Mark Graban VP of Customer Success

mark@kainexus.com

Congratulations, You Have Lots of Employee Ideas! Now What?

Dr. Gregory Jacobson Chief Product Officer greg@KaiNexus.com

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Mark Graban VP of Innovation & Improvement Services

mark@kainexus.com

Congratulations, You Have Lots of Employee Ideas! Now What?

Dr. Gregory Jacobson Chief Product Officer greg@KaiNexus.com

Don’t Let This…

A Flood of Ideas

… Turn Into This

Or is this our starting point?

Can we turn it into this?

Or, better yet, this?

And then prevent this?

Starting This Journey •  …  toward  a  culture  of  con%nuous  improvement  •  It  will  not  happen  overnight  (or  in  a  month)  •  It  takes  discipline  and  consistent  leadership  

•  If  you  do  it  right,  you’ll  get  a  flood  of  ideas  – Nice  problem  to  have!  

Characteristics of a Culture of Innovation & Improvement

Effective Leadership

Systematic Methodology

Enabling Technology

The Right Amount of “P”

This is Not a Cycle

•  Strive  for  perfec%on  over  %me  •  Get  be]er  over  %me  •  Don’t  expect  to  start  perfectly.  Don’t.  

Plan   Plan   Plan   Plan   Plan  

In the beginning…

Note: # of people involved = 12

(Manufacturing)

Note: # of users grew from 16 to 100 over this timeframe

(Healthcare)

Wave

River

Desert

Note: # of users was 372

Your Employees WILL Ask

“How  do  we  know  our  leaders  won’t  get  bored  

with  this?”  

Preventing an Idea Drought

1. Discuss  ideas  construc%vely  with  employees  2. Priori%ze  ideas  (and  if  that's  even  necessary)  3. Assign  responsibility  for  improvement  work  4. Create  %me  for  improvement  5. Track  improvements  

Discuss

Ask – In the Right Way •  Engage  and  inspire  people  •  Don’t  just  demand  improvement  •  Don’t  set  quotas  or  targets  •  Don’t  just  ask  for  cost  reduc%ons  

Audience Questions

What’s  the  way  to  mo%vate  the  people  to  do  a  Kaizen  idea?    

 

How  do  you  approach  or  manage  the  employee  WIIFM  factor?  (i.e.,  What  is  In  it  For  Me?)  

Problem and Idea

Be Collaborative •  Don’t  just  accept  or  reject  •  Make  sure  the  right  problem  is  understood  •  Discuss  the  proposed  countermeasure  •  Brainstorm  alterna%ve  countermeasures  •  Coach,  don’t  nitpick  

Positive Cycles Discussing  

Ideas  

Implemen%ng  Ideas  

Genera%ng  Ideas  

What to Do with “Bad Ideas”

1.  “Blow  off”  the  idea  and  don’t  talk  about  it  2.  Just  tell  the  employee  idea  is  rejected  

3.  Talk  about  why  it’s  not  being  done  now  4.  Implement  something  that  at  least  par%ally  

addresses  the  underlying  problem  

Worse

Better

Key Point •  Communicate,  communicate,  communicate  – Face  to  face  –  In  team  huddles  – Electronically  

Prioritize

Why Prioritize? •  What  is  the  problem  statement?  

•  We  have  too  many  ideas,  so  we  have  to  choose:  –  The  most  impacmul?  –  The  biggest  cost  savers?  –  The  easiest?  –  Those  that  help  us  achieve  this  year’s  goals?  

 

Low Effort High Effort

High Impact

Low Impact Kibosh Possible

Implement Challenge

The Problem With PICK •  If  something  is  “high  effort,”  do  we:  

1.  Put  it  on  hold?  Cast  it  aside?  Kibosh  it?  

               OR  2.  Find  an  alterna%ve  that’s  less  effort?  

Key Point •  If  we:  – Distribute  the  improvement  workload  more  and  – Find  smaller,  simpler  things  to  implement  

•  Then:  – We  don’t  have  to  priori%ze  as  much  

Assign

Shift the Model

Manager Implements

Them All

Everybody Implements

One

Shift the Model

•  Or,  at  least,  many  people  implement  a  few  each  

Manager Implements

Them All

Everybody Implements

One

Assigning Improvement Work •  Who  can:  –  Inves%gate?  – Collect  data?  – Brainstorm  countermeasures?  – Get  input  from  others?  – Test  countermeasures?  – Evaluate  countermeasures?    

