Why Your Continuous Improvement Efforts Are Not Working

Many organizations insist continuous improvement is at the core of their values.  They build programs, hire business improvement and innovation experts and wonder why their business is still behind in their field of work. 

What’s wrong with these efforts?

A simple answer: the people.

The people don’t want to send their novel idea into the abyss where they will never associate with it again.

The people don’t want to participate in discussions that result in lists of great ideas that go nowhere.

The people don’t want to experience a leader crediting their idea fully to management without thanks to the brilliant mind who submitted the idea.

The people don’t want to send their idea off and have no further investment in making it become a reality.

The people don’t want to hear that it is not their job to improve how the organization functions.

The people don’t want to share an idea and have it blasted down or dismissed.

The people don’t want to implement someone else’s idea when theirs are ignored.

It’s the people who must live out your organization’s core values and for an organization to truly value improvement efforts, the following leadership skills must actively encourage the people living out the value:

1) Leaders understand what makes a core value a “core value.”  Core values are carried out by all employees in every day activities.  If your organization values continuous improvement, people would be engaged in improvement efforts as a regular, expected, core part of their work.

2) Leaders empower employees to ask “why.”  Context is an invaluable tool in achieving creative, innovative ideas.  When employees ask why, they are provided context that leads to sensical and sensible work solutions. Leaders also ask, “what can we do better?” and work with their team to plan large and small changes.

3) Leaders ensure all people are engaged in improvement activities. Ideas are shared and implemented at every level.  It’s an ongoing expectation for individuals to express new ideas about process improvements, training ideas, collaboration and communication, leadership expectations, and workforce culture.  New ideas are on agendas for team  meetings, strategic planning and achievement celebrations.  

4) Leaders facilitate improvement activities.  All leaders are trained to coordinate improvement efforts and flesh out new ideas with employees.  They understand what decisions they and their team can make and when they must partner across teams to effectively improve services. They share this insight openly with their teams.

5) Leaders understand the power of engaging employees in carrying out improvement efforts. They teach individuals to create propositions and manage mini-projects, making all efforts to partner with the customer and get it right the first time.

6) Leaders are courageous. They don’t believe in placing blame and instead have confidence in their ability to take calculated risks. They model courage and reinforce acceptable risk-taking of employees by removing obstacles and empowering people.

7) They believe employees who do the work every day know how to make it better. They know employees’ ideas are critical to the success of the organization.

If an organization truly values improvement, leaders are hired and trained to reinforce organizational change and innovation at all levels by supporting and empowering people at all levels.

Employees are REGULARLY expected to spend up to 40% of their time learning, training others, and testing new ideas. It’s what makes the organization thrive.

Leaders understand the process for implementing new ideas and regularly coach employees to share and implement ideas.

If you’re wondering why your organization isn’t ahead in your field, consider engaging the people in solutioning. Odds are, they have great ideas about what makes you lag behind and want to invest more in the success of your organization (because they have been waiting for you to ask the question and want to be part of the organization’s success)!!

In my work with teams, I design programs that energize and empower employees to implement new ideas and teach leaders to effectively and fearlessly manage innovation.

We eliminate the elusive “insert idea here” phenomena (fill out this form and press send…to receive a “thanks for your idea” auto response and then radio silence). Instead, we engage employees in regular discussions and teach them to propose their great ideas openly, taking responsibility to see the idea through to implementation.

For future retirees, we create legacy plans and make 30 year old dreams become reality.

The energy is electric. The people are creative and innovative and tireless. It’s an experience every organization should feel at its core.

What is the best way you have found to share and implement new ideas at work? I would love to hear successes and lessons learned from you!

For more information about Carolyn Vreeman, Leadership Coach and Change Manager, visit http://www.vreemanconsulting.com.

How to Know if You’re a Bad Leader

There are many obvious signs of poor leadership: perpetually sick employees, rapid turnover, low team morale, etc.  These signs become apparent over time and let’s face it: in leadership,  time is of the essence.  Leadership happens now, in this moment, in everything we do. So, how can you tell of you’re a bad leader right now?  Below are some tell-tale signs:

1)  You talk about the work and not the people.  If you’re spouting off loud and proud about the work that’s been accomplished while neglecting and/or under emphasizing the importance of the human effort that went into that work, your ship will soon leave without you.  It’s the people who are your greatest resource, not the ship they built.

