which Lean Six Sigma plays a part in the transformation, a framework is needed to ensure effective co-ordination and monitoring of the plans and progress. In Chapter 8, we introduce the X Matrix as the key format for providing a visual picture of your strategy deployment and transformation activities. It’s a one-page document that captures decisions and provides a framework for monitoring and updating progress against plan.

But for success in achieving your transformation, you need the right people in place to carry out that monitoring and to lead and champion the various projects and activities involved.

Building the team

Naturally, the leadership team has to be in complete support of the approach you’re taking and the destination you’re aiming for. But so, too, do the people in the wider organisation. Almost certainly, you’ll need their support and involvement as project team members, for example as subject matter experts providing input or as the people on the ground who are going to keep the day-to-day work ticking over.

In terms of the leadership team, you need some, or possibly all of them, to form a steering committee or transformation board. Ideally, the chief executive will take the role of transformation director, but he’ll need to appoint someone else to act as the transformation programme director or co-ordinator. This person needs to hold a senior role in the organisation, must be a good communicator and have experience in programme management.

As the governance system is created and projects are agreed, members of the leadership or management teams should take on the role of project sponsor or champion. At the project level, every improvement initiative deserves a champion who’s prepared to devote the time and support needed to help the project team overcome any roadblocks on their journey.

The project champion is involved in selecting the project and the team members for it. As the project progresses, the project champion stays involved by providing strategic direction to the team and taking an active involvement in project reviews, for example. You can find more detail about the role of the project champion in Lean Six Sigma For Dummies (Wiley).

Creating a small programme management office staffed with people seconded from the organisation is sensible. These people should be well known and respected throughout the organisation. They need to have project management experience and, ideally, expertise in Lean Six Sigma, to at least Green Belt level. The different ‘belts’ (Yellow, Green and Black) represent the depth of Lean Six Sigma training, knowledge and experience, and are described in Chapter 12.

Developing the plan

Chapter 8 takes you through the strategy deployment process, which enables you to shape and refine your plans, develop the work streams, and agree the specific owners and timeframes for projects and activities at different levels within the organisation. You can develop the fine details of your plans in several ways, but we think the most effective way is to use Affinity, Interrelationship and Tree diagrams, as shown in Figure 3-2.

The interrelationship diagram would have considered the relationship between the ‘themes’ and identified the driver of the project. Along with the affinity diagram, it’s covered in more detail in Chapter 4 of this book.

Communicating effectively

Keeping everyone appropriately informed is often easier said than done, especially in a transformation programme that affects and involves the entire organisation. As with any presentation, stage show, film or television programme, knowing your audience is critical. Tailoring the messages and media appropriately, especially to the key stakeholders, is likely to be an essential activity.

In so many organisations, we’ve heard managers claim that ‘all the information is on the intranet, so everyone knows what’s happening.’ In our experience, this is rarely the case. Not everyone uses the organisation’s intranet or, even if they do, the style and content of the information isn’t necessarily appropriate to all levels of staff.

Some while ago, one of the authors was working with the US Army and was surprised to discover that its rule book is available in two forms: as a comic and as a more formal document. This is a great example of understanding the different segments of the ‘audience’ – many of the soldiers read comics and so it makes sense to provide important information in that format as it’s appropriate for them.

Visual management, the use of activity boards to display information, and daily team meetings will go some way to ensuring effective communication, but need to be supplemented by, for example, a transformation-specific magazine or news sheet. For more on visual management, see Chapters 2 and 12 of this book and Lean Six Sigma For Dummies (Wiley).

Ensuring clear ownership

Clear ownership must be established for all work streams, plans and emerging projects. Even communication must be one specific person’s responsibility.

A responsibility matrix, as shown in Figure 3-3, can help you establish and communicate ownership for at least some areas of activity. In Figure 3-3 you can see how the matrix has been linked to the actions identified in a tree diagram.

Another very effective option is the RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed) matrix, shown in Figure 3-4.

As you can see in Figure 3-4, it doesn’t really matter which sequence you use in the matrix; the important thing is to identify the ‘who’ and the ‘what’.

