What are your ‘Get My Thing Rights?’ (Lessons from our construction trades triages)

Practically every incremental improvement to the Process Triaging experience has come from client observations.

A+InsullationTraigeTeam

A week or so ago we triaged a construction trades company, adding to the our portfolio of case studies.  We’ve triaged a roofing, flat work, electrical (residential dispatch and commercial), post-construction water treatments, and insulation (retrofit and new commercial) companies, as well as a variety of construction contractors who subcontract to them.

While each of these construction trade-based companies provides different services, they follow a similar business model.  Their driveshaft process follows the same pattern:

  1. Win the first impression and reinforce it at every customer touch.
  2. Estimate the job and win the bid with enough margin.
  3. Plan and prepare the crew-day for a have-what-you-need truck roll – skills, tools and supplies.
  4. Complete the work safely, professionally, and  on schedule, with the quality promised, constantly training the less experienced due to high semi-skilled labor turn-over.
  5.  Complete the job accounting paperwork in a timely manner.
  6. Do all the above at a repeatable  top-of-the-Angie’s List® level satisfaction.

What’s remarkable about these six common behaviors in this kind of driveshaft is that every one of these six behavioral indicators can be delegated to someone to get right.  Depending on the size (# of crews) of the company, different team members can keep an eye on each one:

  1. The front desk phone staff and on-site crew chiefs can master the first impression.
  2. The job estimators can master the bidding.
  3. The dispatch manager or crew chief can master the day’s job sheets and crew staging.
  4. The on-site supervisor can master the day’s project work.
  5. The crew chief and the accountants can master the job paperwork.
  6. The customer service and follow-up staff, likely the front desk, can keep an eye on customer satisfaction.

In other words, every driveshaft process has a punch list of  Get My Thing Right’s

So we’re adding this punch list to our 90+Day Process Capability Improvement Plan template.  At least one ‘Get My Thing Right’ for each segment on our triage maps.

What are the ‘Get My Thing Rights’ on your driveshaft?

Now back to listening.

 

 

What Triagers Like Most About Our Basic Triaging Workshop

The facts will set you free, to borrow a sacred phrase.

When I have time, I compile the results of the most recent Process Triage workshops, our flagship service.  We always ask participants — the triagers, specifically (not the sponsors or hosts) what they thought of the workshop.

One of the five questions is,’What did you like most?”

September 2015 Sample from the most recent 100+ Basic Workshop participants.

September 2015 Sample from the most recent 100+ Basic Workshop participants.

 

Read the entire report here.

Launching a Cross-Organizational Project with a Triage

Our ProcessTriage workshop (on a napkin here) is positioned to sync up a highly siloed team and generate a list of a dozen or two high value process capability improvements in one intense day.  Typically , the sponsor is wanting to fix what’s broken by empowering those who do the work to lead the improvements.

The triage workshop is also an effective kick-off event for finalizing a complex project’s work breakdown structure, where experts from different departments — even companies, must sync up.  The scope of work of requires multiple cycles of a similar project (such as touching multiple locations with the same changes).

We were pleased to lead such a pre-launch triage, hosted by Cisco Systems (CSCO), which included knowledge experts from their customer, T-Mobile (TMUS) and Cisco’s subcontractor, General Datatech (GDT).  T-Mobile subcontracted Cisco to make certain changes in a number of network locations.

30-4 Team Picture (2)

 

 

 

 

The triaging protocol is essentially the same as a break-fix triage.

The triage  team maps a typical project cycle’s (the work of one iteration) work breakdown structure (WBS), as a Project is merely one cycle of a Process — so process mapping is essentially the same as outlining a project WBS.

The  Process Capability Goal for a pre-launch triage focuses on delivering a sustainable level of quality after a few learning curve cycles, and then running additional project iterations on time and on budget.

The Points of Pain are what the team estimates will prevent a successful project launch initially, and inefficiencies to fight off after the learning curve.

The Small Now’s action item-size improvements and Big Now’s project-size improvements are, taken together, the specific deliverables in the project’s risk mitigation strategy.  These Small’s and Big’s are front loaded immediately, especially the action items or projects that must be completed before the first project cycle or iteration.

Hat tip to James Farrell (executive sponsor) and  Tom Tinsley (host) of Cisco Systems.

When to Put Your Partner Hat On

I received a ‘Client in Distress’ call a few weeks ago.  The  triage sponsor calling ‘Mayday!, Mayday!” had been a successful host of a previous triage a year or so ago.

