”Let’s set the stage, Jaded Julie. Our middle manager is faced with guiding her team through a period of change. We assume the change isn’t too sudden or traumatic—perhaps a Lean transformation—and we also give her some good leadership skills. How should she handle it?”
“I’ve got it, Curmudge! A new big word, rapport, which for once you didn’t spring on me first. ‘A relationship of mutual trust’ that she has with her team. She needs that to lead her team through the change. Fortunately, she knows the First Law of Leadership: ‘If you don’t believe in the messenger, you won’t believe the message.’ I’m surprised that the books don’t mention rapport more often.”
“Rapport (the ‘t’ is silent) between manager and team is certainly critical in change leadership. She will need that as she follows Affinity’s Model for Managing Change. In the first step, Vision, she will have to clarify the employees’ roles in the vision already articulated by the CEO and the management team. Then she must describe the Skills and Resources necessary to achieve the vision. In a Lean culture these will include Lean tools, such as 5S, that she will teach.”
“From our earlier discussions, Curmudge, we know that enumerating the Incentives for change to a Lean culture is pretty easy. Waste reduction and respect for people should help make the future more appealing than the present.”
“Finally, developing the Action Plan will be straightforward, because with Lean, the team members themselves will do it.”
“What could go wrong? This sounds pretty easy.”
“It shouldn’t be difficult, Julie, but remember our discussion back on October 29, 2007 about things that can go wrong in a Lean transformation.”
“I guess it won’t be a slam-dunk. Are there other issues that our change leader must consider?”
“Here are some reminders for the change leader that I picked from the documents that we referenced last time:
· Organizations don’t change. People do…or they don’t. People react differently to change, and we must treat a transformation as a physical, mental, and emotional process.
· Help the employees understand that today’s workplace is changing from paternalism to a partnership. With Lean, employees are treated with respect and are regarded as the local experts in the work that they do. In return, they are expected to participate in personal growth, contribute to problem-solving, and develop ideas for improving the efficiency and quality of their work.”
“Curmudge, I hope this means that ‘involvement breeds commitment,’ as I read in one of the papers.”
“Exactly. It’s quite natural for people to support a process that they have designed or improved. Here’s a related expression: Quality times Acceptance equals Effectiveness (Q x A = E). If people are involved in developing a good idea, their acceptance of it, and thus its effectiveness, are certain to be high.”
“Those are great insights, Curmudge. Too bad they’re not original. At least you know the right books and web sites to read.”
“Although there are many other change-management reminders out there, here is a final one that we mustn’t forget: Don’t let up. Transformations are fragile, so the manager must continue to lead, encourage, and coach her people in doing things the new way. Without continuous pressure, people will backslide into their old habits.”
“I’m confident that our middle managers will put your suggestions to use. By the way, Curmudge, you were a middle manager in your career back in an earlier century. Did you practice all of the things that you are telling us to do?”
“My answer, Julie, is to point out that I am the poster boy for the old German saying, ‘We get so soon old and so late smart.’ We’ll talk more about the personal side of change in a few days.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Change Leadership for Middle Managers
“I read Kotter’s book, Curmudge. The eight stages of creating a major change are: Establishing a Sense of Urgency, the three we discussed last time (Guiding Coalition, Vision, and Communication), Empowering Broad-Based Action, Generating Short-Term Wins, Consolidating Gains, and Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture.”
“You are the consummate student, Jaded Julie. I’ll give you a gold star for last week. Let’s see…they are here in my desk somewhere...”
“(Consummate? I guess if that didn’t mean really good, I wouldn’t be getting a gold star.) So, Curmudge, we’ve gotten the CEO squared away. Do we move on to the senior leadership and middle managers?”
“Right. But before we proceed, let’s make some simplifying assumptions. If our transition is to a Lean culture, it can be treated as a gradual change rather than a the-sky-is-falling crisis. That should make the change leader’s job easier. Second, let’s endow our managers with leadership qualities; then we can consider middle managers to be, effectively, ‘middle leaders’.”
“Good idea, Curmudge. Remember also that with Lean’s inverted organizational pyramid, the changes will give the workers in gemba more responsibility. Unfortunately, middle managers may find change to a Lean culture somewhat traumatic if their authority is reduced.”
“The role of a senior leader should not be very different from that of the CEO, especially if he or she is a member of the guiding coalition. He shouldn’t stop reading here, however, because he may have to guide his direct report middle managers through some stressful times.”
“I presume that a middle manager must play a dual role. She communicates the new vision from top management down to gemba, and she must also coach the workers on new ways of doing things.”
