Why Do Transformational Efforts Fail? Part 3
Lean Nation,
Welcome back to part three of a four-part series. This month's topic is a continuation of a series that was spawned from a LinkedIn posting on failing transformational efforts. For your reference, the link to the posting is here. (2) Post | LinkedIn. In this posting the writer suggested that Agile and Change Management efforts are finished within industry. There are several thousand comments arguing for and against the hypothesis.
Soon after this a posting, I received an article with the hypothesis being that 98% of the organizations that embark on continuous improvement journeys completely abandon their efforts within 18 months. I do not have any data to support or refute this hypothesis either, but I do not think it is a coincidence that several people are writing about this topic.
I can confirm, from my consulting practice of nearly 20 years, that many organizations start off strong and then reduce or even completely eliminate their efforts over time. This is frequently in light of the fact that they realized significant benefit from their initial improvement efforts. So why is this the case?
The most common problems organizations make when embarking on a continuous improvement journey are listed below:
1) Do not waste the first six months of your improvement efforts (part 1
2) Failure to monitor the breadth and depth of change (part 2)
3) Failure to get everyone involved (part 3 and the content in this blog)
4) Eliminate two systems as soon as possible (part 4)
In part 1 of this series, I discussed how organizations frequently squander the first six to nine months of their efforts. At this point, it is often too difficult to regain momentum and the transformational effort fails. You can re-read that blog here:
https://breakthroughhorizonsltd.blogspot.com/2024/12/breakthrough-highlights-why-do.html
In part 2 of this series, I discussed how organizations fail to monitor the breadth and depth of change. It is important to manage the breadth and depth of change because changing too fast leads to failed efforts in sustaining improvement and changing too slow leads to complacency and oftentimes an inability to change culture. This blog can be found here:
Why Do Transformational Efforts Fail? Part 2
In this blog we will dive onto the third reason that organizations fail to sustain their effort to transform, that being a failure in getting everyone involved. In short, transformation occurs when the entire organization can think, act, and behave differently. Let us take each of these in turn.
Thinking is the mindset an organization uses when encountering a problem or a challenge. A problem might be that the current process produces too many defects, or working capital is tight because cash is being excessively consumed on slow moving inventory. A challenge may be that a competitor is now in the market and has shorter lad-times or lower costs. Or strategically, there is an imperative to improve productivity by 25% next year.
An improving organization would use improvement principles to identify and eliminate wasted time and activity leading to sustainable change in quality, delivery and cost. That thinking has to precede planning and execution.
Acting is next in the necessary step needed to transform an organization. An improving organization follows the scientific method to deliver the actual change / improvement. A lean organization would use A3 thinking. A Six Sigma organization would use the DMAIC framework. Organizations that are not interested in transforming culture and performance would use a combination of gut feel, impulse decisions, or blame to make decisions often leading to failed execution.
Proper behavior follows. As has been famously stated, it is easier to act your way into a new form of thinking, than to think your way into a new form of acting. Asking the right questions based on how we think, followed by taking action using the scientific method, will lead to the correct behaviors allowing the transformation of process and results to flourish!
So, what does thinking, acting, and behaving have to do with the third common problem seen in failed transformation? When we do not have plan to get everyone engaged in improvement, we cannot get to the critical mass needed to change the way we think, act and behave.
If your organization is struggling with transformational process improvement, do you have everyone involved? Is leadership engaged or watching form the sidelines. Do your subject matter experts (finance, quality, engineering, supply chain, human resources, IT, etc.) have an active role in your change efforts? Is leadership making all the decisions or does staff have a say in improving their work? Is the staff really engaged, or did you check the box by giving everyone two hours of basic improvement training with no follow-on application leading to wasting everyone's time with no results?
Getting everyone involved is critical to transformational success. The tipping point toward transformation happens when you get a majority of the organization to think, act, and behave differently.
See if engaging the right people can re-energize your improvement efforts. Don't give up, inspire and engage!
Lean Blessings,
Ron
Ron Bercaw, President, and Sensei
Breakthrough Horizons
www.breakthroughhorizons.com
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