But I’m Scared… •  What  if  all  of  my  people  aren’t  capable?  •  It’s  the  manager’s  job  to  develop  them  •  They  can  likely  do  more  than  you  think  •  Recognize  differing  capabili%es  in  your  team  

Key Point •  Don’t  let  the  manager  be  the  bo]leneck  

•  Don’t  let  a  key  staff  member  be  the  bo]leneck  

Create Time

From Excuse to Problem •  “We  don’t  have  %me  for  improvement”  

•  Is  that  an  excuse?  à  Stop  and  give  up  •  Is  it  a  problem?  à  Figure  out  how  to  solve  

Intentionally Create Time

•  “Nobody  will  cri%cized  for  taking  20  minutes  away  from  their  regular  work  to  work  on  improvement  work.  I  assure  you  of  that.”  – Transplant  Ins+tute  Chair  

Toyota’s Answer

•  “If  we  have  an  idea  and  our  leader  thinks  it’s  worth  working  on,  they’ll  approve  over%me  for  us.”  – TMMTX  Tour  Guide  (Hourly  Employee)  

Key Point •  It’s  onen  easier  to  create  a  li]le  bit  of  %me  for  many  people  than  it  is  to  create  a  big  block  of  %me  for  one  person  

Audience Question •  How  do  you  balance  “do  the  work”  and  “improve  the  work?”      

•  Right  now  there  is  a  sense  in  our  environment  with  KaiNexus  that  OIs  must  be  worked  on,  but  we  also  have  to  “do  the  work”  each  day…  

Track

Track Ideas •  “Our  biggest  problem  is  we    forget  to  follow  up  on  ideas.”  

– We  can’t  worry  about  sustainment    un%l  we  get  implementa%on  

Audience Question •  How  do  you  ensure  that  the  project  champion  makes  it  a  priority  to  implement  &  complete  the  project?  

•  We  have  implemented  a  employee  sugges%on  program  for  the  past  six  months,  and  have  been  successful,  however  the  "struggle"  has  been  to  get  the  designated  project  champion  to  ensure  that  the  project  is  completed.  

Track Results •  Categorize  and  Quan%fy  – Safety  – Quality  – Customer  (Pa%ent)  Sa%sfac%on  – Employee  Sa%sfac%on  – Cost  /  Revenue  – Time  Savings  

Audience Question We  have  successfully  implemented  a  Quick  and  Easy  Kaizen  program.    The  problem  I  run  into  is  in  the  submipng  the  problem  and  tracking  the  savings.    Is  it  common  for  employees  to  say  how  much  %me  they  save  for  each  of  their  ideas?    And  do  organiza%ons  onen  %e  a  dollar  to  the  %me  savings?    Are  their  pimalls  I  should  be  aware  of?      (example:  Sally  makes  $12.00  an  hour.    She  improved  her  process  by  one  hour  a  day,  so  the  total  %me  savings  is  $12.00  an  hour  with  an  annual  savings  of  $12.00  x  number  of  work  days  len  in  the  year.)    Are  their  different  ways  to  calculate  the  savings?  

Key Point •  You  must  show  progress  at  first  &  over  %me  •  More  improvement,  more  quickly  =  more  impact  •  Progress  =  more  ideas  =  more  improvement  

(Manufacturing 1st 60 days)

Note: # of users grew from 16 to 100 over this timeframe

(Manufacturing 6 months)

Note: # of users grew from 16 to 240 over this timeframe

(Manufacturing 9 months)

Note: # of users grew from 16 to 457 over this timeframe

360

150 “lost” OIs x $620 per OI = $93,000

(Healthcare 60 days)

Note: # of users grew from 7 to 265 over this timeframe

(Healthcare 180 days)

Note: # of users grew from 16 to 467 over this timeframe

Make ideas flow like a river

Q&A with Greg & Mark •  Web:  

–  www.KaiNexus.com  –  Blog.KaiNexus.com    

•  Webinars:  –  www.KaiNexus.com/webinar  

•  Social  media:  –  www.twi]er.com/KaiNexus  –  www.linkedin.com/  –  www.facebook.com/KaiNexus  

•  Email:  –  greg@KaiNexus.com  –  mark@KaiNexus.com    

Mark Graban

VP of Customer Success

mark@kainexus.com

Dr. Gregory Jacobson

Chief Product Officer

greg@KaiNexus.com