“Julie, these tasks will be easier for the middle manager if she has acquired leadership skills to accompany her change management tools. Because of their joint dependency, we’ll discuss leadership after we finish with change management.”
“If I were a middle manager, I would first have to come to grips with the effects of the change on my own position. I couldn’t be a tower of strength for my direct reports if I felt like a bowl of Jell-O inside.”
“Find out from the most authoritative sources how your job will change. ‘Don’t cry before you are hurt.’ You may have to accept some ambiguity, but don’t let it paralyze you. This may provide the opportunity for you to redesign your position into something you have always wanted. Make your personal action plan and try to implement it.”
“So, now that the middle manager has her head on straight, how can she help the troops?”
“Julie, if I were coaching a manager faced with guiding her people through an organizational change, my first advice would be, ‘Don’t try to wing it.’ It’s not too different from a bone marrow biopsy; don’t try to do it until you have learned the technique. That’s something that the patient—and your coworkers—will appreciate.”
“(I sense a teaching moment coming up—probably with a reading assignment.)”
“Although people insist that they don’t have time to read, it’s really not too difficult to click on a URL and scan a few paragraphs. Here are some that should be very helpful to someone faced with leading or managing change:
Leading change management involves some simple, but too often forgotten rules. By C. Worley and Y. Vick. http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/052/change.html
The biggest mistakes in managing change. By C. Goman
http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/501-550/article506_body.html
Seven dynamics of change. By R. Bacal http://www.work911.com/articles/change7.htm
Managing change to a continuously improving culture. By S. Hajec
http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c080107a.asp
Making the journey toward cultural change in healthcare. By A. Yelton
http://healthcare.isixsigma.com/library/content/c050302a.asp
And for Affinity employees, here’s a link to the Affinity Learning Center:
http://alc.affinityhealth.org/object/leadership-changemodel.html
Finally, for someone who does have time to look at another book in addition to the one by Kotter, there is: Change Management By J. Hiatt and T. Creasey.”
“I expect, Curmudge, that next time we get together you are going to share some words of wisdom from the documents you listed.”
“Of course Julie. You know me; I am an inveterate teacher.”
“An invet…? What kind of teacher? Oh well, Curmudge. I understand that using long words is just a habit that you have had for a long time.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
“You are the consummate student, Jaded Julie. I’ll give you a gold star for last week. Let’s see…they are here in my desk somewhere...”
“(Consummate? I guess if that didn’t mean really good, I wouldn’t be getting a gold star.) So, Curmudge, we’ve gotten the CEO squared away. Do we move on to the senior leadership and middle managers?”
“Right. But before we proceed, let’s make some simplifying assumptions. If our transition is to a Lean culture, it can be treated as a gradual change rather than a the-sky-is-falling crisis. That should make the change leader’s job easier. Second, let’s endow our managers with leadership qualities; then we can consider middle managers to be, effectively, ‘middle leaders’.”
“Good idea, Curmudge. Remember also that with Lean’s inverted organizational pyramid, the changes will give the workers in gemba more responsibility. Unfortunately, middle managers may find change to a Lean culture somewhat traumatic if their authority is reduced.”
“The role of a senior leader should not be very different from that of the CEO, especially if he or she is a member of the guiding coalition. He shouldn’t stop reading here, however, because he may have to guide his direct report middle managers through some stressful times.”
“I presume that a middle manager must play a dual role. She communicates the new vision from top management down to gemba, and she must also coach the workers on new ways of doing things.”
“Julie, these tasks will be easier for the middle manager if she has acquired leadership skills to accompany her change management tools. Because of their joint dependency, we’ll discuss leadership after we finish with change management.”
“If I were a middle manager, I would first have to come to grips with the effects of the change on my own position. I couldn’t be a tower of strength for my direct reports if I felt like a bowl of Jell-O inside.”
“Find out from the most authoritative sources how your job will change. ‘Don’t cry before you are hurt.’ You may have to accept some ambiguity, but don’t let it paralyze you. This may provide the opportunity for you to redesign your position into something you have always wanted. Make your personal action plan and try to implement it.”
“So, now that the middle manager has her head on straight, how can she help the troops?”
“Julie, if I were coaching a manager faced with guiding her people through an organizational change, my first advice would be, ‘Don’t try to wing it.’ It’s not too different from a bone marrow biopsy; don’t try to do it until you have learned the technique. That’s something that the patient—and your coworkers—will appreciate.”
“(I sense a teaching moment coming up—probably with a reading assignment.)”
