The problem is that people don’t always react the way that we might expect. To some, the first notice that a change will occur is enough. Others need to be told several times and to be convinced.

The items in the following list may be helpful in bringing your project to a successful conclusion: 

1. Show how the change supports company and individual SMART goals.
2. Create a dialog on issues of concern.
3. Show how the customers, company and employees will benefit.
4. Solicit input from the start.
5. Conduct team building activities.
6. Use a MGPP for a gradual introduction.
7. Establish metrics for the As-Is state, which are to be compared with the results of the To-Be state.
8. Show how the change has worked in other organizations.
9. Focus on the results and benefits, not the features.
10. Develop trust through being consistent, predictable, and reliable.
11. Sustain gains to validate that the change was appropriate.
12. Gather data and report on metrics.
13. Explain what is likely to happen if the change is not made.
14. Ensure that plans for command, communications, and control are created and proven to be effective.

Perhaps we need to be better versed in persuasion or in delivering our message. The following is a list for additional reading:

Rick Maurer, “Beyond The Wall Of Resistance”, Revised Edition, Austin, TX: Bard Press, 2010.

Scott Belsky, “Making Ideas Happen”,  New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2010.

Michael Beitler, “Strategic Organizational Change”, Greensboro, NC: Practitioner Press International, 2006.

Michael Hammer and James Champy, “Reengineering The Corporation”, New York, NY:  HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.

Stefan Devaux, “Total Project Control”, New York, NY: Wiley 1999.

John Kotter and Dan Cohen, “The Heart Of Change”, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2002.

Robert Cialdini, “Influence”, New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1984,1994,2007.
Douglas Hubbard, “How To Measure Anything”, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010.

I am looking forward to the next step in my career. If you know of someone looking for a problem solver, I can be contacted at ronald.n.cooke@gmail.com or 1-815-579-5866.

I often wonder if the real root cause has been found.

Let’s say that the root cause has been determined to be ineffective training. The common fix is to review the subject matter and not make that mistake again. But is ineffective training the true root cause? What is ineffective training? It could be that ineffective training is just one symptom of how we approach the problem of passing skills from a master to an apprentice.

Consider the intent of training or education in general. The goal is the transfer of the ability to complete the task at hand. If the training contains the necessary information, there are a limited number of causes for ineffective performance. These reasons include the following:

Conflicting instructions exist.
The step(s) of a process are left undone.
The step(s) of a process are done incorrectly.
The employee is not engaged.
Either the employee has a hidden agenda or management has a hidden agenda.
The worker does not use (or does not know how to use) checklists or reference material.
Environmental or regulatory conditions exist that effect the desired performance.
The employee is not capable of doing the work.

The above list should be discussed for completeness with those who do the work and those who supervise the work. Workers and supervisors should be interviewed in separate sessions, and then in a combined session.

Are there other items that you would add to the list?

Do you have additional thoughts that you would be willing to share?

Lesson Learned: Sometimes it is beneficial to think in the next box for our answers.

I am looking forward to the next step in my career. If you know of someone looking for a problem solver, I can be contacted at ronald.n.cooke@gmail.com or 815-579-5866.

Early in my time as a green belt, I was on a project that required the shipment of some parts to another country for inspection. The package had stopped moving in customs in the destination country. It had not been blocked by the government from its final destination, just no movement out of customs.

The black belt had assumed that the addressee knew about how long clearing customs would take, and when to do a status check. This assumption did not turn out to be valid. The communications and cooperation between the three parties involved did not go well, so that the package was not received in a timely manner.

We need to facilitate the progress of our projects by diligently monitoring tasks every step of the way. This is not to say that we check on progress so much that we antagonize the participants, but it needs to be often enough to realize reasonable progress.

Every aspect of a project needs to be monitored and coaxed to completion. Otherwise, what should be completed in a short time may turn into a long time, and become a big delay. Those parts were important to our customer, and had a major effect on customer satisfaction. Lost days turned into lost production and lower profits for our customer, and damaged our reputation.

Although the root cause of delays need to be addressed, placing blame can be counterproductive. When blame is placed, people may stop bringing concerns to management, thus hiding the problem.

Even when we find what seems to be the root cause, which in this case was not  checking status and facilitating movement, it might not be the true root cause. Ask one more “why”, and you find that the black belt could have monitored progress more effectively by using a monitoring plan. Here is where there could have been a more thorough documentation of possible failure modes.

Lesson learned: projects need to show reasonable progress, which can often be tied to communication, cooperation, and diligence.

Do you have additional thoughts that you would be willing to share?

I am currently looking forward to the next step in my career. If you know of someone looking for a problem solver, I can be contacted at ronald.n.cooke@gmail.com or 815-579-5866.

P. S.  I like to do documentation!