Lean Tips Edition #313 (#3721 - #3735)

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey.  Another great reason to like A Lean Journey on Facebook.

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Lean Tip #3721 – Leadership is a Crucial Driver of Teamwork.

For teams to work effectively, objectives need to be clearly defined. Competing projects and responsibilities pull most team members in different directions.

For example, leaders in the manufacturing industry can often be stationed on the factory floor, where they may not have easy access to company-wide communications. This can lead to a disconnect between their team and overarching company goals.

It’s up to leaders to set the bigger picture so they can set priorities. Ensure leadership is involved in internal comms planning so employees at all levels across multiple teams can understand the overarching company goal towards which they’re working. If all team members understand their place in the bigger picture, it will help motivate and align their efforts towards a common goal.

Lean Tip #3722 – Have a Clear Organizational Purpose

Every member of a team should be clear on what the long-term goals of the company are. This ensures the team projects are purpose-driven and valuable, have clearly defined and measurable objectives, and that everyone on the team moves in the same direction.

Having a purpose-driven team impacts engagement levels, productivity, and innovation. When team members have a clear understanding of why they’re doing what they do, they are more likely to feel motivated and inspired to work towards that purpose.

If your company doesn’t have a clearly defined purpose or mission statement, now is the time to create one.

Lean Tip #3723 – Set Clear Team Goals

When you're talking about improving teamwork in the workplace, the importance of clearly defined objectives can't be overstated. Teamwork is basically impossible in an environment where no one is sure what the team is working toward. You need to be sure that everyone on every team is on the same page.

To help with this, you can establish team processes that guide behavior and decision making towards meeting your goals. Whether that means letting other project members know the status of your work, or always speaking up if you see a problem that could affect the team’s success, setting clear expectations helps team members work better together.

Lean Tip #3724 – Talk Less, Listen More

There will always be give and take on teams, but the giving and the taking eventually has to balance out, or resentment will build up, and work will slow down. Ensure your company culture rewards listeners as much as speakers and sets a good example by being a listener yourself.

You can also give those whose ideas and opinions would ordinarily be drowned out a voice by encouraging people to share outside of team meetings.

Encouraging a culture of listening will not only have a positive impact on teamwork but on the workplace in general as it will make employees feel valued and increase engagement between team members.

When team members feel heard and their opinions valued, they’re more likely to contribute and collaborate effectively. So next time you’re in a meeting or brainstorming session, remember the age-old adage: it’s better to listen than to speak. Your team will thank you for it.

Lean Tip #3725 – Ask Team Members for Feedback 

Knowledge is power, so if you want to know where your workforce is when it comes to teamwork, why not just ask them? Soliciting feedback doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming.

Open and honest feedback is a vital cog in the teamwork wheel, especially for frontline workers. If team members feel they have a safe space to share their thoughts and concerns, even when they're out of the office loop, they’ll likely be more engaged and willing to contribute their ideas in future. This can help to guide future team-building processes and be part of your employee engagement strategy.

Lean Tip #3726 – Lead By Example

Leaders should lead by example, embodying the desired organizational values and behaviors. Their commitment to continuous learning, adaptability and a positive cultural shift serves as a powerful model for employees, inspiring them to do the same. This establishes a solid foundation for leadership development, change management and cultural transformation initiatives.

Lean Tip #3727 – Enable Your Employees

Shift your thinking from “managing” employees to enabling them. Ask them these two questions and evaluate where to go from there. The first is, "What do you need to grow your career to develop as a professional?" And the second, "With the help of your manager, what can be done to lower internal and external barriers that prevent you from achieving your goals, both personally and professionally?"

Lean Tip #3728 – Show Empathy

Cultivating empathy for others is a highly effective way to create a more compassionate and understanding workplace, ultimately leading to better leadership, smoother change management and successful cultural transformation. Building emotional intelligence helps everyone to understand and connect with their team members, understand different perspectives and build trust.

Lean Tip #3729 – Provide Learning Opportunities

If you want to transform your organization, you need to transform individuals. As employers, creating a learning organization is crucial for skills development and business success. The first point is to offer learning opportunities in the flow of work; you can blend formal and informal resources to make sure every learner profile puts their finger into lifelong learning.

Lean Tip #3730 – Create A Psychologically Safe Work Environment

Create an environment of psychological safety where team members feel safe speaking up, disagreeing, making mistakes and taking risks. This leads to a stronger culture of trust, encourages diverse perspectives, minimizes failures and encourages growth. The most effective way for leaders to create a safe team environment is to lead by example—by exhibiting vulnerability and trusting themselves.

