Change Fundamentals

“Change makes me feel uncomfortable.”

“Change is hard.”

“We don’t need to change, everything is fine.”

I’m sure you have heard these before, maybe even said something like this.  But now you are in a position of Leadership or you are responsible for the activities of a team and you see that you’re not reaching the performance levels you need to get ahead.  Money Girl may be scheduling meetings with you twice a week to discuss your budget numbers.  You could be meeting twice a day and that is not going to solve your problems.

This model is used help align groups of people to specific results and keep them within the left and right boundaries of their tasks and responsibilities.  The Beliefs of the individuals on the teams will lead to the Behaviors which drive their Actions that produce Results.  This helps to show why people think “Change is hard” and you do not see the Results.  Turning the team around is not only your responsibility; it’s in your skills toolbox.

The first step is the hardest because the team’s lack of momentum has anchored them to the past.  Did they win a team performance or safety award ten years ago?  Does your team currently perform the best in the branch but their internal competitors should all be sent back to the farm team?  You may find the team is the “cream of the crap” and this is never a nice realization.

You need to find out what the team Believes.  Do they really know their performance or want to know?  Do they believe they have the ability or permission to make change?  Do the team members have the skills, knowledge, and ability to perform the work that is being asked of them?  And there are more questions you could ask based on your industry or location.

Beliefs are the hardest to change; many were shaped by past experiences.  You will be battling against previous good or bad managers, corporate cultures, left-wing professors, and perhaps an undesirable work ethic.  Some team members will be easy to shift and a small number, if any, will probably need to be released back to wild.  Jim Collins talked about having people in the right seats on the bus, assuming they are on the right bus to begin with.

Tools to help Leaders re-align the individual’s and team’s Behaviors are the Company’s Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives.  Do your team members know how and where they fit in the Vision and Mission?  This may take some exploration with the team and your Leadership.  I have seen teams try to determine how they fit, review this with Leadership and are sent back being told to try again.  This is not a catastrophic event as long as you can show you are learning from the experience.

Goals and Objectives play a large part by providing a basis for measuring the team.  Remember that not every team will have Objectives for every Goal, and try not to overthink your importance to the site but be open to how everyone fits together.  Goals should link Objectives to the Vision and Mission.

Measuring the team’s current performance to the Goals and Objectives can be an enlightening event that will drive the team to Action.  Don’t just print the chart and stick it on the wall, share it with the team and ask questions that lead to sustained high performance.  Using A3 Thinking helps to document what the team is experiencing and how they can learn by evaluating the low and high performance times.  This learning is documented in the team’s standard work, SOP, or Desk Guide and is used for training new team members.

These Actions will create Results with increased performance, higher levels of predictability, and increased team moral.  We are not just robots moving paper from one pile to another pile; we are thinking creatures with drive and a desire to make customers happy with the products we provide.  The processes we work in will not improve on their own, they require the ingenuity and creativity we have in all of us to make change.  It is there, just waiting to flourish.

How have you seen or experienced a change in hearts and minds?