Posts Tagged ‘Confidence’

Sparking Confidence Across Your Organization

Monday, July 18th, 2011

Blog Article by Ray Attiyah, Chief Innovation Officer

My last post discussed how a lack of confidence can creep into an organization.  It poses as an overabundance of oversight, checks and balances or controls. While review is vital, it can become counterproductive if it steals from your front-line workers their ability to independently solve problems, try improvements and own their success.

Confidence may be the most important improvement you can bring to your organization. It is the foundation of every sustainable continuous improvement initiative, and it is essential to leadership development.  The following five solutions are proven ways to spark confidence.

  1. Communicate external objectives – Workers become much more confident and engaged when they understand the connection between their task and adding value for the customer.
  2. Try-storm – Try-storming is a word we use for quickly giving an improvement idea a test drive. When a worker has an idea and a supervisor not only listens, but is willing to try it, even as a temporary experiment, the worker feels valued and becomes more confident.
  3. Reward top performers – It is common to find yourself spending too much time fighting fires with new or under-performing workers. When we ignore our top performers, they disengage and lose confidence in their ability to make a difference. Make time for your best people and keep them challenged.
  4. Find quick win projects – Quick wins are the surest way to prove to non-believers that improvement can happen. When your workers see change, they are more likely to want to be part of it.
  5. Update management systems – Make changes that reflect the progress made by front-line individuals and teams. Re-balance work and responsibilities and set new goals.

When workers are motivated to contribute to improvements, supervisors gain confidence in their front line.  With confidence in the daily run, comes time to focus on big picture improvements and growth.  It’s a winning strategy with long-tail benefits that are felt all the way to the top of the organization.

Executives often tell me this kind of confidence reduced stress, gave them time to focus on transformational changes that grew the business and allowed them to leave work at work, improving family life.  It’s a win for everyone.

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Posted in Continuous Improvement Efforts, Cultural Evolution, Definity Solutions: Thought Leadership Articles, Developing People, Improvement Tools, Transforming Your Business | Make a Comment »

5 Signs a Lack of Confidence is Holding Back Your Organization

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Blog Article by Ray Attiyah, Chief Innovation Officer, Definity Partners

A common complaint we hear from business owners is that their operation seems to be bogged down, not able to get to the next level.  When we examine the root cause of the problem it often comes down to a lack of confidence.

Good business requires layers of review, but all too often we see companies that use checks and balances to cover up a lack of confidence in their workers.  Rather than develop the goals, standards and training that enable front-line workers to excel at solving problems and make smart improvements, there are approval processes, meetings, reviews and layers of documentation.  This high level of oversight keeps an organization from being nimble and it deflates employee engagement. Even small ideas that could improve the process or product become regarded as, “not worth the trouble.”

Here are some signs that a lack of confidence has crept into your organization and is holding back progress.

  1. Too many Meetings with too many people that drag on too long – Meetings are a fact of life, but unless meetings provide collaboration with a result that moves the issue forward with someone in charge, they become a crutch to keep any one person from taking responsibility.
  2. You find yourself un-delegating - As a leader you only have so much time in a day.  You have a duty to your organization to delegate work and decisions.  Delegating allows your management team to take on more responsibility and grow their skills but it also frees you to focus on the things that add the most value to your organization.  My rule of thumb is that if someone can do the job 80% as well as you would, you need to delegate that job.
  3. You add a new position to provide more oversight - Much like un-delegating, creating another level of oversight for routine processes is a sign that you don’t have confidence in your people and processes.  It’s a far better use of your resources to develop the standards, training and trust that encourages and rewards your front line and middle managers for making good decisions about daily business.
  4. You generate reports that never seem to be discussed - Reports are important when they are used to benchmark progress, identify problems and find opportunities.  If you create reports as a security blanket to prove what you already know, the only thing they prove is that you lack confidence.
  5. You back off your goals or lower your standards – You have to have confidence in your organization to maintain or raise your standards.  When workers sense you don’t have confidence in them they hold back and become disengaged.  They lose interest in trying to do a better job or make a better product. It’s a downhill spiral that will lead to more errors, missed work time, high turnover and will in turn consume your time or the time of your managers.

In our next post, we will look at some of the strategies that allow you to find a new level of confidence in your organization.

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Posted in Continuous Improvement Efforts, Cultural Evolution, Definity Solutions: Thought Leadership Articles, Developing People, Improvement Tools, Management Insights, Sustainable Improvement Tip, Transforming Your Business, Uncategorized | Make a Comment »

What Would Give You Confidence to Add Complexity?

