Implement continual improvement systems and processes

The last reflection journal that is required for this module! Hooray!

A left-brain, logical mind and a very private person, I don't really put much emotion into my journal. No wonder one of the trainers for the LPM said that I write very differently. On checking my CVAT profile, he understands and actually like the way I write the journal - true to my profile.

Change is a constant in my life - personal and work. I can write a book on my life.

This journal will not be a slide by slide, gesture by gesture account of the lessons in class. I will not reflect on what the trainer gesture, what she wear, what the other coursemate wear or eat. The journal will be my personal reflection, the change that is incurring within me, ME...not anyone else!

For organisations to improve, continual improvement has to be implemented Isn't this also applicable to a person? If we don't improvve/change, we will be left behind; the world is moving forward!

Though I like Kotter's 8 step model, this is good for organisation, for personal use, I believe reflection is better. A leader should practice reflection regularly: reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action.

The challenges that a leader and the management will face in implementing continual improvement process will be:
Resistance by employees, beacause they fear losing their job and the status symbol they have attached to what they have been doing (in a way they are the 'subject matter expert')
There may be upheaval in work processes and work stations. Anything that is unknown instil fear.

Most of the challenges a leader face basically stemmed from fear and lost of control. To allay these, as a leader, I will have to regularly communicate and update team members on the process. Besides giving them the update, I will elicit feedback from the team members. Some may have better suggestions on improving the work, process or system. I will acknowledge and show appreciation for their feedback.

Meetings or informal group discussions will be held regularly to facilitate easier phasing in of the change. Definitely we will like to end the meeting on an agreement.

I am an advocate for learning organisation and lifelong learning. As a leader, to help in easing the pains of the implementation of improvement/change, I will rope in the training department to contextualise training for new jobs. To encourage the team members in relearning, awards or certifications will be given to employees who attend training and complete each module.

 

 

 

The management will have to foster a conducive environment for the employees' training and development to deal with the change. All communication channels should be open to the team members. Any change/update should be disseminated as early as possible.

 

In one of my past working place, a French International Bank, the CEO is very supportive of the employees' learning. He hired a French tutor to teach interested employees who want to learn French language. It was conducted after work in the office. It is paid for the company. This was a double win strategy. Some companies who do not have training departments sent their employees to CET for training. I feel that they are genuinely doing it for the employees' sake.  Because the training fees can be claimed from the government , and usually after the training they bond the employees for at least a year. URGH!

 

I feel that before the message of the change is good for the organisation, a leader should always put herself/himself in the member's perspective, ask: WIIFM. What's In It For Me! Then she/he will know how to facilitate and help the member deal with the change.



 



Implement changes to work practices

Peter Senge said: "Change is learning and learning is change." In life, nothing is constant except for change. If we don't change, we will be at a standstill; still wearing loincloth, communicating with signs and don't know how the rest of the world live.



The second saying by Peter Senge indicated that people don't resist change, they resist change being forced on them.

At the workplace, to implement change, planning and preparation has to be carefully considered.
There should be an action plan and communication plan.  All staff must be informed of the change.

I can still remember many years back when I was retrenched, due to company restructuring. First there were rumours that the company is downsizing; but when we asked the CEO about it, he flatly denied. Then a week later, he called me into his office, telling me that I am retrenched. The shock and anguish still haunt me today.

As a CEO, he should have displayed better leadership qualites. What he had displayed is mere power: "I have the power to fire you, you just take it."

If I were in his position, I would be more forthcoming with information.  Restructuring was already in the pipeline. Rumours was already flying around. Employee's morale were already at the lowest.
A meeting would have to be set, getting all the heads of departments to attend. During the meeting, the decision by the head office to restructure should be announced. Get suggestions from all the division heads on how best to inform the employees of the decision. And enlist help from other companies of the same industry to accept employees that will be retrenched. Most important of all, an Action Plan and Communication Plan have to be discussed and formalised after the meeting.

