"First Step" in Operational excellence

Recently, I had a very good experience with a new-age company that expertly packages their products in a service wrapper. The company and its people are in the business of delivering customized products. They need to foresee customer preferences, predict changes & create unique products, provide excellent service - all at the same time or lose business to a compeitor.

Though I was initially engaged for Lean Six Sigma Training for all the service and product managers, creative heads and HR manager, I insisted, as I do with all clients I work with, to start the excercise with establishing the organization's Vision, the Strategy, Objectives, Goals, Tactics and Action plans.

The Vision excercise was done along with their top management, Service & Product managers, HR manager and creative managers. This activity lasted a week with several improvements to the original vision statement. What emerged at the end end of this activity was a distilled view of the entire organization as to

• Who they are
• Where they want to be
• What makes them "who they are"
• How do they appear to their customers

Another interesting aspect of the excercise was a spectrum of reactions on display. While there were those who were thrilled to be a part of the activity that aimed to clearly articulate the Vision of the organization, there were those who were cynical about its usefulness, to those who were bewildered at being included in an activity that is clearly the responsibility of the top management. While there were some who seemed indifferent, there were few who feared what they might be asked to do next. But then, everyone owned this new vision. 

Starting the Six Sigma journey with this approach has several advantages:

1. Establishes a clear line of sight between the strategy and quality improvement initiatives that are taken up as Six Sigma improvement projects.
2. All quality initiatives, including Six Sigma, thrive only if top management(read CEO) is interested in the outcomes. While Vision and strategy is at the top management end of the business, Six Sigma is at the "tactics" end. Without the Vision being tied to Tactics, improvement projects are arbitrary, departmental in nature and rarely address the organizational needs. With nothing to hold the CEO's interest in the new initiative Six Sigma is sure to fail.
3. When Six Sigma improvement projects are tied to Strategy, the CEO supports these projects with the necessary investments, takes interest in the outcomes and thus ensures that all such projects meet their business objectives.
4. People run projects and move processes. When people know that their projects directly address the business needs and contribute positively to the organization's growth, they are more likely to value themselves and the jobs they do
5. Strategy cascade creates an unending pipeline of improvement projects, the life blood of Six Sigma initiative.

The list could go on....... 

Extend this excerise to cover improvement initiatives tied to investments or budgets, people competence and training, hiring to fill skill gaps instead of number gaps......and a clear line of sight is established between the organization's Vision and the daily activities.

Could we, then, say that the first step to achieving operational excellence is Owning The Vision ?