“Although people insist that they don’t have time to read, it’s really not too difficult to click on a URL and scan a few paragraphs. Here are some that should be very helpful to someone faced with leading or managing change:
Leading change management involves some simple, but too often forgotten rules. By C. Worley and Y. Vick. http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/052/change.html
The biggest mistakes in managing change. By C. Goman
http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/501-550/article506_body.html
Seven dynamics of change. By R. Bacal http://www.work911.com/articles/change7.htm
Managing change to a continuously improving culture. By S. Hajec
http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c080107a.asp
Making the journey toward cultural change in healthcare. By A. Yelton
http://healthcare.isixsigma.com/library/content/c050302a.asp
And for Affinity employees, here’s a link to the Affinity Learning Center:
http://alc.affinityhealth.org/object/leadership-changemodel.html
Finally, for someone who does have time to look at another book in addition to the one by Kotter, there is: Change Management By J. Hiatt and T. Creasey.”
“I expect, Curmudge, that next time we get together you are going to share some words of wisdom from the documents you listed.”
“Of course Julie. You know me; I am an inveterate teacher.”
“An invet…? What kind of teacher? Oh well, Curmudge. I understand that using long words is just a habit that you have had for a long time.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Jaded Julie Learns about Change Leadership
“Where have you been, Curmudge? We haven’t had a conversation in a couple of weeks. Were you on spring break?”
“I wasn’t gone, Julie. This time of year I like to pause and let the snow melt off my brain.”
“That isn’t snow, Curmudge. It’s white hair, and most of it has melted away. So let’s continue our conversation from last time. You promised to tell how a CEO gets the flywheel to accelerate and move the organization toward excellence.”
“Effective change leadership is a big part of it, Julie. An organization with big problems that doesn’t change remains an organization with big problems. For a CEO, bringing about a major change in the culture of his corporation—especially a change like Lean that must endure—may be the toughest challenge of his career.”
“Sounds like a job for a Level 5 leader. So how does the CEO do it?”
“It’s not just the CEO. Managerial personnel at every level will need to facilitate change at some point in their career. Some might even be CEOs-in-training.”
“Maybe even me. Right, Curmudge? Where do we start? Are there good books and articles, or must I depend on your curmudgeonly wisdom?”
“There’s a ton of stuff out there. To me, some of it deals with changing an organization, and other publications focus on aiding individuals in accepting change.”
“But isn’t successful corporate change just the aggregate change of the individual employees?”
“It sure is, Julie. But the biggest immediate issue for a CEO is building his team and aligning their efforts to initiate the transition. At the moment, he is less concerned over how to allay Mary Smith’s anxiety over doing her job differently. So let’s begin by looking at change from the CEO’s global perspective. My favorite book on this is John Kotter’s Leading Change. When I was reading it, Mrs. Curmudgeon thought the book that I couldn’t put down was Ken Follett’s World Without End.”
“If Kotter’s book is that good, please tell me more.”
“I knew you would ask. Kotter describes an ‘Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change.’ We don’t have time to discuss all of the stages, so let’s address some of those that are most important. As our flywheel showed, changing the direction of a corporation is too much for the CEO alone. Thus one of the first steps is the Creation of a Guiding Coalition. Members of the guiding coalition must possess and exhibit position power, expertise, credibility, and leadership. Essential team characteristics are trust and a common goal, so ‘snakes’ and those with big egos must be excluded.”
“Snakes! One would hope that those ‘trust-killers’ had been kicked off the bus several weeks ago.”
“The next stage is Developing a Vision. It must be brief, compelling, and capture the passion of the employees. Creating the vision usually requires that the CEO and the guiding coalition think, dream, and draw deeply on their collective reservoir of talents. Hopefully, the vision will address what, when, and how the organization will fulfill its mission.”
“Then what, Curmudge? Do we shout our vision from the rooftops?”
“Almost. Despite all of the high-powered mental exercise that went into it, the vision must be straightforward enough to be understood and adopted by everyone. Remember, we want the vision to guide the employees’ hands, head, heart, and emotions for the next several years. That’s why the next stage is Communicating the Vision, although probably not by shouting it from the top of the parking ramp.”
“Several months ago we talked about the importance of the CEO’s communications about Lean. I’m sure that applies here, too.”
“Exactly. Communications by the CEO and his team members must be simple, completely candid, without ‘spin’, consistent, and repeated again and again.”
“Hey Curmudge, Kotter described an eight-stage process, but you have only touched on three. What about the rest?”
“Now Julie, this is a blog, not an encyclopedia. Like any good student, you’ll have to go to the literature to learn the whole story.”
