White Papers

Getting enough from your Lean Six Sigma program?

Tools are just tools. Without the proper skills, mindset and ownership they become just another expensive investment that doesn’t add commensurate value to the bottom line.

Whilst enterprise systems have proliferated to support Lean, we have ‘lost’ how central cultural change is to its success. Without this, the tools and methodologies don’t deliver and may well be counter-productive, fuelling widespread dissatisfaction.

It is all too easy to focus on all the ‘outer’ stuff – enterprise systems, methodologies, training, tools, etc.. But a change is needed in how we really engage people and make the necessary changes stick. Many organizations simply do not move their people beyond the first two engagement phases shown.

Although we have many systems to enable joined-up operational processes, we have nothing to help teams ‘join-up’ to deliver change.
Little exists to:

  • help teams collaborate directly as they work through Lean Six Sigma projects
  • enable business leaders to understand progress, or meaningfully contribute to it.


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Engaging?

Engaging - a key element of transformation!

“Transforming the business is a key management process that is now an everyday practice. In other words, managing a business now equates to transforming it. For 82% of managers, transforming the organization has become of vital importance in business… with 94% saying that these transformations are an integral part of their daily existence.” Capgemini Business Transformation Consulting Survey 2009
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Transforming?

Synopsis: 
“History suggests that implementation processes are likely to be the weakest link... Implementation needs to be managed in ways that have never been done before in order to achieve results that have never been achieved before”.    Department of Health, 2009:  “Creating an Innovative Culture”
According to all the major research findings, transformation performance has languished at a stagnant 30% level over the past 15 years.  Substantial development of thinking and practice has taken place across most aspects of organisational best practice – flexible structures, empowered cultures, substantial upskilling, transformation methodologies and diagnostic tools, etc..  In fact, all dimensions of the McKinsey 7-S have been transformed during this period – except for systems.  The work of transformation continues to be delivered manually using 20th not 21st century technology (excel, MS Project, etc.).  This means engaging staff and embedding change in an informed way becomes impossible in any scalable way.  Ways of bridging this critical gap now exist. 
Do you need to bridge any transformation gaps?


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Innovating?

Synopsis: 
Both the soft (creative and engaged individuals) and hard (form and structure to translate innovation into business value) aspects of innovation are critical.  The tops-down way in which innovation is typically managed, the pressures on individuals in their day jobs, and the poor innovation infrastructure mean people are not likely to go the extra mile to contribute.  In contrast, with 80% of innovation value coming from the ‘long-tail’ of the business, it is critical that scalable and effective ways are found to engage the broader population. 
Ways of bridging this critical gap now exist.  Do you need to bridge any innovation gaps?


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Changing?

Synopsis: 
“..this will mean reinventing management processes in ways that broaden the scope of experimentation, depoliticize strategic decision making, and enlarge the gene pool”. Gary Hamel 2009

Business leaders recognize the importance of the need to transform their organizations. However, the process of implementing significant organizational change is complex and hard to manage. Studies show the failure rate of this type of program has remained at around 70% (Kotter 1995, McKinsey Global research 2008).
The missing link now exists that will enable executives and managers to effectively deliver the transformation work their businesses need . Do you have gaps in your change management process?


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