Lean Tip #3001 – Bring a Solution
Managers should encourage employees that come
with problems to also propose a few solutions that they think might work. Once
these are discussed, managers can offer guidance into how to proceed, but
managers shouldn’t be the ones that will automatically come up with solutions
to all problems, every time.
Lean Tip #3002 – Encourage Transparency of
Ideas
This is not just limited to ideas and way of
working but applies to ensuring people feel free to talk about their failures
and how they found their way out. This culture of sharing will not just invite
more people to speak up but will also enforce the feeling of being safe to try
and fail. Transparency is also about trade-offs. Sometimes failure happens
because of limited resources – time, money, people. Ask after each failure what
compromises were made and how the employee made those decisions. The whole
business can learn so much out from the experience and the journey that led to
an event, not just from its outcome. It’s also an excellent way to learn from
other’s mistakes, if you are aware of what happened, why it happened and
understands what’s working and what is not.
Lean Tip #3003 – Eliminate Drama and Penalties
for Failure
Failure should be encouraged and accepted as
is. Any negative emotions associated with failure should be avoided, as should
penalties of any kind. Even a bad word from a manager can discourage further
innovation. Of course, managers and teams should have contingency plans for
failure, but also having an honest and open, blame-free culture helps to build
all this.
Lean Tip #3004 – Understand What Went Wrong
You need to know why failures really happen.
The answer will be different in each organization, but every company needs to
gain a better overview of where the problems lie that keep them from learning
from failure. The key thing to keep in mind is this is not about avoiding
failure; it’s about how can we learn from failure and apply that into future
processes. The challenge is to create a common understanding in which failure
is seen as a learning opportunity that holds the potential to make the
organization smarter and better.
Lean Tip #3005 – Reward behaviors, not just
outcomes.
Too often, organizations are too focused on
rewarding the outcomes of their employees. It is just very difficult to reward
the team of people in charge of a failed project or initiative, but then what
do you do when the learnings the team captured and shared leads to great
success in the future? Should these people not be rewarded and recognized in
some way? If you really want to change a corporate culture, you must find ways
to reward the behavioral changes that lead to the desired outcomes. If not, you
might not get there at all.
Lean Tip #3006 – Engage Employees by Providing
Them With the Tools for Success.
As a manager, you not only have to oversee
different facets of business, but you should be sure your employees understand
what they are doing. Training within their specific job descriptions can offer
them more confidence in what they’re doing. When one of your team members is
unsure of what to do, or how to handle a situation, productivity can come to a
grinding halt while they try to troubleshoot the situation. If it becomes too
overwhelming, there is a possibility of a small hitch becoming a much larger
problem. Even if additional coaching or training is needed, providing your
employees with a strong foundation for the tasks ahead is a good step towards
raising their level of engagement.
Lean Tip #3007 – Encourage Teamwork Among
Employees.
There is a reason that people flock to team
sports. When a group of people pulls together to win the big game, it often
comes an infectious feeling that engulfs everyone around them—from teammates to
the fans—the sense of camaraderie and success spreads to the masses. The same
can be said for the workplace environment. When a large account or significant
client needs your services, developing a strong team of employees gives them a
sense of greater purpose. Pulling them together to work towards a big company
goal can be incredibly satisfying, and allows them to bounce ideas off each
other to ultimately meet the needs of your client. It adds a sense of
cooperation, consideration, and confidence in not only each other but in the
company, itself.
Lean Tip #3008 – Listen To and Act on Employee
Feedback.
Listening to what your customers have to say is
important, but so is listening to your employees. Having regular meetings to
determine what areas of your workplace environment need improvement is an
important part of keeping the employees engaged with the company. By using a
company survey, or even a monthly meeting, giving your staff a voice is vital
in making them feel like part of the company. If there is a situation within
the internal workings of the company that goes unnoticed or unaddressed by management,
it sends an unfavorable message to your staff. If they know that management
cares, and hears their concerns, they will continue to maintain a high level of
engagement instead of becoming despondent and disengaged.