“Curmudge, even though you covered only three stages, that’s really valuable advice. I’ll certainly use it when I become a CEO. But actually, the kind of change I had hoped to learn about was how to change my husband from being a couch potato.”
“Don’t complain, Julie. At least you know where he is when you are working the night shift.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
“I wasn’t gone, Julie. This time of year I like to pause and let the snow melt off my brain.”
“That isn’t snow, Curmudge. It’s white hair, and most of it has melted away. So let’s continue our conversation from last time. You promised to tell how a CEO gets the flywheel to accelerate and move the organization toward excellence.”
“Effective change leadership is a big part of it, Julie. An organization with big problems that doesn’t change remains an organization with big problems. For a CEO, bringing about a major change in the culture of his corporation—especially a change like Lean that must endure—may be the toughest challenge of his career.”
“Sounds like a job for a Level 5 leader. So how does the CEO do it?”
“It’s not just the CEO. Managerial personnel at every level will need to facilitate change at some point in their career. Some might even be CEOs-in-training.”
“Maybe even me. Right, Curmudge? Where do we start? Are there good books and articles, or must I depend on your curmudgeonly wisdom?”
“There’s a ton of stuff out there. To me, some of it deals with changing an organization, and other publications focus on aiding individuals in accepting change.”
“But isn’t successful corporate change just the aggregate change of the individual employees?”
“It sure is, Julie. But the biggest immediate issue for a CEO is building his team and aligning their efforts to initiate the transition. At the moment, he is less concerned over how to allay Mary Smith’s anxiety over doing her job differently. So let’s begin by looking at change from the CEO’s global perspective. My favorite book on this is John Kotter’s Leading Change. When I was reading it, Mrs. Curmudgeon thought the book that I couldn’t put down was Ken Follett’s World Without End.”
“If Kotter’s book is that good, please tell me more.”
“I knew you would ask. Kotter describes an ‘Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change.’ We don’t have time to discuss all of the stages, so let’s address some of those that are most important. As our flywheel showed, changing the direction of a corporation is too much for the CEO alone. Thus one of the first steps is the Creation of a Guiding Coalition. Members of the guiding coalition must possess and exhibit position power, expertise, credibility, and leadership. Essential team characteristics are trust and a common goal, so ‘snakes’ and those with big egos must be excluded.”
“Snakes! One would hope that those ‘trust-killers’ had been kicked off the bus several weeks ago.”
“The next stage is Developing a Vision. It must be brief, compelling, and capture the passion of the employees. Creating the vision usually requires that the CEO and the guiding coalition think, dream, and draw deeply on their collective reservoir of talents. Hopefully, the vision will address what, when, and how the organization will fulfill its mission.”
“Then what, Curmudge? Do we shout our vision from the rooftops?”
“Almost. Despite all of the high-powered mental exercise that went into it, the vision must be straightforward enough to be understood and adopted by everyone. Remember, we want the vision to guide the employees’ hands, head, heart, and emotions for the next several years. That’s why the next stage is Communicating the Vision, although probably not by shouting it from the top of the parking ramp.”
“Several months ago we talked about the importance of the CEO’s communications about Lean. I’m sure that applies here, too.”
“Exactly. Communications by the CEO and his team members must be simple, completely candid, without ‘spin’, consistent, and repeated again and again.”
“Hey Curmudge, Kotter described an eight-stage process, but you have only touched on three. What about the rest?”
“Now Julie, this is a blog, not an encyclopedia. Like any good student, you’ll have to go to the literature to learn the whole story.”
“Curmudge, even though you covered only three stages, that’s really valuable advice. I’ll certainly use it when I become a CEO. But actually, the kind of change I had hoped to learn about was how to change my husband from being a couch potato.”
“Don’t complain, Julie. At least you know where he is when you are working the night shift.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The Flywheel
“Hey Jaded Julie. Do you know what inertia is?”
“Sure. It’s my husband sitting on the couch watching a sporting event on the television.”
“The dictionary says it’s ‘the resistance or disinclination to motion, action, or change’.”
“That’s him all right.”
“Today we’re going to talk about inertia—specifically about the CEO pushing a flywheel.”
“Golly, Curmudge. A couple of weeks ago we had him driving a bus and getting the right people on it and the wrong people off. Haven’t we given him enough headaches without adding a hernia from pushing a flywheel?”
“Don’t worry, Julie. Our story will just be an allegory.”
“An alle…what? Oh well. It will probably just be a symbolic narrative. So where did this flywheel stuff come from, anyway?”
“Jim Collins and Quint Studer both use flywheels to illustrate the reality that one can’t jump from bad to good or good to great in one dramatic leap. A slow, relentless buildup must precede the acceleration to operational excellence that we are seeking.”