Whichever of these matrices you use, they tend to be more appropriate to the project and activity levels. Providing the overarching picture will be the X Matrix.

Getting the measure

One of the key Lean Six Sigma principles is the need to manage by fact. You need good data, as defined in Chapter 2, but, of course, you need to be measuring the right things. And you need to present the data appropriately to ensure it’s interpreted correctly and the right actions are taken when needed. At a process level, you need to be measuring the inputs and in-process activities that affect your performance against the customer requirements, Presenting this type of data in control charts is the most effective way of understanding the ‘voice of the process’.

The need for a sound data collection process and the use of control charts is covered in some detail in Lean Six Sigma For Dummies (Wiley), and the need for a balance of input, in-process and output measures, the Xs and Ys, is covered briefly in Chapter 12 of this book.

Taking a Mature Approach

Transforming an organisation takes time. Potentially a lot of time! Having a road map to keep you on track and assess the progress that you’re making on your journey can be really helpful. Maturity models are one way of helping you do just that.

Using maturity models

Chapter 14 focuses on the capability maturity journey and introduces a road map that links to the DRIVE model. It is specific to transformation. Lots of different maturity models are available on the Internet, however, covering all sorts of things, including progress against the criteria of the Baldrige or EFQM Models, for example.

They provide a helpful framework for you to assess progress and gain a clear sense of the next stages in your journey. They might be relatively simple in their design or go into some detail, so you need to decide which is appropriate for you and your plans. The design will be influenced by a number of factors, such as whether the transformation is organisation wide or for a particular division or business unit; or if it requires cultural change or focuses on developing new markets or product lines.

To give you a flavour of their format, the model illustrated in Figure 3-5 may be useful. It is a relatively simple and self-explanatory example that serves to highlight that changing attitudes and behaviour takes time, and a culture of continuous improvement and everyday operational excellence will not become the norm overnight.

In developing a maturity model for your organisation, bear in mind that each team will itself need to go through a maturity process.

Teams go through four stages as they develop, as shown in Figure 3-6. In the Forming stage, team members may be highly dependent on the team leader for guidance and direction. There may be little agreement on team aims other than those set by the leader. The individual roles and responsibilities are likely to be unclear or not fully agreed upon, and the team members may test the leader and other team members to help them understand parameters.

As the team moves to the Storming stage, the members are likely to be vying for position as they attempt to establish themselves in relation to other team members and also the leader, who may receive challenges from them.

Clarity of purpose increases during this stage, but plenty of uncertainties persist. Cliques and factions may form and power struggles occur. The team needs to be focused on its goals to avoid becoming distracted by relationships and emotional issues.

Compromises may be required to enable progress. Beware if this is the case because there may be implications for plans and timescales.

The Norming stage sees the development of more positive behaviour. Agreement and consensus are generally the norm among team members, who respond well to facilitation by the team leader. Roles and responsibilities are clear and agreed. The team may engage in fun and social activities. The team discusses and develops its processes and working style. General respect for the leader is evident and some of the leader’s activities are shared by the team.

In the Performing stage things are motoring! The team is more strategically aware; the members know why the team is doing what it’s doing and how it fits into the bigger picture. They understand the organisation’s vision and have one of their own as they seek to ensure that they meet their goals. The Improvement Charter will have helped here, by the way. The charter is referred to in Lean Six Sigma For Dummies (Wiley).

Disagreements still occur, of course, but now they’re resolved in a positive manner within the team, and necessary changes to processes and structure are made by the team as a whole. The team is able to work towards achieving its goals, and also to attend to relationship, style and process issues along the way. Team members look after each other.

The steering committee must know what the team and its members will do once a project is completed and ensure that effective and timely communication is in place to help avoid potential frustrations and upset.

Figure 3-7 provides a simple checklist to help teams review and discuss their ongoing relationships and become a more capable unit. GRIP can be used by the project team at any stage in the project to review how the team is working together. It’s a simple assessment process, best carried out separately by individuals on the team. You can then share your results. Look for areas of commonality and difference in views or areas of strength and weakness and agree improvement actions that will address any issues and improve team performance.

