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Why Communication Fails? …What’s Missing?

Change Strategies, Organizational Change, Stakeholder16 Comments

Ever heard the cure to all problems? “Communicate, communicate, communicate!” …Yea, think of this…

A long time ago, I was in downtown Mexico City. A big place with lots of tourists. I saw an American tourist (camera and all), asking a vendor for information…in English. Yes! Next, the local doesn’t respond right…so the tourist begins to increase the volume and slow down. The third time, the woman was almost SHOU-TING  E-VERY SY-LLA-BLE! 
Can you picture that? Yes, it was funny to watch. In the end, the local never understood what the tourist was talking about. The tourist left angry and frustrated!

Facilitation as a Key Intervention for Organizational Change

Change Strategies, Facilitation, Mindsets & Behavior, Organizational Change2 Comments

As I prepare to attend the International Association of Facilitators Conference in Denver (one of my favorite professional conferences!) I remember presenting at this same conference (but in Europe a couple of years ago) on the topic of Facilitation as a Key Intervention for Organizational Change.

So, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts on how group facilitation or dialogue facilitation is a key intervention for bringing about organizational change. One of the great business thinkers, Peter Block, said…”Change happens in the dialogue of the ‘why’ questions…looking for the meaning of things.”

The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt Part VI: The Change Agent

Change Strategies, Culture Change, Mindsets & Behavior, Organizational Change, ResistanceComments Off

This is part of the series The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt. The concepts and ideas presented also apply to other improvement professionals and leaders implementing improvements in an organization.

The Change Agent Role

Once I was working with a plant manager in Latin America to facilitate an all day session to roll out a new operating plan from the plant. We had planned a very interactive day to ensure the start to this transition would be effective. When I got there I found out that the two ‘big guns’ from corporate who were architects of the plan were in town and prepared to take over the meeting to present the business case and laying out the plan, the new operating goals, the financials, and the new roles and responsibilities, all in good Six Sigma lingo. The HR manager was there with stacks of paper containing the new job descriptions. It was obviously too late for me to change course so I sat in the audience as an observer.

The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt Part V: The Facilitator

Change Strategies, Communication, Effective Meetings, Facilitation, Group Effectiveness, Lean Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, TeamsComments Off

This is part of the series The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt. The concepts and ideas presented also apply to other improvement professionals and leaders implementing improvements in an organization.
The Facilitator Role

To illustrate this role picture this. I was with a team of IT programmers to develop a SIPOC (a tool that identifies the inputs, outputs, suppliers, and customers for each step of a process) of the testing process for new software. So, I asked a very straight forward and logical question…”what are the process steps for testing new software?”

I was surprised when the group seemed stumped. It’s not that they didn’t know the answer. They were subject matter experts. They knew how to test software. So I asked the same question again. Twice. With the same response…none!

The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt Part IV: The Leader

Change Strategies, Leadership, Lean Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, Organizational Change, TeamsComments Off

This is part of the series The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt. The concepts and ideas presented also apply to other improvement professionals and leaders implementing improvements in an organization.

The Leader Role

This example illustrates this critical role. In one project I followed closely, the BB worked hard to earn the trust and respect of a team of front line workers who made electrical harnesses for aircraft. These were union employees who typically did not mingle with “management” types like a BB (even though BBs didn’t really didn’t manage people but that was the generic label for anyone not covered by a union contract), but they had managed to learn from one another and now they were developing a new training program as a pilot for a larger training effort within the union-covered workforce. The union employees even got to go on a “benchmarking” trip to a local company as part of the effort. It was unheard of for union employees to be involved in such activities but they loved the work and when faced with the expected criticism from fellow union members for hanging out with “management” people, they effectively defended their position and continued their work. This small band of unlikely friends (that’s what they had become) had bonded in such a way that even years after the BB had moved on to another division, they kept in touch and he would come by their shop whenever he was in town.

The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt Part III: The Project Manager

Change Strategies, Lean Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, Project implementation, TeamsComments Off

This is part of the series The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt. The concepts and ideas presented also apply to other improvement professionals and leaders implementing improvements in an organization.

The Project Manager Role

Because the process of certification requires the BB to close a specific number of projects that are usually defined in a “project contract”, the BB is by definition also a Project Manager. Some BBs may not think of themselves as “project managers” and in fact many of them may not even have experience or formal training in project management. This is a problem specially when Six Sigma training does not include project management materials. As a result many a BB have no idea how to define the project objective, delineate the scope, define the work to be done beyond the prescribed phases or gates (the SS methodology outlines specific phases, steps, and tools to be used), or determine dependencies, or manage schedule and critical path. Though this may not be a problem for small projects, it does become an issue for medium size and large complex projects. 
What can the BB do? There are some alternatives depending on the background of the BB, their place in the certification process, and what the organization expects and will tolerate.

The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt Part II: The Expert

Change Strategies, Employee Involvement, Leadership, Lean Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, Organizational Change, Resistance, Teams1 Comment

This is part of the series The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt. The concepts and ideas presented also apply to other improvement professionals and leaders implementing improvements in an organization.

The Expert Role

Companies that are serious about their Six Sigma initiative spend significant resources in training and certifying BBs (typically a two-year process). Thus, Black Belts become tool experts in using the technical tools of the Six Sigma methodologies (DMAIC or DFSS). They might also be subject matter experts (SME) if they are assigned projects within their own functional group. Finally, they may also be process experts as they are often selected because of their background as engineers, manufacturing professionals, or some other process focused discipline.

The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt

Culture Change, Employee Involvement, Lean Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, Organizational ChangeComments Off

The title of this series refers to the Six Sigma Black Belt, but the concepts and ideas expressed here apply equally to any improvement professional and leader trying to implement improvements in an organization.

Part I: The Question

Early in my career I had the chance to become trained and certified as a Six Sigma Black Belt (a trained practitioner of process and quantitative tools to improve process performance by practically eliminating errors and variation in a process). The company had fully embraced Six Sigma and selected a number of individuals to participate in a two-year rotation program to become certified Black Belts.

Black Belts were a “selected” group of experts “deployed” to save the company (ok, that’s a bit dramatic). Needless to say, the whole movement was not without controversy and though the company did achieve good success there were lessons to be learned. 

Dealing with unwelcome change: Illinois town takes care of itself

Acceptance, Agility, Mindsets & BehaviorComments Off

Here is an interesting article in the USA Today about an IL town that dealt with unwelcome change in what appears to be an effective way.
 http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-09-21-1Aherrin21_CV_N.htm

While many of the comments in response to the article focus on the practice of outsourcing, the main point of the article (and maybe I’m filtering through my own lenses too much) is how the town coped with the transition. It’s a good story, even inspiring. It does not have a happy ending for all but overall, I think it’s a good example of managing through a very difficult transition. I encourage you to read the article but here is what I gleaned as far as effective change/transition management practices:

The Effects of Organizational Change on Psychological Stress and Job Performance

Agility, Culture Change, Employee Engagement, Organizational Change, Resistance15 Comments

Last year (March 2008) the Journal of International Business & Economicspublished a study by Phapruke Ussahawanitchakit and Chaiyot Sumritsakun on the effect of Organizational Change (OC) on employees’ stress and performance. Among other findings, they reported:

  1. OC results in higher psychological stress (employees feeling psychologically and emotionally drained due to pressure during the organizational change).
  2. OC leads to lower job performance due to stress.
  3. Moreover, neither “organizational communication and support moderate the relationships” between organizational change, psychological stress, and job performance.
The implications are significant for a number of reasons.
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