Lean Tip #3731 – Support Middle Managers With The Skills And Tools To Lead

Empower middle managers with the right skills and tools to effectively implement change initiatives and act as key influencers in shaping the organizational culture. Their role is pivotal in ensuring that the organization's vision is effectively executed on the ground and that employees understand the why behind it and are inspired to grow and make an impact.

Lean Tip #3732 – Encourage Collaboration

Collaborative teams are more functional and effective. Leaders can encourage collaboration by being transparent and communicating often with their teams. The more information teams have, the more they can align their workplace activities with organizational objectives.

They can also create a collaborative culture by asking for input and listening to what their team has to say. This type of listening environment inculcates innovation and creativity.

Lean Tip #3733 – Stay Adaptable and Open to Change

Today’s business environment is rapidly changing. To be a good leader, you need to be flexible and willing to change course quickly when necessary. This has been especially apparent in the past few years. From the pandemic to generative artificial intelligence (AI), businesses have had to embrace change and find innovative ways of doing business to remain competitive.

Leaders can bring flexibility to their positions by being willing to learn from experiences–both their own and those of others. This characteristic allows them to pivot to better practices as well as identify and mitigate risks others may not notice.

Lean Tip #3734 – Focus on Continuous Learning and Improvement in Your Personal and Professional Life

Society, and by extension, business, is changing faster than ever. Leaders need to be able to learn new skills and continuously grow and develop personally and professionally. To make effective decisions, leaders have to stay updated on industry trends and understand all of the complex issues in their sector. Whether it’s through conferences, courses or advanced degrees, you’ll need to commit to lifelong learning to help your organization remain competitive in today’s marketplace.

Lean Tip #3735 – Take Initiative

Leaders don’t wait to be told what to do. They see what needs to be done and do it. Demonstrating initiative is a great way to be a better leader in the workplace. You don’t have to wait to be officially recognized as a leader to start taking the initiative.

Another characteristic of people who demonstrate initiative is that they recognize opportunities others overlook. Deeply understanding what your organization does will help you turn challenges into opportunities. 

Focus on the Vital Few for Better Outcomes

Productivity isn’t necessarily about how many things you get done every day, but rather how many of the right things — the things that add the most value to your customers and your business — that you accomplish. Considered in a slightly different way, sometimes what you don’t do is just (or more) important than what you do!

The reality is that we live in a world where almost everything is worthless, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable. Some things we do yield very little benefit, while others produce huge results. The whole concept of differentiating the “trivial many” from the “vital few,” prioritizing those few projects or tasks that truly will make a difference is both challenging and refreshing. It forces us to identify and focus on those things that are essential, eliminating or deferring those that are non-essential, and then committing the time and other resources to accomplishing those that are truly beneficial and of significant import.

I think there are a few things we can all agree on:

• We never have enough resources (time, money, energy, effort) to accomplish everything we want or need to
• We can never finish everything we have on our to-do lists.

It’s human nature to focus our attention on the things where we don’t have to invest a lot of resources, just to say we’ve accomplished something. And it’s the same thing with our to do list — we tend to go to the simplest tasks on the list, the low-hanging fruit, because we like the sense of accomplishment that we get from scratching the item off the list. But is this the most effective use of your limited resources, and will this give you the results you want and need?

Back in 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto identified that 80% of the wealth of his country was controlled by just 20% of the people. Using these findings as the basis for further study, Joseph Juran, an innovator of the Total Quality movement and the Six Sigma concept, published a universal principle in his 1951 book, “The Quality Control Handbook,” that he called the “vital few and trivial many.” Juran’s observation was that, in almost everything, a few (20%) are vital and many (80%) are trivial, a concept now widely known as the Pareto principle.

Given all of the rapid changes and increasing distractions organizations face today, individuals must be able to focus on those things that offer the greatest advantage to the organization. The clearer the priorities, the easier it will be for people to focus their energies on what really counts.

First and foremost is identifying which results are most important to you, both personally and professionally, and recognize those activities that are more vital than trivial. Some might simply call this a prioritization process, but it really goes deeper than that.

As a leader, for example, of all the things you do, only 20% really matter, and these produce 80% of your results. Identify and focus on this 20%, and when the fire drills of the day begin to sap your time, remind yourself of the 20% you need to keep focus on. If something on your schedule or to-do list has to slip, if something isn’t going to get done, make sure it’s not part of that 20%.