Friday, April 8th, 2011

Blog Article Written By: Ray Attiyah, Chief Innovation Officer

Several years ago, Nike embarked on a journey to build a massive ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. I recommend ERP systems to any growing business, but what made Nike’s effort so significant was its intention to combine ERP with supply chain optimization and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) functions. For those that are unfamiliar with the size and scope of this kind of project, trust me, it is a massive undertaking.

Anyway, Nike’s $400 million investment ended up costing the sporting goods brand $100 million in lost sales and a 20% drop in their stock price, not to mention a bevy of class action lawsuits. The company’s VP of Global Operations (at the time) openly admitted, “For the people that follow this sort of thing, we became a poster child (for failed implementations).”  

What happened that caused such a disruption? The answer is unreliable systems and processes – our fifth obstacle that prevents organizational growth (in our series of seven).

ERP systems are only as good as the systems and processes that support its functionality. The same goes for an organization’s employees. While a failed ERP implementation is a symptom of system and process problems, so too are inflated lead times, poor on-time delivery, employee turnover and chronic miscommunication.

Systems and processes are an organization’s DNA; but unlike our own genetic makeup, we have the ability to strategize and select how we want our operations to function. I believe that every employee wants to succeed, but they need appropriate systems and processes that will allow them to do so.

Think about it like a mind-body connection. When systems and processes are streamlined, the organization doesn’t have to compromise between the health of the mind (strategy and objectives) and the body (day to day operations). When systems and processes are inefficient, there is a misalignment between the mind and body causing sluggishness and turmoil. Only when an organization’s mind and body are aligned through efficient systems and processes can top-leaders seize opportunities in the market with confidence that their front-line will handle the complexity that comes with growth. Without the most efficient systems and processes in place, growth is only in size, not sustainability.

So, keeping in mind the importance of having the most efficient systems and processes, let me leave you with a couple of questions to ponder:

  • Is your organization prepared to truly grow?
  • How would you personally handle a new customer and/or new market if it/they were added tomorrow?
  • What would it take to give you confidence to add complexity?  
  • What functions do you wish could be more efficient? What solutions can you provide?

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Posted in Continuous Improvement Efforts, Improvement Tools, Management Insights, Sustainable Improvement Tip, Transforming People, Transforming Your Business | Make a Comment »

Q&A with Mark Hartings, Plant Manager of PDi Communications

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Blog Article Written by Todd Eppert, Executive Project Manager

In the latter half of 2010, we teamed with PDi Communications on a focused effort to transform the way the company worked. Before the engagement with Definity Partners, the plant manager, Mark Hartings, was bogged down in the day to day running of the operations. His time was especially consumed with scheduling tasks. After gaining trust in his front-line supervisors and operators, Hartings’ time spent on transformational improvements doubled. The confidence he developed in his front line also reduced the stress in his life at work and at home. This Q&A blog article is his reflection of the experience:

Todd: Could you explain to me what your job was like before the transformation in 2010?

Mark: Well, I was responsible for what products went out and when.  I got to the point where not only was I scheduling, but also dealing with the issues that came up in the departments such as, “We’re running short on this or I don’t think we’re going to be able to make this because of this part shortage here.” Then I would have to dig down into that and understand why the part couldn’t be supplied, then uncovering another layer and so on. As this happened in all of these departments, I was chasing a lot of stuff every day.

Todd: How did you get to the point you are at now?

Mark: With Definity’s help. They helped me realize how to prioritize my time, while being able to trust my front-line to hand off responsibilities. They call that the Run-Improve-Grow™ system.  When you put everything that you are doing down on a piece of paper, it’s like “Wow, that’s a waste of time. Or shoot, I should be doing that.”  As a result of that analysis, we created a scheduler position and the responsibility is totally on the supervisors to meet that schedule. I’ll get involved at a very top level and then let them run with the details.

Todd: So what are you doing now that you weren’t able to do in the past?

Mark: My capacity to make improvements has doubled from where it was. I spend a lot of my time improving our lean progression as we’re starting our new projects. One of those projects was building stock in the warehouse. I had the time to analyze the project which included moving the press room over in the machine shop and setting those machines up themselves and having more of a one piece flow. Then, taking the old press room and turning it into a warehouse so we can take a lot of the stock that we buy offshore like larger screen television sets and not have them at an offsite warehouse paying for the overhead, not to mention the transportation costs. So now we have all of that here. It’s a whole different way of doing business than we did six months ago.

