Culture Kaizen: Unique Approach to Culture Transformation

Overview. A quick look in the rearview mirror at the last 18 months has left many leaders with sweaty palms on the steering wheel, a rapid pulse and a strong sense of “I don’t want go through that again!”. For those that have survived or are still "white-knucklng-it" through tough terrain the challenge is now to transform significantly enough to conduct business in a new and more sustainable way. The next 18-36 months will present leaders with a unique inflection point for change and transformation. The LEAD Culture Kaizen is great way to start, course correct and or accelerate the transformational journey.

Kaizen, often associated with Lean, is a proven methodology to scrutinize and continuously improve business and technical systems. Our unique approach applies all the power and principles of Kaizen to scrutinize and transform the human system, the culture of the organization or work unit.

Kaizen relies heavily on simple and effective tools such as value stream maps, process flows, Seven-forms of waste, Five-S’s, time-value maps, etc. These tools are used to engage people in often non-intuitive concepts and to help them clearly "see" significant improvement opportunities in their technical systems and processes. During the LEAD Culture Kaizen we use simple and proven tools to help leaders and members "see" and grasp the often non-intuitive and unspoken culture change opportunities that can be the “make-it” or “break-it” factors for sustainable performance and transformation.

Organizational culture affects ALL business transformation initiatives (not just Lean) and efforts at three critical phases; implementation phase, adoption phase and sustainability phase. The LEAD Culture Kaizen is a powerful catalyst for change at any of these phases.



For more information on this powerful and unique approach to transformational change please click here

Creativity and Innovation Impact Session: Client Highlight

Last week we had the opportunity to collaborate with a client to design and facilitate a well received Impact session on Creativity & Innovation. For this process we partnered with long time friend and consulting associate Steve Zeisler.

The session was comprised of about 25 carefully selected "Innovators" (think six sigma black belts with an entrepreneurial twist) and senior "change leaders" from throughout the organization.

The highlights of this process and engagement were:
1. An overview of creativity and innovation.
2. Sharing and interpreting results from the Creative Styles Inventory.
3. A review and practicum of tools for innovation and creativity.
4. Sharing and interpreting results of Organizational Climate for Innovation Survey.
5. Innovation project selection, team formation and chartering.


1. An Overview of creativity and innovation. Most organizations today can't leave innovation to chance. The "kids in the garage" are out there, they have more channels to market than ever and they want your business. Together this group of innovators and senior leaders explored the explosive rate of change that is occurring around them and its implications to their business.

2. Creative Styles Inventory (CSI). We are all creative, but how we are creative can differ in some significant ways. Edison was certainly creative in his way, just as Einstein was creative in his own way. Neither was more creative than the other, but they were certainly different in how they were creative. Edison's creative preference called for a more structured approach and Einstiens's a preference for less structure. Both preferences are "good" and valid, but their process and preference for creativity is on opposite ends of a continuum.

For those whose roles require creative output, or who must lead teams and organizations wherein creativity must flourish, it is important to understand the human dimensions of creativity. The CSI helps us appreciate the continuum of human creative preferences and can help us approach creative challenges without personal bias and increased team effectiveness. Within the session participants received their CSI results and explored its implications to them as innovators and as change leaders.

3. Tools for Innovation and Creativity. Just as there is a continuum of human preferences for creativity, the tools we use for creativity can also be placed on a continuum from high to low structure. During the session participants were exposed to a continuum of tools. There are over twenty such tools and brainstorming is in the middle of the continuum. In addition to some tool practice, a take-away for the group was that for every creative challenge there is a "better" fit tool.

4. Organizational Climate for Innovation. Organizations that must innovate have to understand that the richness, volume and impact of their efforts will rise or fall on the degree to which the organization posses a healthy Climate for Innovation. There are nine (9) clear and measurable dimensions that differentiate Innovative organizations from those that are stagnate. During the session the group reviewed the results from the Climate for Innovation assessment we conducted prior to the Impact Session. Input was provided to develop strategies to strengthen the climate.

A take away for the group was that if we want innovative results, the process starts with nurturing a climate that stimulates contributors to think expansively, give their best insights and ideas. If winning in the market place is a war of innovation, Climate is a key force multiplier and key differentiator.

5. Innovative Project Selection, Team Formation and Chartering. With the benefit of all previous session elements and discussions, the group worked together to select high leverage innovation projects and begin team formation.



The graphic above captures additional considerations this Impact Session addressed. Effective innovation requires an integrated process, an innovative climate and the application of a wide array of tools/approaches. A key set of in-process (lead) metrics and key set of output performance metrics must also be developed to aim the innovation process in line with business needs.

I welcome your comments and questions. Please contact me if your organization, work unit or team would benefit from an Impact Session like this or any aspect of the process that has been highlighted in this blog. If your strategic need is not Innovation & Creativity, we can work with you to develop a change approach and Impact Session tailored to your needs.