2)  You talk about employee’s hours and work location, and you have dedicated resources, policies, and daily time to manage employee requests to work from home, work different hours, or not work at all.  You keep a calendar of off-time rather than a calendar clarifying work coverage, deadlines, and other work-related tasks.  These out-dated management traditions are infamous for stifling engagement and team-building while creating confusion about priorities and work responsibilities.

3)  Your staff regularly reach out to you for answers.  Your job as a leader is to bring the horse to water.  Teach them where to find the watering hole.  If your staff are coming to you for answers, you are teaching them not to think for themselves and there’s a word to discribe that: disempowerment.  You feel needed, they feel incompetent. That’s a win/lose.

4)  You tell your staff only what will help them do their jobs.  It’s not always the “do this because I said so” management style that’s troubling.  It’s also the, “Only this snippet of information is relevant to you” style that breeds problems.  People hear, “You don’t trust me” or “you think I am an idiot.” 
Great leaders strive for transparency,  wanting their staff to know nearly as much as they do so they can work through the big picture and tactical work together.  Although you can’t always share everything, striving for more rather than less will help you reap better results.

5)  You set the goals.  If you’re in the habit of writing out full goal plans with tactical objectives and measures without input or investment from staff, you’ve got great plans and that’s it. They look smart, but what you’ll find yourself repeatedly saying is: “Didn’t you look at the plan?!?” Its meaning was lost between your brain and the paper.

6) Your staff learn to manipulate you into thinking it was your idea.  Do people lay nuggets of information in your path, hoping for that magic day when you promote their idea as your own?  Think about the meetings you have with others: do great ideas pop up or are they “just discussing” until you break open that nugget?

7)  You are frustrated by poor performers…and you have a lot of them.  Poor performers are disappointing,  not frustrating.  A good leader understands that a poor performer isn’t usually bucking the system on purpose.  They need tools, training, or to find another ladder on another building to climb (a new job). That’s one of the challenges in working with people (Have doubts? Talk to a teacher).

8)  You give people responsibility without authority.  People who are given responsibility without authority are destined for failure…they can’t win!  You can’t be responsible for a home, for example, without being given authority to make decisions about the maintenance of the home.  In this house, you’re a guest or tenant and someone else is truly responsible for the home and that person has full authority as well.

9) You believe all good ideas come from the top…uh, because the people who make the big bucks got there by idea-sharing? Not usually.  Most people are promoted because they were the top performer on their team.  The people who do the work every day have the best ideas about how it can be done better.  Even if that was you pre-promotion, it’s not you now.

10) You don’t trust others.   You don’t seek out the good intentions in others.   You don’t ask questions or work every day to build healthy partnerships. You feel you have to protect your staff rather than coach them in learning conflict management skills.  You perpetuate an “Us vs. Them” group think.

11)  Others don’t trust you. Are you terrible at following through on something you committed to do?  Do others ask you to do things?  If your answer is yes and then no, these are sure signs you should hang up your hat as a leader…and that’s not a bad thing.

Let’s go back to #7.  It’s not that you’re incapable of doing the job, it’s that you’re not good at doing the job.  That simply means you would benefit from training, additional tools, or to find a new ladder on a building that’s right for you.

I know, I know…I grew up in a ladder workforce – the only way was up.  Today’s workforce is different.  It’s expected to take the jungle gym to the top, trying on loads of fun roles so you understand best what suits you.  If leadership doesn’t float your boat, try something different and fear not negative repercussions because, frankly, your passion has yet to be unleashed and the world is ready for the passionate you.

How to Lower the Levy and Increase Employee Engagement

“What will the public say?  Tell them we lowered the levy and steadily increased employee engagement.  That should get their attention.”

This is what happens when you update your work culture and focus on results.  This is what happened to a small county in Northern Minnesota, and they are proud to talk about it. 

In the summer of 2013, I met with the Director of Community Services in Crow Wing County.  She described the transformation she hoped to achieve,  and I designed a program to help them get there.

A few months later, I trained their leadership and 14 Champions of Change in three days…a training the Champions and leaders will never forget. It was a training that re-energized the workforce for years to come.