The Pareto principle isn’t an ironclad law or a panacea for success, but it is an excellent tool to help keep you focused on the things that are the most productive and beneficial that offer the highest paybacks and returns and driving your resource investment strategy.

You can’t do everything. So, you have to focus. Since you can’t do everything and if you ever could, your customers wouldn’t believe you anyhow, then you need to focus on something that you do well, that people want.

You get results based on the things you focus on most intently. Regardless of how many things you want to accomplish, you must focus on the most important and let other things — which in the right context may be very good things — go by the wayside.

Pareto's Principle, the 80/20 Rule, should serve as a daily reminder to focus 80 percent of your time and energy on the 20 percent of your work that is really important. Don't just "work smart", work smart on the right things.

If everything is important, then nothing is important. Do fewer but better things. Because the person who tries to achieve everything ultimately accomplishes nothing. Focus. Focus. Focus.

Lean Quote: Leading with Integrity

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"The supreme quality of leadership is integrity."  — Dwight Eisenhower

One of the keys to a positive and productive work environment is having leaders who act with integrity. Integrity in leaders refers to being honest, trustworthy, and reliable. Leaders with integrity act in accordance with their words (i.e. they practice what they preach) and own up to their mistakes, as opposed to hiding them, blaming their team, or making excuses. Integrity also involves following company policies, appropriately using company time and resources, and respecting one’s colleagues and direct reports. It is important to remember that a leader’s behavior reflects not only their own reputation, but also on the reputation of the organization.

Integrity gets lost…one degree of dishonesty at a time. There are no varying degrees of integrity. A leader is judged to have integrity or not based on what is seen. Minor lies can become a major problem. As minor as lies may seem, employees do not forget integrity mistakes.

In assessing your level of integrity, ask yourself the following questions:

1.    I always act with positive intent

2.    I do not avoid answering questions truthfully, even when the issue is tough ex. layoffs

3.    I own up to my mistakes and take steps to not repeat them

4.    I am willing to say what I’m thinking, even when I’m in the minority

5.    I treat others fairly and respectfully regardless of position/title

6.    I lead by example

7.    I always fulfill my promises/commitments

8.    I’m respectful of others’ time and am always punctual

9.    I call others out when the work values are not supported

10. I don’t make excuses for poor behaviors or actions displayed by myself or others

11. I address disruptive behaviors and conflict quickly and respectfully

12. I am not easily influenced by those more senior to me when things seem "off" and have the confidence to be true to myself

13. I encourage collaboration for the attainment of results

14. I make an effort to build a work culture that encompasses trust

15. I give credit when and where credit is due

When your organization has leadership committed to integrity, it can identify priorities and goals to measure improvement. This framework will make it easier to reference issues related to business integrity in your regular reporting as well as quickly address any issues as they arise. This is a culture that will permeate throughout the organization, influencing your internal reward structures, interactions with customers and suppliers, and your relationships with investors.

10 Ways to Adopt a Lean Culture Today

Building a Lean culture is not an easy task. A Lean culture starts with managers who understand and believe the implications of the system’s view and know the necessity of serving customers in order to succeed. The result of that understanding is a culture where a positive internal environment and the creation of delighted customers go together. It is a culture that naturally emphasizes continuous improvement of processes, one that results in a healthy workplace, satisfied customers, and a growing, profitable company.

The best leaders understand the present is nothing more than a platform for the envisioning of, and positioning for, the future. If you want to lead more effectively, shorten the distance between the future and present. Inspiring innovation and leading change call for more than process– they require the adoption of a cultural mindset.

Implementing Lean Thinking is a cultural change that requires leadership…because in the end it’s all about people. Here are 10 things your leadership can do right now to change the culture:

1. Define Your Vision and Values

A clear vision and values can guide your organization. A vision statement shows how your company sees itself in the future, complementing the mission and values you've developed. Your vision should describe your purpose, goals, and ideal state. Your values should reflect your principles, beliefs, and expectations. Communicating these throughout the business:

•           Gives employees information about why and how to optimize company processes or protocols
•           Helps employees understand the value of their specific contribution, which builds feelings of appreciation

2. Leaders Must Lead the Way

The leadership of the company has a significant influence on the company culture. For this reason, the leaders must be the ones to lead the way, open the conversation, and make examples. An important point here is that leaders in Lean manage the work, not the people. Focusing on workflow management will also create an environment of shared leadership, where everyone collectively contributes to the end result.

