DailyKaizen

I am currently working with the leadership team to help them crosswalk our long-term strategic plan into an A3 format and process, which will be deployed over the next couple of months.  The team has been working for several months on understanding the market place, defining current state, shaping a vision and getting focused on the critical pieces of work that must be completed in the next five years.  I am impressed with how focused and thoughtful they have been during this process and believe we have great opportunities moving forward.  Most importantly, I am excited, because for the first time I think the organization has clarity and alignment on the few, most critical areas where we need to improve. 

What is surprising is that this might actually be the easy part of what still needs to be done in concluding the planning process and deploying the plan.  The real challenge will come over the next couple of months as we work with leaders and teams throughout the organization to deselect work.  As an organization we have a limited amount of improvement resources and to successfully achieve our breakthrough priorities we will need to use the vast majority of them.  This will be a big change in the organization where most departments currently have access to “their share” of support and resources.  Additionally, we have far to many improvement initiatives in progress.  There are literally hundreds of them.  Far more then can be supported.  Thus  to remain focused we will not  only need to set up a process to deselect improvement work, we will also have to kill many initiatives in progress. 

To manage this change it will be very important that senior leadership is able to tell a compelling story about what we are and are not going to do as an organization.  Additionally, it will be important to engage as many employees in the planning process as possible so they see for themselves.

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