This program helped leaders and teams update their culture and gain autonomy at work and home.  Each employee was able to choose how, when, and where they did their work.  The leaders learned the skills necessary to manage the work and abandon outdated management practices (counting heads, time stamps) that limit employee productivity and engagement in the workplace. 

Results workshops helped teams clarify results and identify meaningful indicators for the organization, effectively condensing over 200 metrics and measures to just 20 meaningful indicators of productivity and organizational success.  The organization’s goals were aligned throughout every level from line staff to top leadership: every voice heard.

And now over two years later, they continue to report increased employee engagement and better results, lowering the levy for the 6th year in a row, an amazing accomplishment:   http://www.brainerddispatch.com/news/3894248-crow-wing-county-board-levy-lowered-6th-straight-year

Last week, I presented the Focus on Results Program to 30 MN County Commissioners.  Without prompting, Crow Wing County talked proudly of their successes from a Commissioner’s point of interest, and recognized that the benefits are far greater than decreasing the levy or employee engagement.  The real benefits are experienced by the client who is able to meet with their social worker more easily and thanks to technology has resources and online applications in hand, the social worker who is 40% more productive on focused, undisturbed activities, and the teams who have clear coverage calendars and work together as adults to improve how they do business, putting their ideas into action.   The true accomplishment when an organization focuses on results is gauged by service to customers and clients: the people we are here to serve.

And when a culture transformation in an organization like this takes place, you can see it, you hear it, and most importantly, you feel the renewed energy and passion in your workplace.  I felt that passion shared in that room with 30 MN County Commissioners.  It’s electric.

What would it take for your organization to focus on results?

Interested in transforming your culture at work and need a little help?  Contact Vreeman Consulting, LLC: vreeman.consulting.llc@gmail.com.  This work is what I was meant to do.

Let Me Guess Your Organization’s Core Values

Don’t tell me about your core values, make me guess.

Imagine what would change using this approach in the world of business.  Imagine if a stranger walked into your virtual or physical office and said,  “Let me guess your core values.”  What would he look for?  What would he see?  What would you hope he sees?

An organization embodies thousands of individuals who have their own core values.  Combined together,  core values help organizations thrive or dissolve. The trick to success is understanding the DNA of those who work for you: why are they there?  What drives them? What frustrates them? The answers to these questions play out in every day interactions: they define your true core values.

1) What are core values?

Core values define what is important to the people who do the work and the customers who interact with those people.

2) Why are they important?

People embody your core values.  Your staff live and breathe your core values every day.  You hire people to carry out the goodness in your culture- that goodness that makes coming to work a valuable experience for your staff and that same goodness that makes customers return time and time again. You hire staff who live and breathe your core values in everything you do.

3) What do we do with them?

Modeling: when used effectively,  leaders are trained to model the organization’s core values. If they model behavior in conflict with these values,  they are challenged and/or removed.

Decision-making:  core values are used regularly as a reference point for decisions. If the solution or direction aligns with the core values,  the connection is made apparent.  If the solution or direction is in conflict with the organization’s core values, it’s permissible to challenge and neglect the work.

Also,  in hiring and promotional practices,  leaders learn to look for people who embody the core values.  They prioritize values over skill, training,  and ability.

Infrastructure: the organization creates infrastructure to support the values.  This may be built into culture,  processes,  employee services, tools  amenities,  etc.  An organization, for example,  cannot be risk adverse (actively discouraging new ways of doing business) but value continuous improvement. The infrastructure must encourage and empower the value while discouraging the adverse.

Strategic alignment: what happens when an organization changes focus and alignment,  challenging the organization’s core values?  People leave.   What happens when core values are promoted but contradicting behavior continues?  Your organization’s integrity is at risk. Your mission,  vision,  values,  Strategic directions and employee’s goals must all align and without a doubt provide clear guidance for the every day work of the organization.

And when new values are marketed that don’t align with the organization’s structure and people,  they can be antagonistic at best and damaging at worst.

So,  when thinking about your organization’s core values, the following steps are recommended:

1)  Identify your values first,
2)  Ask your team to do the same,
3) Together, identify your shared values.  Do they align with the organizations marketed values?  Can you close the gap?
4) Identify behaviors, language, and feelings that support your shared values and those that perpetuate problems.
5) Close the gap.

This work isn’t hard, it’s reflective,  and it speaks to the heart of the organization,  starting with you.  Your values matter every day.