Todd: That’s a great improvement in a very short period of time. How about for you personally? How did the transformation impact you?

Mark: I haven’t taken all of my vacation since I’ve been on salary which has been probably before I came in this building (which they moved to in 1989). It was always that I would schedule all of my time, or at least most of it, and I would end up cancelling days because this is going on or that is going on. There’s a situation here that needs attention. Now, since all of that has been pushed down to the supervisor level and them taking care of those problems, I can go away and I know that things are being run and I know things are getting done the way they are supposed to be done. This is the first year that I’ve taken every hour of vacation I had coming. I took the last one on December 22. I enjoyed every damn one of them because I wasn’t thinking to myself, “Crap, what’s going on at work? Geese, what about this? What about that?” Not focusing on all of the other things that are going on because I know they are under control. That has been huge for me.

Todd: Have the supervisors and front-line employees had similarly positive experiences?

Mark: I’ve got one fellow in Arm Assembly that was a supervisor that was actually working a (operator’s) position pretty much all the time. He would have to take care of problems and situations and he was having a hard time looking at the bigger picture to meet the scheduling demands. Him being on that line was a real issue because he couldn’t get the people that he needed trained and up to speed. He was more focused on making the day to day numbers as opposed to trying to improve the business long-term. That was a headache (for me) because I had to keep telling him he needed to remove himself from all of those issues and details because he had a second in command that can do anything that he can do (on the line). I told him he needed to push more responsibility down on her. We gave him the date of December 31 which would be the last time he would ever be able to work on the line again. Now he’s strictly a supervisor. He’s feeling what I’m feeling now which is all of those headaches and worrying about all of those details are gone so he can sit back and look at what he needs to do to run his portion of the business: get the people in, work with the temp agencies, spend time training people, look at the processes, and just the overall appearance of the facility, trying to get things working more efficiently.

Todd: How long did it take for your supervisors and front-line operators to buy into the improvements you wanted to make?

Mark: Definity came in and turned their whole world upside down. They were pushed out of their comfort zones – everybody was, including me. I guess the buy in started to happen when they saw it was possible to do this. When they saw it was possible to have a multi-mix line and to make the changes with them involved in making the changes. And as the changes were made, the numbers just started going up and up. Finally, when we started hitting those numbers once, we would celebrate, but when we would hit those numbers more and more, we would give them the feedback and praise of how good of a job they were doing. On the days that they didn’t hit the numbers, we would focus on why and make improvements the following day. It was a process of momentum. As they saw things getting better, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Todd: Do you have any stories of their personal benefit from the transformation?

Mark: At the end of the year, they didn’t think they were going to have a bonus because of some repair problems and other things that were going on. But a lot of the bonus came from the fact that it was the product that we made in house with the margins that we make that provided that bonus. With Definity’s help, we were able to get more efficient to get better margins on those products so at the end of the year, they got the bonus check that we told them they weren’t going to get. They got a pretty damn good bonus check and everyone was just tickled to death. They got it on Christmas Eve and they had the time to spend it on what they wanted over Christmas. And that really drove it home. It’s like everybody came back after the break and thought, you know what, that made sense. We can see where all these improvements are going. This is for the bottom line, to make the company healthier, to provide profits, to provide bonuses, to provide raises, better raises, more opportunities, better environment to work, and make it easier for them. Produce more at the same time as making their job easier. We’re not trying to make them work harder, we just want them to work more efficiently and make it easier to produce more. It makes their life a lot more headache free – mine sure as heck is!

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Posted in Client Recognition, Continuous Improvement Efforts, Cultural Evolution, Developing People, Management Insights, Transforming Your Business | Make a Comment »

Remember the Forgotten III

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Part three of a three part series on Proactive Improvement

Blog Article Written By: Dave Mills, Managing Partner – Columbus

Did you have a chance to read the first two parts of our Remember the Forgotten Blog Series? If not, here is Remember the Forgotten I and Remember the Forgotten II.

So far, we talked about the forgotten elements of many businesses and the implications of their being forgotten. We focused on relationships with suppliers and customers. Our good friend Jim Hosley at Exterior Portfolio by Crane gave another great example: “In my experience, one of the largest forgotten elements are the people who come to work every day and just do a good, dependable, quality job.  As managers we tend to focus on either the ‘problem children’ or the most ‘visible’ or the ‘high performers.’”