Assessing capability

Various methods exist for assessing the overall performance and capabilities of your organisation. In identifying the need for transformation, your organisation may well have analysed its financial, customer and process performance results using the balanced scorecard, which also covers issues surrounding learning and growth. It might also have undertaken a self-assessment against the criteria of the Baldrige or EFQM models, and thus determined its capability against those criteria too. These models provide a framework for achieving business excellence and provide a set of benchmarks against which organisations can compare themselves. Chapter 5 explains these models and the balanced scorecard in more detail.

The X Matrix, action plan and tracking chart (described in full in Chapter 8) can be used to monitor progress against plan and to some extent, therefore, the evolving capability of the organisation.

In terms of process capability, control charts enable you to assess the state of the process, both by broad description and through the use of the Cp and Cpk measures. These capability indices compare process performance and variation to the critical to quality requirements (CTQs) and provide both a theoretical and actual measure to demonstrate the relationship. They tell you precisely how capable the process is in terms of meeting customer requirements. It’s likely that these measures will have been analysed in both the Define and Review phases of the DRIVE model.

Deploying the Strategy

As part of the Define phase of the DRIVE model, the CEO and leadership team agree their vision for the organisation and update the strategic plan as appropriate. Together with senior management, the longer-term strategic essentials, critical objectives and short-term focus areas can then be determined.

The organisation breaks the focus areas down into short-term process improvements or design projects and ensures consensus and alignment through the ‘catchball’ process described earlier in this chapter. In order to achieve the business transformation, breakthrough improvements will probably be required that necessitate the introduction of new ways of working. Other projects may well be needed that don’t follow the DMAIC or DMADV frameworks, for example purchasing specific equipment. Ownership of the various activities is agreed, and teams identified to establish the detailed action plans, targets and metrics to track progress. That progress is managed through monthly and annual reviews and corrective actions, sometimes referred to as counter measures.

Leading the way

The leadership team and management generally are responsible for leading the way through the change process. The leaders need to see their role as ‘working on the organisation’ with their focus on developing and delivering the strategy. Through their behaviour and actions, they need to demonstrate their commitment to the journey and the destination. Managers need to be ‘working on the processes’, which we cover in more detail in Chapter 12. Their role is to work with the people in the process to find ways to continuously improve performance and meet the customers’ requirements.

Everything the leadership and management team does must demonstrate belief in and adherence to the transformation process.

Keeping it focused

It’s so easy to get diverted. Everyone in the organisation, but especially the leaders and managers, needs to be very focused on how they spend their time. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!

Reviewing how you’re spending your time is sensible. The XY Grid in Figure 3-8 highlights four broad areas where people spend their time according to the dimensions of importance and urgency. All too often the focus slips – so where are you spending most of your time? Hopefully, not in the ‘urgent but not important’ quadrant! You need to maintain focus on the actions that lead to True North.

Your organisation should focus on preventing problems, error proofing the processes, planning, preserving and enhancing relationships with customers and suppliers, both internal and external, and on accomplishing the transformation plan. Research in Japan suggests that managers in highly successful organisations spend 65 to 80 per cent of their time in the ‘important but not urgent’ quadrant.

Focusing on the Customer

A particularly vital relationship is, of course, with your customers, both internal and external. In focusing on your customers, you’re looking to provide value for them and to meet their critical to quality requirements, or their CTQs.

The CTQs are vital elements in Lean Six Sigma, providing you with the basis to assess how well you’re performing in meeting your customers’ requirements.

Always bear in mind that different types of customer may well have different requirements and CTQs. Their priorities will not be the same and you must thus tailor your product or service accordingly.

Knowing your customers – past, present and future

Ideally, the organisation will already have grouped your customers into segments. This helps you to identify your customers’ different requirements. By segmenting them, you can develop the right products and services for each group, and create specific measures to help you to understand your performance in meeting their differing requirements, something that will have been undertaken in the Define and Review phases of DRIVE.