Directions will be given to all the Divisional Heads: let the staff know of the decision. Give them emotional support via listening to their fears, giving suggestions and helping them in assessing their present skills gap. Sometimes, there may be an employee who will volunteer to be retrenched, this can be conveyed to the Board or CEO.

Once the list of retrenched employees is out, the Divisional Head of the affected employees will talk to them. Reassure them that they will get support from the management. Let them know that they will be allowed to leave any time to go for interview and if they need a testimonial, the management will be most willing to give them.

The morale for those employees who are not retrenched will be low. The Divisional Heads will organise informal chats with them. Let them air their concerns. Show them the Action Plan: the direction that the company is going and how the existing staff will fit in. There will be changes in job scope, this has to be clearly conveyed to the employees. During this interim period, confusion, anxiety and mistrust runs high. As leaders, we will have to be patient, empathetic and helpful even more. than ever.

If we can lead the team over this crisis, I believe that the team will be more collaborative, having a shared vision and more resilient than ever.

Module 6 - Implement Change

Learning Organization

Peter Senge said in his book, 'The Fifth Discipline':

- What fundamentally will distinguish learning organizations from traditional authoritarian "controlling organizations" will be the mastery of certain basic disciplines.  That is why the "disciplines of the learning organization" are vital. -

And his 5 disciplines are:

I believe that for an organization to learn, that means that individuals will need to learn.  And we are lucky that the Government is encouraging and funding a Lifelong Learning environment in Singapore.

2 years ago, I left a company because the CEO keep giving excuses for not allowing me to take up a course which I strongly felt would enhance my work.  The CEO may have felt that there is no need for me to attend the course, because of cost, time or lack of staff.  I personally feel that he is short-sighted.  If he had let me take the course, I would have felt appreciated and stayed with the company longer.  The company would have benefited.  The company would be able to claim the cost paid for the course from Government funding.

Learning my lesson from the last job, I decided that I will work for company that encourages employees to upgrade.  Only in a learning organization will I grow and develop.

The first discipline for me to embrace will be the Personal Mastery. I must be able to clarify what is most important so as to achieve it. Holding my personal vision and focus on it to achieve my goal.

The second discipline will be Mental Modeling.  I am a reflective person, however only on occasion do I put down my reflective thoughts.  So will need to be more diligent in putting my reflections on paper:; vis a vis reflection in action and reflection on action..

The third discipline will be shared visioning. This is aligning my vision to the organization's vision, making it a common vision, thus shared. My objective will thus be aligned to the organization's objective.

The fourth discipline will be Team Learning. A team consists of different people coming together, thus the dynamic can be great.  As the saying goes, the whole is bigger than the sum total.  Learning together means shared knowledge and experience.

The fifth discipline is also the most important, Systems Thinking. Taking a step back and try to look from a bird's eye view will help me to be more objective and sort of looking at the big picture. 

I may be too optimistic, thinking that I will be able to find a company that will practice these 5 disciplines. Most companies are willing to encourage their employees learn, however they are also bonding them to the jobs. It is also difficult to align personal vision to that of the organization.

Final note, for a Learning Organization to overcome 7 learning disabilities that are commonly found in most companies, the 'weapons' to use are the 5 Disciplines. I believe overcoming these disabilities personally, the 5 Disciplines should be learnt and applied.
   

 5 Disciplines 

1. Personal Mastery
2. Shared Vision
3. Mental Modeling
4. Team Learning
5. Systems Thinking

  

 

7 Learning Disabilities

I am my Position The enemy is out there The illusion of taking charge The fixation on events The parable of the boiled frog The delusion of learning from experience The myth of the management team 

5 things I can do to improve as a team leader.

After reading the article: “The five practices of exemplary leadership” by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner which was written more than 10 years ago in 2003.  This really sets me thinking, how applicable the practices are and at the same time really admire their foresight on how the new leaders do to lead the new team that’s evolving now in the workplace.

