What Makes a Great Sensei?

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

My last blog (“Beware Prizes, Belts & Self-Appointed Experts”), begs the above question.

What indeed is a sensei? You’ll have heard the most common definitions: teacher, mentor, ‘one who has gone before’, and these are all fine.

I’d like to illuminate elements of the sensei mindset, at least in so far as I’ve observed & understood.

Humility is perhaps its most important element, a sense of the vastness of reality, and the finite nature of human experience. How can anybody who understands this be full of themselves?

W. Edwards Deming was famous for excoriating bozo executives, and equally famous for his kindness and sensitivity to front line workers. He would ask endless questions to understand why an associate was doing the job in a given way, trying to understand the biggest problems they faced and how they were adapting. “You’re doing such a good job,” Deming would say, before going back to the C-suite to tear strips of skin off the executives. “You own the system. Do you have any idea what it is doing to your people?”

Beginner’s mind (shoshin, in Japanese) is another common quality – a engaging freshness of thinking, and curiosity. Great senseis respond to new problems or challenges with an almost child-like quality, as if seeing them for the first time.

Last time I described Mr. Hayashi, our Toyota OMCD sensei, in his 70’s standing by the Final Assembly line of our old Toyota factory, sketching out countermeasures to problems that he’d been working on for decades.

‘Mind with no mind’ (mushin) – a state achieved when a person's mind is free from thoughts of anger, fear, or ego. The absence of discursive thought and judgment, frees you up so you can react without hesitation.

Great senseis, therefore, are not afraid of being wrong or looking foolish. Well into his 80’s, George Kissell, the legendary St. Louis Cardinals minor league manager, scout, coach and instructor would spend hours fielding ground balls with young minor leaguers.

Longevity fueled by an inner fire, is another trait common to the best senseis. Deming, Kissell, Joe Juran, Shigeo Shingo, Peter Drucker all lived very long productive lives.

George Kissell passed at the age of 88 – of a traffic accident, sadly. Had fate been kinder, he’d have been teaching baseball fundamentals well into his 90’s.

Great senseis are informed, attuned, inspired by the eternal verities. They hear, see, feel things the rest of us miss. There’s a lightness, a freshness about them. You feel good in their presence.

And when they pass, they leave empty spaces where they used to stand.

Best regards,

Pascal



In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

Beware Prizes, Belts & Self-appointed Experts
Aikido & Lean – It’s All the Same
The Power of Purpose
Why is laughter important in business?

Lean Thinking in Software Design

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

One of my great work pleasures is helping to translate the System of Profound Knowledge, as Deming called it, for new and different industries.

Taiichi Ohno, Deming, Shingo, Juran et al have given us fundamental principles gained through hard experience.

But we have to translate these so they work for us in the here and now.

Thus, Lean is both

• Do – a set of principles that informs one’s life, and a


• Jutsu – a practical set of techniques that works

It’s fun translating visual management, standardized work, quality in the process and other fundamentals in industries like software design.

Agile, Scrum and related practices are very simpatico with Lean. In fact, if I may suggest, they are Lean’s child (or grandchild).

Our software partners recognize the need for an integrated management system that aligns things like:

• Purpose


• Core Mental Models – how we think


• Two work streams: Run the Business, and Improve the Business


• Connected Level 1, 2 and 3 checking


• Leader Standard Work & Daily Accountability


• People & Leadership Develop


• The Four Rules etc.

If we check well, reality gives us frank, binary feedback: OK or Not OK.

The answer is usually the latter! And, as ever, we learn by doing. Each organization’s journey is unique and their own. Coaches are guides, whisperers, and on occasion, taskmasters.

Step by step we walk the narrow path to enlightenment and good business results! We must have both, no?

We partially succeed – and that makes all the difference.

Best regards,

Pascal




In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

Problem Solving and the Worlds of Reflection & Experience
Learning How to Manage
Bozos and HR
Strategy and the Worlds of Thought & Experience

Where Lean Has Gone Wrong & What to Do About It, Part 2

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

“What is your thinking way, Pascal-san?”

Thanks for your thoughtful feedback on part 1 of this note.

The Lean ‘movement’ is indeed in flux, no? We need to reflect and adjust our activities in accord with the needs of our partners and communities.

How to do this? In my view, we need to double-down on Lean principles. Otherwise, may I suggest that we are essentially a skilled trade – useful, honorable, worthy of study and practice – but not a game-changing, earth-shaking, get out of town transformation.