“That makes sense, but is it accurately depicted by a flywheel?”
“I wondered that too, so I built an imaginary flywheel, created some sample data, and grabbed an old textbook to see if classical physics supported Jim Collin’s ‘hockey stick’ figures. My ‘flywheel’ is a limestone grindstone mounted horizontally on a vertical axis.”
“Just like in Biblical times when people or animals pushed the stone around and around.”
“Right, Julie. But in our story, it is our hardworking CEO starting to push the stone all by himself. The speed of the stone’s rotation represents the organization’s progress toward greatness. Assuming the bearing is frictionless, the CEO’s relentless pushing builds up momentum slowly.”
“Of course when the bearing is old and rusty, the lone pusher gets a hernia.”
“The breakthrough occurs when the CEO gets more people to help push, with their number, in my example, doubling every five minutes. A plot of speed of rotation vs. time then looks like a hockey stick, so a flywheel is an acceptable model. The dramatic bend upward depends on more and more people joining the effort. That’s what happens in a real organization as more of the staff realize that a Lean culture is their goal. Take a look at the plot of my model.”
“Your values for rotational speed are awfully high, Curmudge, but I suppose that’s because frictionless flywheels aren’t very realistic.”
“We might view the unavoidable friction in a real flywheel as representing those people who persistently resist change. If we don’t continue to push, friction and the skeptics will take over. The plot will take a nosedive, and our Lean transformation will become just another ‘program of the month’.”
"Thanks for the flywheel physics, Curmudge, but what must a real CEO do to turn the corner and move her organization toward excellence?”
“Our story will be continued, Julie. Meanwhile, please return my physics book, and I’ll put it back on the shelf to collect more dust.”
“See you in class, Professor.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
“Sure. It’s my husband sitting on the couch watching a sporting event on the television.”
“The dictionary says it’s ‘the resistance or disinclination to motion, action, or change’.”
“That’s him all right.”
“Today we’re going to talk about inertia—specifically about the CEO pushing a flywheel.”
“Golly, Curmudge. A couple of weeks ago we had him driving a bus and getting the right people on it and the wrong people off. Haven’t we given him enough headaches without adding a hernia from pushing a flywheel?”
“Don’t worry, Julie. Our story will just be an allegory.”
“An alle…what? Oh well. It will probably just be a symbolic narrative. So where did this flywheel stuff come from, anyway?”
“Jim Collins and Quint Studer both use flywheels to illustrate the reality that one can’t jump from bad to good or good to great in one dramatic leap. A slow, relentless buildup must precede the acceleration to operational excellence that we are seeking.”
“That makes sense, but is it accurately depicted by a flywheel?”
“I wondered that too, so I built an imaginary flywheel, created some sample data, and grabbed an old textbook to see if classical physics supported Jim Collin’s ‘hockey stick’ figures. My ‘flywheel’ is a limestone grindstone mounted horizontally on a vertical axis.”
“Just like in Biblical times when people or animals pushed the stone around and around.”
“Right, Julie. But in our story, it is our hardworking CEO starting to push the stone all by himself. The speed of the stone’s rotation represents the organization’s progress toward greatness. Assuming the bearing is frictionless, the CEO’s relentless pushing builds up momentum slowly.”
“Of course when the bearing is old and rusty, the lone pusher gets a hernia.”
“The breakthrough occurs when the CEO gets more people to help push, with their number, in my example, doubling every five minutes. A plot of speed of rotation vs. time then looks like a hockey stick, so a flywheel is an acceptable model. The dramatic bend upward depends on more and more people joining the effort. That’s what happens in a real organization as more of the staff realize that a Lean culture is their goal. Take a look at the plot of my model.”
“Your values for rotational speed are awfully high, Curmudge, but I suppose that’s because frictionless flywheels aren’t very realistic.”
“We might view the unavoidable friction in a real flywheel as representing those people who persistently resist change. If we don’t continue to push, friction and the skeptics will take over. The plot will take a nosedive, and our Lean transformation will become just another ‘program of the month’.”
"Thanks for the flywheel physics, Curmudge, but what must a real CEO do to turn the corner and move her organization toward excellence?”
“Our story will be continued, Julie. Meanwhile, please return my physics book, and I’ll put it back on the shelf to collect more dust.”
“See you in class, Professor.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The Bus Needs a Navigator
“Well, Curmudge, in our last conversation we hired the CEO, and he loaded the bus with the right people. Are we there yet?”
“No Jaded Julie, we’re not there yet. The bus needs a navigator.”
