I thought it was a good idea to to start a business blog to supplement the journal articles I write on change management.
(PDF Articles) I trust that some of the issues raised here may be of interest to you to pursue away from this blog of ideas and thoughts. The blogs run in date order with the most recent at the top of this page.
As part of our thirst to improve the interpersonal skills of change makers we are often asked how to deal more effectively with difficult people and in difficult situations. How do you deal with the;
Heckler who interrupts during a major presentation
Manager who over-talks on every occasion and fails to listen
Employee who does not want to sit through an assessment
Boss who puts task before people
Team Leader who fails to deliver objective, timely and equitable appraisals
Cynic who rejects any commitment to change when attending a training event
Senior managers who over evaluate and get stuck in the detail
Colleagues who fail to share responsibility for a joint project
Direct Reports who conform only sufficiently to avoid dismissal
Staff who think the business owes them a living
Long server who wrongly equates length of employment with advancement up the business
There are literally thousands of situations that require managers and team leader at all levels to deal effectively with the problem employee and it is not so easy without tuition, support, practice and a set of trusted techniques that work. Add to this a powerful and energetic workshop experience and you have "Establishing Rapport and Winning over Difficult People" - a highly interactive two day Workshop which can be specially designed for your circumstances and contexts.
How does it work? We visit with you to establish the key issues you would like to address. Maybe it is an issue related to "change management" or "post merger or acquisition" problems where there is difficulty in getting the new business to settle down into a running format. There may be a requirement to change the culture of the organisation to become widely customer focused, both internally and externally and to get into the 21st Century. It could be that staff need a complete overhaul in "performance management", giving and receiving feedback. Whatever the context, we can help support you in this most difficult area and most difficult time
Benefits of the Workshop
We are staging a whole series of events over the summer months focusing on managing '"Difficult People". Those attending our sessions take an active role in a highly interactive Workshop and leave at the end of the session being able to:
Assess "bad behaviour" in any of its formats
Develop strategies for dealing with bad behaviour
Assess core symptoms of poor performance and deal with them
In order to deal with the mindset of problem employees we walk in the boots of those awkward people and see the world from their perspective
Prepare and deliver bad news
Apply questioning techniques to explore why people will not co-operate
Listen to the concerns of others and develop "scenario switching"
Apply reframing techniques to get others to think differently
Examine personal selling strategies and how they work
Differentiate passive from active resistance to change - learn to move people along their change curve
Explore and counter the core defence mechanisms that people employ to avoid doing what you want them to do
Work in role play exercises to improve personal performance
Read "bad behaviour" and redress it before it becomes a problem
Develop techniques to counter the negative thinker
Learn to read and manage their boss
Deal with staff who constantly portray mood swings
18 May
Self Reflection: Desiderata - Max Ehrmann, 1920
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.
Take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Over the next few days we will be uploading a new section on this website entitled A-Z Change Strategies. The topics under the A -Z will be updated rigorously, and reviewed with new additions every month. We trust it will support visitors to the website who are focusing on exploring Best Practise in organisational change.
In this section, we will be focusing on the specific issues that are critical in radically improving organisation performance and individual growth. We will focus on diagnosing potential issues and explore the key symptoms of the problem, as well as expanding on the benefits that will accrue should the issue be resolved and the needed change installed.
We will also be pointing readers in the right direction focusing on key issues for implementing and sustaining that change.
Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement - Kaizen
Recent Blogs have focused on Continuous Improvement and took me back to writing my book Creating Culture Change in 1996. I believe this short extract sums up my beliefs about driving change and how we can all create a cultural revolution focused on quality improvement……………….
"My interest in learning from others and Modelling was stimulated by a ten day trip to Japan with the purpose of visiting companies who were or had implementing a huge change in culture. I was keen to learn those things which were least apparent about the way they approached change or continuous improvement - Kaizen. I was also interested in how the other 20 people on the self-financed trip would respond and how they would reframe the Japanese experience.
One day in particular which stands out was our visit to one of the 30 Toyota plants in Japan. During that trip we had the opportunity to exchange views and debate key issues. On such occasions, some discussions did get out of hand.
The statement below is the result of a heated discussion with a group of Toyota Managers who had been kind enough to take us through one of their most innovative production plants. We had just completed a two-hour tour of the Toyota plant in Toyoda City. We had been sitting with the Senior Management Team and asking questions about continuous improvement or Kiazen. At first, our hosts were bemused. To them, Kaizen was no more than business as usual!
Of our party of twenty, most asked questions trying to identify the critical issues to work on to emulate the Japanese approach to Quality. One or two asked embarrassingly naive questions implying that the Japanese approach to excellence could be quickly imported into European and American businesses - that is, once we have the secret! The question which created a most interesting response is printed beneath their question below.
"How long will it be until we in the West catch up and overtake you?"
The Manager who had conducted the tour spoke in clear English and his response was simple and to the point.