Lean – aka Toyota Production System, aka the ‘Profound System of Knowledge’ (Deming) – is a set of principles that turn into methods & tools appropriate to the situation.

But many of us have become enamoured of our tools & methods, have we not? To be sure, Standardized Work, Jidoka, Heijunka and the like are splendid & powerful methods. But unless we understand & translate the underlying principles, our impact will be limited.

Principles are ideas; methods are the action that bring them to life. Principles are eternal; methods, temporary.

For example, principle like ‘Make Problems Visible’ and ‘Build Quality into the Process’ find expression in Toyota’s famous Andon board. If we focus on the Andon board, and not the underlying principles, how are we to help, say, a developer of financial security software?

Do we advise them to install an Andon board & all the related electronics, because that’s how we did it in our manufacturing plant? The IT company would show the ‘sensei’ the door – rightfully! (“I don’t care what you did in your manufacturing plant…”)

But if we reflect deeply on the underlying principles, we might come up with very interesting countermeasures, as have the splendid Menlo Innovations and their CEO Richard Sheridan – (two coders side-by-side, checking & confirming each line…)

Or we might have come up Agile & its constituent methods (Scrum, Kanban etc.), as our IT colleagues did a decade ago.

Now ideas are harder to teach & apply than methods. Unlike methods, ideas cannot be turned into three-day, or five-day, or three-week ‘programs’. Ideas are not so easily monetized. But their impact is much greater, and the astute leader will notice the difference.

Much of my personal practice entails coaching senior executives. I start with the principles, to get their interest, then provide examples of how the principles have been applied in different industries.

Underlying message: “Lean is a transformational strategy, a game-changer…”

Starting with tools sends a different message. “Lean is like a skilled trade – helpful, useful, worth doing, but not a game-changer.”

Our Toyota senseis emphasized principles above all, and their core question is burned into my consciousness: “What is your thinking way?”

If we deepen our understanding & application of Lean principles (thinking), we’ll be relevant & helpful for decades to come – and have a hell of a good time too.

Best regards,

Pascal




In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

Where Lean Has Gone Wrong & What to Do About It, Part 1
What is Courage & What’s It Mean for Strategy?
"How Will You Motivate Your Team, Pascal-san?"
What is a Good Life?

Lean – So ‘Easy’, It’s Hard

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Striking how ‘easy’ Lean is, no?

1. Define Purpose clearly & communicate it tirelessly
2. Identify the main obstacles and/or enablers to achieving Purpose
3. Treat people with respect and seek to involve everybody in improving the business
4. Go see what’s actually happening regularly and with purpose
5. Reflect regularly, openly & honestly on what’s working, what is not working, and why
6. Keep going (until you die)

That last one is perhaps the most difficult, and, in my view, the sign of a great sensei. It’s how we transform a management system into a way of living and being, something that remains after we’re gone.

I think of George Kissell, the legendary St. Louis Cardinal minor league manager, teaching baseball fundamentals well into his eighties. Or Ed Deming still teaching, kicking butt and taking names from a wheelchair at the age of ninety three.

We’re fortunate enough to work with a number of faith-based hospital systems. I find it profoundly moving when they begin a day or a meal with a prayer for wisdom and humility.

I’m sure you can cite many more examples. Enduring excellence in sports, business and management, is based on bedrock principles (very much like the ones above), no?

The more you practice the easier – and harder it gets. Easier, because repetition develops muscle memory.   Harder, because we humans – or at least this one – are lazy, tricky and dishonest (especially with ourselves).

We think we can outfox the fundamentals, that we can ‘get away with it.’ The more success we experience, the more lazy, tricky and dishonest we tend to become. As a result, success corrupts, just as ‘power corrupts’.

Greatest senseis throughout the ages have adopted various countermeasures to our innate vulnerabilities. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, the world’s most powerful person then, meditated on death every day.  St. Jerome kept a human skull on his desk.

(My daughters, knowing my respect for the afore-mentioned, gave me a skull replica, which sits on my desk as I write, wearing my Green Bay Packers cap. Needless to say, I am no St. Jerome…)

Our Toyota senseis countermeasure was to check frequently and severely. “Target, actual, please explain!”  “Your activities have no meaning, Pascal-san!”  “This is NOT countermeasure!”

