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Lessons From Long Distance Running: Pace

Change Strategies, Organizational Change, Resistance, Sustaining ChangeComments Off

This is part of the series “Lessons from Change Management Strategies and Long Distance Running.”

The early morning air was cool at the starting line. My body felt rested and my legs fresh. With several thousand runners anxious to start, the excitement was in the air. At the starting signal I felt a rush of adrenaline. My first temptation was to get away and break into the open as soon as possible. A natural urge would be to start fast to get to the front of the pack, a mistake that could cost a runner the race or injury. The key is pace!

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 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 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.

Best and Worst Practices in BPM and SOA

Acceptance, Mindsets & Behavior, Organizational Change, ResistanceComments Off

In his article, author Peter Woodhull presents the following 3 worst practices and 3 best practices to implementing BPM (Business Process Management) and SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture):

Worst
  1. Buying software first without understanding the business needs and requirements.
  2. Discounting the organizational change effort required to make the solution work.
  3. Trying to “boil” the ocean, trying to do all at once.

Best

  1. Start by defining and validating the problem and the business process in question.
  2. Use BPM and SOA as part of the solution instead of THE solution to complex business problems.
  3. Start with a mission critical process to ensure the necessary executive sponsorship and priority.

Interesting read…The Five Pillars of Supply Chain Excellence

Culture Change, Organizational Change, ResistanceComments Off

By Jill Jusko (http://industryweek.com/articles/building_a_better_supply_chain_19610.aspx).

Here are my thoughts… These pillars are quite broad and it’s hard to disagree with them. Not that I would want to disagree with any of it but one could argue that these five pillars are critical to almost any core function of a business. However, when speaking specifically of supply chain resilience and robustness, these five pillars of excellence are fundamental.
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