PART 1: Steering Group to guide and monitor
In his work over several decades, John Kotter has developed 8 steps for leading change to achieve better outcomes. The second of Kotter’s eight steps is to build a Guiding Coalition of change agents who want to help others in the organisation engage in the change. So, let’s ensure we have a carefully selected group to guide and monitor our continuous improvement strategy at a macro level, and enlist, engage and align a volunteer army improving day to day processes more easier, less costly and more effective.
The role of the Steering Group should be to spend enough time with a macro perspective in the helicopter, helping people understand where your organisation is heading and how everyone can contribute.
The group should rigorously and regularly track performance against challenging targets – checking that we have critical mass? – asking do we have adequate participation rates? – challenging are we measuring the things that matter? These are questions we should be asking ourselves on a regular basis (at least monthly initially) in order to stay on track.
We also need to be sure the steering group is adequately identifying and prioritising high impact problems for the organisation and then ensuring that our army of problem solvers is engaged to implement solutions and improvements in their processes.
Who is there in your organisation doing the macro level PDCA for your Lean transformation and continuous improvement culture?
What is the target condition for your culture, and how does it compare with the current state?
What obstacles are preventing your organisation from reaching the target culture you have identified?
Do you have the “necessary and sufficient” basic thinking to reach your “value driven purpose”?
Why do only a small percentage of Lean initiatives achieve the planned results and how can you ensure your business is not one of those organisations?
How could you improve the effectiveness of your Steering Group?
Please spend some time with your team or colleagues reflecting on your organisation and how you could better use the first of our 7 ways to improve your Lean initiative – Steering Group to guide and monitor.
Note: This is part 1 of 7 ways to improve the impact of your lean initiative. Stay tuned for part 2 being released next month. Feel free to contact Efficiency Works directly using the links below if you'd like to discuss all things LEAN.
Related Content: 7 Ways to Improve The Impact of Your Lean Initiative (Part 2)
Topic: Process Improvement
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