“Why so? The CEO was supposed to know where to go and how to get there. Is she lost already?”
“Julie, the road to a Lean transformation has more potholes than an Appleton street in the springtime. We need a navigator who has been over this route many times. He is a very important person in guiding us to a Lean culture.”
“If he is very important in Lean, he probably has a Japanese name. Okay Curmudge, I’m ready. Lay it on me.”
“The navigator is our sensei. To the Japanese, a sensei is an honored teacher who has mastered his subject. Our sensei teaches our top management all about Lean. He also instructs the people on our staff who will spend full time on our Lean effort. Sometimes the sensei is a full-time employee like John Karras, the COO in Pascal Dennis’s book, Getting the Right Things Done. More often he is a consultant who comes to visit as needed.”
“So what do our full-time staff people do after receiving their Lean instruction?”
“They are called Lean facilitators, and they teach and coach our middle managers. Then they aid the middle managers in teaching their own people about Lean. Quint Studer calls health care transformation zealots who make a difference in the lives of others ‘Fire Starters’. That’s how Lean and Studer’s complement to Lean are spread throughout an organization.”
“Curmudge, are you a sensei or a Lean facilitator or a firebug?”
“Fire Starter, Julie. And I’m none of the above. These people receive lots of training and work very hard. A sensei is pretty expensive. I’m self-taught, a volunteer, and do this for fun.”
“Curmudge, you can be my sensei.”
“Thank you, Julie. That’s very touching. I guess it’s okay for a fictional nurse to have a fictional sensei.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
“No Jaded Julie, we’re not there yet. The bus needs a navigator.”
“Why so? The CEO was supposed to know where to go and how to get there. Is she lost already?”
“Julie, the road to a Lean transformation has more potholes than an Appleton street in the springtime. We need a navigator who has been over this route many times. He is a very important person in guiding us to a Lean culture.”
“If he is very important in Lean, he probably has a Japanese name. Okay Curmudge, I’m ready. Lay it on me.”
“The navigator is our sensei. To the Japanese, a sensei is an honored teacher who has mastered his subject. Our sensei teaches our top management all about Lean. He also instructs the people on our staff who will spend full time on our Lean effort. Sometimes the sensei is a full-time employee like John Karras, the COO in Pascal Dennis’s book, Getting the Right Things Done. More often he is a consultant who comes to visit as needed.”
“So what do our full-time staff people do after receiving their Lean instruction?”
“They are called Lean facilitators, and they teach and coach our middle managers. Then they aid the middle managers in teaching their own people about Lean. Quint Studer calls health care transformation zealots who make a difference in the lives of others ‘Fire Starters’. That’s how Lean and Studer’s complement to Lean are spread throughout an organization.”
“Curmudge, are you a sensei or a Lean facilitator or a firebug?”
“Fire Starter, Julie. And I’m none of the above. These people receive lots of training and work very hard. A sensei is pretty expensive. I’m self-taught, a volunteer, and do this for fun.”
“Curmudge, you can be my sensei.”
“Thank you, Julie. That’s very touching. I guess it’s okay for a fictional nurse to have a fictional sensei.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
Friday, March 14, 2008
The Curmudgeon and Jaded Julie Hire a CEO
“Today, Julie, we are going to imagine that you and I are an organization’s Board of Directors or Board of Trustees. Our immediate task is to hire a CEO.”
“Not a problem, Curmudge. Everyone with small children knows how to play ‘Let’s Pretend.’ But isn’t that a bit of a stretch—you and me on the Board?”
“Julie, except for the lessons we teach and the authors we quote, everything in this blog is fiction.”
“I can relate to that. If we are going to pretend, we might as well enjoy it. You can be a hard-nosed, successful business person, and I’ll be a well-to-do philanthropist. But I’m already confused. I thought our starting point was going to be an organization in big trouble. You have Collins’s book, Good to Great, on your desk. Shouldn’t you be reading somebody’s Bad to Average?”
“You know me. I don’t have time to stop at ‘average’; we’re going all the way to ‘great’.”
“Hoo-ah, Curmudge. So back to our Board meeting. I believe the person we want to hire will know what to do, how to do it, and have a track record of having done so in the past.”
“That’s it in a nutshell, Julie. You’re my kind of don’t-beat-around-the-bush Board member. According to research by Jim Collins and his team, there are a few more qualities we should seek in the CEO who will lead us to greatness. Most importantly, the CEO should be a so-called Level 5 leader.”
“You are suggesting that there is a five-level hierarchy of executive capabilities, with Level 5 at the top. I bet that Collins drew them in the shape of a triangle or pyramid. One can’t be an author if you can’t draw a pyramid.”