To help you segment your customers, list some categories that describe both your current customers and the people or organisations that you consider to be potential customers. You can look at past customers in this way, too.

When you’re carrying out this exercise, consider how the proposed transformation activities and goals will impact on all of your customers.

Valuing your customers

Customers are looking for value. Amongst other things, this means customers want the right products and services, at the right time, the right price, of the right quality, and delivered to the right place.

Identifying what they want

Truly focusing on customers, as opposed to simply saying that you’re doing so, requires real investment in understanding your customers’ needs. Knowing who your customers are, how they’re segmented, and which ones are your priority is a vital prerequisite to any research and data gathering. Identifying the wrong customers, or not being aware of the different segments, can mean you collect information on requirements or customers that aren’t related to the process or service you’re designing.

Your customers may be both internal and external. Thinking in terms of processes helps you identify where you need to focus, and highlights who your internal customers are.

Lean Six Sigma For Dummies (Wiley) provides some detail about segmenting and researching your customers and explains how to develop the CTQs. The same book also introduces the House of Quality, or Quality Function Deployment (QFD), as a technique to help you in the design of new products, services or processes. Fundamental to the design will be a clear understanding of the customers and their requirements and perceptions.

Recognising how you’re doing

If you’ve established the CTQs correctly, they’ll be measurable and you can determine the relevant output measures (the Ys) needed to assess your performance in meeting them. You can also look at customer survey results. All of this data will be presented at the appropriate level in the organisation’s visual management charts (see the ‘Communicating effectively’ section earlier in this chapter), and on the balanced scorecard (see Chapter 5).

Building Links and Strengthening the Supply Chain

Performance in relation to CTQs, as monitored by the Y measures, will be dependent on the important X measures that assess the performance of the inputs to the process and the in-process variables and activities. In this section, we look at the inputs from your suppliers, be they internal or external.

Getting the measure of suppliers

You need to identify how your suppliers are affecting and influencing your performance. Some typical aspects to look at concern time, accuracy and completeness, as well as the overall quality of their inputs – are they meeting your requirements?

Ideally, you’ll have established your CTQs with them – you are their customer and they should be looking to meet your requirements. So, are you receiving things on time or is delivery somewhat variable, be it too early or too late? When you receive their inputs, are they complete or are items or information missing? Take a long, hard look at the number of defects or errors in an average order.

Your customers aren’t interested in the performance of your suppliers and won’t be impressed if you blame poor service elsewhere.

Making the right links

Working with your suppliers to agree requirements and establish measures that you can both measure and discuss is an effective means of developing relationships with them. In turn, this two-way communication enables you to drive the concept of continuous improvement into the suppliers’ organisations. You’ll soon see whether you’re working with the right suppliers.

A supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Joining up the thinking

If you’ve made the right links then, almost certainly, you’ll find opportunities for joint improvement projects, some of which may well help speed up the transformation process.

The process becomes even more powerful if you’re able to involve both your customers and suppliers in the improvement activities you need to undertake.

Recognising the Importance of the Soft Stuff

In Chapter 2 we touch on the importance of the soft stuff and introduce a formula for expressing its importance: E = Q × A. Briefly, E = Effectiveness, Q = Quality of the solution and A = Acceptance of the solution. The ‘soft stuff’ is the hard stuff; it’s about how well you work with the people involved in the transformation process and the stakeholders who are affected by it. You may well have developed an ideal solution or approach, but its effectiveness will depend on its acceptance.

So many organisations and their leadership and management teams seem to ignore the ‘A’ part of the formula and then seem surprised and frustrated that the outcomes aren’t what they’d expected.

As true today as it ever was, the quotation below sums up the challenges that await the leaders of change, whether of an improvement project or a full-scale transformation programme:

‘It must be remembered there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.’ – Nicolo Machiavelli

Understanding the soft stuff and being fully aware of the E = Q × A formula are vital ingredients in optimising your chances of success. In Chapter 11, we go into more detail about managing change and look at some of the work of change guru, John Kotter. For the moment though, we’re going to look at our ‘elements of change’ model, which is based around Kotter’s ideas. This model can be used as a simple but effective tool to assess how well you’re doing in relation to the change management elements of individual projects and also of the overall transformation programme. Figure 3-9 includes at least some of the key questions you’ll need to address in working through the elements, but you’re certain to have your own organisation-specific questions to add to these.