They were right, of course, and I felt like the village idiot for a long time. Good thing too – how else could I unlearn the rubbish I’d learned engineering and business school?

(Don’t want to be misunderstood – I learned plenty of good stuff in professional schools too. But often it’s mixed in with rubbish, no?

In summary, Lean fundamentals are really life fundamentals – simultaneously easy & hard. Seek them out, practice and keep going.  Very good things will happen.

Then, remembering Marcus Aurelius and St. Jerome, double-down on humility.

Best regards,

Pascal



In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

“Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail”
Building Quality into the Process
Standardized Work for Knowledge Workers
Difference between Hansei and a Post-mortem

One for Ed Deming – Learn the Profound System of Knowledge!

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Tip of the hat & a deep bow to Ed Deming, the great American quality guru, who coined the above term, and gave us so much more.

Nowadays, some call it Toyota Production System, others ‘Lean’, yet others ‘Lean Six Sigma’.

But I have a soft spot for Deming and for ‘profound system of knowledge’, a rich phrase which harkens back centuries. As far back as Aristotle and the Athenian Agora, some say.

There is very little new under the sun. We are trying to apply the Scientific Method to the chaotic world of work, are we not? (Who knows what we’ll call it in a few decades?)

The Profound System of Knowledge has four cornerstones, Deming taught. Here they are along with what each means to yours truly:

1. Theory of Systems

• What’s a system?
• How do systems behave? What laws govern their behavior?
• How do we create order out of chaos?
• What is systems thinking? How do we apply it to get better outcomes?

2. Theory of Human Psychology

• Why do people behave as they do?
• What is the nature of human relationships?
• How do we develop our team members?
• How do we build trust?
• How do we motivate our team members?

3. Laws of Variation

• What are the causes of variability of work, in planning and problem solving?
• What are the laws of variation?

4. Theory of Knowledge

• How do we learn?
• Different learning styles
• How do we create a learning environment?

And everything is connected to everything else. Creating order in chaotic systems, for example, requires a deep understanding of why people behave as they do, how people learn, and of the laws of varation.

Good stuff, no? And worthy of a lifetime’s study and practice.

Thanks, Ed, again and forever. Trust the martinis are good in the Heavenly Bar, and the company diverting.

Best regards,

Pascal

Where Lean Has Gone Wrong & What to Do About It, Part 2

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

“What is your thinking way, Pascal-san?”

Thanks for your thoughtful feedback on part 1 of this note.

The Lean ‘movement’ is indeed in flux, no? We need to reflect and adjust our activities in accord with the needs of our partners and communities.

How to do this? In my view, we need to double-down on Lean principles. Otherwise, may I suggest that we are essentially a skilled trade – useful, honorable, worthy of study and practice – but not a game-changing, earth-shaking, get out of town transformation.

Lean – aka Toyota Production System, aka the ‘Profound System of Knowledge’ (Deming) – is a set of principles that turn into methods & tools appropriate to the situation.

But many of us have become enamoured of our tools & methods, have we not? To be sure, Standardized Work, Jidoka, Heijunka and the like are splendid & powerful methods. But unless we understand & translate the underlying principles, our impact will be limited.

Principles are ideas; methods are the action that bring them to life. Principles are eternal; methods, temporary.

For example, principle like ‘Make Problems Visible’ and ‘Build Quality into the Process’ find expression in Toyota’s famous Andon board. If we focus on the Andon board, and not the underlying principles, how are we to help, say, a developer of financial security software?

Do we advise them to install an Andon board & all the related electronics, because that’s how we did it in our manufacturing plant? The IT company would show the ‘sensei’ the door – rightfully! (“I don’t care what you did in your manufacturing plant…”)

But if we reflect deeply on the underlying principles, we might come up with very interesting countermeasures, as have the splendid Menlo Innovations and their CEO Richard Sheridan – (two coders side-by-side, checking & confirming each line…)

Or we might have come up Agile & its constituent methods (Scrum, Kanban etc.), as our IT colleagues did a decade ago.

Now ideas are harder to teach & apply than methods. Unlike methods, ideas cannot be turned into three-day, or five-day, or three-week ‘programs’. Ideas are not so easily monetized. But their impact is much greater, and the astute leader will notice the difference.

Much of my personal practice entails coaching senior executives. I start with the principles, to get their interest, then provide examples of how the principles have been applied in different industries.