"We estimate it would take you 20 years to be where we are now, and by that time we will have progressed further. We have moved from a Quality philosophy of measuring defects on an acceptable quality level basis. We are now working on reducing our defect rate to below 5 to 6 parts per billion . Our last product recall was 1969 when we first started introducing what you know as Continuous Improvement." (Know known as part of Lean)
We left that meeting hall in silence. We had been exposed to depressing statistics.
Each day the twelve hundred employees at this plant, including service and non manufacturing personnel, produced two and a half thousand cars. Over two cars per person per day!
The European equivalent was eight cars per employee per year? Goodness knows what the rate is in 2007!
All employees participated in continuous improvement or Kiazen.
Staggeringly, the average number of ideas processed per year in Toyota was one hundred and eighty per employee, of which 98% percent were implemented. I wonder if the average company in the UK even measures ideas suggested against implementation
Can you imagine the feelings of inadequacy as our party of twenty left the plant. We had been exposed to so much during that last week, visiting two leading Japanese companies (service sector and manufacturing) every day. We had absorbed so much information and witnessed Quality Improvement at close quarters.
Interestingly, our host and guide told us why Toyota and other companies were very open about the process of continuous improvement that had worked for them. He stated clearly, they tell you these things because they know you'll never implement them. You do not have the ability to implement a sustain a culture of continuous improvement because you are too focused on short-term fixes."
Red Tape & Bureaucracy: Take a Good Look in the Mirror
A lot of the work I do is designing and running health check diagnostics for a variety of organisations. The most common is assessing the relative success of a business in terms in service delivery. Many management teams can be a little nervous exposing themselves to analysis, but how else can they improve?
From time to time, taking a good look in the mirror is necessary. Sometimes by accident or default we can find our standards slipping so it's a good idea to commit to regular reviews.
A big issue is focusing on how we transact as a business with our key customers or those who consume the services we provide. By talking with customers, we are able to address those issues that might put customer retention at risk.
These are some of the issues that we have been able to explore with recent interventions. You might want to consider how these relate to your business and the role your people play in the process.
Customer Retention
Do you know the key reasons why customers stop purchasing your services?
Do you know how much it costs to replace your customers in terms of time and money?
Discounting customers who die or move on, did you know that most FMCG's business lose 20% of their customers every year? So if we are not replacing these customers with new customers our customer base is eroding!
Processes & Bureaucracy
Do you know what internal processes most confuse or frustrate the customer?
Do you regularly review those processes which are customer facing?
Do you have a process for identifying and logging when breakdown in customer service occurs?
Do you have a recovery plan in place should such a catastrophe occur?
Relentless & Continuous Improvement
Do you have a robust process for improving performance in terms of improved quality, reliability of delivery, reducing cycle time, waste and rework?
Is the process of improvement driven by line managers, or is it the sole province of quality assurance or control?
Are there known methods and processes for initiating improvement?
Everything is a Process: Map Everything to Improve
Although much of my work resides in culture change, I always focus on the processes which underpin core transactions within the business. Examining core processes highlights what is not working and what needs fixing.
I know its hard to believe but often in companies there is little record or documentation of processes. You'd be amazed how much is committed to specific managers' memories - rather than documented.
In my interviews and focus groups it is interesting to discover that often there is a fundamental disagreement as what sequence of steps comprise a process. It all depends who you talk with! This is a serious issue that can put many organisations at huge risk.
People driven processes require some degree of discipline in process design and review or much energy, frustration, time and money can be wasted fruitlessly.
A good starting point the 20% of processes that support 80% of value with customers and suppliers.
Building a strong culture through process redesign can be a winner for the organisation who wants to delight their customers. Shaping the right culture to lead to continuous and relentless improvement is a good investment for any business
I firmly believe that eliminating bureaucratic processes should be the high priority when creating a customer focused business.
We usually associate 'bureaucracy' and 'red tape' with processes which require to be inspected by multiple levels of managers, and are time wasting, unwieldy and slow. Is it any wonder then that we can create a more responsive customer focused culture by focusing on changing those things in the business that inhibit responsiveness?
We can do this by ……….......
Listing all the processes that support the delivery of service to your customers.
Focusing upon the 'Vital Few' - the 20% of processes that significantly influence customer perception of service delivery.
Establishing who is the owner of the process - (often there are many across the organisation) - this is the first problem to resolve. A concerted effort is needed to provide 'joined up' service delivery across functional silos.
Assessing the 'robustness' of each process in delivering to customer requirements.
Working through the internal supply chain from customer order to delivery and finding out where errors are most evident.
Running Workshops to bring the internal supply chain' closer together and ask key participants who provide the service to identify improvements.
Identifying waste, rework, repetition, over-inspection and focus on improving quality of delivery and reduce cycle time from order to delivery.
Giving people the tools to continually improve customer focused processes.
Setting up Process Improvement Teams and motivate them to do things better, faster and more effectively every day.
Understanding that if you are not making efforts to get better every day then someone else probably is - threatening your customer retention.
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