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What are the characteristics of a kaizen facilitator?

Kaizen events are an integral part of the continuous improvement culture. The success of those events depends on many factors, such as the characteristics of the kaizen facilitator. This person is responsible for leading the event, among other things. Experience leading events and continuous improvement knowledge are not the only characteristics that a facilitator needs. What are the characteristics of a kaizen facilitator?

Characteristics of a kaizen facilitator

Whether you are looking to hire or contract, the following are most haves’ characteristics. The facilitator must be courageous. In other words, a person who is comfortable having difficult conversations and asking tough questions. While being brave in the name of the event’s success, a coach is respectful and supportive.

Whether you are looking to hire or contract, the following are most have characteristics. The facilitator must be courageous. In other words, a person who is comfortable having difficult conversations and asking tough questions. While being brave, a coach is respectful and supportive.

Communication is another soft skill that is critical for success. The ability to convey information in a clear, simple, and concise way. A person who practices active listening and can do so with people of different levels in the organization or levels of education. If they cannot explain something in simple words, it will not translate knowledge effectively. Explain something complicated without too many technical words is an elusive skill for many.

Emotional intelligence skills are another characteristic of a kaizen facilitator

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions and those around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence recognize and understand their feelings and how they can affect other people. The emotionally intelligent person is skilled in four areas: identifying emotions, using emotions, understanding emotions, and regulating emotions.

A facilitator must motivate, make others feel comfortable, overcome challenges, and manage conflict. Therefore, the ability to understand and manage their emotions to influence others in positive ways is critical. Social skills such as interpersonal relationships with empathy, compassion, and humility are essential for this job. With them, the facilitator will be coaching others to learn and be their best self.

For instance, understanding human psychology and change management are key to influence people and drive a successful event. An honest and trustworthy individual who gives people credit for their ideas will navigate through the challenges of the event with greater chances of success.

A facilitator must have technical skills

A continuous improvement facilitator without technical skills and lean knowledge is not a good bet. Knowledge about continuous improvement and proven practical experience is non-negotiable. Moreover, problem-solving, time management, organization skills, and team building are also crucial. An energetic and passionate about continuous improvement person is the ideal driver for the cultural transformation from traditional to continuous improvement, one kaizen at a time.

Culture Transformation Journey

How do you sell the need for continuous improvement?

Know what matter to your team before you start to sell the need for continuous improvement.

This week I was facilitating a workshop for a group of team leaders and supervisors. The subject was managing and sustaining 5S. I asked what their biggest concern is to implement and sustain 5S. Close to 70% of them answer that selling the need for it. How do you sell the need for continuous improvement? How do you get your team to buy in to lean?

Using benefits to sell the need for continuous improvement

The answer of the workshop participants did not surprise me. My experience tells me that they were right on the money. For a long time, I struggle to get the buy-in of the team. It took me years before I realize what I was doing wrong.

During the launching phase, I talked about the benefits of continuous improvement. For example, for a 5S implementation, I mentioned things like better organization, increased productivity, cleaner machines, and no search for tools. But I failed to tell people what was vital for them.

People respond to what matters to them

Unfortunately, sometimes we forget that who we are is an inherent part of everything we do. Our beliefs, values, and life purpose are at the front and center of all our decisions. Even when we don’t realize that we are doing it, those things guide ours thought process.

Talking about how continuous improvement or 5S will benefit the company will not gain their buy-in. Your team needs to know what is in there for them. We would gain their support when they see how this new initiative connects with their needs and who they are. It is our job to find that connection and communicate it to them. To know that, we have to answer a few questions.

What are the most important things for them? – family, community, personal values
What higher purpose they pursue? – fighting climate change, curing cancer
Their personal goals – professional and personal
How do the team feel about their work? – content, frustrated

Answer their questions and concerns to sell the need for CI

Every proposed change will encounter resistance or hesitancy. None of those changes will be sustainable unless the team understands and support them. This statement is true for continuous improvement, 5S, or anything else. Job security gained through increased profits or better customer service is a great selling point. However, maybe it is not connected to their values or emotional needs.

