Five Factors for Managing Productive Change

For virtually everyone change means hard work, risk, and the need to learn new ways for unproven benefits. Change is one of the most difficult things for humans to readily accept. Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change” which holds true for culture change.

Fortunately, there is a formula that provides insight into how to successfully facilitate change:

Where:

V = Vision: How you would like things to be in the future, this is the “True North” thinking.

S = Skills: Learn the skills necessary to facilitate the change. Find a change agent. Understand and disseminate the lean knowledge.

I = Incentive: Communicate the why and how of the vision to inspire people to want to try to achieve it. As you gain momentum you need to expand your scope. Apply strategy deployment (Hoshin Kanri) to facilitate horizontal and vertical alignment.

R = Resources: Change cannot occur unless the proper resources (like time and tools) are provided. Dedicate time and allocate budget necessary to focus on process improvement and implement suggestions for improvement. 

AP = Action Plan: Actions and strategies needed to move the organization toward the vision. It is important to begin as soon as possible with visible activity. Often, a great start is to identify and map your value streams.

All these elements are needed for a productive change. If an element is missing you won’t get change but rather something short of that as shown below:

When you lack the vision part of this five-factor model, you create confusion for people throughout the organization.

When you lack the skills part of this five-factor model, you create anxiety for people throughout the organization.

When you lack the incentives part of this five-factor model, you create resistance throughout the organization.

When you lack the resources part of this five-factor model, you create frustration throughout the organization.

If you lack the action plan part of this five-factor model, you create false starts throughout the organization.

To ensure a successful change it is necessary to use influence and strategic thinking in order to create vision and identify those crucial, early steps towards it. In addition, the organization must recognize and accept the dissatisfaction that exists by listening to the employee voice while sharing industry trends, leadership ideas, best practices and competitor analysis to identify the necessity for change.

There is no quick solution for creating a lean culture. You will only succeed if you have a clear vision, the necessary skills, motivated employees, vital resources, and a solid action plan.