Month: November 2010

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10 Top Tips For Implementing Quality Improvement Projects

Smiling woman explaining project to colleague

1.New Programs and Initiatives
The Quality Improvement Projects program (Lean, Kaizen, Six Sigma, Continuous Improvement, TPM etc) must not impose a completely new initiative on your business. Where possible use existing tools, terms and systems, especially where these are associated with good business results. It may be necessary to adapt the new program as necessary. If people feel the program is a process they are already familiar with, it avoids the “here we go with yet another extra-hot chilli flavour of the month” mentality.

2.A Solid Framework
A good “improvement mindset” or framework for a sustainable system must already exist within the business, where as many people as possible understand and are committed to continuing the process. As a minimum, the new system should encourage more idea generation, collection and selection, team formation and formal approaches to problem solving, recognition and communication and lastly tracking. Try to gain commitment from everyone in the business about the basic framework right at the start and ensure there is a common and agreed understanding about the big picture of how the Quality Management initiative will be applied.

3.Give Credit
In most businesses, Quality Improvement initiatives are not really brand new out of the box thinking, as many people have already been exposed to and worked on Quality Improvement concepts for a long time, and with some successes. It’ s important to acknowledge past achievements and recognise the champions who made it happen by assigning them significant roles for the new wave. If however, the approach has been fire fighting, you may want to build a different team and approach the initiative more proactively. If past projects were not successful then it’s important to show how the new initiative differs from the previous and why it stands a better chance for success.

4. Encourage Ideas
Ideas should come from anyone and no ideas should be turned away. Make everyone aware of the criteria for setting priorities and what the targets are for the Quality Improvement initiative. Assign responsibilities or sponsors who should stimulate the generation of ideas in their areas of influence. There should always be a surplus of ideas waiting for implementation. Any ideas that are rejected or put on hold should be fed back to the originator, explaining the rationale for the decision.

5.Individual or Pilot Project selection
Depending on your approach, it may be necessary to start off the program on a small scale or as a “Pilot”. If this is the case, the criteria for selecting the first projects should be based on a project whose results directly benefit and impact many people in the business, and where such results are visible within a couple of months. It’s worth selecting a purpose made “A Team” to spearhead the Pilot. This “Hit Squad” should comprise people who are ready to talk about what is going on to all their colleagues and people who want to see improvement happen.

6.Involve and Work through people
Avoid being prescriptive with each step of your approach, rather opting to use a facilitated approach to get support and buy in from the teams involved. Always be open to a team using a different approach though still aligned to the overall objectives. Forcing things down people’s throats doesn’t really work well. Good facilitation should allow for a team to reach a pre-conceived conclusion on their own accord. On the same vein, allow the teams to decide what tasks and actions are to be done and offer to help rather than allocate tasks directly to the different people.

7. Keep Everyone Informed of Progress and Results.
The success of a good Quality Improvement program depends on good feedback and communication surrounding progress. Reports on Progress can take many forms, as long as relevant and timely information is communicated. It’s also important to publicly celebrate any success coming out of the program. Lastly, where new records have been set and old Improvement Targets “smashed”, set new targets and make them known.

8. What Gets Measured Gets Managed.

Put in place a good monitoring system to track the number of ideas generated over time, the level participation of people at any one time and cumulatively during the process, the rate of implementation and the Return on Investment or benefits. Tracking and showing a direct correlation between efforts and benefits is the best way to sustain a Quality Program. Use agreed targets and KPI’s as your “dipstick” check. I recently posted an article on Why Your Business Should Care about KPI’s on my blog that you can refer to for more details on KPI’s.

9. Stakeholder Sponsorship
When it comes to supporting and sponsoring Quality Programs, Time Investment is worth more than its weight in gold in my opinion, especially if this “time” is offered by Top Management. A visibly committed top management always sends the right message throughout the organisation and demonstrates “walking the talk”. Sometimes it takes no more effort than attending and supporting a Project team session, meeting or gathering on a regular basis. A senior manager being seen with sleeves rolled up on the Gemba or shopfloor, frontline office is the best form of propaganda.