To sell the need to change, you need to understand their goals and what they value. When the team sees the relationship between what matters to them and your proposal, buy-in and sustainability have better chances. Ensure that your communication plan highlights that relationship. Also, answer any other questions and concerns they may have before they voice them.

Culture Transformation Journey

Overcommunicate to prevent problems, right?

Overcommunication is used with specific information to keep the team focus and aligned

I once had a conversation with a seasoned manager who proudly explained different ways his company uses to prevent problems. One of them strikes my attention and curiosity. He claimed that they overcommunicate to make sure things go as planned.

What overcommunication means?

When I asked what he means by overcommunication, his explanation left me worried. For instance, his definition was indeed what it is not. Dumping all kinds of information through countless emails, oversharing, or repeating instructions while checking performance is not the right way to do it.

First, over-communication is not a way to share all kinds of things. It is used only to clarify and reinforcing critical information. For example, to convey instructions or concerns during crisis times, top priorities, and the company vision. Second, it is about communicating the right things effectively. In other words, in a clear, consistent way, promoting collaboration between teams. By sharing the right things frequently, you ensure alignment between the company vision and the daily operations.

Overcommunicate prevent problems, right?

When you over-communicate in the right way, it is possible to prevent problems. However, when what you are doing is oversharing or micromanaging, the results are different. The team can feel distracted by too much information, overwhelmed, or frustrated. And they have all the right to feel that way because that behavior is disrespectful. The team will respond much better if you convey the information effectively. If you want them to remember the company’s core values and vision, become a model of those behaviors. Also, incorporate the enterprise vision in what you do and become a coach.

Communicate right, do not overcommunicate

Excessive communication is not the right way to prevent problems. Effective communication is the right way to ensure everybody receives and understands the same message. When you disseminate critical information frequently enough, people will know that it is meaningful. Over time, they will start to use it, and the result is alignment between values and daily actions such as problem-solving, project selection, and others.

Culture Transformation Journey, Leadership & Team Development

Good communicators listen, are you a good listener?

Continuous improvement and lean need effective communication for its success. Lean is a people-centric system, which means that the way you treat and communicate with people is critical for success. Therefore, for a successful continuous improvement journey, you need to be a good communicator. One of the characteristics of good communicators is that they listen. Are you a good listener?

When you go out to the office, shop floor, or construction site, AKA gemba, you ask questions to understand what is happening. However, you can ask good questions, but if you don’t listen, you are missing the point of visiting gemba.

What is a good listener?

Many people believe that being a good listener is let the other person talk without interruptions. Furthermore, nod or repeat a few words. It is a common belief that a good listener repeats a few words to confirm that you understand. But a good listener does more than that.

Continuous improvement fosters an environment of learning and discovery. Asking the right questions helps to promote curiosity and observation. Leaders are expected to teach and guide their team through questions. Good communicators are thoughtful about the questions they ask. The purpose is to understand and help the speaker to gain a deeper understanding of the situation. In addition, you want to guide them to uncover more details. For example, think about the priorities or benefits versus risks.

A good listener uses active listening

Active listening occurs when you suppress the need to dominate the conversation or provide ways to solve problems. Instead, you listen and focus on the speaker. Be empathic with the other person. Notice the speaker’s body language, tone, and emotions while it speaks. Recognize the implication of the words by understanding how he/she feels.

Create a safe environment to have an honest conversation. Listen with curiosity and ask questions to understand. Also, watch your body language. For instance, maintain eye contact and use appropriate gestures. Show respect by keeping your whole attention on the speaker.

But there is more to it than listening and asking questions

In addition to asking questions, there is something more a good listener does. A conversation is an exchange of ideas. Clarify your doubts and restate their thought to confirm that you understand. Provide feedback to keep the conservation going. However, resist the urge to tell what to do. Build upon the speaker’s ideas, help them to build their self-esteem. Answer their questions honestly and clarify their doubts.

Listening and cultural transformation

Effective communication at every stage of cultural transformation is crucial. People need to know what, why, how, when, and who. During the process, leadership work to facilitate the team’s work and develop their skills. To increase their engagement, daily Gemba walks supported with effective communication are key.

