Using the Tools in Your Performance Excellence Toolbox: Part I Apprentice Tools – In the Beginning

Using the Tools in Your Performance Excellence Toolbox: Part I
Apprentice Tools – In the Beginning

This is the first in a series of posts on using specific tools. We will start with the elementary or apprentice level tools. When I speak of Elementary and Apprentice Level Tools, I am referring to those tools that are both elemental to the performance improvement process and are also, in their basic format, simple to learn and use.

This post covers three tools generally used in all projects regardless of what type of methodology you are using to manage it, Charter, Gantt Chart, and SWOT. There may be similar tools that accomplish the same purposes which are to outline the project, set guidelines for operating, set timeline and responsibilities, and assess current status. Use these tools at the beginning of the project. Two of them the Charter and Gantt Chart you will use throughout a project to keep it within scope.

At the beginning of a project develop the charter. The charter clearly defines the goals, scope, restrictions, budget, and responsibilities and commitment of the participants. Develop it with input from a number of people, not in a vacuum.

Figure 1 Project Charter

A charter is not written in stone. As the project progresses requirements change; when they do, you must modify the charter to reflect the changes. This keeps you current with the scope of the project and helps control scope creep.

Use Gantt Charts to set up the tasks to be done, when they are to be done, what resources are needed to get them done, and most importantly keep you on track. The simplest form is to use MS Excel or a similar tool. These are simple charts but for smaller projects are all that are needed. Figure 2 is an example of one I created using a simple MS Excel spread sheet. Notice that milestones are marked with a diamond.

Figure 2 – Simple MS Excel spread sheet

There are free tools, low cost packages and MS Excel templates that give you more features than just using a simple MS Excel spread sheet as in Figure 2. Figure 3 is an example of a SmartDraw VP template that provides a good deal more functionality than just coloring in boxes.

Figure 3 – Gantt Chart created using SmartDraw VP

The more detailed Gantt Charts tools like MS Project can be extremely useful. The chart not only tracks the basics but you can link tasks making the completion of one dependent on another. It also tracks the time that each team member is committed to on the project and on other projects so you can schedule them accordingly.

Figure 4 – Gantt Chart created using Microsoft Project

As with the charter, your Gantt Chart is not written in stone. Continuously review and update any and all changes to the project in the Gantt Chart. For example if you are running behind on a section of the project, how will this reflect on the other parts of the project? Using a tool like Microsoft Project will automatically change other components of the project if they are dependent on the tardy part. With other like the simple MS Excel one, you need to make all the changes individually.

The last tool discussed in this post is the SWOT analysis. Use a SWOT analysis to help understand your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats hence SWOT.

A SWOT analysis is a simple four box matrix with two boxes listing your existing Strengths and Weaknesses and two listing Opportunities and Threats. There is no minimum or maximum number of items that you can list. A hint is to list as many relevant impactful items in each box. Figure 5 is a SWOT Analysis created with MS PowerPoint.

Figure 5 SWOT Analysis using MS PowerPoint

The Process Improvement Toolbox

The Process Improvement Toolbox
There are many different methodologies available to help improve your organization’s performance. These include Six Sigma, PMBOK, LEAN, ISO, etc. All of these have tools many of which overlap or can be mixed and matched to meet your needs.

One of the issues that I have often come across in working with various groups is their misunderstanding of how a specific methodology for process improvement needs to be implemented. They often feel that you are given a set of rules, processes and tools to follow that are unique to the methodology and that you need to use all of them. What I call a silo approach. That is, you can only use them when working with that methodology; no cross pollination with other methodologies’ tools.

For example, you are working on a Six Sigma DMAIC project. According to the silo methodology thought process, you need to go through the entire Define stage checking off every box. Use every tool called for or available in that stage. This is uncalled for, difficult to do, costly and above all will result most likely in failure. Just take a look at three leading sources on Six Sigma tools. In the Six Sigma Memory Jogger, they list 12 tools that may be used, while Six Sigma Demystified list 11, and The Quality Web lists 8. Half are unique to one list and only 2 appear in all three.

Using the toolbox

Many of these tools are difficult to use initially. As you move further into a performance improvement project the more complex some of the tools used become. There are tools that are highly statistical in their construct. Pareto charts, histograms, affinity diagrams, ANOVA, House of Quality, design of experiment, and value stream mapping are just a few tools that may be needed to improve your productivity. These are not tools that the average person can walk in and use. To properly use them you need an expert; at least a Six Sigma Green Belt with a few years of experience but it is better to use a Black Belt.

Experience is one of the best tools available and there is no substitute for it. An expert knows not only how to use a set of tools from a specific methodology but also what methodology to use and how to mix and match tools from different methodologies to deliver the best results for your organization. They don’t carry around a small tool box. They use one of those big honkin’ ones on castors with lots of drawers to hold all of their tools.

Implementing Process Excellence: Achieving a Sea Change in Culture

You have determined that your SMB or non-profit organization is ready for the sea change in its culture that performance excellence can require.

The key to successfully transforming your non-profit into a performance excellence organization is that management – which includes middle management through the Board of Directors – must buy-in and support it with actions and resources and not just lip service.

Management cannot wave a magic wand and declare the organization to now have a performance excellence culture.  They must demonstrate their commitment to the changes that are coming by walking the talk.  If the organization has a history of management repeatedly “implementing” the latest business management fad (management by objective, management by walking around, Baldrige Award, etc.), they may well react with “Oh no here we go again, another flavor of the month.”  Everyone in the organization must understand that this is a process that takes a long time to complete, that management is aware of this and that they are going to stay the course.

Leading by example is the one of the best ways for management to show the organization that they are serious about change.  In 1983 Corning Incorporated (then Corning Glass Works) introduced Total Quality Management.  To train the employees, they created a Quality University that every employee had to attend.  To demonstrate their commitment to TQM, the first employees to go through the university were the CEO, Vice Chairman, CFO and the three presidents.  30 years later, Corning’s management still openly demonstrates its support for performance excellence.

Even with management’s support, you must have the support of the employees also.  They must be enabled and empowered to change the culture.  They need to have the resources necessary to be able to actually transform the culture.  These resources include training, tools and the environment that will provide employees with the ability to transfer management’s intent into real results.   Training and tools are something that management can buy and provide to the employees.  But the environment for successfully utilizing these resources must be created internally by management.  If you invest the resources of time and money into training the employees and then release them into the same old work environment, you will have wasted your efforts.

In my experience when it comes to change management, the basic approach to take is change people or change people. If you are confronted with an individual who just rejects the changes, you have to either change their attitude towards the new ways or replace them (let them go).  Neither of these is simple to accomplish.  Be prepared to have the necessary processes and resources in place to handle the situation when it comes up and it will come up.