3. Challenge the Process

Continuous improvement encourages teams to question the status quo, seeking ways to optimize processes and minimize waste. They use Lean Thinking to look for innovative ways to improve the organization. In doing so, they experiment and take risks.

Don't miss the opportunity to identify the actions you need to improve the improve the process, while also being open to the knowledge and skills you need to develop. Challenging the process, particularly by searching for opportunities and experimenting and taking risks, is a key behavior to adopt in a Lean culture.

4. Eliminate Fear of Failure

Experiments will not always bring exceptional results. Not every new idea will be a winning move. For this reason, in a Lean culture, it is essential to show tolerance to failure. Otherwise, extreme criticism can create fear in your people and block experimentation.

A Lean culture is a learning culture, so it is of great importance to extract learnings from failures as much as from successes. Promote small-batch testing to minimize potentially harmful results from unsuccessful experiments. Also, as a company leader, make sure to speak openly about your failures and the learnings from them to give an example of how they should be analyzed and built on.

5. Empower Employees

Empowering employees is a key aspect of a Lean culture. This means giving employees the authority and resources they need to make decisions and improve processes. By empowering employees, organizations can tap into their knowledge and experience and create a culture of continuous improvement. This can be achieved by providing training, coaching, and support, and by creating a culture of collaboration and teamwork.

6. Train Employees

Training in Lean is essential for employees to understand how they are expected to work in the new culture. This cannot be a one-off activity though. Ensure they are taught specific Lean philosophies and Lean tools and supplement this with periodic training to help them stay current with the latest developments in Lean methodology. Leaders can go a long way to reinforce training by talking to employees about the training they have attended and how it has enabled them to be better practitioners of Lean.

7, Foster a Learning Environment

Continuous improvement depends upon employees learning and choosing to optimize their performance. In a Lean culture, company leaders help every employee continually learn new skills and advance their careers. This commitment to development usually encourages employees to be proactive about continually improving organizational processes. Strategies for fostering an environment of continuous learning and improvement include:

•  Developing internal training opportunities, such as courses or job shadowing
•  Sending employees to industry conventions, workshops, or conferences
•  Providing ways for employees to make suggestions about their department or the company
•  Soliciting anonymous feedback about aspects of the organization

8. Make Change Everyone’s Responsibility

Continuous improvement requires the participation of everyone in the organization. This includes the executive suite, management, and line workers. The continuous improvement program becomes effective when employees are engaged in developing the culture and are proactive in identifying areas for improvement. To do this, everyone should understand their role and contribution to the company’s continuous improvement program. Only by “rowing” together can the goals of the improvement program be achieved. Part of working together on this effort is sharing the responsibility of the program across the entire organization.

9. Create New Habits

Creating a continuous improvement culture requires changing people’s habits. Habits are the set of things that people do subconsciously on a daily basis. They are in fact very difficult to change. Part of the challenge of starting and sustaining a continuous improvement program is identifying a set of desired behaviors and continuously reinforce them. This can include training and retraining employees, helping people understand when their behaviors are misaligned with the continuous improvement efforts, and giving positive feedback to those who exemplifies the desired behaviors.

10. Celebrate success

Continuous improvement is hard. It requires employees to critically think about their work and examine potential ways of improving it. As your continuous improvement program begin to gain more momentum it is important to remember the people who make it possible. One way of sustaining the process is to regularly share success stories and recognize those involved. Many employees take pride in their work and are intrinsically motivated to improve them. They are simply looking for recognition and praise for a job well done.

Constant change is a business reality, and organizations must continually adapt to their environments to stay competitive or risk losing relevance and becoming obsolete. For each change, leaders must define it, create a vision of the post-change world, and mobilize their teams to make it.

Fundamentally, a change of culture occurs when people start behaving differently as a result of a change in the climate of the organization. There are many different models of how an organizational culture is shaped by the prevailing climate and how it can be assessed.

Leaders who protect the status quo through control must surrender to change in order to secure the future for their organization. Don’t be the leader who rewards herd mentality, and me too thinking. Don’t be the leader who encourages people not to fail or not to take risks. Be the leader who both models and gives permission to do the exact opposite of the aforementioned – be a leader who leads.

Lean success requires a change in mindset and behavior among leadership, and then gradually throughout the organization. So it follows that success in Lean implies a change in what leaders reinforce—a change in leadership behaviors and practices. Change begins when leaders start acting differently. It’s that simple (but not that easy).

5 Business Lessons from St. Patrick

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Lost in the midst of parades, green beer, and Irish music, there is a story of a remarkable leader. That millions of people still celebrate a holiday honoring St. Patrick, 1500 years after his death, attests to his success as a leader.