Underlying message: “Lean is a transformational strategy, a game-changer…”

Starting with tools sends a different message. “Lean is like a skilled trade – helpful, useful, worth doing, but not a game-changer.”

Our Toyota senseis emphasized principles above all, and their core question is burned into my consciousness: “What is your thinking way?”

If we deepen our understanding & application of Lean principles (thinking), we’ll be relevant & helpful for decades to come – and have a hell of a good time too.

Best regards,

Pascal

What Makes a Great Sensei?

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

My last blog (“Beware Prizes, Belts & Self-Appointed Experts”), begs the above question.

What indeed is a sensei? You’ll have heard the most common definitions: teacher, mentor, ‘one who has gone before’, and these are all fine.

I’d like to illuminate elements of the sensei mindset, at least in so far as I’ve observed & understood.

Humility is perhaps its most important element, a sense of the vastness of reality, and the finite nature of human experience. How can anybody who understands this be full of themselves?

W. Edwards Deming was famous for excoriating bozo executives, and equally famous for his kindness and sensitivity to front line workers. He would ask endless questions to understand why an associate was doing the job in a given way, trying to understand the biggest problems they faced and how they were adapting. “You’re doing such a good job,” Deming would say, before going back to the C-suite to tear strips of skin off the executives. “You own the system. Do you have any idea what it is doing to your people?”

Beginner’s mind (shoshin, in Japanese) is another common quality – a engaging freshness of thinking, and curiosity. Great senseis respond to new problems or challenges with an almost child-like quality, as if seeing them for the first time.

Last time I described Mr. Hayashi, our Toyota OMCD sensei, in his 70’s standing by the Final Assembly line of our old Toyota factory, sketching out countermeasures to problems that he’d been working on for decades.

‘Mind with no mind’ (mushin) – a state achieved when a person's mind is free from thoughts of anger, fear, or ego. The absence of discursive thought and judgment, frees you up so you can react without hesitation.

Great senseis, therefore, are not afraid of being wrong or looking foolish. Well into his 80’s, George Kissell, the legendary St. Louis Cardinals minor league manager, scout, coach and instructor would spend hours fielding ground balls with young minor leaguers.

Longevity fueled by an inner fire, is another trait common to the best senseis. Deming, Kissell, Joe Juran, Shigeo Shingo, Peter Drucker all lived very long productive lives.

George Kissell passed at the age of 88 – of a traffic accident, sadly. Had fate been kinder, he’d have been teaching baseball fundamentals well into his 90’s.

Great senseis are informed, attuned, inspired by the eternal verities. They hear, see, feel things the rest of us miss. There’s a lightness, a freshness about them. You feel good in their presence.

And when they pass, they leave empty spaces where they used to stand.

Best regards,

Pascal

Lean – So ‘Easy’, It’s Hard

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Striking how ‘easy’ Lean is, no?

1.       Define Purpose clearly & communicate it tirelessly,

2.       Identify the main obstacles and/or enablers to achieving Purpose

3.       Treat people with respect and seek to involve everybody in improving the business

4.       Go see what’s actually happening regularly and with purpose

5.       Reflect regularly, openly & honestly on what’s working, what is not working, and why

6.       Keep going (until you die)

That last one is perhaps the most difficult, and, in my view, the sign of a great sensei. It’s how we transform a management system into a way of living and being, something that remains after we’re gone.

I think of George Kissell, the legendary St. Louis Cardinal minor league manager, teaching baseball fundamentals well into his eighties. Or Ed Deming still teaching, kicking butt and taking names from a wheelchair at the age of ninety three.

We’re fortunate enough to work with a number of faith-based hospital systems. I find it profoundly moving when they begin a day or a meal with a prayer for wisdom and humility.

I’m sure you can cite many more examples. Enduring excellence in sports, business and management, is based on bedrock principles (very much like the ones above), no?

The more you practice the easier – and harder it gets. Easier, because repetition develops muscle memory.   Harder, because we humans – or at least this one – are lazy, tricky and dishonest (especially with ourselves). 

We think we can outfox the fundamentals, that we can ‘get away with it.’ The more success we experience, the more lazy, tricky and dishonest we tend to become. As a result, success corrupts, just as ‘power corrupts’.

Greatest senseis throughout the ages have adopted various countermeasures to our innate vulnerabilities. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, the world’s most powerful person then, meditated on death every day.  St. Jerome kept a human skull on his desk.