Culture Change via Team Based Management: Client Case Highlight

Just last month I spent a week with a client I’ve been consulting with for about three years now. Typical of many of our clients and most organizations, they are wrestling with a few key issues:

• How to hold people accountable, ensure that employees are all “pulling their share”.?
• How to run effective and productive meetings?
• How to define and address poor performance?
• How to function as a high performance team?
• How to confront disruptive behaviors?
• How to select and hire the best people?
• How to make performance appraisals meaningful?
• How to stabilize processes and increase performance?

What is rather atypical and not like many organizations is WHO within this client is wrestling with the above sticky issues. You see, the folks who are tackling and managing the issues in this case are the hourly production workers. Read More

Client Case & Highlight
Recently we had an opportunity to build a planned change consulting project for one of our clients. The impetus for this project was a major change in organizational structure accompanied by a high level leadership transition. It’s important to capitalize upon the windows for change these opportunities present.

The incoming leader astutely wanted to avoid the common “ash n trash” trap incoming leaders can fall into. “Ash n trash” is when the new leader focuses on finding fault with, criticizing and attending to the weaknesses of their new organization in an effort to build a case for change. The kind of burning platform that hurts. Focusing on weaknesses, problems and gaps has a way leading to people feeling exposed, dumb and defensive. Not a great way to build bridges toward a successful future.

Given the overall situation and the requirement for this process to be a more positive and building process, we developed an approach to strategic change using an Appreciative Inquiry approach to transformation.  This approach is based on positive psychology, no CRITICISMS, no PROBLEMS, no GAPs, it's a process of finding your strategic organizational strengths and amplifying them.  This is a great approach for helping new leaders learn about as well as set a positive tone for transforming their new organization.

The other really nice thing about an approach based on AI (click on the link above to better appreciate this) is that the process is viral, negating many of the difficult and typical failure modes and forms of resistance inherent in traditional approaches to change.  

One of the opportunities that emerged for the client from this process was a focus on Creativity & Innovation, a strategic capability that they had possessed, had lost touch with and committed to amplify. I’ll use the specific focus area of Creativity and Innovation to help make the process overview described below a little more concrete.

Below is a summary of some of the key steps and elements from this process. Phase I, II and III are most closely associated with AI and how we "got there". Phase IV and V are the phases that pertain to specific project implementations including increased Creativity & Innovation throughout the enterprise.  

Phase 1. Finding the Strategic Leverage.  Senior leaders were actively engaged in this phase and conducted carefully structured Appreciative Inquiry interviews with their staff, customers and other key stakeholders.  From this initial work the senior leaders identified four strategic capabilities to address, one of which was Creativity & Innovation.

Phase II. Tapping into Passion & Possibilities.  This is the viral part of the process. The staff who were interviewed by senior leaders (as well as others, about 25-30 people) then received some brief training and went on to conduct a handful (5) of structured interviews themselves.  We created a database to capture and compile the contents of the interviews to make it easy to extract intelligence. Effective and consistently constructed interviews are the key here. The client created a “portal”, a virtual space where all interviews could be shared and read by every employee in the organization. This second round of interviews took place over the course of a month. I can’t stress how powerful these client driven interviews are, how they raise awareness and start to shift thinking.

Phase III. Summit.  All interviewers, interviewees and other key stakeholders (150+ people) came together in an interactive summit. At the summit the interviews were shared and dissected in an effort to learn from and apply their collective wisdom for change.  Key areas for change were identified and Strategic Deployment Teams were chartered and launched. One of these teams was focused on Creativity & Innovation.

Phase IV. Impact Session(s).  Strategic Deployment Teams go through a JumpStart launch process to accelerate their impact.  Each Impact session is constructed of three elements- Concepts Lab in their area of strategic deployment (i.e. creativity and innovation), Opportunity / Strategy definition and Goal Setting , Project Selection, Scope & Chartering.  The creativity and innovation Impact Session is designed to bring about change through an integrated set of strategies.  These strategies are organized in the following "buckets";
• Climate & Leadership for Innovation. 
• Technology & Enabling Systems
• Education & Awareness
• Application and deployment of tools & capabilities.

Phase IV. Hoshin / Catch-ball Project Deployment.  Hoshin / catch-ball principles are used to align and manage the execution and impact of projects. The cycle time for this overall effort, including verification of results in one year.

I welcome your comments, insights and experiences about change and transformation. If you would like more information on how to design an approach for your organization or team, please push the Contact Me button.

Directive Leadership

“Hey, can you please help me find…
Ever been lost or directionally challenged? When is the last time you asked someone for directions? By the time we ask for directions we have admitted that we don’t have the ability, knowledge or experience to get where we want to go (low ability). I don’t know about you, but when I’m asking for directions I’m also typically dealing with some icky affect: anxious, apprehensive, stressed, etc. I am certainly NOT feeling confident, or assured (low willingness).

At the time of our asking for directions we are having a pristine Follower Readiness Level 1(R1) experience. What we need at that moment is someone familiar with the area and willing to help.

Help, what does help look like to the person having an R1 moment? The table below may provide some insight into the boundary conditions for how to "help" through directive leadership. You can click here to Read More about Directive Leadership.