Implementing a process improvement initiative within an organization is an activity fraught with difficulty. On paper it sounds easy. Define the new process, document it, publish it, do some training and voila. In practice, most organizations struggle with the \u201cvoila\u201d stage. <\/p>\n
Of course the problem comes down to culture change. Culture change is the dark place where deeply entrenched patterns of behavior do battle with the concept of change. Unfortunately, in most cases \u201centrenched patterns\u201d trumps \u201cconcept of change\u201d and the landscape is littered with failed process improvement initiatives. One crusty old curmudgeon I worked with had 4 binders on his shelf that marked the history of the organization\u2019s failed process improvement initiatives. He proudly boasted that none of the binders had ever been opened and the thickness of the dust layer on a binder could be used to date when the initiative occurred.<\/p>\n
Overcoming the resistance to change is a major challenge and no single activity is going to overcome the problem. I\u2019ve seen various quality managers come up with different approach, but so far I\u2019ve seen few ideas that have been truly effective. One manager I spoke to about this problem declared that he planned on using the \u201cCOE\u201d approach (Condition of employment); either use the new processes or leave. Sounds simple, but in practice other practical considerations come into play and in this particular example, the manager in question found himself \u201cseeking new opportunities\u201d after having spent 6 months trying to get the organization to adopt \u201chis\u201d new quality program.<\/p>\n
The truth is that the \u201cvoila\u201d stage is the part of a change initiative that demands the greatest level of attention and planning. Rather than being the wind down stage for a change initiative, it represents the ramp up portion. Changing entrenched patterns of behavior is painfully hard and generally grossly underestimated. Most change initiatives die in the voila stage simply because people don\u2019t recognize that voila is something that doesn\u2019t happen easily and in most organizations doesn\u2019t happen naturally.<\/p>\n
So where to start? Well that depends on you, but I can give you one rule of thumb. If you\u2019ve spent less than 90% of your change initiative budget engaging the stakeholders and working on how the changes will be inculcated through the organization, you\u2019re very likely on the wrong track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Implementing a process improvement initiative within an organization is an activity fraught with difficulty. On paper it sounds easy. Define the new process, document it, publish it, do some training and voila. In practice, most organizations struggle with the \u201cvoila\u201d stage. Of course the problem comes down to culture change. Culture change is the dark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,40,37,38,31,43],"tags":[49,48,51,50],"class_list":["post-2481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-leadership-blog","category-management","category-organizational-learning","category-people","category-team-dynamics","tag-change","tag-culture-change","tag-organizational-change","tag-quality-improvement-initiative"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2482,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2481\/revisions\/2482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}