What steps do you take to ensure your customers know your core values (without actually telling them)? Why do you think it’s important they know them? What else could you do to help them inherently understand your core values? Comment below with your ideas. I want to learn from you.

How to Know if You’re on the Right Path to Finding Your True Passion…

Think back to when you were 10 years old.  What did you like to do with your time? 

If you were like me, you were an avid writer.  You spent evenings in your room writing poetry, songs, short stories, and awful, risqué essays that were meant to be read by no one.  No walls in the room were exposed;  all covered by inspirational quotes or poems written in grade school with teacher’s praises in red pen.

At the age of 10, I didn’t want to be a writer.  I was studying and planning for a career as a psychologist.  I wrote about people and relationships.  I wrote poems about perspective and emotion.

The lights are off,
the shades aren’t drawn.
You can’t see in,
but I can see out.
(A 10 year old’s poem about the ability to control emotion)

For my career, I helped people. I dedicated my life to helping children, their families, adults with mental health issues, staff in organizations working to help people, and now helping leaders become more effective at empowering others.

I wrote social histories, treatment plans, diagnostic materials, and redesigned organizational service delivery models. I designed websites to offer leaders easy access to tools and information supporting my coaching efforts.

At a low point in my career, I realized that my work – although important still – required less writing. I felt broken. It took a year for me to realize that in order for me to be fulfilled, I need to write.

And today when I am writing, I am energized and passionate. I find myself more excited and nervous posting blogs or writing articles than when I am presenting to a room of 100 people.

And a few weeks ago, I heard a dear friend talk about the dreams she had as a 10 year old and that she believes that magic time in our lives may continue directing us to our place of passion throughout our lives- the place where we give our best to the world around us. I think she’s right.

Consider your passion and interests when you were 10 years old.  What did you love to do back then? How do you see those interests playing out in your adult life? Is there a connection?

Choose vs. Lose

Many people use the 5 stages of grief counseling to help people work through change at work. 

Some variance of the following stages is a “natural” response to grief:
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

If you’re using these practices to manage change at work,  for most changes you are too late.

Let me say that again:  if you are using these practices at work  for most changes, you are too late.

It’s likely,  you are also using a burning platform approach to change. You create the sense of urgency, set the fire,  get people to rapidly jump, and then counsel them through their losses.

This approach works for fires and other real emergencies, but if used in a work environment,  it challenges an employee’s basic need to feel safe and secure,  limiting their investment and productivity and perpetuating a command/control environment for all. 

Applying grief counseling methodology for change management helps staff work through the tragedy, but it doesn’t offer people the opportunity to paint their own success through the change and champion others along through the change. It’s reactive,  not proactive and in my opinion as a former grief counselor and now professional change manager,  it should be used for the most change adverse people as an exception, not the rule.

How do you get people to choose, not lose?

Here’s the first problem: Most big changes don’t involve end-users until the end. Sponsors are behind the magic curtain (think Wizard of Oz) while project managers gather requirements, build a boat, and then offer the boat to people as a gift. Not surprisingly, the people don’t want the gift, even if it helps them. In these situations, grief counseling is a great option to help them through the pain as you escort them to their new boat.

The second problem: we build fantastic boats, but we don’t know how people plan to use them. We spend a lot of time on the boat and very little time on understanding and preparing the people who will float the boat when we are long gone.

The third problem: we don’t get people to “get” why we are building the boat. They couldn’t easily articulate why we make changes and how it benefits them or the organization.

So, we have a boat.

A new approach: What if you worked with the end users from the beginning, showed them progress, asked them questions, changed the design, responded to their needs, had sponsors and staff celebrate and champion the benefits and you delivered the boat together?

No counseling needed, but people skills are a must.

People are amazingly creative, resourceful, and flexible when they choose change. If asked, they will offer ideas you would never consider
and when you listen, they will help you share messages and build positive momentum around the change.

In my work lately, I hear comments from staff looking forward to a space remodel and sharing creative, cost-effective ideas; groups excited for software upgrades; and people across multiple sites invested in “running from work” (5k) and achieving transformational change, all because we helped them understand the personal and business benefits of the change and reset their expectations. We helped them get involved early and often: the invite for participation always extended.

You won’t need the 5 stages of grief counseling using this approach, but you might need to answer, “What change is next?”

