"HOW ARE YOUR FACILITATION SKILLS?" | Facilitating the Storm | 1.05
LISTEN TO LEARN | Facilitating the storm | LBFF 1.05
What does it mean to Facilitate the storm? We all can relate to storms and dealing with storms in our personal and professional lives. Why is this something that I find important in a continuous improvement process? listen to find out why!
WATCH TO TRY | Facilitating the Storm with Martin Lodge | LBTT 1.05
How important is Facilitating the Storm in our personal and professional lives? Does it really impact people the way Leanbrella claims that it does? Watch our latest interview with Martin Lodge, former VP of Operations, Continuous Improvement and Quality and co-Author of Culture, Change, and Continuous Improvement: from bankruptcy to industry leadership a true aerospace story (click link to purchase a copy). Martin discusses with us how to facilitate continuous improvement (Lean) efforts during the most difficult of storms.
READ TO APPLY | facilitating the Storm | LBCC 1.05
My years as a facilitator for change taught me both good and bad practices. I watched good leaders struggle in getting the buy-In from their teams while the bad leaders succeeded by instilling fear. I saw the Lean journey be abandoned by good people because the change was too great for them to accept. It is true that people leave bad managers or leadership, but sometimes the abandonment was because the change came too fast, too early, was too great, or too hard. In my experience, Humans always choose the path of least resistance where possible.
From these experiences, I realized that the Lean Journey can be over-Complicated. If you have been involved in Industry for any length of time, you’ve more than likely been introduced to the concept of “Continuous Improvement” or the “Toyota Production System”. You may have been certified as a “Green Belt” or some other color of the rainbow. I always felt that this idea was too harsh, complicated, or bureaucratized for most individuals to relate to. Making it more of a status or elitist concept rather than a human concept. That doesn’t mean that none of us have gone through a Karate program, many of us have. But I would venture to say that the majority of individuals have not. From this realization, I decided to focus on what most people relate to…STORMS or BAD WEATHER. As a practice, I strive to include all perspectives into a Continuous Improvement or Lean Journey. This is something anyone can do. it is not limited to one specific group or industry. Many of these principles or concepts can be utilized in our personal lives also.
Leanbrella’s three phased approach to continuous improvement has been simplified to:
Once we understand “what problems we are trying to solve?”, we can start to prepare for the storm’s arrival. Thus making it more possible to Handle the storm once it has made landfall. Facilitating the Storm is not a phase within a continuous improvement or lean journey. But it is an important concept to understand.
More than likely, facilitation will be led by experienced lean Leadership or trained and experienced Leanierologists who can predict the tossing of the waves and the forces of the winds. depending on the strength or size of the storm, the facilitator needs to be experienced and confident enough to guide the team through the ebbs and flows of the event process. They do not need to be experts in the subject being discussed or process being improved, they do need to have enough experience to see where course corrections are required or have the ability to do Real Time Problem Resolution. Their RTPR may not be in resolving the issue, but in determining what Lean tool would lead the team in the right direction of problem solution discovery. The right facilitator functions as the compass and often the steering wheel of the Continuous Improvement Journey. They provide counsel, direction and support during the Continuous Improvement Journey they are not the leader of the journey.
Regardless of whether or not you have been involved in a formal Continuous Improvement Journey, the right facilitator of the storm can be the difference in success or failure. it is imperative that the facilitator is chosen based on culture, experience, and often behavior. When being led by an experienced Storm Chaser or Leanierologist, the better chance we have at overcoming or diminishing the storm’s impact. having the right facilitator working alongside capable leadership will support a healthy Culture Climate throughout the Lean Journey.
Listen next month as we start our series on Lean Tool Basics where we discuss the details and experience with the basic lean tools in our lean toolbox. up first, “let’s 5S your life!”…