DailyKaizen

This week I had a great coaching and learning session with one of our Sensei. She has an incredible ability to listen and ask simple questions that lead those that she is coaching to clarity. I originally called the meeting because I have been feeling very overwhelmed over the last couple of weeks. I am playing many different roles and as the work moves forward with the Model Line there seems to be a ever expanding number of tasks that I am finding myself responsible for.
So off to Starbucks we went and through questioning from the Sensei I began to identify some of the root causes of my problems. So here is what we found and the counter measures I am going to put in place:
* There is no consultant strategy or plan. We have dedicated a lot of time to helping our clients put together their strategy and A3’s, but have not taken the time to put together our own. Each consultant is doing great work on their own, but that does not mean we are aligned and organized. * The consultancy does not have standard work! It actually hurts me to write this, but it is a fact. While we may have standard training methods, etc we have never taken the time to standardize our practices. This has led to variation and us often being reactive to problems that arise. * There has been no dedicated time for the consultants to come together and reflect. We have been so busy working with our clients that we have never taken the time to reflect or go through the PDCA cycle with a focus on improving our practice.
Based on these realization I am going to initiate the following countermeasures. First, we are going to schedule a retreat to develop a consultancy plan. The focus of the plan is gaining agreement and alignment around objectives and methods to achieve those objectives. Second, we are going to begin to standardize our processes. From how we use our meeting time to how we communicate. Finally, we are going to schedule bi-weekly reflection and alignment sessions where the entire consultancy will come together and reflect and adjust. I guess it is about time that we practiced what we preached.

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