Stop Me Before I Kaizen Again

Ideas and tools for promoting change

ASQ defines Kaizen as "a Japanese term chat means gradual unending improvement by doing little things better and setting and achieving increasingly higher standards."' Kaizen events bring people together to identify and address major technical and quality challenges. These highly interactive events can involve various key stakeholders. When everything works as planned, the organization is better off as a result of sponsoring these events, and people leave with a plan in hand.

As good as these events can be, it is also possible to misuse them, leaving you and your organization worse off than you were before they started. There are three major reasons why Kaizen events fail, as described in this article.

I Got the Hammer, Now Where's That Nail?

Once we learn how to use a new tool, there is a temptation to see its utility everywhere. So a perfectly good process like Kaizen is applied without considering what it might take for it to be the right process. Here are some questions you can ask to prevent this problem.

* Will this process get us to where we want to go? Look at the outcome that is possible from an event like this and make sure that it matches what you need to accomplish.

* Will the organization support this event by allowing people to attend for the full time?

* Does the organization trust the Kaizen process? Will people implement what gets decided during the event?

* Will an event like this fit into your culture, or is it too far from the corporate comfort zone for people to become fully engaged?

Drive-By Kaizen

Sometimes a sense of urgency leads people to rush into a Kaizen event. The customer wants something done today. The facilitator wants to accommodate or keep his/her job. An event is planned and scheduled way too quickly. Some questions you might ask include the following:

* Do we have sufficient time to plan for this event?

* Are we able to get key players to participate on such short notice?

* Since the event was added to calendars at the last minute, will these people have the ability to make a full commitment to the process or will they feel distracted by other priorities back on the job?

Get Your Ticket Punched

In some organizations it looks good if you hold a Kaizen event. There is a subtle pressure to hold a few of them. When there is an expectation that managers must use this tool, people will schedule events just to show that they are on the "A" team. These individuals are acting in bad faith, but the organization is responsible for this problem as well because it is sending the wrong message. Check for this issue by asking the questions below:

* Does the sponsor know what he/she is getting into with the planned event?

* Does the sponsor fully understand what is expected of him/her before, during, and after the event?

* As you plan the event, is the sponsor sending signals that let you know that he/she fully supports it? If not, talk to the sponsor immediately. Don't wait and hope that the event goes well.

I'm sure you could add other items to this list. The point is simple; when any event is conducted without sufficient support and planning, you increase the risk of failure. Even more important, poorly planned and executed events can give Kaizen a bad name. This makes it difficult to build support for similar events in the future.

You can avoid these pitfalls by asking the right questions and allowing what you hear to influence you. Whenever I conducted an event that didn't go so well, I could have predicted the outcome if I had paid attention. I once heard a manager say, "The writing was on the wall, but we thought it was a forgery." Asking yourself, sponsors, and stakeholders good questions will give you "the writing on the wall." Trust what you learn. Good luck!

References

1 "Quality Glossary," Quality Progress, July 2002, p. 52.

Rick Maurer is author of many books on change and uses his Change Without Migraines(TM) approach to advise organizations that need to lead change more effectively. You can access more than 7 OO free articles, tips, and tools on his Web site: http://www.beyondresistance.com. You can contact him direct/y at 703-525-7074 or via e-mail at rick@beyondresistance.com.

Copyright Association for Quality and Participation Summer 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved