Rapid performance improvement that lasts, because your organisation carries it itself.
We are an implementation firm: we work alongside you to deliver a concrete, measurable improvement in performance. We do that in three phases: a diagnostic, a phase of reflection and preparation, and implementation. The last two partly overlap. The approach is fixed, but it isn’t dogma: which elements we use and how depends on your organisation and your challenge. What never changes: your organisation owns the changes, the programme and the results.
Organisations with similar equipment, similarly trained people and the same technical support often perform very differently. All else being equal, that difference is explained by attitudes and behaviours. Performance is an outcome of behaviour.
And behaviour is shaped by the way an organisation is managed: the numbers on the table, the meetings that steer by them, the division of roles. That is why we change the management system and behaviours together, and always with your people, so that they come to share ownership of what changes.
Three conditions for sustainable behaviour change
- Everyone pulling in the same direction
- Organisational alignment, not just at the start and during the programme, but always.
- In a concrete improvement context
- Attitudes and behaviours don’t change in a training room, but in real work, against real targets.
- Ownership in the line organisation
- An improvement is only sustainable if the organisation feels it owns the changes, the programme and the results.
When these three are properly in place, a transformation can move quickly too.
Three phases that flow into one another
1 · Diagnostic: getting clear on what needs to happen
The diagnostic has two aims. A sharp definition of the challenge, and of what an improvement programme needs to deliver. And enough insight into the way of working, the performance it produces, and what more is possible.
For most engagements the diagnostic takes up to ten days: two of our people on site, for a fixed price agreed in advance. We work with a cross-section of your organisation. That way, from day one, a working relationship based on mutual trust begins, along with local ownership of the programme.
Sometimes a quick scan is enough: one day on site and one day to write it up. More of the work then moves into the next phase.
What it delivers: a clear brief with a target, a detailed approach for the next phase, and an outline approach for implementation.
2 · Reflect and prepare: an organisation that sees it, and wants it
Together with your people, we observe meetings and work on the floor. We hold focused conversations with key people, measure and analyse. In reflection sessions we calibrate the findings, in conversations we test our observations, and in working sessions we develop the improvement approach together.
This takes time from your organisation, but experience shows it combines well with day-to-day work. People feel heard and are keen to think along and help build. Everyone wants to do a good job, but doesn’t always feel able to. This approach enables people to take steps forward, and they recognise that. The organisation mobilises from within, and the will to push on takes hold. That is why we let this phase overlap with implementation: to have an effect on day-to-day operations as quickly as possible.
“The first time I’ve had a strongly positive feeling about a change programme.” – Production Team Leader
What it delivers: a substantiated picture of the current level of performance, insight into the root causes (technical, in the management system, in behaviour and in technology), an implementation approach and a business case. And an organisation that understands and accepts the current situation, and wants to take the next step.
3 · Implement: a new way of working, and better results
In this phase, a different way of working and a better result, operational and financial, grow side by side. Improvement happens bottom-up and top-down at the same time. Bottom-up: current data to manage by, and rapid impact on daily operations. Top-down: direction and steering, alignment and integration of departments, and the conditions under which the shop floor can do a good job.
Implementation starts with capturing data in the here and now, with short-interval control (the reporting and meeting structure by shift, day and week) and with the key roles. We support your organisation in getting steadily better at managing the operation: analysing deviations, including their technical substance, taking and implementing decisions, setting priorities, assigning and carrying out actions, and devising and implementing solutions. Data, reporting and supporting technology are part of this, not a separate IT project.
After around six weeks, trends become visible, and with them the structural problems. Together with your organisation we work out solutions, which it implements itself. At that point the monthly and quarterly reviews come into play too. Through micro-training, people put what they learn into practice straight away. Confidence in their own abilities visibly grows.
What it delivers: concrete, measurable results, grounded in qualitative improvements: a management system aligned with the vision and the strategic objectives, more effective behaviours, and an organisation that is proud of what it has achieved itself. With the know-how, the drive and the ideas to keep improving without outside support.
Reading the organisation continuously
There is no such thing as ‘the’ organisation. It is a combination of people, teams, departments and levels, and each part is different. That is why we work in a differentiated way, and continuously track two forces.
- Push forces
- Necessity and urgency: the extent to which people believe change is really needed, and why now.
- Pull forces
- Willingness and ability: the extent to which people want to make the change and are able to.
How parts of the organisation experience those two forces, and how that develops, determines our interventions. That keeps the programme as a whole moving.
The same process, different answers
Our process is the same at every site, and doesn’t depend on which of us is running it. What we don’t do is copy solutions from one site to another. Every site takes a hard look at its own performance and finds its own answers. That creates strong local ownership, and makes improvements stick.
The programme doesn’t stop. It transitions gradually.
During the programme, the old way of working and the old results turn into a new way of working and new results. As the project elements move step by step into day-to-day practice and the improvements take hold, we scale back our support. We leave when your people can not only hold the result, but build on it themselves. That is why we measure a third figure: where performance stands after we have left. At two sites in two countries, delivery reliability rose from 65% to 85% during our engagement, and to 98% six months after we left.