The team needs to know what the problem is and what you want to accomplish with a continuous improvement strategy. Moreover, leadership needs to listen to what the team has to say. If you don’t practice active listening and do something upon the subject of that conversation, the transformation will be broken.

Culture Transformation Journey, Leadership & Team Development

Team communication, how do you know it needs to improve?

While I was facilitating a problem-solving session in a client facility, I noticed that something was wrong. We were discussing the possible causes for the problem under analysis. Three team members were very active in the discussion providing thoughtful ideas. However, the rest of the group was either silent or being sarcastic. Another person was constantly interrupting others while yelling. I ask the event sponsor if those behaviors were normal, and he said they were. He didn’t see it that way, but the team’s behavior was asking for help. Those actions were a symptom of a deeper problem. That is, team communication needed improvement.

How do you know team communication needs to improve?

The situation described above contains several signs that indicate the team communication is poor. When a team cannot collaborate, productivity and quality can affect the company’s bottom line. Therefore, it is a priority to learn how to identify those signs and fix them.

Despite having technical knowledge, the company from the example hire me as the facilitator. The reason is that they have not been able to get the expected results.

Be on the lookout for these signs

Over the week, I had multiple individual conversations with team members and the sponsor. As a result, I identify several behaviors that affect communication. All of them are signs of ineffective team communication.

Confusion regarding responsibilities or priorities leads to frustration. As a result, you can see duplicate work, missed deadlines, or not getting expected results. In turn, those results create disappointment, anger, and more frustration. When this happens, it is common to see disrespect as part of the culture. For example, you can see rude reactions, demeaning communication, and finger-pointing.

People deal with frustration in different ways. Sometimes, even when they are silent, their demeanor screams disagreement. Team communication is failing when you sense that people have concerns but never voice their opinion. Likewise, if they constantly interrupt the conversation or scream to ensure their voice is heard. Another sign is when team members feel the need to compete against each other all the time. At the same time, there is no collaboration.

How to improve team communication

Effective communication is one of the critical elements for a successful continuous improvement journey. Another element is the cultural transformation from traditional to lean thinking. A culture that values respect and teamwork fosters creativity and collaboration.

People need to know how their work connects with the company goals. Also, they need to understand how their actions affect the customers and business growth. Knowing that information is easier to understand why collaboration is critical to the success of the company. When the company is still in the early steps of the transformation, it is natural for some individuals to push back. However, as soon as you notice behaviors like those previously indicated, it is time to enforce the new expectations. Nothing demoralized the team more than seeing their leaders tolerating disrespectful actions.

Culture Transformation Journey, Tools

Keep it simple! Processes, training, everything.

keep it simple! Simple procedures and communication is easier to understand and follow.

A company culture transformation is an undertaking. You will attempt to break with old habits and mental models. Also, you will introduce new ones. For that reason, you and your leadership team will make many decisions regarding what to do and how to do it. Later, there will be a lot of communication, skills development, training, and new standards. While teaching new behaviors, mental models, and ways to do things, keep it simple.

For a successful transformation, keep it simple

Along the transformation journey, you and your team will have countless communication efforts. That communication will happen in different scenarios and formats. In other words, individual or group settings, in writing or verbal. Also, you will write new policies, standards, work instructions, and others. The purpose of the communication or procedures and other details needs to clear. Keep the receiver or user in mind while deciding the language, design, or communication structure. Moreover, it needs to be simple, easy to understand and execute.

If you can’t explain it simply, take a step back.

“If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
Albert Einstein

Any continuous improvement activity starts with gaining an understanding of the current situation. The cultural transformation begins with a similar process, understanding the present culture. The knowledge gain during this step helps to design the best way to share with the team the intention to change.

Why do you want to engage in the transformation process? Why you propose to use continuous improvement? What are the steps? A long and hard thinking process is required to answer these questions in a simple way. Refine your thoughts, do not use too many words, do not overthink. Be honest and talk from your heart without fancy words or excuses, just the truth.

You are not ready to communicate this idea until you can say it in simple words.

Keep it simple, all of the processes, language, structures, and formats.