Why Most Organizations Will Never Engage Employees

I want employees to be engaged.  Every year,  I spend time asking employees what the organization can do to be more engaged. I hear the same comments from teams: more food,  fun picnics, more training options, recognition, options for idea-sharing, understand how their work impacts the world around them, accountability, better communication and collaboration, etc.  

Theories of motivation in psychology support what these employees tell us: in order for people to be truly motivated,  they must feel safe,  competent in their work,  autonomous,  and achieve confidence and commitment in their employer.

As a society,  our systems and policies actually perpetuate a lack of engagement?   How?

We ask them. 

We take their ideas,  and now we are responsible for their engagement at work.

An organization cannot engage employees. An organization can create and foster an environment where employees choose to be engaged to their fullest potential.

Engagement is the responsibility of the employee to achieve the best results. 

Business results are the responsibility of the organization.

Within that context, there’s a systems issue that reinforces employee non-engagement:  Business policies that do not address the work.

Ditch The Employee Handbook

Organizational policies limit employee engagement.  The Employee handbook focuses on hours and work location: PTO, dress code,  “flex schedules.”  No policies address the work.

Employees are paid to do work.  When leaders understand their role in empowering teams to achieve the best results,  rules around hours,  location,  and time are irrelevant.   The employee handbook is useless.

Train your Leaders

When conversations between an employee and leader are centered around hours or location,  three key components of employee engagement are challenged: autonomy, relatedness,  and competence.

Stated simply, employees feel that they are being treated as children,  they are not connecting the conversation with the customer impact,  and they recognize immediately that their leader has lost sight of the skills they bring to the table and the work they are required to do.  They disengage.

Yet leaders are trained to enforce compliance of these out-dated rules that limit employee engagement. Train your leaders to manage the work, not out-dated policies.

Our systems are broken.  Our policies work against us, actually limiting our ability to achieve productive and brilliant teams.

Press Refresh.

How do we change that? Teach leaders to recognize and reinforce engagement. Help teams to understand the expected results and clarify how they will achieve these results.

If individual performance waivers, address the performance immediately. Most importantly, facilitate agreements that support teams in doing great work.

And ditch the employee handbook. It’s sooo 1980ish.

Leadership is not about you.

It’s not about you.  It’s not about your success. It’s not about your work.  It’s not about your salary,  paycheck, benefits, amenities.  It’s not about your intelligence,  experience,  knowledge.  It’s not about your professional attire,  your height,  your good looks.

Leadership is not about you.

Organizations are made of people.  Without people,  leaders and organizations are irrelevant. For leaders to be successful,  people must be successful.

It’s about the people.

Genuine leaders understand they are only successful when their team thrives: when all are passionate about their role in achieving success for their customers.

1)  They achieve a level of trust that team members often don’t give each other…because they genuinely care. They work toward transparency, clarity.  They manage conflict and practice openness.

2)  They understand success is shared by the organization and measured by the customer. Genuine leaders see themselves within a larger structure. They live and share the mission of the organization

3) They specialize in understanding others. They work to help others achieve personal success on the team or in other areas that help the organization achieve the mission.

4) They celebrate risk and tolerate failure. They have your back. They understand the valuable benefits of innovation for the people and the business. The status quo is not enough.

5) They work themselves out of a job. Leaders transfer knowledge to empower others to be successful. They seek opportunities for others to step into their role and learn.

Leaders understand the value in developing others. They coach,  encourage,  and empower while they effectively manage the work and organizational dynamics.

Leaders understand it is not their win,  their success,  or their competition.  It’s the people working together as partners to achieve success for the whole- that is what leadership is all about.

When leaders truly lead,  their teams experience 33-40% increase in productivity.  I have observed these stats first- hand. People are happier,  more likely to achieve a level of loyalty that is quite rare.

So what is holding us back from strong leadership? What can we do individually to “manage up” and help others be more effective at the work they want to do?