It’s true that too often there is a  focus on the extremes when what any manager would prefer is to have confidence in all of their employees. What if they did? We have a proven strategy to move toward that goal called  Run-Improve-Grow™.    It has allowed top-leaders to expect more and gain confidence and trust in their entire organization.

Imagine Run-Improve-Grow™ as a triangle with the run function at the wide base. Ideally, your operators and front line supervisors are managing the run while your managers in the middle of the triangle are focused on proactive improvements.  Too often the middle managers get called in to solve routine run problems.  When they are working in the run, they are not working on improvement that would make the business more productive and profitable. It then falls to senior management at the top of the triangle to make improvements, when their time would be put to better use focusing on growth initiatives and innovation. I think you can see what then happens to the company’s growth pursuits when middle managers get stuck in the run. What percentage of time do you spend Running the business, Improving it and Growing it? What would you want it to be? How would the company benefit if you made the switch?

Run-Improve-Grow™ starts by empowering the front-line with tools. With our clients, we have used lean initiatives such as 5S, six sigma and kaizen to streamline the front-line’s systems and processes. Additionally, daily huddle meetings between the front-line supervisors and the operators have focused on open and honest communication and have facilitated discussions of what went well and what needed improvement in the previous shift. The operators said that when they shared their ideas and saw them become implemented, it made them feel valued. The confidence in their ideas increased their accountability to the job.

What would an empowered front-line mean to your company? Imagine if instead of middle managers being pulled down into the Run, operators and frontline leaders were empowered to make improvements themselves  Run-Improve-Grow™  pushes time up. Middle managers have the time to focus on making proactive improvements. Top-leaders have the time to focus on innovation and growth.

Now take it to a personal level.  Mark Hartings, plant manager at PDi Communications, has been with the company for 30 years.  In all of his time with the company, he never used every one of his vacation days. After working with Run-Improve-Grow™ this past year, he was able to use them all for the first time. Even more significant was the feeling he had when he took time off: “I was never worried that when I came back, the operation would have fallen apart. I was able to take time off with confidence.”

Understanding how the Run-Improve-Grow™ system has helped the lives of our clients’ employees is very special to us at Definity Partners. In 2011, we would love to help you. How can Run-Improve-Grow™ help you this year – personally and professionally?

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Posted in Client Recognition, Continuous Improvement Efforts, Cultural Evolution, Definity Solutions: Thought Leadership Articles, Developing People, Management Insights, Uncategorized | Make a Comment »

Good Things Can Come From a Bad Economy

Friday, November 19th, 2010

Blog Article Written By: Ray Attiyah, Chief Innovation Officer

We are always proud of our clients for the recognition they receive from the media and other sources. On Monday November 22 and Tuesday November 23 at 5:50 PM, Business Wise, the region’s leading radio voice for business news and information on WNKU FM, 89.7, will feature Tom Barnes, Human Resource Manager at Bilstein. Tom will talk about the culture changes at the shock absorber plant in Hamilton, Ohio, that increased productivity and led the company out of recessionary lows. Bilstein’s profitability for 2009-2010 was up 10 percent from pre-recession highs; sales have also come back.

The company was recently selected one of the Cincinnati area’s Top Workplaces by the Cincinnati Enquirer. It was also a finalist in the Best Places to Work competition sponsored by the Cincinnati Business Courier.

Tom will be joined by Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Definity Partners, Ray Attiyah, to talk about the good things that can come out of a bad economy when a company has the confidence to upgrade, hire and grow.

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I have an Innovative Idea, Now What?

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Blog Article Written By: Ray Attiyah, Chief Innovation Officer

Have you ever had a great idea, an idea so remarkable that it had you dreaming of being the next Mark Zuckerberg before you even wrote it down? I’ll bet you have. From my experiences in the business world, innovative ideas come in all shapes and sizes, but most eventually get disregarded as impossible – and all they will ever become is a passing thought.

Innovation is a process, one that is less about the product than it is about the implementation of the idea. Think about the Snuggie, an idea so incredibly simple it bordered on ridiculous. But the idea was only the first step. The implementation that followed made the product innovative. From production, to distribution, to the marketing sensation that followed, the Snuggie turned out to be a great success.

So ask yourself, what blanket with arm holes is lying dormant in your mind?

Please click on the link to read our thought leadership article: Innovation for Successful Businesses Expands Beyond the Products.

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