Kaizen Through Growing Your People

As mentioned in my last post, continuous improvement (kaizen) is done through people, ideally close to the shop floor. You should always look for people to develop and grow, as they in turn nurture your continuous improvement. While it is really hard to give specific recommendations that apply to everybody, let me muse a bit on the topic.

Introduction

People are different. Not only in the way they look, but also in their interests; in their likes, hates, and other desires; in their way they behave; and in what they can do. Hence, one challenge in staffing is to find the right person for the right job. Unfortunately, it is hard to see what people can and will do. Additionally, competence is often mixed up with confidence. Yet, the most confident person is rarely the most competent one. Similarly, the most competent person is rarely the most confident one. There is even a Dunning-Kruger effect where people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. In some cases you may not even find the right person for the job.

Grow Your People

But there is another option. People are not static but can change over time. In particular, they can learn new skills and behaviors. And this change can be influenced. You can grow and nurture people. Or, through bad management, you can dull people and make them disinterested… albeit this is usually an unplanned process due to flawed leadership.

In any case, you have to find out whom to grow and in what direction. On management levels this happens a lot. Many managers have a desire to get promoted and have a wider area of responsibility (accompanied by a larger compensation package too). But front-line operators can grow too. Even if they keep on working the same position, they can also grow and increase their skill set.

This, too, is common in industry, especially with the formal technical skills. I have written previously about the qualification matrix (first post of the series here). A qualification matrix is mostly about which operator can do what job.

How to Grow Your People

However, growing operators is more than just a qualification matrix. You should always be on the lookout for operators who stand out. Hopefully they stand out in a positive way, albeit some also leave a more clouded impression.

Who has a knack in solving problems? Who does the work faster than others? Who gets along best with colleagues and may be an informal leader of the pack? Who is most organized and structured? Depending on their abilities, they may be suited for different improvement activities. If they work faster than others, see if they can teach their colleagues some new tricks. If they are creative and good at problem-solving, they may be a good member of an improvement team. The leader of the pack or an organized operator may be best at organizing and structuring the improvement efforts. All these tasks are activities that are not normally found in a job description, but these less formal things are also important to improve your system.

It is unlikely that these operators will fill out these roles on their own. That is where the nurturing and growing comes in. You have to help your people to grow. Give them the direction, the time, and generally the means to do kaizen. Make them interested in improving their workplace, and enable them to improve it.

What About the Less Gifted Workers?

Unfortunately, not every worker is a gem in the rough that just needs to be polished. But, they are still your workers. Some managers recommend to “fire the bottom 10%,” but I am very much against this. Trying to motivate your people through the threat of firing will backfire. The constant doom of being axed will turn the mood in a company sour, and everybody will just try to look good, at the cost of their colleagues. Nothing good can come from just throwing out “the bottom 10%” (except maybe a few good phrases for a generally bad book).

I believe that even if your expectations are not that high, you still have to get the best out of your people. You need to train them, educate them, and still help them grow within their abilities. And, who knows, maybe a piece of coal will reveal a hidden diamond inside. Besides, “less gifted” is often merely a sign for “burned by previous management,” which can be undone with a bit of effort.

Growing your people will make them more valuable to you; they can work better, and—important—improve your company more. By the way, this is not compatible with hiring and firing (or the abominable Lean Staffing). Now, go out, grow your people, and organize your industry!

P.S. This blog post was inspired by The Lean Manager: A Novel of Lean Transformation by Michael and Freddy Balle, particularly page 190 and 191. A entertaining and recommended book.