(My daughters, knowing my respect for the afore-mentioned, gave me a skull replica, which sits on my desk as I write, wearing my Green Bay Packers cap. Needless to say, I am no St. Jerome…)

Our Toyota senseis countermeasure was to check frequently and severely. “Target, actual, please explain!”  “Your activities have no meaning, Pascal-san!”  “This is NOT countermeasure!”

They were right, of course, and I felt like the village idiot for a long time. Good thing too – how else could I unlearn the rubbish I’d learned engineering and business school?

(Don’t want to be misunderstood – I learned plenty of good stuff in professional schools too. But often it’s mixed in with rubbish, no?)

In summary, Lean fundamentals are really life fundamentals – simultaneously easy & hard. Seek them out, practice and keep going.  Very good things will happen.

Then, remembering Marcus Aurelius and St. Jerome, double-down on humility.

Best regards,

Pascal

Andy & Me and the Hospital – now available!

By Pascal Dennis

There is much opportunity, Tom-san!
Andy Saito

Dear friends,

I’m thrilled to announce the release of Andy & Me and the Hospital – Further Adventures on the Lean Journey [Amazon and Productivity Press].

Tom Papas and his sensei, Andy Saito, face perhaps their greatest challenge yet – a major New York City hospital.

Why a book about Toyota methods (aka ‘Lean’) in a hospital?

Because health-care is a dark realm full of opportunity. If we don't get it right, it could bankrupt us.

Why this book?

I want to answer some basic questions. What does a Lean transformation in a hospital feel like?

What overall approach should we take? What kind of leadership and behavior change is needed?

How do we develop and engage people? How do we improve processes?

How do we build a management system? How do we translate what Deming called the ‘profound system of knowledge’?

At the same time, I want to provide a clear and simple guide to Toyota methods and thinking, how they fit together, and the spirit that animates them.

Why a sequel to Andy & Me and The Remedy?

People seem to like Tom Papas and Andy Saito, and they’re like family to me now. Moreover, their journey is perhaps a useful metaphor for leaders at all levels.

Gave it everything I got. Hope you find it enjoyable and helpful.

Best regards,

Pascal

PS Special Offer from my publisher:

Please feel free to contact Charles Regan at the Taylor & Francis group for a bulk offer or customized version of Andy & Me and the Hospital,

E: Charles.regan@taylorandfrancis.com
P: 917-351-7122

Pascal Dennis Bio

New Book Update - Andy & Me and the Hospital

By Pascal Dennis

Hi folks,

Resurfacing at last after an intense summer working on Andy & Me and the Hospital, the latest Tom Papas and Andy Saito adventure.

First draft complete, working on the doodles and images with our splendid artist, Dianne Caton.

What’s the book about?

A major New York City hospital is in crisis. Tom and Andy get pulled in to help save it.

Tom is also in the midst of a personal crisis. Will the new challenge save or destroy him?

Why a book about Toyota methods and thinking in Healthcare?

Healthcare defines Lean’s frontier. The challenge, and opportunity, are immense. Moreover, if we don’t get it right, Healthcare could bankrupt us.

Why this book?

I want to answer some basic questions. What does a Lean transformation in a hospital feel like? What overall approach should we take?

What kind of leadership and behavior change is needed? How do we develop and engage people? How do we improve processes?

How do we build a management system? How do we translate what Deming called the ‘profound system of knowledge’ with our healthcare colleagues?

At the same time, I want to provide a clear and simple guide to Toyota methods and thinking, how they fit together, and the spirit that animates them.

One of the problems with Lean implementation has been the tendency to cherry-pick activities, rather than grasping the system as a whole.

What are the next steps?

Dianne and I will complete the doodles and figures and submit to our publisher. We’ll then get review copies out, after which we’ll adjust and polish the book as needed.

God willing, Andy & Me and the Hospital will be available in early 2016.

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Reprise: East Meets West in the Toyota Production System

By Pascal Dennis

Spring is a good time to reflect on fundamental questions.

What's so special about TPS?

Okay, it has a very good track record in manufacturing and has spread into health care, construction, finance and other sectors.

But over the centuries, have there been other successful management innovations?

What's the big deal?

I believe TPS is unique because it represents a magnificent blending of cultures.

The American occupation of Japan after WWII brought the best of East and West together.

American muscle, optimism and engineering prowess met Japan's (and hence, China's) social, psychological and spiritual inventiveness.

