Kyle Toppazanni talks about rebuilding trust with Six Sigma tools.
Have you heard the expression “flavour of the month” or the saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same?” I often hear employees use these expressions when faced with a large change initiative. Most executives are aware of these terms, too, although I’m not completely certain they truly understand why employees use them.
As a consultant and an unbiased third party, I’ve found that employees are more willing to share with me than their bosses that their scepticism of change projects is due, in part, to lack of trust. Usually the distrust is a result one of these two factors:
• A series of broken promises and commitments concerning projects they have been involved in
• A lack of information in regards to the change
My previous conversations with managers and executives suggest that neither factor is intentional, but unfortunately priorities change and as a consequence, plans are dropped. Often during the course of a change project, people don’t take the time or make the effort to plan and execute an effective communication strategy.
I won’t debate whether these factors are intentional. Let’s focus instead on the effect they have on employees (e.g., their morale and attitude). If trust issues exist in your organization, don’t ignore them. Solve them. I have compiled the following ideas on how to rebuild employee trust by using lean Six Sigma tools. The tools can help in understanding why and how distrust exists.
Your first task is to determine if any past projects have failed to deliver what was promised. Lean encourages empowering people at all levels to contribute. You may want to hire an independent third-party to conduct interviews and survey people within the organization to understand what the trust issues are. These issues should be backed by specific examples. Such actions are part of the “define” stage in the define, measure, analyse, improve and control (DMAIC) methodology used with Six Sigma.
Use the information from the assessment as part of the platform for change. For example, if your organization has had a history of not completing change projects, then this could be one of the reasons why you need a structured approach to implement process improvement projects.
For executives, you are already on the right track if you’ve chosen to use lean Six Sigma techniques as part of a change project. This will allow the organization to own some of the issues that have led to distrust, and to address them via the lean Six Sigma framework. A successful lean Six Sigma project must deliver on its promises (i.e., improve), and ensure that continuous communication is key and central to the way you operate.
As part of your lean Six Sigma implementation, working groups should be created from employees at all levels of the company or stage in a process. Get them to work as a team to define, measure, and analyse new processes, management frameworks, communication tools, and training. Getting employees who should but don’t usually work together to solve problems is key to rebuilding trust.
Because lean Six Sigma projects work well when employees learn how to work differently but collaboratively, create opportunities for teams to take part in team-building “exercises” in a less threatening environment, e.g., performing community service to help out seniors or children.
When facilitating workshops, instead of having employees go through typical brainstorming exercises, get them to analyse and improve some aspect of the project. For example, if you (a Black or Green Belt) are using a 5 Whys framework to determine root causes, you may want to teach people how to conduct the exercise and get them to do it. Then ask them to present the results (analyse and control). You will be amazed at how much capacity and engagement you can build in an organization through this approach. You can do the same thing with value stream mapping or other techniques.
Find a way to give employees a sense that they control their work destinies. When you can not only paint a picture of the future but also give employees the confidence that they have some control of how to get there, trust issues will start to subside.
Try to obtain a win in your project every three to four weeks at the very least, and make this a part of the design of your implementation. This creates motivation and incentives for people to continue with the change project.
Create a safe environment for those implementing the project. Failure will happen, and that should be acceptable as long as people learn from it.
Have you heard the expression “flavour of the month” or the saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same?” I often hear employees use these expressions when faced with a large change initiative. Most executives are aware of these terms, too, although I’m not completely certain they truly understand why employees use them.
As a consultant and an unbiased third party, I’ve found that employees are more willing to share with me than their bosses that their scepticism of change projects is due, in part, to lack of trust. Usually the distrust is a result one of these two factors:
• A series of broken promises and commitments concerning projects they have been involved in
• A lack of information in regards to the change
My previous conversations with managers and executives suggest that neither factor is intentional, but unfortunately priorities change and as a consequence, plans are dropped. Often during the course of a change project, people don’t take the time or make the effort to plan and execute an effective communication strategy.
I won’t debate whether these factors are intentional. Let’s focus instead on the effect they have on employees (e.g., their morale and attitude). If trust issues exist in your organization, don’t ignore them. Solve them. I have compiled the following ideas on how to rebuild employee trust by using lean Six Sigma tools. The tools can help in understanding why and how distrust exists.
Your first task is to determine if any past projects have failed to deliver what was promised. Lean encourages empowering people at all levels to contribute. You may want to hire an independent third-party to conduct interviews and survey people within the organization to understand what the trust issues are. These issues should be backed by specific examples. Such actions are part of the “define” stage in the define, measure, analyse, improve and control (DMAIC) methodology used with Six Sigma.
Use the information from the assessment as part of the platform for change. For example, if your organization has had a history of not completing change projects, then this could be one of the reasons why you need a structured approach to implement process improvement projects.
For executives, you are already on the right track if you’ve chosen to use lean Six Sigma techniques as part of a change project. This will allow the organization to own some of the issues that have led to distrust, and to address them via the lean Six Sigma framework. A successful lean Six Sigma project must deliver on its promises (i.e., improve), and ensure that continuous communication is key and central to the way you operate.
As part of your lean Six Sigma implementation, working groups should be created from employees at all levels of the company or stage in a process. Get them to work as a team to define, measure, and analyse new processes, management frameworks, communication tools, and training. Getting employees who should but don’t usually work together to solve problems is key to rebuilding trust.
Because lean Six Sigma projects work well when employees learn how to work differently but collaboratively, create opportunities for teams to take part in team-building “exercises” in a less threatening environment, e.g., performing community service to help out seniors or children.
When facilitating workshops, instead of having employees go through typical brainstorming exercises, get them to analyse and improve some aspect of the project. For example, if you (a Black or Green Belt) are using a 5 Whys framework to determine root causes, you may want to teach people how to conduct the exercise and get them to do it. Then ask them to present the results (analyse and control). You will be amazed at how much capacity and engagement you can build in an organization through this approach. You can do the same thing with value stream mapping or other techniques.
Find a way to give employees a sense that they control their work destinies. When you can not only paint a picture of the future but also give employees the confidence that they have some control of how to get there, trust issues will start to subside.
Try to obtain a win in your project every three to four weeks at the very least, and make this a part of the design of your implementation. This creates motivation and incentives for people to continue with the change project.
Create a safe environment for those implementing the project. Failure will happen, and that should be acceptable as long as people learn from it.
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