“Level 5 leadership is comprised of humility and will. Although Level 5 leaders are extremely ambitious, their ambition is channeled toward the institution, not themselves. They possess an unwavering resolve to do what must be done to make the organization great.”
“Curmudge, if humility is essential, the flamboyant types one reads about in The Wall Street Journal and those with nicknames like ‘Chainsaw’ probably don’t make it into Level 5.”
“That’s for sure, but Level 5’s can’t be pushovers. Let’s focus on their ‘resolve to do what must be done.’ According to Collins, the first thing our leader will have to do is ‘get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it.’ If our fictional organization is really in deep trouble, this process may be a bit unsettling. Nevertheless, doing things in the right order is essential; first the right people, then the right direction. As Collins said, ‘Great vision without great people is irrelevant’.”
“Okay, Curmudge, we’ve found and hired a Level 5 CEO. I guess we can stop pretending that we are the Board and I can open my eyes now. Oo! What happened to my designer clothing and high heels? Here I am back in my blue scrubs and my Superclogs™. So what’s next?”
“Now that the right people are on board—and hopefully most were already present—we’ll talk about the CEO’s next steps. Are you with me?”
“As you wish, Sir.”
“At your service, Madam.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
“Not a problem, Curmudge. Everyone with small children knows how to play ‘Let’s Pretend.’ But isn’t that a bit of a stretch—you and me on the Board?”
“Julie, except for the lessons we teach and the authors we quote, everything in this blog is fiction.”
“I can relate to that. If we are going to pretend, we might as well enjoy it. You can be a hard-nosed, successful business person, and I’ll be a well-to-do philanthropist. But I’m already confused. I thought our starting point was going to be an organization in big trouble. You have Collins’s book, Good to Great, on your desk. Shouldn’t you be reading somebody’s Bad to Average?”
“You know me. I don’t have time to stop at ‘average’; we’re going all the way to ‘great’.”
“Hoo-ah, Curmudge. So back to our Board meeting. I believe the person we want to hire will know what to do, how to do it, and have a track record of having done so in the past.”
“That’s it in a nutshell, Julie. You’re my kind of don’t-beat-around-the-bush Board member. According to research by Jim Collins and his team, there are a few more qualities we should seek in the CEO who will lead us to greatness. Most importantly, the CEO should be a so-called Level 5 leader.”
“You are suggesting that there is a five-level hierarchy of executive capabilities, with Level 5 at the top. I bet that Collins drew them in the shape of a triangle or pyramid. One can’t be an author if you can’t draw a pyramid.”
“Level 5 leadership is comprised of humility and will. Although Level 5 leaders are extremely ambitious, their ambition is channeled toward the institution, not themselves. They possess an unwavering resolve to do what must be done to make the organization great.”
“Curmudge, if humility is essential, the flamboyant types one reads about in The Wall Street Journal and those with nicknames like ‘Chainsaw’ probably don’t make it into Level 5.”
“That’s for sure, but Level 5’s can’t be pushovers. Let’s focus on their ‘resolve to do what must be done.’ According to Collins, the first thing our leader will have to do is ‘get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it.’ If our fictional organization is really in deep trouble, this process may be a bit unsettling. Nevertheless, doing things in the right order is essential; first the right people, then the right direction. As Collins said, ‘Great vision without great people is irrelevant’.”
“Okay, Curmudge, we’ve found and hired a Level 5 CEO. I guess we can stop pretending that we are the Board and I can open my eyes now. Oo! What happened to my designer clothing and high heels? Here I am back in my blue scrubs and my Superclogs™. So what’s next?”
“Now that the right people are on board—and hopefully most were already present—we’ll talk about the CEO’s next steps. Are you with me?”
“As you wish, Sir.”
“At your service, Madam.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Jaded Julie starts learning how to go from bad to great.
“Don’t you mean ‘good to great’, Curmudge?”
“No, Julie. Good to Great is Jim Collins’s book. We’re going to start by considering organizations that are farther in the hole than those that he studied. Recall our February 18 posting where we listed a lot of aspects of a command-and-control culture? That’s our starting point.”
“And I suppose that our end point is an organization with all those great attributes that we listed on February 25. So all one has to do is read the books you recommended in January and do what they say. Pretty easy! Case closed! So what are we going to talk about next?”
“Julie, you are beset by grandiose visions.”
“I think you are saying that it’s not going to happen, right?”