In summary, the 5 practices are:

1.    Model the Way

 Leaders must have beliefs they stand up for; and must be clear about their guiding principles.  However they cannot impose their values on others and expect commitment.  Then the leaders need to align actions with what they believe in.  In short: Walking the Talk.

 

 2.    Inspire a Shared Vision

 Leaders have the ability to be forward looking.  They are driven by their clear image of possibility and what the organisation can become.  They cannot force commitment, thus they have to inspire, transferring ‘my’ vision to ‘our’ vision.

 

 3.    Challenge the Process

 Leaders accept challenges.  Leaders challenge the process by searching for opportunities, by experimenting, taking risks and learning from mistakes.  They do fear failures; they get up and start all over again.

 

4.    Enable Others to Act

 A leader cannot do things alone.  In a leader’s speech, ‘I’ is very seldom used, ‘we’ is used more often.  Leaders create trusting climate, involving every team member and making them feel important.  Make the team members feel capable.

 

5.    Encourage the Heart

 A lot times, team members may become frustrated, disenchanted and exhausted.  Leaders encourage by recognizing contributions and celebrating values and victories.  Genuine acts of caring uplift spirits and draw people together.  Let team members know: “we’re all in this together”.

 

Drawing from the insights of the article, there are 5 things I can do to improve as a team leader:

1:  Model the Way

I will exemplify behaviours and characteristics that will encourage team members.  I will model the qualities that I would like to see in the team members.  If I want team members to be punctual, I will have to be punctual at all times.

In my last workplace, I have a manager who wanted all her subordinates to follow the 1 hour lunch rule.  However she frequently takes more than 1 hour, sometimes 2 hour lunch break.  When we asked her why, she replied that it’s because she’s the boss.  So, it becomes hard for her to manage the team, and the turnover rate is high.

2: Inspire a Shared Vision

I believe that every person can make a difference in the workplace.  Sometimes we are so caught up with getting results that we lose sight of our vision.  I will reflect back on my past, how I have arrived at where I am now.  Using my past experiences, when they bring desired result, I will share with the team members, making the vision attainable and letting them see the possibilities in the future.

In one of my last company in the financial futures brokering industry, the CEO was a very inspiring leader.  Through a number of company’s meetings, he will highlight to us how important excellent customer service is.  He had this vision of the company in the top 3 in the industry; in terms of volume, number of customers and also the top company that any customer will want to be associated with.  His passion and enthusiasm really inspired all of us to work towards that goal.

3: Challenge the Process

I will look for ways to innovate and improve the process if I find them outdated and cumbersome.  I will take risk, even though knowing that I may face mistakes and failures.  I will accept the mistakes, taking them as learning opportunities.

In the last company I mentioned above, a VVIP client was very unhappy with our procedure of sending confirmation of trades done at the end of day, around 5 pm.  This is too late for them to do reconciliation (the client is a French company based in Tokyo).   They were threatening to close the account with us.  As a manager, I took the challenge, decided to send confirmation from the floor; instead of relying on the settlements department (which everyone else in the industry is doing).  This worked wonders, the client stopped complaining, and soon competitors in the industry heard of this and followed suit.

4: Enable Others to Act

I will involve team members more.  As we have shared vision, team members and I will collaborate and let them know they have a stake in achieving the vision.  Good relationships are built on mutual trust and confidence.

In the last company where I worked as a Project Lead, in charge of 3 call centres, I empowered everyone to have a say in what and how training should be done.  I will train on customer service, inform them of the company’s code of conduct and the client’s house rules and expectations.  Then I will let team lead train on the daily operations.  The call centre agents can call me to suggest and feedback on what is lacking or required.

5: Encourage the Heart

I will always remind myself to be caring towards the team members.  A simple gesture often work wonders.  I will also encourage them to take an active role in contributing ideas and plans.  When they present their ideas and plans, I will show appreciation.