Deploying the strategy and transforming the organisation is likely to demand some different thinking as well as some different and enhanced skills and expertise. You need to conduct a skills analysis to identify the current situation in your organisation and locate any shortfalls. Following that, you need to decide whether the shortfalls can be addressed through training or if you need to recruit new staff with these skills. Both training of existing staff and recruitment of new people may be necessary, but carry out the analysis and see. Another option is to bring in consultants or recruit some suitably qualified interim resources.

Make sure you thoroughly investigate the skills and potential already to hand. We’ve worked in organisations where existing staff held Lean Six Sigma qualifications that were unknown to management and thus unused.

Defining the need

Ideally, you’ll already be fully aware of the skills and potential of the people working in the organisation. If not, you’ll need to conduct a review, taking account of current and new or enhanced products, services and supporting processes. New or enhanced services or processes, for example, may call for different skills and behaviours.

Making sure that your process or value stream maps really do show how the work gets done, or will be done, will help you identify the skills needed to operate them. Clearly defined and presented user guides should be in place, which will be especially important in ensuring standard work. The details laid out in the user guides are often referred to as standard operating procedures (SOPs), which everyone adheres to.

Now you can introduce training and coaching where you believe it’s necessary and begin to assess which members of staff are capable of actioning the various activities. You might find you need to recruit from outside the organisation.

Analysing the gaps

Identifying the skills gaps in your organisation is likely to involve some observation and monitoring of output. If you’re going to transform the organisation, then the resulting assessments and remedial plans should form part of your visual management system, as shown in Figure 3-10.

The skills and accreditation matrix will prompt questions such as:

• Who is capable of what?
• Who has been updated with changes?
• Who needs more training?
• How can the organisation be flexible to meet changing demands?

So, very simply, you need to consider how effectively the people in the team can action the different processes and the individual steps within them.

Consider using a traffic light-style code, with green indicating that the team member is fully trained and capable of the work; amber highlighting that some coaching or focused additional training is needed; and red demonstrating that the individual has yet to be shown this task and is thus untrained, for example.

You can determine your own code, of course, but either way, the next step is to create the training or coaching plan.

Creating the training plan

Figure 3-11 shows the evolving picture following the introduction of a new or improved process. As with the skills and accreditation matrix, the training plan – ideally complete with schedule – should also form part of your visual management system and be available for everyone to see. Naturally, it should include appropriate monitoring, so that the skills and accreditation matrix is updated in a timely way to reflect the progress being made by people as they increase their skills and competence levels.

Going outside

You may need to consider either bringing in people with specific experience from outside your organisation to fulfil particular roles or using a specialist training organisation.

Be clear about what you’re looking for, both in terms of skills and culture. The potential recruit must share and display your organisation’s values. In addition, if you’re new to Lean Six Sigma and want to recruit Black Belts, for example, make sure they know their stuff! Check out their project experience and always seek references and testimonials.

Enabling Continuous Improvement

On top of the very specific improvement and design projects that form part of the organisation’s journey to transformation, it’s essential that an ongoing culture of continuous improvement emerges. A cadre of trained Black, Green and Yellow Belts will provide the foundation for this cultural change, but the example set by the leadership and management teams is the determining factor in whether continuous improvement becomes a part of the organisation’s DNA.

The roles of the project champion and the manager in everyday operations are pivotal.

Looking at the role of the manager

One of the vital ingredients for success in any organisation, but especially one that’s looking to transform itself in some way, is clarifying individual people’s roles. Of particular relevance is the need for leaders to recognise that they should be focusing their efforts on working on the business, and for managers to realise their role is to work on the process. What’s more, they need to be working on the process with the people involved in the process in order for a culture of continuous improvement and everyday operational excellence to develop and become part of the organisation’s DNA.

