How do you keep a good thing going?
Fundamental to sustaining any culture change is leadership commitment.
People look to and follow their leaders. If leaders are engaged, enthused and appreciative, their people will follow suit. Culture change happens thanks to esteemed role models.
The manner, style and process in which improvement gains are acknowledged and facilitated shape the result, impact, rate of integration and cultural transformation.
A few guiding kaizen principles that facilitate culture change and support the leader’s intention to sustain the change, once gained, include:
- Measurement
- Attention and Commitment
- Engagement
- Identifying who benefits and how
Measurement
You improve what you measure.
Know your starting point and measure what you want to improve. When you establish a benchmark, you create a standard, just so it can be surpassed. The initial standard creates a base point (A) that acts as an anchor against the target point (B) – the goal you hope to attain within a specified period of time. Points A and B, when joined, create a path the process will follow.
Milestones can now be identified and rate of progress measured, kick starting the process-improvement cycle.
Attention and Commitment
Energy follows attention of the mind
With the path mapped and milestones identified, you can now pay attention to what you want more of and capture what action/process gets you the desired results.
Who can you involve, what creative intervention can help solve the problem?
Attention paid to identify the root cause and conditions that gave rise to it, help you:
- find the solution
- transcend the barrier
- transform the obstacle
- improve the process and
- create breakthrough improvements.
Engagement
People value what they create.
Change is therefore best facilitated through meaningful involvement where creativity, knowledge, experience, and ideas are recognized to create value.
Show me, Why? and Just try it are three effective engagement strategies that help focus on process improvement.
To have improvement gains sustained, leaders must be seen to “walk their talk” or whatever gains have been won, could easily backslide.
Who benefits and how?
Enlightened self-interest is a powerful motivator.
Quantifying and communicating benefits is key to helping people stay engaged and committed to the continuous improvement process.
The kaizen way helps shift thinking to facilitate behaviour and culture change. The result is a culture of respect, openness and trust where collaboration, creativity and innovation can flourish – a highly cost-effective culture change strategy!
About Julia von Flotow