10. Fun & Relevant

A good way to keep your Quality Programs alive and a bit of a missed opportunity really, is the ability to tap into the use of modern technology and in particular the internet, Web 2.0 tools and smart phone applications. More and more people continue to use social networking platforms and smart phone applications as an extension and expression of who they are. There are huge benefits in using elements of these tools to support your initiative whilst keeping it relevant, fun and up to date. For example use Twitter to gather intelligence about what people are saying about your product or service quality, create Facebook pages for internal use, use YouTube to share and socialise results and of course use the hundreds of Free Productivity Improvement Applications available with most smart phone systems. What ever you do, have fun with your program.

How do you create a Buzz with your Quality Management Initiatives ?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Quality Management.
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How to Interview a Social Media Marketing Firm

Women sitting on a table conducting an interview

Start With Your Company’s Goals

In the last post, we discussed the importance of defining and articulating your company’s offline marketing goals and your social media marketing goals. Together, they serve as the target by which you measure success.

If a social media marketing firm doesn’t first seek to understand certain core fundamentals about your business and competitive environment, they are likely not a good fit for you. You’re looking for a firm that understands savvy, successful business as well as social media technicalities and online campaign execution. That’s a tall order. So it’s important to take time, interview several firms, and find the right fit for you. If you don’t put in this effort upfront, you may waste a lot of time, energy and money.

Example Interview Questions

Keep in mind that YOU are the hiring authority. Even though you may not know a lot about how social media campaigns are run, it is still the social media marketing firm that must pass YOUR scrutiny. So drill the questions at them and hold their feet to the fire.

Gather your management team together for each interview session. Many ears with different areas of expertise will hear the firm’s answers in different ways. Ask these questions:

  • How will you incorporate our company goals into online strategies and social media campaigns?
  • Do you have actual client campaign examples that got measurable results from your social media campaigns?
  • How did you measure results in those campaigns?
  • How did you determine success?
  • Have you had experiences in which clients did NOT achieve their goals, or were unhappy with their social media campaigns? Why? What would you do differently?
  • Do you establish baseline metrics to measure progress? Give me an example from a client campaign.
  • What has been your biggest client challenge or problem, and how did you solve it?
  • What methods have you used: To identify a niche audience and grow it? To engage that audience? To convert them into customers?
  • How will you go about determining the right social media campaign to reach OUR goals?
  • How do you price your services?
  • What if we’re not satisfied?

I highly recommend interviewing THREE firms. Ask all these questions verbatim. With your management team at each interview, have each person write down all the answers. After all the interviews are over, have your team pow wow to compare notes and discuss preferences. A clear winner will probably emerge during your discussion.

After all this, you will have gone up a very steep learning curve in a relatively short time period. It’s well worth the investment, because social media will continue to grow in importance for all companies around the globe.

What other aspects of a social media marketing firm interview have you found helpful?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

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Leading Change

Change-word on a-wooden-background

Leadership Competencies and Change

The growing need for change leadership in organizations is widely acknowledged as some estimates are as high as 70% of all large scale change initiatives fail to meet the objectives delineated at the beginning of the process. The research and literature on change indicates that a primary reason for the success or failure of a change initiative hinges on the skills and knowledge of the individuals responsible for leading the change. In light of this, one obvious question arises: What leadership behaviors or competencies are most strongly associated with effectively leading or overseeing change initiatives?

In my opinion there are six competency areas that enhance the capacity of a leader to coordinate and drive organizational change: Systems Thinking, Strategic Savvy, Organizational Agility, Capacity Building, Creative Communication, and Courage. I am going to introduce the first three in this blog entry and will follow up with an overview of the other three next week. It is important to note that these competencies are intended to correspond most directly with individuals that are in a mid-level leader role, within medium to large organizations, and with responsibility for overseeing or leading the actual change initiative.