The last company where I worked as a Project Lead, all 3 call centres were at different locations.  As the company never organise any team building activities, feedback from the call centre agents that they have only heard names of other call centres, but have never seen them.  So following suggestion from a team member, I decided to have a dinner get-together. It was a success, the members felt appreciated and new relationship were established.  The best part of this, no one has to pay for the dinner, the company decided to foot the bill.  Because of this act, staff felt appreciated.

 

Lesson out of the classroom - Support Team

We are almost at the end of our module 2 in LPM - Support Team.

What we have learnt:
CE 1 - Conduct team planning activities

• Review organisational objectives and business plans to identify requirement of team.
• Lead team planning activities to identify trends and issues impacting on team and its productivity.
• Create team operational plan to support team progress toward defined objectives.
• Allocate resources required for implementation of objectives.

CE 2 - Demonstrate organisational values

• Identify organisational values that underpin strategic priorities and contribute to effective functioning of team.
• communicate vision, values and expectations to team members.
• Role model behaviours which demonstrate application of organisational values in the work setting.

CE 3 -Build support and commitment within the team

• Communicate clear, inspiring goals, plans and priorities to ensure team member support and buy-in.
• Engage employees to contribute to the operationalization of strategic priorities.
• Model strong leadership by demonstrating application of organisational values.

In retrospection, last lessons on engaging employees where we learnt of Curphy-Roellig Followership Model, employees were classified into 4 main classes of Self starters, Brown-nosers, Slackers and Criticizers.  I feel that besides these diverse followership styles, there are cultural, racial gender and most importantly (workshops have been organized for this topic); the different generational employees.
Today, for the first time (after WW2), there are 4 generations working side by side.  These are the Traditionalists, Baby-Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. The years indicated are a rough guide (based on Ken Blanchard companies)

Traditionalists (circa 1925 - 1945), Baby Boomers (circa 1946 - 1964), Generation X (circa 1965 - 1976) and Generation Y (circa 1977 - 1994).
Each generation has different values, different motivation, different working styles and different expectations.

CORE VALUES
Traditionalists	Baby Boomer	Generation X	Generation Y
Conformity	Personal and social expression	Free agency and independence	Collaboraton
Stability	Idealism	“Street Smarts”	Social activism
Security	Health and wellness	Cynicism	Tolerance for diversity

Thus, as a leader who has these 4 generations in his/her team, different approaches has to used.

In my last job, I have a Baby-boomer (62 year old) and a Generation Y (21  year old) clashed at work.  The Baby-boomer thought that the management favoured the Generation Yer, because she is younger, faster at work.  The Generation Yer thought that the Baby boomer is too authoritative and demanding.  To resolve this issue, I delegated the responsibility of teaching providing excellent customer service task to the Baby Boomer; telling the Generation Yer that as she is older and has more experience in customer service industry, she had good points to share.  For the daily task of doing reports (using excel), I delegated the task to the Generation Yer, as she is more tech-savvy.  However I also went through the reports with the Baby boomer, to let her know what the reports are about.  But I told her that the younger will have to do this mundane task.

This arrangement works well, no more conflicts.  Each one was happy with the arrangement.

Knowing the different generations values and expectations would help the leader to delegate responsibilities.

In supporting team, a leader has to embrace the differences and draw from the different strengths to achieve results.

Lesson 7 half- Overall reflection on support team

My previous journal on the journey of LPM:

http://nowherejourney.blogspot.sg/

Well, the blog site is not no where journey.  It stands for now here journey.

I find that a lot of us, me included always live in the past or in the future:
Last time, I was richer, younger, prettier holding a higher position etc....or
Next time, I will be better, richer, smarter not so stupid. etc....

Enough of that, we have to be in the present, living life to the fullest. The past 7 lessons on LPM had taught me, and got me reflecting on a leader's role.  He/she must be firmly on the ground, close to the team members, always in the present with the team.