“What have we been talking about since last May? Lean and how difficult it is to achieve and maintain, that’s what. We’ve been using a fairly broad brush and talking about the organizational aspects of Lean. Now we are going to bore a bit deeper and look at Lean from its personal side. Let’s call our topic Personal Aspects of Lean. We’ll cover the CEO, middle management, nurses, and maybe even volunteers. Are you with me?”
“How can I object? Those are your fingers on the keys.”
“Before we weigh anchor, there’s one more book to add to your reading list. It’s The Baptist Health Care Journey to Excellence by Al Stubblefield.”
“Thanks, Curmudge. I’ll read it on my next flight to Paris.”
“Shall we start at the top of the organization and talk about the CEO? Then gravity will carry us downward to the rest of the staff.”
“I’m for that. It’s going to be a lot easier than climbing up Liker’s ‘4P’ Toyota Way pyramid, especially in the winter.”
“Okay, Julie. So what qualities should the CEO of a Lean organization possess?”
“I suspect that she should look like a CEO and be able to walk on water.”
“I doubt that either of those qualities is in his job description. By the way, what’s this she stuff? Aren’t most CEOs in health care men? For ease of reading, let’s use ‘he’ for top management and ‘she’ for nursing management even though we are really thinking ‘he or she.’ That should look better than having a lot of ‘he/she’s’ cluttering up our text.”
“That’s okay, Curmudge. I used ‘she’ just to see if your hearing aid was working.”
“Now about your ‘walk on water’ response: Think back to our postings on October 29 and November 12. Remember John Kotter’s and Mitch McCrimmon’s definitions of management and leadership?”
“Of course I do. And Father Hesburgh’s admonition to CEOs that they not blow an uncertain trumpet.”
“So here is a critical difference between the role of the CEO in a Lean organization vs. command-and-control. Under command-and-control, the CEO is the big boss manager. In a Lean organization, the CEO is the main leader. As Kotter said, the leader ‘defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen.’ We’ll talk more about how he—and sometimes she—does that in our next couple of conversations.”
“Okay. Lead on, Curmudge.”
“Yes, boss.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
“No, Julie. Good to Great is Jim Collins’s book. We’re going to start by considering organizations that are farther in the hole than those that he studied. Recall our February 18 posting where we listed a lot of aspects of a command-and-control culture? That’s our starting point.”
“And I suppose that our end point is an organization with all those great attributes that we listed on February 25. So all one has to do is read the books you recommended in January and do what they say. Pretty easy! Case closed! So what are we going to talk about next?”
“Julie, you are beset by grandiose visions.”
“I think you are saying that it’s not going to happen, right?”
“What have we been talking about since last May? Lean and how difficult it is to achieve and maintain, that’s what. We’ve been using a fairly broad brush and talking about the organizational aspects of Lean. Now we are going to bore a bit deeper and look at Lean from its personal side. Let’s call our topic Personal Aspects of Lean. We’ll cover the CEO, middle management, nurses, and maybe even volunteers. Are you with me?”
“How can I object? Those are your fingers on the keys.”
“Before we weigh anchor, there’s one more book to add to your reading list. It’s The Baptist Health Care Journey to Excellence by Al Stubblefield.”
“Thanks, Curmudge. I’ll read it on my next flight to Paris.”
“Shall we start at the top of the organization and talk about the CEO? Then gravity will carry us downward to the rest of the staff.”
“I’m for that. It’s going to be a lot easier than climbing up Liker’s ‘4P’ Toyota Way pyramid, especially in the winter.”
“Okay, Julie. So what qualities should the CEO of a Lean organization possess?”
“I suspect that she should look like a CEO and be able to walk on water.”
“I doubt that either of those qualities is in his job description. By the way, what’s this she stuff? Aren’t most CEOs in health care men? For ease of reading, let’s use ‘he’ for top management and ‘she’ for nursing management even though we are really thinking ‘he or she.’ That should look better than having a lot of ‘he/she’s’ cluttering up our text.”
“That’s okay, Curmudge. I used ‘she’ just to see if your hearing aid was working.”
“Now about your ‘walk on water’ response: Think back to our postings on October 29 and November 12. Remember John Kotter’s and Mitch McCrimmon’s definitions of management and leadership?”
“Of course I do. And Father Hesburgh’s admonition to CEOs that they not blow an uncertain trumpet.”
“So here is a critical difference between the role of the CEO in a Lean organization vs. command-and-control. Under command-and-control, the CEO is the big boss manager. In a Lean organization, the CEO is the main leader. As Kotter said, the leader ‘defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen.’ We’ll talk more about how he—and sometimes she—does that in our next couple of conversations.”
“Okay. Lead on, Curmudge.”
“Yes, boss.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
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