Systems Thinking

This is an advance understanding of how an organization is in fact an interrelated set of relationships, processes, strategies, and cultural influences. It is the ability to see the broader context of the organization and sensitivity to how the different elements are apt to influence and interact with each other when a significant change is introduced into the system. And while it is impossible for anyone to predict exactly all the ripple effects of change in a system – the leader with the capacity for thinking systemically will accurately anticipate enough of the ripples to make a significant difference.

Strategic Savvy

This is basically an advanced knowledge of the factors that are most critical to the success of an organizational change initiative. And it isn’t just the knowledge of these factors — it is the ability to use them in support of the change process. In essence, it is the understanding and wherewithal to develop and oversee a coherent change strategy. It is an appreciation for factors such as change sponsorship, communication strategies, and success metrics. And of course it isn’t just an understanding of the factors – it is the ability and willingness to leverage the factors to drive change.

Organizational Agility

This is about knowing who to get involved and knowing how to get them involved in order effect positive organizational change. It entails a finely honed understanding of the larger relationship network within an organization — and the requisite skills to navigate, influence, and establish the involvement and/or support of key players pursuant to the change initiative. The person that is organizationally agile has solid interpersonal influence and, what might be referred to as, an advance level of applied emotional intelligence.

Next Time

My next blog entry will describe the behaviors/competencies of Capacity Building, Creative Communication, and Courage. But in the mean time, it would be wonderful if any readers were willing to share their reactions to the first three and any other thoughts, questions, comments you may have about this idea of change leadership competencies.

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Steve Wolinski provides leadership development, organizational change and talent management services to numerous public, private and non-profit organizations.

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Linking Innovation and Operations

An-innovation-sign-on-wall.

Development is hard pressed to interface with operations. Yet it is extremely important that this interface be workable because developments are not relevant until they find their way into operations. This is the “reason for being” of development; to have new systems and adaptive processes and structures integrated, in the long run, to foster organizational performance and adaptation.

What’s The Difference?

An operation is charted to preserve the status quo, the current thinking and methods. Operations assumes this status quo as a “given” and works within current procedures to improve them and “operationalize” them with a high degree of efficiency. In most operations the problem is clear and solutions are knowable. Fast response is an overriding value in executing a “fix” and getting the operation back on-line.

Development, on the other hand is a constructive conspiracy. It is the development function, who’s job it is to replace the current ways of doing things, with new tools and assumptions more in line with changing business and organizational conditions. Development is rife with ambiguity; it is a searching and learning process. The overriding value is gaining commitment to change.

Innovation and Development is fragile, complex and conceptual. Nothing kills it faster than premature exploitation- rushing to capitalize on it too soon. Development is not charted but it is navagatable, it is a learned activity in action where hunches are tested and theory is developed in the process of action. The context of development is uncertainty. Operations on the other hand, works to reduce uncertainty to a program, an operational term.

Learning It While Doing It

Operations are based in control. Developments emerge and are always subject to un- intended consequences in action as development is moved toward its purpose. One of the themes of these essays is that developments are realized through the process of development, it is in effect learned in the process of doing it.

Usually there is not a great deal of organizational understanding and support for doing this. An often operation does not see the need or understand the purpose of the development itself. For this reason, development needs protection at a certain stage. Protection and understanding go hand in hand. As the development is understood the protection can be loosened which is necessary to gain the institutional support for prioritizing the resources for more disciplined development.

Boundary management means the protection and support of a differentiated development culture and the managed change of this culture when appropriate. Boundary management is a continual effort of judgment and balance because technical organizations optimize performance and their activities are always influenced by demands and feedback from a variety of sources in the global environment. Establishing and managing boundaries is both necessary and problematic.

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For more resources, see the Library topics Consulting and Organizational Development.