True leaders hold the vision, strategize plans, motivate and develop more leaders.  Holding the vision is not living in the future; the vision is the goal, upon which we strategize and along the way, evaluate, revise and re-strategize objectives and goals.

In the first lesson we have touched on the difference between leaders and managers, one of the point is that a leader inspires and a manager controls.
This morning at work, the above point hit me in the face.  My present boss gave me a long list of tasks to do; daily, weekly, bi-weekly and monthly.  When I told my friend who asked me to take on this present job, she told me she does that to her subordinates too.  And she called it timetable.  OMG!!! What a micro-manager she is! (She is a head of department in an educational institute).
In my last job, as a project lead in charge of 3 call centres teams, I gave the agents: code of conduct, their responsibilities, the client's expectations and the client's house rules.  Periodically I will go over their work to check for any discrepancies.  If found, I will ask them to correct the mistake.  On the other hand, I will ask for feedback from client.  Good points, I will praise them and the areas to improve on, I will inform them.

This course has really been beneficial to me, even though it's just an advanced certificate course.  I'd rather have this than a Degree in Micro-Managing!

Lesson 6 - C-Vat Psychometric Leadership Style Report

According to the foreword:  "This report generates the 'Leadership Style' analysis based on C-VAT Psychometric Profile.  C-VAT measures a person's natural traits.  When it comes to leading, having the right traits is more important than having the right attitude.  Individuals who desire to be in leadership roles without possessing the supporting traits in their natural self will rely on masked or modified behaviors.  Such behaviors are short-termed, require tremendous effort on the individual's part, and may not yield sustained performance and results."

I first received the report in Dec 2013, I was cynical; thinking to myself: 'OMG, not another personality test result!  I have done MBTI, DISC, Enneagram and..... Enough!'  I threw the report aside.

When Mr Jamali, our trainer took the whole lesson, going through the 4 sub-themes, then the 4 sub-dimensions of the sub-themes; I looked at my report,  For some points I was sold, other points I didn't agree.

Well, I agreed on:
As a leader I am well organized and constantly planning, I take ownership of what I believe is under my care and retain control. Am concerned about others without being overly involved.  Am imaginative and explore new concepts and ideas.....and others on the leadership part.

However, I don't agree on:
I may not be effective to take on leadership roles such as public speaking or managing a larger group as I tend to be shy.  Me shy, no, no, no.  I may be reserved and aloof at times, shy..NO.
As a leader, I tend to be less interested in material rewards or excessive compliments.  I may not find that they are necessary. NOT TRUE!  I need material rewards for a better lifestyle.

It was good that Mr Jamali took the time to explain the report to us.  Very grateful to him. This report is different from MBTI, Enneagram in that it is focused on the Leadership Style. Even if the report is 75% accurate, it can still be applied at work.  This would be most helpful to the HR and managers.  The report would serve as a guide for delegating the right candidate for the job.

For me, I feel that this helps me to know my strengths and weaknesses.  I will know when to use my strengths and know what the areas I need to improve on.
If only my present boss had read this report.  She would know that I am a leader, I don't like to be micro-manage.  And she won't tell me: "Janette is Geok Choo!, you should be able to put 2 & 2 together!"  How the hell I know Janette is Geok Choo, it was not mentioned anywhere in the email!  And for heaven's sake, I am only 3 weeks on the job: I don't know the students' name, don't know where the files are (company just moved office last week of Jan '14, I joined after the move on 4th Feb '14).  She would also know that the instructions given to me will have to be specific.  "These are the aroma oils".  How do I know I have to distribute the oils to the students! You didn't tell me!

Well, this report is good for my own personal development.  I realized that I do have the natural traits of a leader.  I will continuously strive to improve, learn new skills and reflect on the experiences.  Using the Gibb's model of reflection to help me in the process.

I also realized why I am not motivated to work in the present company.  I can and enjoy working alone, so that is not the problem.  The problem is that I don't have a team to lead.  I am lost and demotivated!  I need to leave this job soon, or I will die of lack of motivation!