The result -- TPS -- represents an entirely new way of managing.

When ideas "mate" interesting things happen.

Scientific Management, as espoused by Taylor, Ford, Deming and others, enriched -- and was enriched -- by Eastern systems of thinking and feeling.

What other management system combines the rationality of time and motion studies, with the humanity and humor of continuous incremental improvement?

Every day a little up...

What other system is as comfortable with Zen-like paradox?

Lead as if you have no power?

Stop production so it never has to stop...

And what other system embraces the impossibility of perfection, while insisting we must work toward it every day?

TPS is a splendid marriage of East and West, of rationality and intuition, of Left & Right brain.

We're lucky to have it.

So here's an overdue tip of the hat to all those half-forgotten dreamers, engineers and managers who first intuited TPS in the 1940's and 50's.

Arigato gozaimashita!

Cheers,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

What’s the next big thing?

By Al Norval

I was travelling in Europe recently and had a question posed to me by a colleague of mine - Franck Hagen. He asked a very simple but very deep question – “What’s the next big thing?”.

We were talking about the history of Lean and how Lean had grown from its early origins by combining the Jidoka concepts learned at Toyoda Weaving Loom Company with the Just in Time principles refined by Taiichi Ohno along with Standard Work from TWI. Add in some Policy Deployment courtesy of Peter Drucker and Quality from Dr. Deming and voila the Toyota Production System was born.

Lean, as it was later christened, has spread from its manufacturing roots to become the world’s most powerful business system. It’s now being used in Healthcare, Government, Design, Service and in fact, is applicable to any organization in any industry.

That’s why I found Franck’s question so intriguing. What comes next?

To answer that question, I believe we still have to look at what drives value but in this case zoom out and answer what drives value for communities or society at large. We also have to place this in the context of how our world is changing and becoming faster and flatter.

In this framework, what then are the barriers preventing organizations, communities or countries from creating more value? And what needs to be done to eliminate this barrier?

Here are my thoughts. I believe the next big thing will center on the creation of knowledge and include the rapid dissemination of this knowledge around the globe to wherever it’s required. The barriers to creating and sharing this wealth of knowledge that currently exist will be eliminated. This will allow value to be created in ways that enrich the lives of everyone so that the wealth we have as a society continues to increase but in a way where everyone benefits.

Those are some humble, simple thoughts I have as an answer to Franck’s question. I’d love to hear from you.

What do you think the next big thing will be?

Cheers.

Engaged Employees = Loyal Customers = Business Results

By Al Norval

I believe this is a fundamental truth. People who are engaged at work will do things, many of which are little things, to improve the Customer experience and drive up Customer Satisfaction. As Customer Satisfaction goes up so does customer loyalty and customer loyalty can be turned into business results through repeat business. Loyal customers are the best advertising an organization can have especially in this age of social media.

On the other hand, bad customer experiences can be made very public, very quickly. Blogs, Twitter, and other social media sites are full of people sharing experiences of poor customer service. I’ve written several blogs in the past year about the value of great customer service. It’s often said – it’s harder to attract new customers than to retain existing ones.

So given this equation is true, the burning question is – “How do Leaders motivate people and engage them in solving customer problems?”

This is a critical Leadership question – how to motivate employees to go the extra mile and do the little things that add up to make a huge difference to customers and the organization?

All too often we see leaders who are better at de-motivating employees than motivating them and often complain about employees who are doing everything they are asked to do but no more. Employee behavior is compliant but they aren’t engaged. You can imagine what the customer satisfaction results are.

Dr. Deming stated “One of the first roles of leaders is not to de-motivate employees”

What is an engaged employee?
To me it means creating a culture where people have some control over their work environment to make improvements. They are encouraged to make improvements but beyond that the organization gives them time and resources to make these improvements happen quickly. Employees know where the organization is going (True north) and understand their role in achieving this.

How to do this?
One way is through daily huddles where the team reviews the past 24 hours and takes a look ahead at the next 24 hours. Any issues are surfaced, made visible and assigned to a problem solver. During the day the team is free to solve problems within the guidelines agreed to by the team to achieve their goals. The Leaders role is to coach and mentor the team to give them both the capability and the confidence to go ahead and solve problems.

Give people some control to make the customer experience better. Create more value for customers. Drive up customer loyalty and watch the business results improve.

It really is simple and the critical task of leaders is motivating and engaging employees.

Cheers