Sometimes all it takes is just one spark. One person to say "let's try it!" if you've got an idea, or "it's alright, what have we learned?" when something has seemingly gone wrong. I have, for the past few weeks, been working with a small team of coaches to try to change the culture of one of the largest public institutions in the world. We have listened to, talked with, and read about many different ways of changing culture. The one common thread - time. Everyone we spoke to said it takes time. While that is true, we also have found that it takes people, specifically people who are willing to try something new. One could call this type of people "advocates," but I prefer the term "sparks."
In those weeks we talked with many people. The first question we asked each of their leadership team was "what are your struggles?" Asking someone what they struggle with, or what obstacles they think are present in their work gains trust in you and opens up for the possibility that it could be different. From this question we learned from the people what was their biggest barrier. Largely it had little to do with the actual operation. Often when in an organization like ours, one that is mostly a modern management organization, we look to the metrics, the numbers, to tell us where something is going wrong. And all too often we take those numbers to be the fact. So much so that we often neglect to see the people within those numbers.
"What is your struggle?"
This question led to the cultural issue at hand. On the surface the answer was "communication."
"What do you mean by communication?" We asked.
"We don't talk enough," was the common response.
"How often do you talk with each other?" We tried to get deeper into this issue.
"Sometimes I can go a day without really talking to anyone other than my direct team."
"Who is your team?" They typically would look around to the employees at work and respond "this is my team."
"What keeps you from talking with the other people in management?"
"We used to talk, but that seemed to stop some time ago."
"What caused that to stop?" It was interesting that they used to communicate, but no longer do.
"We just don't meet anymore."
"How did you used to meet?"
"We used to just go into the room there and go over the night's plan." The room mentioned was just off of the workroom floor with a window that allows you to see in and out.
"What would you want to do now?"
"It would be nice to meet again so we can talk with each other and figure out what we need to do. I have no idea what's going on with anyone else."
The struggle was communication. Using similar questions as the 5 Whys, we tried to get to a deeper cause of what they saw as communication, and why it no longer occurred. As we talked with the entire team, it took a little while but we found a couple people in that group to bring up the idea "what if we just started to meet again?" As coaches, we only asked questions and encouraged them to do whatever ideas they had. Two people of the management team provided a small spark for the rest of them. It took questions to understand the issue, but it took people, sparks, to try something.
This led to more people wanting to meet, but trying to determine what about, and having to start all over forming their team took some real efforts. As observers in their meetings, we stood along the wall and watched. We watched what they talked about, but more importantly, how they talked with each other and how they acted with each other. In team dynamics we usually talk about the different ways team come together. There is Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. Coming together at a specified time started their forming stage. Not everyone showed up on time, not everyone came into the room, but still they met. Storming occurred rather quickly after they started meeting. There were some disagreements, but at times we saw one of the dysfunctions of teams - "invulnerability." Some would spend the meeting quietly observing as we were, but individually they had some ideas or something to say. When there is no conflict, there is no real communication, no real team learning or team commitment. Storming occurred for the next week. At times we thought the meeting might not continue.
"What if we just started to meet again?"
At the same time as this team was going through their own forming and storming stages, we were coaching the higher management. We found another spark there. One of the managers was new to the this particular plant, but not new to management. He was a problem solver, and called himself one as well. He loved to solve problems, his problems, operational problems, anything. We challenged him multiple times with questions concerning the team.
"What are your team's struggles? How does your team interact? How do you interact with your team? When you go to solve problems, how do they want to solve them?" These questions, though sometimes frustrating, allowed him to think deeper about the environment and culture of the group.
When we arrived on the final week of our first block of coaching sessions, we felt some real frustrations from the overall culture of the organization. That is, while we focused on this small portion of our company, there was a much larger culture that was directly affecting the way people acted and thought at this much lower level. It is frustrating looking at the ocean, but encouraging when looking at just one cup. We can more easily boil the cup of water, but it will take many, many, many more cups to boil the ocean and this solidified why people who have gone through this said it will take a lot of time. We listened to a leadership meeting, one not unlike many we have heard before. A metric was brought up, one not many even knew existed, and all of a sudden it was life and death to make this metric raise. We heard things such as "we need to make sure everyone does what they are supposed to do," and "you just need to make sure you get it done every night." What this does is ignore the fact that there are real struggles occurring at the plant, and much more basic ones that directly affect ALL of the metrics, and more importantly, what the customer actually wants. Starting off this final week, we all took a breath and reflected.
Focus on the cup of water, not the ocean.
After deciding then that we cannot worry about the overall culture of the company, we returned our focus towards this one part of the company. This week, we hope, will become the breakthrough week we all have observed it to be. As we got to midweek, we started to see the teams get through most of their storming phase, and start entering their performing phase. We had taught in the earlier weeks the idea of "Gemba" as the place of work, the place where you find the facts first hand. The spark in leadership had been observing how well this had worked within the operation itself, and wanted to expand upon it. The team met again for their middle of the shift meeting and the same problem came up, as it had done for days upon days. Another plant had not been sending product over at the right time, causing major disruptions to the internal operations, which later caused delays to our customers. So the leader decided then to send a manager and supervisor of the operation that was affected over to that plant.
"Let's go there and see what they are doing. Ask them what their process is and help them."
After the meeting, they left for the other plant. This happened on no less than three separate occasions, and what they found and did was truly a breakthrough moment. In a meeting later in the week the leader asked for the manager and supervisor to tell the rest of the team what they found.
"We talked with their supervisors and they said they would take care of things. When we talked with their employees together, they said they've got things ready, but didn't know we needed it. So instead of sending it over, they just left it for later in the night on a scheduled trip. We talked with the manager and supervisor there and we've got their phone numbers now, so we will be contacting them each night to discuss our needs."
The coaching team and I had to pick our jaws up off the floor. This was a huge step for this team, whether they know it or not. The fact that they established a better relationship between plants was astounding. Moreover, we watched as the rest of the team look at each other after hearing that and they started discussing how to solve an internal problem together.
We started this short block of coaching, asking "what is your struggle?" This led us to realize there were more basic team building concerns when they all said it was communication. The team building only occurred because of a few sparks within their group. It took just a few people to say "why don't we try this." It took a leader, who loved to solve problems, to say "how can I help others solve problems?" As coaches of this, we look back now and wonder, were we the sparks that generated these new sparks? How many new sparks will they generate? Will this ignite the fire of Lean Leadership within this part of the company, and the company as a whole?
We await now for the local team to practice what they have learned, to become a stronger team, and address one of the most stressful couple of weeks in our business - Peak Season.