Results Only Work Environment: the Future of Work

It’s Tuesday.  Your first inclination is to groan and rush to the shower as your child awakens you, but today is different.  Today, you were given the permission to do whatever you want, whenever you want as long as the work gets done.  You hug your child, plan your day, making every effort to get the most out of time with your family and your work.  Then, your feet hit the floor, faster, with more purpose.  You connect with your team and before 8:00 AM, you have accomplished more than you did all last week.  You break, stepping outside for a breath of fresh air.  You walk.  For fifteen minutes, you bask in the sunlight while you refocus your work and life.  You relax more, contemplating your new world, wondering how it took you this long to capture this level of productivity and investment in your work and home life.  You’re a greater asset to your organization, you’re a better parent, you’re a better, healthier YOU.  Finally, you’re living the future of work, and you’re passionate enough to share your story with others.

This isn’t a fictitious fairy tale.  This world of work was my very own starting in 2009.  My job was intense: my team was responsible for transforming our culture to a Results Only Work Environment.  We trained between 500 and 900 staff per month.  I coached leaders to understand their role in managing the work, not the people.

My passion was intense:  I married, sold two houses, and bought one without missing a beat.  As I gave birth to my first and second child, I became even more passionate about this work environment.  I found that I was effective and productive holding my sleeping newborn baby in my arms while leading a program, responding to emails, consulting for external agencies, and designing new tools and processes to support the new world of work.  (What else are you going to do with a baby who sleeps the majority of the time? 🙂

I worked from everywhere, anytime.  I worked while getting pedicures, in the doctor’s office, out of multiple regional sites, on my patio.  I became a master at using technology to do my best work.  Each day, I was in constant contact with my team, working through issues, planning for training, supporting each other.  When my first baby was born, my team took turns holding her while we sorted out our goals and tasks.  We shared offices.  We shared ideas.  Our conversations focused on the customers and the teams’ strengths.  My manager focused on results.  We were a team.

It hit home.  I recognized that the time commonly referred to as the “witching hour” for babies was exactly the time I had in the evening to be with my children.  I only saw my baby when she was crying, screaming, and inconsolable.  I thought it was me.  But one magical day, I was home for my daughter’s happy moments:  between 8-10AM.  I saw her giggle, coo, play, and I realized that if I wanted, I could be there to see her happy.  Two to three times during the week, I arranged to see my daughter giggle.  I became a better mother, a better wife, a better team member, and a better leader by making that small change.

For years, we worked with teams to help them achieve what we were living and breathing every day.  We worked with leaders to help them understand their new role and recognize that going back to the 1950’s in management is not an option:  Management by walking around is our past, not our future.  The future workers use time, location, and creativity to enhance productivity.  The leaders of the future focus on the work.  They don’t pay in increments of time, they pay for work (and they understand the difference).

I created and my team implemented a program called “Focus on Results,” a program that engages staff and leaders in work *together* to clarify goals and identify performance indicators.  2800 people were directed to clarify their results using this methodology.  The language and learning became a part of the culture.

As the culture transformed, my team moved on, each promoted toward their own career goals, becoming leaders that continue to transform our culture.

In every team since, I have worked to recreate the feeling and clarity around autonomy, competence, and relatedness.  It’s good for all of us.

What happens when you empower staff to make responsible decisions…what happens when you treat employees as adults….is transforming.  The organization blossomed throughout this change and now, the view of the change is breathtaking.

In my organization, events like the Hennepin5K were planned (last year the event was organized at 6 locations with 449 participants, this year the event is at 8 locations with a 50 flights of stairs included).  Lean In Hennepin, a movement to address gender differences in the workplace was astoundingly successful, and the life-changing stories of those who were able to spend more time with their kids, arrange to be home when  their children got out of school, were able to go to school events, spent months working in Europe with their family, and were able to breathe in ways they hadn’t experienced before are unforgettable.

Productivity soared.

So, today, I reconnected with the two ladies who challenged the status quo and created the Results Only Work Environment.  These two ladies forced me to use wings I didn’t know I had…and now can’t forget exist.  Their no B.S. approach to creating a work environment that empowers the 90% of people who want to do great work and addresses performance of that 10% of do-nothingers is inspiring and challenging for anyone…and the challenge is well worth it.  

To Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, co-creators of the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE), evangelists, culture guru’s, and professionals that you need to meet and have them meet your management…thank you.  

The world is a better place because you (and we) are in it.

(Check them out at http://www.gorowe.com)

So, what’s holding us back from achieving this reality?  Who is responsible for challenging the status quo?  What will it take for employees to be recognized and celebrated as whole human beings with families, technology, and lives?