How do you successfully engage people in a Lean environment How do you successfully engage people in a Lean environment? Lesley Fleming, Bourton Group

Backwards Brainstorm What could we do to ensure people are NOT engaged in a Lean Environment? Pop your ideas onto individual sticky notes When you’ve got your ideas down, they will be collected from round the group and collated onto the flip chart

What is engagement? The extent to which employees are motivated to contribute to organisational success and are willing to apply discretionary effort to accomplishing tasks that are important to the achievement of organisational goals. CIPD reported in 2010 that only 8% of employees were strongly engaged UK ranked 9th out of 12th largest economies (GDP) in 2009 Four out of five employers are seeking to increase levels of emgagement

Benefits of increased engagement Profit Customer satisfaction Productivity Innovation Retention Well being Health and safety CIPD findings January 2010 engaged employees perform better the majority of engaged respondents were rated ‘good’ in their last appraisal engaged employees are more innovative than others engaged employees are more likely to want to stay with their employer in the sample, 35% indicate that they would like to continue working for their employer for five or more years, compared with 17% who want to leave within the next two years engaged employees enjoy greater levels of personal well-being engaged employees perceive their workload to be more sustainable than others one-third of employees are ‘fit-performers’, enjoying high levels of personal well-being and performing well our data indicate that excessively high levels of engagement might lead to ill-health and burnout.

Four enablers of engagement A strong strategic narrative provided by visible, empowering leadership Engaging managers who focus people and give them scope, treat them as individuals, coach and stretch Organisational integrity – values on the wall reflected on day to day behaviours Employee voice for reinforcing and challenging views, working between functions internally and externally, employees central to the solution Source: “Nailing the Evidence” UK Employee Engagement Task Force, Bruce Rayton University of Bath School of Management - Nov 2012

The leadership ‘value add’ Focus Creating a vision that is inspiring yet achievable Sharing the vision in a way that is attractive to people Structure Creating the infrastructure to deliver the vision and business objectives Establishing clear roles, responsibilities, processes, methods and standards Discipline Managing systems and procedures consistently Developing and encouraging ways of working to achieve the vision Ownership Devolving responsibility, authority and accountability Being the change you want to see in the world

Focus: organisation needs Goal Objectives Strategies Plans Actions Deployment cascade Reporting route Translating the needs of the organisation into something meaningful that individuals can relate to and contribute towards

Focus: customer needs Translating the needs of the customer into measures that individuals can influence and see the outcome. Expressed need Time CTQ Measure 1 CTQ Measure 2 Quality CTQ Measure 3 CTQ Measure 4 CTQ Measure 5 Cost CTQ Measure 6

Structure: deployment methodology Engagement opportunity Process Redesign driven by centrally led and resourced project team over a longer time scale Project / programme management experts Focused participation of process stakeholders, customers and suppliers Lean Sigma DMAICT specialists Lean Rapid Improvement Events focused on resolving cross team issues Lean practitioners /facilitators Locally generated operational performance improvements led by team leaders Daily Work Group meetings Primary Visual Display 3Cs problem solving 5S workplace improvements few Radical Process/ Organisation Redesign Project-based step improvement engagement opportunity Continual incremental improvements many

Structure: tools and techniques Shared toolkit used by all across the organisation in the conduct of everyday business.

Discipline – leadership behaviours Sustaining the Lean environment Power Pain Vision Resources Organisation / individual impact Scope Public / private role Consequence management Monitoring activities Sacrifice

Discipline – team behaviours Display Measure Review People owning continuous performance improvement Work Prioritise Improve Diagnose

Ownership – generating engagement Ref: Tannenbaum & Schmidt “Leadership Continuum” To be fully engaged, your teams need you to share: Authority to make changes - within agreed boundaries Information they can use - understanding the business issues Resources to adopt Lean - time, tools/techniques, help

Ownership – sustaining engagement CHALLENGE CLUB HIGH PERFORMANCE APATHY STRESS high low SUPPORT At a given time, and in relation to a given task: High support and low challenge is the comfort zone. We are not stretched, and performance improvement is not a prime concern. Lean is of academic interest High challenge and low support is stressful. This occurs when we are trying to do something that we are not equipped to do or do not have the capacity. This will not generate sustainable improvements. Low challenge and low support has the effect of inducing apathy. There is little stimulation and little interest, goals can become invisible. It can be a depressing environment with problems tolerated. High support and high challenge is where learning and achievement go together. Stretching targets are more likely to be accepted and delivered because people have the resources and enthusiasm to meet them Ref: Blake Mouton Managerial Grid

Discussion and conclusions