Lean Tip #3009 – Motivate, Inspire and Coach
Your Employees.
Not only should your employees understand the
scope of their work, but as their manager, so should you. Creating a positive
workplace environment starts with happy employees, but doesn’t end there. The
tone is set by the managerial staff from the beginning, and a good way to
achieve a positive tone is to be more than their boss; be the best coach they
could have. If you see an employee struggling with a task, approach them to see
if you can help in any way. Whether it is a pat on the back and words of
encouragement urging them to keep trying or offering guidance on policy and
procedure, they will see your willingness to help as a concern for their state
of mind, as well as the company’s success. Many individuals throughout history who’ve
been praised for outstanding accomplishments have had a good coach or mentor
standing behind them. Be that coach for your employees.
Lean Tip #3010 – Encourage Employee Personal
Development.
Many times, the people who work for any given
business only do so out of the necessity of a paycheck. Companies who retain
employees with specific skill sets aren’t likely to face this issue. However,
it still could ring true to some individuals on the staff. As you get to know
your employees, you may learn about their personal hobbies and interests, even
as far as learning what it is they eventually want to do with their lives.
Think about the company and the different areas it may specialize in. Is there
a better place for this employee to apply these additional skills? Does one of
the secretaries have a love of graphic design? Maybe a warehouse worker desires
to do more by upgrading his education to better serve the company as a
distribution manager. Helping these employees reach a place within the company
not only helps to encourage their development but allows you to retain them on
staff in a capacity in which they could elevate their levels of engagement.
Lean Tip #3011 – Support Team Learning
Company-Wide
There has to be a company-wide commitment to
education. A learning organization must have many opportunities for sharing
knowledge and creating productive discussions. The most important part of team
learning is having a supportive and positive learning environment. Employees
should feel comfortable taking risks to try new ideas and possibly achieve
significant improvements. People should also be supported if they struggle to
understand new data or processes. Learning can only happen in a positive
environment.
Lean Tip #3012 – Create a Shared Vision Across
the Entire Enterprise
Shared vision is the active process of aligning
the company’s mission with individual mental models. Essentially, it’s about
helping employees recognize and align themselves with the vision managers have
for the organization. Managers help people understand what they need to do and
why they need to do it, which helps the employee support the learning
organizational model. Creating a shared vision across an entire organization
can sometimes require debate internally about who you are and where you’re
going together.
Lean Tip #3013 – Make Learning an Everyday Habit
Many of us have a common perception that once
we leave the schools and get our degrees, we need not continue pursuing other
learnings. That’s a very wrong thinking as we no longer live in a world where
we can assume that learning is fixed for one’s trade. There are continuous
innovations in every field changing the way we do our daily works. Continuous
learning can help an individual to stay sharp, relevant in his or her field as
well as stay ahead in the competition. Also, building this learning attitude is
not a difficult or time-consuming task.
Lean Tip #3014 – Reward Employees for Learning
Rewarding employees for accepting a positive
learning culture can be one of the methods to encourage the staff to develop
and grow. However, there is no guarantee that rewards can bring in change
unless these are effective. Some of the ideas for creating training rewards for
employees includes demonstrating the value of training to the employees,
creating opportunities like representing the organization in a conference after
completion of course, bringing a healthy competition among the peers taking the
training, creating reward system for those training that bring in maximum ROI
for the organization as well as employees and finally rewarding the employees
who completed the course on a public stage to motivate other employees as well.
Lean Tip #3015 – Train the Managers to Coach Effectively
Coaching is one of the greatest methods to
build an employee’s confidence level as well as competence. Managers need to
know how to apply the right blend of “clarity coaching” and “skills coaching”
to their employees, two of the critical elements that organizations need to
provide to their managers while training them. Having the ability to coach
others is one of the core skills in the 21st century, required by every manager
to be regarded as a successful leader. Long gone are those days where the
managers used to command and control leadership in order to get their work
done. Today, the most effective way for the managers to lead is through
coaching and collaboration. If the managers are not skilled enough to coach
their employees, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to achieve positive
results for the organization or even themselves in the long term.