The life of this fifth-century Christian missionary in Ireland highlights some important business lessons that still apply today.

Take Action

Note that St. Patrick didn’t wait to be rescued from his circumstances. He took action himself. What action do we need to take? Where might we need to step out of our comfort zone? We won’t ever reach those waters heading to where we want to be until we take that first step.

Teamwork

Saint Patrick worked in a team to develop his ministry. He understood the importance of collaboration and leveraging the strengths of others. After visiting an Irish tribe, a few members of the ministry team stayed behind to support and coach the new believers.

Perseverance

Born to wealthy parents in Britain, Patrick was kidnapped by Irish pirates and taken into slavery when he was 16 years old. While in captivity, he was forced to work as a shepherd for six years. Despite this long period of forced labor, he later returned as a missionary to Ireland. This raises the importance of balancing short- and long-term goals.

Forgive

One of the most surprising aspects of St. Patrick’s life was his decision to return to Ireland as a missionary 15 years after he had escaped. Despite his being held captive there, he was able to muster up the strength to forgive his captors to the point where he willingly returned. Who might we need to forgive in our life? Remember, holding onto resentment only creates bitterness and burden within us.

Invest in People

An important part of his ministry was discipleship, which aligns with employee training and development. Saint Patrick and his team spent months with each tribe. This dedicated time allowed for the development of practices and ongoing training.

This St. Patrick’s Day, might we remember that it is more than just a tale and opportunity to dress from head to toe in green. May we be encouraged and inspired to intentionally live our lives full of purpose, no matter our circumstances. As a leader at work, in the community, in our church or even in our own home, how might the tale of St. Patrick teach us to transform our circumstances into opportunities for growth and impact?

Lean Quote: Why Conflict is Necessary for Leadership

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Without conflict there is no leadership."  — Michael W. Kublin

That statement highlights the crucial role of conflict in effective leadership. While conflict can be uncomfortable, it's often a catalyst for growth, innovation, and the development of strong leadership skills.

Teams who focus too much on keeping things agreeable and harmonic don’t let themselves explore innovative or disruptive thoughts. This sort of ‘group-think’ can alienate the team members who tend to think differently and outside the box. Yet some of the greatest ideas the world has ever seen have come from these sorts of people.

Too much conflict and people become frustrated, demotivated, and just want to avoid the problem. But a little bit of conflict can work wonders. When handled effectively, conflict also:

Challenging the Status Quo:

Without conflict, there's a risk of stagnation and complacency. The best ideas are born of diverse thinking, taking different cultures, experiences and skillsets into account.

Driving Change and Innovation:

Conflict can spark creativity and innovation. When different viewpoints collide, it can lead to new ideas, strategies, and solutions that otherwise wouldn't emerge.

Building Resilience and Adaptability:

Leaders who navigate conflict effectively learn to adapt to change and overcome challenges, fostering a sense of resilience within themselves and their teams.

Improving Decision-Making:

Conflict can lead to more informed and well-rounded decisions. By considering diverse perspectives and challenging assumptions, leaders can make better choices.

Strengthening Relationships:

When conflict is managed constructively, it can actually strengthen relationships and build trust.

Leaders who embrace conflict encourage diverse perspectives and challenge existing norms, leading to better solutions and improvements. Debate means that teams explore all areas and it helps to create an environment that fosters innovation, creative disruption and collaboration. It’s how organizations can gain a competitive edge.

5 Elements of an Effective Problem Solving Method, PDCA

Every day we face challenges and problems in life, both big and small, and so it’s very important to be good at tackling them. Finding the best solutions to problems is a necessary skill for navigating the changes that are continuously affecting our company. Organizations that take a proactive and structured approach to problem solving position themselves to overcome obstacles and take advantage of opportunities.

Rather frequently, companies – notably management – demand swift action when facing a problem. Well, there is nothing wrong with a bias for action but what often results is “cutting corners” in the rank and file. Finding the best solutions starts with having a structured approach to problem solving.

Root cause analysis is a fact-based methodology. Many of the problem solving tools are similar. 5Whys, Ishikawa Fish-bones, 8Ds for automotive, A3 for Lean, PDCA, DMAIC for Six sigma….All “logically” based fact systems and follow how the basic "instinctive" brain works, you set a goal, brain storm ideas, evaluate it, you do it, and see whether it works. The difference is the level of complexity. This is why PDCA is a cycle, in every turn you can understand different parts of the problem. The more complicated the problem or the improvement, the more you need to repeat the cycle.

