Vision, Engagement, and Strategy

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Vision, Engagement, and Strategy
The executive leaders role in continuous
improvement
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Discussion Topics

• Vision and Communication
• Engaging the Continuous Improvement Organization
• Removing Fear and Inspiring the Workforce
• Understanding Critical Success Factors
• Driving Organizational Accountability
• Leadership Strategies in a Continuous Improvement
  Environment

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Success Enablers

• Strategic alignment
• Alliances
• Relationship building
• Effective and frequent communication
• Benchmarking for results

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Creating a Compelling Continuous Improvement
Vision
What Do You Want To Accomplish As An Executive
Leader?

• Deliver strong profitability
• Provide a safe work environment
• Develop good corporate citizenship locally and
  globally
• Consistently deliver a quality product
• Provide an excellent customer experience

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Creating a Compelling Lean Vision
Its Bigger Than Us..

• Provide employment for the local community
• Create a compelling value proposition for all
  stakeholders
• Establish an environment of continuous
  improvement and organizational sustainment
• Initiate a dynamic learning environment
• Develop a nimble, agile, entrepreneurial-type
  organization
• Build environmentally friendly processes
• Others??

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Employee Engagement
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Effects of Poor Employee Engagement

• Employee turnover
• Products or services below expectations
• Less than desired employee morale
• Inferior reputation in the local community
• Unacceptable safety performance
• Reputation as a second-rate employer
• Experience talentdrain
• Missed business opportunities
• Lack of organizational alignment
• Ultimately poor financial performance

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Communication and Employee Engagement

• Communication means a lot..Not true,
  communication is Everything!
• Never miss an opportunity to engage employees for
  dialog.
• Ask compelling questions of your team, and your
  employees.then Act!
• Prepare for any change long before you implement.
• Challenge your team to find a way to not only
  work hard, but play hard too.
• KNOW WHO YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE AND ACT
  ACCORDINGLY..

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How Can Employee Engagement Enable Organizational
Goals

• Facilitates alignment toward organizational goals
• Improves alignment for all participants to
  understand their role within the organization
• Identifies opportunities
• Offers a feedback loop for self-assessment
• Aids in designing an organization prepared for
  change
• Promotes a culture of excellence

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Building Confidence and Removing Organizational
Fear

• Town Hall meetings - at least quarterly with
  employees
• Business update letters sent to employees
  families
• Celebrate success - luncheons and prizes for
  milestones earned
• Aggressively address legitimate job concerns
• Leader / management re-engagement
• Electronic message boards..an idea??
• Improved training of management - creates
  facilitators
• Frequent communication meetings with leaders
• Expand involvement with local civic clubs and
  organizations
• Support local schools and charitable
  organizations
• Seize opportunities to run positive human
  interest stories about the company and/or
  employees in the local media

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Organizational AccountabilityCritical Success
Factors
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Continuous ImprovementCritical Success factors

• Understanding the Lean Language
• Training and development
• Making organizational commitments
• Strategic planning.what went well, what can we
  do better next time?

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Centers of Excellence (COE Model)

• Develop a Think Tank of internal practitioners
• Hold quarterly off sites for Best Practice
  sharing
• Incorporate Best Practices from multiple areas
  or sites into one standard
• Encourage continuous improvement, but within
  boundaries (the goal post approach)
• Develop a dynamic central depository for
  operational quick change

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Strategic and Tactile Organization Performance

• Tactile- 1-90 days.what can I do to influence
  organizational performance in the short-term?
• Disturbances to production or service flow
• Productivity expectations
• Staffing
• Inventory adjustments
• Strategic- How can I influence organizational
  performance next fiscal yearToday?
• Long-term objectives which is the foundation of
  your strategytalent management

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Strategic Business Drivers

• Micro-Environmental Drivers
• Safety/ work comp
• Turnover
• Health care
• Cost of quality

• Macro-Environmental Drivers
• Economic trends
• Market trends
• Employment competition
• Technology
• Capital investment
• Competitive forces

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Project Workbench
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Strategic Leadership in a Continuous Improvement
Environment
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Business Rules

• Rule 1 It must be legal, ethical, and moral
• Rule 2 Must achieve business plan
• Rule 3 Failure is not an option.prevailing
  attitude must be, how you can, not how you cant
• Rule 4 There are no more rules the rest is
  talk

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Leadership Absolutes

• Surround yourself with high-performers
• Expect excellence, be tenacious about business
  performance and you will generally exceed your
  expectations
• Celebrate milestones, you will surely enjoy
  achieving them
• Never, never, become satisfied with your teams
  performance

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Developing Solutions to Competing Goals

• To accomplish high quality results, we must ask
  very high quality questions!!

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Final Thoughts

• When assuming responsibility for an organization
  or in a new role, Lean or otherwise, dedicate one
  day with your team and brainstorm as many of the
  difficult situations as you can imagine happening
  within your organization..Then develop action
  plans to prevent them from happening, and deal
  with it effectively.
• Try to keep work-life balance in perspective.
• You and your team must remain positive throughout
  the Lean transformation event.

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Questions.