Simple language is easier for the reader or receiver. For instance, try to avoid the use of technical words unless it is necessary. The same rule goes for industry jargon. For example, in continuous improvement, we use many Japanese terms like kaizen. Depending on the current culture, you should use generally accepted American words as a substitute. In our previous example, you can use continuous improvement or rapid improvement events instead of kaizen.

While teaching new tools, use simple structures. Further, give examples of things related to their work. Things are complicated enough as it is, keep it simple. Processes that are easy to understand have more probability of sustainability. It is much easier to execute simple instructions than complicated words.

Summary

Trying to explain something complex is often a humbling experience. It makes you realize how much you don’t know. Therefore, it forces you to break the subject into smaller pieces and understand each one of them. When you think you know the process well enough, try to explain it with simple words. Would your five years old self understand? If the answer is no, then keep refining your thoughts, keep improving your pitch.

Simplicity avoids confusion, and processes are easier to execute consistently. Don’t complicate it, keep it simple.

Culture Transformation Journey

How is Communication in a Continuous Improvement Culture?

Have you ever wonder how communication is in continuous improvement? Poor communication affects productivity, quality, customer experience. Also, it costs money. David Grossman wrote the article titled The Cost of Poor Communications. He reported that the total estimated cost of employee misunderstanding is $37 billion. The article use information from 400 surveyed corporations in the United States and the United Kingdom. On top of that, many companies spend a good chunk of money every year on communication training.

Poor communication is critical for the successful operation of any business. Consequently, can you imagine how critical it is when you are trying to change the culture? For instance, let’s see how communication is in continuous improvement.

Communication in continuous improvement is clear and transparent

Clarity of purpose and transparency are critical elements of the lean culture. Therefore, effective communication is imperative to convey a shared vision of the future that the company wants to build. To inspire people with that vision, you need clarity of purpose. For instance, everybody needs to know and understand how their daily work supports the company’s strategic vision. Moreover, to achieve the dramatic change from a traditional to a continuous improvement culture, people need to trust. Trust grows within the organization when transparency exists, and people receive the information they need.

As a leader, your job is to communicate. For instance, 80% of the time you are communicating instructions, expectations, policies, news, standards, and others. A leader in a continuous improvement culture is expected to be a role model and a teacher. These two tasks are forms of communication.

Many sources offer advice to achieve effective communication. For me, one thing is clear, you need to know when and where or how to communicate. Also, I learned that you need to follow the three C’s of effective communication.

Know your audience

One of the best ways to quickly improve the effectiveness of your communication is to adapt your communication style to match your team member’s styles. You need to know his or her communication style. How do they like to receive the information? Also, how much detail do they like? Adapt your vocabulary and examples to the receiver. Remember that not everybody understands the same kind of jargon.

Choose the best time to start your conversation. Do not try to discuss something with a person who is in the middle of an important task. Show respect, ask for a good time to talk. Besides, where and how the communication takes place is also influential. You don’t need a meeting for everything, sometimes a short conversation over a coffee is more than enough. However, other times an email is ok. But always remember that face to face communication is better. If you choose to send a written communication schedule a follow-up conversation to ensure the message gets through as intended.

The three C’s of effective communication

All types of communication need to have at least these three basic characteristics, clarity, collaboration, and consistency.

Communication has to be clear and simple, avoid fancy words if they are not critical to convey the message. It has to be complete but concise to prevent misunderstanding and gives people the information they need.

Effective communication is a collaborative process, in which two or more people contribute to the talking subject. Communication is a two-way process where both parties send and receive information. If you talk without expecting any interaction from the individual(s) you are talking with, you are making an announcement not communicating. Don’t try to dominate the conversation, give other people a chance to express themselves.

Be consistent, commit to your message and act the same way always. When your words and actions do not match, you lose trust, and credibility.

Communication in continuous improvement

Continuous improvement and lean need effective communication for its success. Lean is a people-centric system, which means that the way you treat and communicate with the people is critical for success. In continuous improvement, we want to make the standards and the deviation from them, visible. We want to communicate the standards and performance against them. 5S, visual management, visual displays, kanban, and others are forms of communication. They are tools to ensure transparency and keep the clarity of purpose by making the information and standards visible.

Productivity & Time Management

Is multitasking effective to increase productivity?