Step 1: Stabilize the Process

When impactful problems manifest, they cause immediate pain and noise within the organization, which then causes great pressure to “do something” in response. The correct action here is stabilization. Stabilizing a system does not mean getting it working properly. Instead, the goal is to get the system to work at the best function it is currently capable of.

Another goal of stabilization is to keep the problem contained, i.e. to keep the problem from getting worse, or at least minimize its rate of degradation. Proper stabilization happens within the existing operating patterns, meaning a known activity that the team has documented and practiced. Stabilization is not the place for innovation or extensive analysis. The phrase “I have an idea… we could try” often signals problematic departure from stabilization activities. Brainstorming has its place in problem resolution, but not in the stabilization phase. Stabilize first!

Step 2: Identify the Root Cause

Often a problem is hard because we are unsure what we are being asked, or asking ourselves, to do. Poorly defined problems rarely lead to quick “ah-has!” Spending time to understand the problem is a neglected part of the problem solving process. Typically, there are many strategies for demystification.

Asking why 5 times: “the 5 Whys”, is a simple but powerful tool to use with any problem solving activity. It’s a technique to help you get past the symptoms of a problem, and to find its root causes. Simply ask the question “why” up to five times. 

Taiichi Ohno gave this example about a machine that stopped working (Ohno 1988, p. 17):

1. Why did the machine stop?
There was an overload and the fuse blew.

2. Why was there an overload?
The bearing was not sufficiently lubricated.

3. Why was it not lubricated?
The lubrication pump vs not pumping sufficiently.

4. Why was it not pumping sufficiently?
The shaft of the pump was worn and rattling.

5. Why was the shaft worn out?
There was no strainer attached and metal scarps got in.

Without repeatedly asking why, we would likely replace the fuse or pump and the failure would recur. Keep asking why until the root cause is reached and eliminated.

Step 3: Explore Countermeasures

Unlike many mathematical problems, which allow for only one answer, complex problems have many possible solutions. So don’t jump to the conclusion that one particular solution is the only solution. Take the time to identify and consider as many ideas as possible. This is perhaps the most creative step in the problem solving process. Do not judge the quality of your solutions, even the crazy ones, until you exhaust the brainstorming process. Then, select an approach, preferably one that focuses on process improvement and that is financially feasible, has the best chance of being implemented and will have a high impact on the problem.

Take the time to do a test run on the solution. Make individual responsibilities clear and establish a daily schedule for the improvement plan. Notify anybody who might be affected by your changes before you begin implementation.

Step 4: Implement Solutions and Monitor

Now you are ready to implement the proposed solution and measure the results. How well have you done? Is the problem subsiding? Do you see any improvement? Are there any assumptions that need to be modified? Check whether your solution produced the desired effect.

If the results are satisfactory, the change achieved the stated goal. Amazing! You can now move directly to step 5.

If the results are not satisfactory, the change represented an improvement but did not meet the stated goal. Incremental progress is still progress, so it may make sense to move to Step 5 and start another improvement cycle to try more solutions. It also may be the case that there is a way to amplify the change you implemented to get more of the results you seek. In that case, make some slight adjustments and gather more data.

If the change did not achieve improvement, then in this case, you have a couple of things to think about. First, if there were other proposed solutions, you might implement one of them and then measure again. Another thing to consider is that perhaps you did not find the root cause of the problem after all and need to go back to Step 2.

Step 5: Standardize and Control

In order for improvements to last, they must be standardized and repeatable. Once you see that the solution is working, take action to maintain the gain. Standardize the solution so that you can prevent the very improvements you worked so hard to accomplish from being neglected or replaced over time with past practices. Gather data until the benefits stabilize.

Standardizing work is crucial to PDCA because it creates a baseline for improvement. When you make improvements to a process, it’s essential to document the new standard work in order to sustain the improvements and create a new baseline. Standard work also reduces variability in processes and promotes discipline, which is essential for continuous improvement efforts to take root. After you confirm that you achieved your desired effect, communicate the improvement.

Of all things needed to foster a problem solving culture, training is the most important, allowing and expecting associates to be systematic. Socratic questioning works best! The reason is simple: the problem is usually smarter than us and will always win over shortcuts.

Effective problem solving doesn’t happen by accident. It takes time, commitment and a methodical approach. Businesses can fall into pitfalls with problem solving if they fail to give the issue at hand the correct level of priority and importance. Remember, for every month this problem continues, your business could lose out!