This section focuses on the role of the manager. In all too many organisations the majority of managers don’t really understand their role. Often the manager is someone who has performed extremely well in their previous role and has been promoted as a result. If they’re lucky, they receive training in a variety of topics, including, for example, interview techniques, budget setting, appraisals and report writing. Unfortunately, many organisations fail to see the need to also train their managers in process management and improvement activity.

As a result, the processes aren’t effectively managed and the people in the process are often seen as the cause of process problems. The following quotation sums up the position very well:

‘Eighty-five per cent of the reasons for failure to meet customer expectations are related to deficiencies in systems and process … rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.’ – W. Edwards Deming

We like to describe management’s role as ‘working on the process with the people in the process to continuously find ways of improving the process.’ For that to happen, of course, the manager needs to be clear about their role and to be aware of the various tools and techniques that can be used to help improve process performance. Visual management and the daily team meeting all come into play here.

Assembling the toolkit

Lean Six Sigma pulls together a vast array of improvement tools ranging from the very simple to more sophisticated statistical analysis techniques. In the quest for everyday operational excellence, managers need to understand which tools to use to manage their processes.

The tools don’t need to be as comprehensive as those in the toolkit used by Green and Black Belts. The managers don’t necessarily need to be able to use the tools; they simply need to know which ones give results that they can use. The Belts can get the data and apply the tools; the manager needs to know how to act on the results. This knowledge should enable managers to not only improve their everyday performance but also take on board at least some of the common language of Lean Six Sigma. Knowledge of the relevant terms will help them more easily provide the information needed by Green and Black Belt projects that link to their processes.

For managers to own and manage their processes, the following need to be in place:

• A clear customer-focused objective, together with prioritised customer requirements. Measureable CTQs have been identified and the Y measures put in place.
• Appropriate process maps. This will involve at least a SIPOC diagram and a deployment flowchart or value stream map. These ‘pictures’ of the process can be found in Lean Six Sigma For Dummies (Wiley).
• A balance of input, in-process and output measures. The vital few Xs and Ys are being measured and the correlation between these variables is understood and managed.
• Statistical control or an improvement plan is in place to establish such control. Control charts are part of your visual management system and the variation in the process is understood, enabling appropriate decision-making. Where special causes are present, improvement activity is underway to prevent their recurrence.
• The process meets the CTQs, or an improvement plan is in place to do so. Performance in meeting the CTQs is monitored through the Y measures and understood, and improvement activity is underway where the CTQs are not being met.
• The process has been error-proofed. Taking action to avoid or reduce the impact of errors or problems is important. We think of this as causing something not to happen, and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA; refer to Chapter 2) and error-proofing ensure prevention has been built in where possible. The identification of new prevention or error-proofing opportunities forms part of the daily team meeting.
• A control plan is in place. The control plan helps to ensure that the process is carried out consistently. It also identifies key points in the process where measurement data is needed; additionally highlighting what action is required depending on the results. Ensuring you have the right ongoing measures in place is extremely important.

Feeling able and being able

Owning and managing processes is a crucial element in changing the way that people think and behave, which is an essential ingredient in the transformation of an organisation. But there’s more, of course!

The people in the process need to feel empowered; they need to be an integral part of the journey the organisation is undertaking. Empowerment means ‘to enable’. And that’s what the manager has to do as part of their role.

Our approach to empowerment centres on four vital elements for employees:

• They need to feel a sense of their own competence: They’re learning from experience and gaining new skills and abilities as their potential is developed.
• They need to feel part of a team: They’re contributing to the team’s performance.
• They can see how their activities link to the goals of the organisation: They understand that they’re an integral part of a larger effort.
• They enjoy the work and have fun: Something we should all do!

With these ingredients in place, an organisation significantly increases its chances of being successful.

A direct and very strong correlation exists between employee and customer satisfaction. Research shows the correlation coefficient to be in the order of 70–80 per cent. With an engaged staff on board, the transformation journey has a greater chance of heading in the right direction and reaching its goal.