Multitasking is a common strategy to try to deliver tasks on time. Do you know what the number one excuse to not complete something on time is? Yes, you guessed it, it’s a lack of time. Time management skills are critical for personal and professional success. Single parents and entrepreneurs are among those who need time management super skills.

The way you handle time determines whether or not you complete all the tasks you have scheduled. Being organized is one of those skills that help to manage your time better. Most people think that multitasking is an ability that helps to increase productivity but is not.

What science says about multitasking

People who multitask decrease their productivity by 20-40% and are less efficient than those who focus on one project at a time. Time lost switching among tasks increases the complexity of the tasks (University of Michigan)

Research in neuroscience tells us that the brain doesn’t do more than one task at a time. Each time we move from one thing to another, there is a start-stop process in the brain. In other words, each time you change tasks, you have to refocus your brain and determine what to do. Multitasking should be called switch-tasking and does not help productivity. For better time management, try the following things.

Skills you need to master time management

Organization
- Practice 5S in your office or work area
- Organize your meetings and tasks throughout the day. Meetings are better early during the day because the time leading up to an event is often wasted.
- Separate your routine, automatic tasks from the strategic ones. Strategic duties usually need a higher level of focus, schedule them for the daytime at which you are more productive.
- Choose one subject for the day, for example, on Monday I work with everything related to budget and Tuesday is for project updates.
Prioritization
- Know your priorities and identify how you will measure progress. Assign deadlines for everything.
- Identify the most important things for you and mark them on your calendar or agenda with a special color. Develop the habit of working with those first.
Goal Setting
- You have goals for your business, and you also have personal goals. Keep an eye on both, create the habit of reviewing them periodically.
- You cannot work with all at the same time, divide your goals for the year into smaller time buckets.
- Prioritize your goals while dividing in buckets, your yearly goals into months, month goals into weeks, and weeks into days.
Planning
- Be realistic while planning your daily activities. Regardless of how well you organize and plan, things happen.
- Make time for the unexpected, plan for not more than 4-5 hours of work per day.
- Remember those priorities? Always know the one thing you need to get done during the day and do it as early as possible.
Communication
- Communicate your priorities, goals, and plans with your team or family. Let others help you to be on track for success!
Delegation
- “If something can be done 80% as well by someone else, delegate!” – John C. Maxwell

Remember, working more hours does not make you more productive, neither does multitasking. Work smarter, not harder!

Tools

What are Visual Controls?

road traffic safety is an example of visual controls — Road traffic safety is an example of visual controls

The ultimate goal of 5S is to create a visual workplace. Visual controls make problems visible, communicate status, and improve performance. They also guide people to stop or prevent abnormalities.

Road traffic safety and visual controls

A key component of road traffic safety is the group of lane markings, traffic signs, and signals. Think about a street’s intersection. The traffic light and pedestrian crosswalk are visual controls. As a driver, if you are facing a red line, you know that your right of way has ended, and you stop. A pedestrian uses the pedestrian signals to know when it is safe to cross. In the workplace, you can use visual controls to warn when it is time to buy more office paper or to communicate that help is needed.

Visual controls in the work area

Everybody in the work area understands the visual control objectives and knows what to do with the information. They work because when looking at them, everybody understands the same thing and acts the same way.

If you use a chart to show orders completed per hour, you should be able to know if there are delays by looking at it. What you see will tell you if there is a reason to hurry up or just relax and keep your pace. Another example is the red tags used in the Red Tag Campaign as part of 5S. These red labels indicate that something was out of place, and call your attention for action.

Basic rules

If you want to create visual controls remember the following:

Make the team part of the visual control design process.
It must be visible at a distance, choose wisely the font type, color, and size.
Avoid cluttered signs and charts, it has to be easy to understand.
Use color code and fewer words whenever is possible.
Visuals communicate a standard and actual performance.
Ensure that the entire team knows what it is, the objective and rules. Even when they participate in the design process, a meeting or training to share those details is important. This will ensure everybody understands the same thing and reacts the same way to the signals.

In future posts, I will talk more about examples. For now, look around and identify visual controls around. Think about how you can apply this tool in your business. Any ideas?