1. LONG TERM LEAN SUSTAINABILITY Rob Walley Bourton Group LLP

2. THE CARROT STORY

3. Success in life is like the Carrot Diet
“If you master the ‘secret’ of the Carrot Diet you’ll be successful at almost anything you do”
Success in business is like the Carrot Diet
The secret is a valuable lesson, one worth examining, especially in today’s faster, better, lower-cost world
The Carrot Diet story illustrates why initiatives often fail in organisations

4. The Carrot Diet is a straightforward technique
“Eat one pound of raw carrots half-an-hour before every meal or snack”
The Carrot Diet is a straightforward technique for safely losing weight
The concept is very simple: eat one pound of raw carrots half-an-hour before every meal or snack - not cooked, not juiced, not carrot sticks, just whole raw carrots
After eating one pound of carrots, you may eat anything and everything else you like
It requires no special menus or equipment, and it works every time
Yet experience demonstrates that not one person in 100 is successful with the Carrot Diet, even for a day or two
People fail in their resolve because they do not know the secret of the Carrot Diet. Without this secret, it cannot work

5. Organisations encounter challenges that require Carrot discipline
“How does your organisation eat its carrots?”
The answer is critical to an organisations potential for implementation success
Organisations operate in highly competitive markets and encounter challenges that require Carrot Diet discipline
Despite the importance of success, few organisations achieve the expected results
Why? Because as individuals, organisations do not know the secret of the Carrot Diet approach

6. At the beginning, everyone supported the initiative
“Everyone realised the importance of the carrot initiative and pledged their support”
The mission was clear. Carrot coffee cups, note paper cubes and laminated cards were distributed
Things seemed to be going well until the first carrots appeared on their ‘already full plates’. Problems arose
Operators and supervisors complained that they did not have time to eat carrots
We know carrots are important but do you want carrots or production? We don’t have time for both
They promised to eat a few carrots when things slowed down. But things never slowed down

7. The engineers began to work on improvements
“The engineers decided they would take a beta-carotene pill each day”
They determined that carrots worked because of beta-carotene
So instead of eating carrots (which was more appropriate for operations people) they decided they could take a beta-carotene pill each day and get the benefits of hundreds of carrots
NO CARROTS WERE EATEN

8. HR discovered some potential problems
“They were concerned that meat lovers might be offended by the focus on a vegetable”
The employment contract never actually said workers had to chew on the job
HR recommended that carrots be put on hold until these issues were dealt with
Wanting to set a good example, THEY ATE NO CARROTS and were careful not to speak of the orange vegetable
Employment Contract

9. Computer Services developed a Carrot consumption tracking programme
By using this programme all levels of management would be able to plan and monitor the results of the carrot initiative
IT Staff said they could design and install such a system in 15 months for about £200,000
They recommended that carrots be postponed until the system was in beta testing. AGAIN, NO CARROTS WERE EATEN

10. Preliminary Carrot calculations indicated a large profit as a result of the initiative
“But upon further analysis , Accounts discovered the following problems”
Carrots were not in the budget and the accounting system did not have a line item to track carrot expenditure
Worse yet, what labour code would be assigned for carrot eating time - was it training or labour?
ACCOUNTING SUGGESTED A DELAY IN EATING CARROTS UNTIL THESE QUESTIONS COULD BE ADDRESSED

11. The CEO renamed the conference room the ‘Carrot War Room’
“The chief executive, fully endorsed the initiative”
Countless hours were spent in support of the Total Company Carrot Plan (TCCP)
To demonstrate commitment, he visited every location of Acme and gave TCCP kick-off speeches. He approved carrot coffee cups and golf shirts
Unfortunately, the chief executive was unable to stay completely focused on TCCP. Other initiatives demanded his attention
TCCP was delegated to another leader, who was also very busy

12. Everyone supported the concept, but few Carrots were eaten
“As you can guess, the initiative at Acme failed”
One year later, the only evidence of carrots at Acme was the occasional laminated wallet card in an empty desk
Did Acme fail because the carrot approach failed?
Acme failed because its management did not understand the secret of the carrot approach
Five-a-side

13. The Secret is this….
“The secret of the Carrot Diet is realising there is NO ALTERNATIVE to eating the carrots”
There is no alternative - no exceptions
No matter how smart you are, how intuitive, or how computer literate
No matter what you do - from top to bottom- you have to take the carrots, snap them off, chew them up and swallow them down
The basic actions must be identified, performed and measured all day long, every day, to effectively implement anything new

14. That’s the secret of the Carrot approach
“How can you have your results if you don’t eat your carrots?”
It is the critical element of all implementations, whether it’s Lean, 6-sigma, new technology or other initiative
Everyone in the organisation must embrace new ways of doing things, until the actions become automatic and ultimately, self-sustaining
Most initiatives fail because leadership teams don’t understand how to manage disciplined implementation on a rigorous timetable

15. Lean Leaders should develop and ensure
What is important?
How it will be deployed?
Will we stick to it?
Are we proud of what we do?
FOCUS
STRUCTURE
DISCIPLINE
OWNERSHIP
Lean Leaders need to set clear priorities and make sure that their teams know what is important. People are heavily influenced by the priorities set by their boss!
Lean Leaders need ensure the right structures, mechanisms, methods, tools and techniques are available for teams to deliver against the priorities they have set.
Lean Leaders need to set clear standards and lead by example. They need to ensure that their teams are sticking to good behaviours and are discouraged from poor ones
Lean Leaders need encourage pride and ownership of the teams work by the team and its members. Leaders need to devolve accountability where they can.

16. Focus: organisation needs
Translating the needs of the organisation into something meaningful that individuals can relate to and contribute towards

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

18. 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

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

20. Discipline – Leadership Behaviours

21. Discipline – Team Behaviours

22. Ref: Tannenbaum & Schmidt “Leadership Continuum”
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

23. Ref: Blake Mouton Managerial Grid
Ownership – sustaining engagement
CHALLENGE
CLUB
HIGH PERFORMANCE
APATHY
STRESS
high
low
SUPPORT
Ref: Blake Mouton Managerial Grid

24. The absence of these leads to Waste
What is important?
How it will be deployed?
Will we stick to it?
Are we proud of what we do?
FOCUS
STRUCTURE
DISCIPLINE
OWNERSHIP
Without a clear direction and set priorities there will be wasted effort, energy and misaligned activity.
Without the right structures, mechanisms, methods, tools and techniques there will be inconsistency, duplication and omission.
Without clear standards being set and consistently managed systems and procedures, poor practices will thrive and there will be variation and conflict.
If responsibility, authority and accountability are withheld from the team, negative behaviors will be reinforced leading to poor performance.