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Jim Smith has over 40 years of organization development experience in a wide range of organizations. He can be reached at ChangeAgents@gmail.com

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Making a Statement

A businessman looking up at a corporate building

How you communicate is just as important as what’s actually said

Many business execs think of written statements as powerful tools, tools that satisfy reporters and the public while quelling any questioning or doubt. The rest of the world…not so much. In an article for his website, Mr. Media Training, Brad Phillips composed a solid list of reasons why you should not use written statements as your primary communication method:

1. They Don’t Make You the “Go-To” Source: One of the most important things in the early hours of a crisis is to establish your company or organization as the primary source for information. If reporters believe they can get the relevant facts of the story directly from you in a timely and transparent manner, they will have less incentive to seek out alternative sources.

2. They Make You Look Guilty: A written statement too often looks like the Fifth Amendment – an obstruction guilty parties hide behind when they want to avoid saying something self-incriminating. Sources that communicate openly are usually treated better by reporters than those who refuse to talk or speak only through the written word.

3. Reporters Hate Them: Reporters want the opportunity to ask questions, clarify points, and pursue their own angles. Sources that don’t speak to reporters often suffer more hostile coverage.

These are three HUGE negatives that combine to make battling a crisis much harder than it would be had you simply spoken in person with reporters. Throwing a new wrench in this theory is the ongoing infatuation with social media. Are these new media platforms responsive and pervasive enough to act as a primary communication tools, or should they be relegated to the role of support? What do you think?

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

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Gratitude- Make it a Practice

business-man-showing-respect-and-gratitude-to-each-other-with-a-handshake

In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, this post will be dedicated to gratitude. Research has shown that practicing gratitude can make you happier. Take a moment and test the theory. Stop reading and spend the next few minutes naming things (out loud is ok) for which you are grateful. How many of you smiled at just the thought of those things? If your thoughts turned to people for whom you are grateful, how have you expressed this to them? If you answered yes, then how long ago? Are you saying to yourself, “they know I am thankful for them and can’t live without them.” Are you sure?

There seems to be a question that I hear regularly asked and debated regarding thanking employees for doing their job. I mean that is why you pay them, right? If they are simply coming to work every day and doing exactly what you ask, they are meeting their end of the deal and by paying them, you are meeting your end of the deal.

Now, why not take another moment to think about the employees who don’t fulfill their end of the deal. You know the ones, they that take your time, energy and other resources to try to correct their behavior or improve their performance. They are expensive and costly and often they end up leaving the organization anyway. And when they leave, you say “thank goodness!” They are giving you the opportunity to practice that gratitude! Do you feel better?

Why not take the opportunity to create a win-win with the employees that just do their job. Show them gratitude and by doing so, you will create happiness for you (win) and happiness for them (win-win).

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For more resources, See the Human Resources library.

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Sheri Mazurek is a training and human resource professional with over 16 years of management experience, and is skilled in all areas of employee management and human resource functions, with a specialty in learning and development. She is available to help you with your Human Resources and Training needs on a contract basis. For more information send an email to smazurek0615@gmail.com or visit www.sherimazurek.com. Follow me on twitter @Sherimaz.

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“Dress Right! Dress!” for Successful Training

A-man-dressed-in-a-blue-suit-with-a-suitcase

Submitted by Guest Writer, Antonio Centeno
President, A Tailored Suit

The Effect of Clothing on Training – How to Dress Professionally for Successful Training

The direct relationship between clothing and a person’s state of mind has been observed for thousands of years. To see this in practice, simply look at how militaries, hospitals, and religious leaders the world over have uniforms that their professions utilize. The right clothing signals authority and a level of professionalism that can be expected. Wearing the right clothing for you, your audience, your training environment, and preparing for the worst case scenario can ensure your training session is successful.

Know Your Personal Style

First and foremost, a person should dress with confidence in clothing that he or she knows they look great in. If you are confident in your appearance, it allows your inner energy to shine right through. And although you might be slightly over or under dressed, your audience will forgive this small transgression once you confident engage them with the subject matter.

