Making It All Work

A Pocket Guide to Sustain Improvement And Anchor Change

John Schultz, John R Schultz

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781136939433
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book explains how to organize and manage modifications during the solution realization phase of problem solving so improvements become the new way of life. The nine steps detailed in the books chapters, although applied to solution implementation, can be used on their own to manage many types of system modification. These transition activities are framed in a three stage model first proposed by Kurt Lewin the father of change theory. It packages a strategy for sustaining improvements that is easy to understand and apply – unfreeze, change, and refreeze.

Fundamental organizational performance techniques are introduced during each step to assist in managing the transformation from idea to integrated solution. These practices are not new or revolutionary, but often overlooked while team members focus on statistical and analytical means The described methods have a decidedly human focus and are meant to supplement the familiar diagnostic tools associated with six-sigma and process improvement projects.

Part one
Unfreezing

Proverb: “Think of coming out before going in.”

(Siu, 1980, p. 304)

Before improvements can be made, people need to have a reason to make them. They must be motivated, particularly if the current way of operating is comfortable and reasonably effective. No one wants to take a chance when status, competence, relationships, and compensation might be at risk. Certainty will usually outweigh uncertainty.

So the first step is getting individuals or the group ready to accept another way of doing things. This requires creating awareness by exposing the flaws and difficulties associated with the current or accepted way. System modification involves not only learning something new but also unlearning something that is already well entrenched.

Edgar Schein (1980) suggested three helpful mechanisms:

1. stop validating current behaviors, attitudes, or work arrangements;

2. create sufficient guilt and discomfort with the current operation so people are ready to look at alternatives; and

3. set up a feeling of well-being by reducing barriers and promoting benefits that are only obtainable through moving in a new direction.

The goal during unfreezing is to craft a motive for modified behavior. Start by increasing driving forces—the reasons for change—so restraining forces are outweighed. Break down the old way of doing things so people are ready to take a chance on something different.

three
Explain the Need for Making Improvement

This chapter describes how to make the need for improvements obvious, and how to cut through complacency so system stakeholders understand why it’s necessary to move in a new direction. The following are the topics that will be explored:

Recognizing the Need for Making Improvement

Why Complacency Is Such a Problem When Making Improvement

Sources of Complacency

Raising the Level of Awareness

Explain the Need for Making Improvement: How to Make It Happen

An Example of How It Was Done

Recognizing the Need for Making Improvement

The first move when trying to initiate improvement is getting others to recognize the need to make changes. Although there are many forces that can trigger awareness, the individuals impacted by change often remain complacent and unaware. Gaining their attention so behaviors and practices are interpreted in a new way should be part of an effective effort to manage system alterations.

Sustaining improvements in most workplaces can be difficult because there is pressure to maintain harmony. Workgroups and their supervisors would rather not rock the boat because they have adapted to the current system. Its routines and relationships have become automatic and comfortable. The time-honored practices have allowed people to create a mental model that is reassuring and secure. This sense of steadiness creates complacency and a reluctance to do things differently.

The goal during this step, because people may not recognize the need for making improvement, is to reduce contentment and indifference. This effort, however, should be more than an awareness campaign, yet not so forceful that people immediately tune out. Establishing a sense of urgency is one of the most effective ways to gain attention.

Start by employing methods that encourage collective learning. This is a constructive way to expose the rocks that can lie under a system’s apparently placid surface. Collective learning creates awareness, develops capabilities, and gets people to challenge issues so real improvement can be made. It raises urgency without immediately increasing opposition.

Consider using some of the following sources as a basis for making the need obvious:

Benchmark shortcomings against competitors or leaders in the organization’s market.

Document and display information about complaints from customers, clients, and stakeholders.

Document and display data related to rejects, scrap, rework, or the failure to maintain routine process control.

Question waste that is the result of complexity, bureaucracy, overproduction, excess inventory, transportation, waiting time, or unnecessary motion.

Expose excesses in spending and the inappropriate use of resources.

Why Complacency Is Such a Problem When Making Improvement

There are many reasons why people tend to remain passive when improvements to a system are proposed. Fundamental to this attitude is the need for stability. Getting work done can be difficult in a situation where relationships and procedures are continually unsettled. As a result, system stakeholders learn how to make things work by building their own networks and methods for handling the job. Difficulties and problems are ignored in an effort to avoid conflict and keep things on an even keel.

Many people will become uneasy when bothersome issues are made visible through problem-solving. Fear and anxiety can overtake individuals because there are now uncertainties about roles, relationships, and practices. Workers worry about being able to perform in the new game. Stakeholders can have unanswered questions about feelings in the following areas:

Vulnerability: Will I be blamed for the problem? Will I be the scapegoat? Will I be moved to a different job? Will I still have a job?

Trust: Can I believe what people are telling me? Will I be treated with respect? Will people accept what I’m saying as the truth? Will I still have the same access to information? Can I rely on others to do their part?

Competency: Will my skills be adequate? Will I be able to keep up? Can I compete with others in the group? Can I handle the mathematics required? What do I need to know to work as part of a new team?

Sources of Complacency

Complacency can arise for many reasons. It exists not only because those impacted by changes seem to be blind about the future, but also because there is contentment with the way things are now going. Even if there are recognized threats, system personnel often continue as if nothing new has happened.

Dealing with complacency can be challenging because of the following factors:

People develop an aversion to risk-taking due to fear about how future events will unfold.

People hold the belief that the problem is not a major crisis and will resolve itself over time.

Personnel are already too busy and stressed so the notion of additional work is rejected.

People recognize that past suggestions haven’t produced proposed results and hold the belief that the organization “keeps reinventing the wheel.”

People think there is a clear mismatch between management’s pitch on how things are doing and its behavior—those in charge don’t walk the talk.

Personnel feel that past support in terms of coaching, training, and resources has been absent.

People think that management onl...

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• one An Elegant Solution Is Only the Beginning
• two A Practical Approach to Sustaining Improvement
• Part one Unfreezing
• Part two Changing
• Part three Refreezing
• Appendix
• Key Terms
• References
• Index