Failure, what it taught me
A story of personal reflection.
Throughout my career I have helped organisations improve performance. I have been the subject matter expert parachuted in to lead improvements. I have done this many times and failed often. I made improvements, they achieved results. However in some cases these results didn’t sustain. I could say it was down to the organisations, and create a list of excuses. However the failure was mine to own. It wasn’t exactly what I did more how I did it.
I remember a case for a global manufacturing organisation. I was leading a transformation project to create efficient work areas to improve productivity, increase engagement and to create standardisation across the sites. I mobilised a highly engaged team made up of members from each of the sites to be become champions of the change. We developed our approach based on the infamous 5S from the Toyota Production System, and delivered this standard to each site.
We worked with each site on a pilot area with great results. The teams from each cell, were so enthusiastic about the improvement we never contemplated that they wouldn’t sustain. Yet that is exactly what happened!
Six months after the pilots, I went to review each site to see how they were progressing the roll out across other cells, and to see how the pilot cell was doing. The majority of the roll out was virtually stopped, it had lost momentum. The pilot cells, although still better than where we had started were well below the standard we had initially achieved. Meaning the cells were missing out on the productivity gains. Plus the teams were now more disengaged than they were previously and felt let down by me and the company.
Apart from one cell, in one of the sites located in Kenya. This cell was 3 or 4 levels beyond how we finished the pilot. A lady came up to me and said:
“My work area now, is so efficient! I can close my eyes and know where everything is.”
She proceeded to carry out her process with her eyes closed. Everything she needed was at arms reach, no more walking up and down to find her parts or tools. A massive success, a success that was sustaining. What was different? I asked myself.
Leadership, teamwork, daily commitment
What was different in this pilot compared to the rest was that the cell’s leaders were involved in the transformation from day 1. They created a whole team ethos about being better everyday and to embed the learnings from the pilot to keep improving. They were conducting retrospections everyday about what was working and what was not then acting on the findings. They owned their improvement and made it their work.
I had missed this critical leadership at the other sites. I had failed to engage the team and the leaders to be united around a common cause they all were committed too.
I had failed to ensure the mindset of continual improvement was embedded into their day to day work.
This learning sparked a change in how I handled improvement. Sustainable improvement comes through creating a culture that makes improvement part of everyone's everyday work. A lesson learnt by Toyota early in their journey, a lesson I hadn’t realised the true power off.
Yes conceptually it’s obvious, however seeing it in reality is so compelling it changed the direction of my career, my business and to some degree the principles I run my life by now.
Its one thing learning something, its another applying it…
..So how do you take this approach and create a culture of improvement with 240 Sites. This was a challenge I was faced with working for one of the largest construction companies in the UK. They had around 240 live sites in construction. Each one a mini - organisation delivering between £10m - £100m revenue. The journey for improvement would be difficult due to the sheer number of sites, and the geographical challenge of the sites being spread throughout the UK.
My learning was a realisation that the improvement culture had to be delivered in small steps. Each step being sustained before moving on. Each step required the buy-in of all involved. The change process was a more of an organic growth than a management directive.
For me it felt like I was a farmer planting seeds, some would grow shoots while others would deflect of stones in the ground.
This was not seen as a failure, more of the reality of change. The green shoots were nurtured and their success shared. Slowly all the ground became fertile.
The reality that improvement isn’t over night
Improvement wasn't over night. In fact the challenge at first was to take back control. Within construction there are so many variables to control and so many out of your control and influence. It's tough to manage let alone improve on the predicted programme which in reality is often a best guess at the time of creation. When the spade hits the ground more and more becomes known, often pushing back the programmes.
We adopted a simple programme to take back control. It was called Short Interval Control. A system took from the automotive world. It's a simple system that uses the principle of a linear sequence to obtain improvements. First you have to see it to measure it. Once you measure it you can start to control it. Once you have control, you can then start to improve.
We set up standard metrics for each site, and asked sites to visually display them. (See). We asked them to put targets up and measure against them ( Measure). We then followed with routines to discuss if the metric was on track ( same or above the target) or off track ( below target). The conversations would direct the teams to take ownership of the off-track conditions and put in corrective actions to get back on track. The conversations would also drill down into the above target conditions to understand the winning moves. ( Control). At the end of the week, the team would review the metrics and discuss how to improve them for the next week. (Improve). This replaced the many different conversations they were having day to day. It minimised their individual reporting as everything was visible for all to see. To-do lists, individual notes were all avoided as there was one place to manage it all, a place that was shared. Accountability increased due to this transparency. The system became the way to manage the project. The improvement conversations were part of that work, not additional but seen as fundamental.
For me, having taken this approach of “making improvement work”, helping organisations improve the way they improve to so many different types of organisations with all sorts of amazing people, the realisation is that it is our approach to how we conduct improvements is key. Performance comes through people.
You have to connect at a personal level, you have to collaborate for the good of the organisation not just getting your idea over and finally you have to be committed to co-creating a better future together.
To do that you have to be united behind a common cause you won’t be denied. Have the curiosity and open mindset to explore and experiment. You then have to have the willingness, commitment and guts to go out and attack the opportunities.