To understand your personal style, you should be aware of the colors, style, and fits that best compliment your body. And although this will narrow down what you should wear, it in no way restricts your personal style as a smart dresser realizes that within these confines are actually the right choices that will best compliment natural features. Some people look great in dark and light contrasting colors than fit closely; others are better off wearing loose fitting earth tones with low contrast accents.

Know your Training Audience

Almost as important as your personal style, knowing your audience is imperative to a person looking to effectively train a group. Meeting with a group of business student at New York University – they’re used to meeting with bankers and businessmen wearing custom suits. Training a group of construction business owners in Oregon? Expect a more casual atmosphere, but you’ll still need to ensure your clothing is professional and non-distracting from your message. If you are ever in doubt, ask; and if the audience is a bit unorthodox in their dress (a friend of mine did some training at a nudist colony and was going to be “overdressed” even in a towel), then revert to your personal style. As long as it does not offend, and you are comfortable, the message will be relayed.

Know your Training Environment

Is the training going to be taking place outdoors on the beach in Southern California? Are you going to be indoors, but perhaps in a building whose AC is notorious for breaking down during hot Houston summers? Know your environment, and if possible get as much information from your host if you are not controlling where the training will take place. If you are in control of the location, then arrive early to ensure the environment is stabilized and a non-factor. Strong winds can make wearing that dress a very unnecessary distraction or unseasonably cold day will mean you’ll need a sharp looking wool men’s overcoat as that bright Columbia Ski Jacket Coat isn’t going to cut it.

Prepare for the Worst

Always have an extra change of clothes with an emergency repair kit such as thread, needle, buttons, and scissors. Coffee spills on white shirts and popped buttons are inconveniences for your audience, for the person up on stage training they are a distraction that can cause you to lose your audience’s attention. Be prepared with an extra set of clothing also enables you to better address the weather problem

Conclusion – Training and your Appearance

There are many things you can’t control when you are training a group; the room you’ll be in, the quality of the equipment you’re provided, and the mood of the audience before they meet with you. However, what you decide to wear is firmly under your direction. Don’t let a lack of preparation when it comes to your clothing be a factor in whether or not your training event is a success. Understand the importance of your appearance, and then put yourself in a position to succeed by dressing appropriately.

Antonio Centeno
President, A Tailored Suit
Custom clothing you’ll pass onto your son

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For more resources about training, see the Training library.

See also: http://actingsmarts-jackshaw.com/

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What are Belbin team roles?

Successful-and-happy-business-team

The Belbin Team Inventory, also called the Belbin Self-Perception Inventory or Belbin Team Role Inventory is an assessment used to gain insight into an individual’s behavioural tendency in a team environment. It was devised by Dr. Meredith Belbin to measure preference for the nine Team Roles discovered whilst studying numerous teams at Henley Management College.

A Belbin team role as defined by Dr Meredith Belbin is: “a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way.” At Fresh Tracks we use ‘Belbin Team Roles’ a lot to develop teams but what are they? For this months video blog actor Andy Taylor explains.

[youtube width=”400″ height=”300″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M0Al3Oi0-8&[/youtube]

Do you or have you used Belbin? Let us know what you think of it in the comment box below.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Team Building.

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This blog is by Fresh Tracks: Experts in Team Building, Team Development and Staff Conferences
Website: www.freshtracks.co.uk

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Recognize the bad stuff too! How to make the good words even more meaningful for Reward and Recognition in your Call Centres

Man in a button up shirt wearing a headphone

Recognize the bad stuff too! How to make the good words even more meaningful for Reward and Recognition in your Call Centres

A friend emailed me the other day and suggested that we could make our words even more meaningful by effectively dealing with issues and concerns. He said ‘Even if you deliver recognition perfectly, it will quickly lose its value if you let performance issues/concerns slide. Some managers make the mistake of ignoring issues if overall team performance is on target.”

I mused on that for awhile, over a cup of morning coffee, and thought about a time where I witnessed this happen. One of my Team Managers had a team that was performing very well with respect to their key performance indicators – meeting their productivity and sales targets, and achieving good customer service scores. This manager was very good at delivering rah, rah messages in their team meeting, providing pizza parties for team success, pumping up the team with cheers, etc. It was apparent, however, that some team members were not pulling their weight and were riding on the success of a few strong team members. The stronger team members were starting to get disillusioned and were not quite as motivated as they had been, and the manager was perplexed. Had he not treated them all to pizza and pop? Framed certificates for team performance for the kudos wall? Celebrated team stats in huddles? Yes, he had done all that – but not all the team members were doing their part, and the ones who were carrying the team were getting tired of performance issues being swept under the carpet. Why should Susan, who achieved only 50% of her sales target, get the same rewards as Peter, who overachieved at 122%? Why should the 11 people who met their productivity target be treated the same as those 7 people who did not achieve it? One sure fire way to demotivate your call centre reps is to lump them all together when it comes to recognizing results – both in a positive or negative way. It’s just as important to have the tough conversations!

So this weeks rule (#6) – Don’t forget to have the tough conversations or the great conversations won’t mean anything!

Some quick and easy ideas for Reward and Recognition in your Call Centres

And we’re adding to our list of 100….thanks for the suggestions!

Let’s build a list of 100 quick and cheap ways to Reward and Recognize in the Call Centre

Help me add to this list by submitting feedback – or emailing me at kimvey@rogers.com

5. Take calls for an hour for your rep. This can have a double benefit – the team sees the manager out on the floor and their peer gets an hour off the phone. This is also a great way to mentor your reps and teach best practices.

6. Create a wall of fame where you post new reps photos and a short bio. This is a great way to ‘recognize’ new employees joining the team

7. Mini first aid kit – with a note “thanks for taking care of our clients today’

8. An incentive for you readers this week – send in an idea and you could win a prize!

And remember, once we get to 100 – I’ll post the entire list right here and you can start using all the great ideas people have shared

Feedback or comments: Share your ideas for low/no cost rewards and recognition in your call centres

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What to Do Before You Interview a Social Media Marketing Firm

Person holding a pen writing in notebook

Tips for the Beginner

I’ve heard it at least a bazillion times … You’re starting to feel like your marketing strategy is falling behind the times. You know you should at least create a Facebook page and use Twitter, but you don’t really know how to use them. (Is it worth the time?) And, even more frustrating, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Where do you begin?

Can you learn how to do all this social media stuff, or should you find a social media marketing firm to launch you online? (Yikes, how much will THAT cost??) And, if you DO engage a firm, how do you find a good one? A good one could be defined as a team that ‘gets’ your business, with the objective of attracting new customers.

Define Your Offline and Online Goals

Before you start the hunt for the right social media marketing firm, gather your management team together and focus on articulating your offline marketing and sales goals FIRST. The result of any social media marketing firm’s work is only as good as the goals they work toward, and those come from your company. No management strategy and/or targets – no bullseye.

Once you have the offline marketing and sales goals articulated and prioritized, you’re ready to define your social media business goals. The offline and online goals work together hand-in-hand. Each supports and supplements the other. Good social media goals should at least include:

  • Identifying your online target market
  • Finding the places that they congregate online
  • Establishing your brand in these online communities (social networks)
  • Listening, listening, listening
  • After listening, easing into engagement with the target audience
  • Giving value
  • Offering solutions and converting the audience into customers
  • Monitoring, measuring, and continual improvement

You might also spend some time searching online and reading blogs about how other businesses establish their social media campaigns. They may or may not apply to you, but you will learn an awful lot, and give you more confidence before approaching a social media marketing firm.

What social media marketing goals have been successful for business?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com