They had contracted with a the top tier telecommunications company to handle some network equipment upgrades and, along with their subcontractor, decreed a ‘freeze all work’ time out period because initial attempts had adversely impacted the telco’s network.

So we triaged some high-rick equipment scenarios with about 20 of the various experts — engineers and field technicians. They nominated and ranked a dozen Small Now’s (action item-size) and Big Now’s (project-size) proposals.  The program mangers (the triage hosts) baked the triage results into decision brief to report out to the telco — their customer.

This conversation with their telco customer was successful, reflecting completed staff work, great solutions, and an action plan to execute immediately.   The customer – supplier relationship is crystal clear in these kind of ‘How we’re going to pick up and wash off the candy we dropped in the dirt.’ encounters.

But what the triage revealed was the customer performed certain tasks in the equipment upgrade process they could not delegate, using equipment databases the supplier could not steward.  In other words, to process of upgrading the network required the customer to remove their customer hat and exchange it for a partner — team member hat.  This necessity was made obvious by the points-of-pain in the triage and the solutions that only the Customer could resolve.

Lesson Learned:  If you subcontract work out to a supplier, but the business process your suppler must manage requires deliverables only you can provide — your subcontracting orientation ends where process execution begins.  At that point, you need and must be a partner.

One of the triage exhibits was the triage / process map with the deliverables the Customer was responsible for, noting the business risks of failure to do so.

Self cleaning, too

I’m a huge fan of Seth Godin, and enthusiastically recommend his daily blog (here).  Today’s post, titled Self cleanining talks about building things, like a self-cleaning oven, and maintain itself.

Relationships, processes, interactions–these can be self cleaning too, if we build them that way. Seth Godin

Applying the ProcessTriage Decision Cycle to a high-value business process makes it self-cleaning. It keeps the process focused on the enterprise’s most strategic objectives, while fixing the myriad of dysfunctions that appear in the daily, normal course of operations.

1a Process Triage on a Napkin

Making business process self-cleaning takes teamwork.  Three roles or voices have to sing their parts and do certain things in the right order.

Self-cleaning business processes create self-correcting business models.

Start-up Founders: Get Networked. Please. That’s an Order.

As a founder of a boutique-size business improvement consultancy, I live the start-up life, albeit not as intensely as many.

I was forwarded this sad post from Business Insider, regarding a founder who apparently jumped to her death.  As the article points out, there is a pattern of depression and mental health challenges for startup founders and entrepreneurs.

If that’s you — may I recommend you network with some mentors.

I also recommend two blogs, Brad Feld’s (here) and Jerry Carmona’s (here).   They are self-explanatory.

I’ve posted about this as well, here — about The Happiness of Pursuit.

Don’t ‘Ready – Fire – Aim’ your Six Sigma Black Belts!

I have an abiding respect and admiration for 6-Sigma Black Belts. They are the perfect weapon for bagging process improvements, not unlike one of my favorite rifles, the Accuracy International AX series.

AI-AX_rifle

6-Sigma Black Belts, like the rifle pictured above, can be a no-substitute need in one situation and over-kill (no pun intended) in another.  They’re not cheap to acquire, use or maintain, so you want to aim them at what merits their capabilities.

That’s where Process Triaging comes in. Process Triaging generates high value targets for Black Belts, be it a 6-Sigma focus (to reduce process variation) or LEAN focus (for removing waste and speeding things up without sacrificing quality).   The typical triage session generates 20 process improvements, flushed out and prioritized by your own process experts.  Of those 20 or so, there will be some fat, Black Belt-worthy opportunities, now mostly business cased because that’s what triaging provides.

If you have Black Belts working for you, triage the processes in the landscape you want them improving.

If you’re thinking about hiring Black Belts, Process Triage first, to focus your job interviews and resume fit checks.

If you have a Black Belt that’s not getting support from the front line experts, for whatever reason — Process Triage to get everyone on the same page.

Bottom line — Aim your Black Belts through Process Triaging (on a napkin here) and a 2-pager on  Triaging First (here).

 

 

Forests and Trees: The Secret Sauce of Process Triaging

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Scalability describes how much effort is required to grow or shrink an enterprise, noting we usually think about how to grow it.  It’s about how we grow from a few trees into a forest.

We get from low volume, tree-level thinking performed by individuals and heroes to high volume, forest-level thinking focused on processes that deliver the customer experience we desire when we hire team members who thrive doing processes we need to scale.

To be scaleable, we must build a team that is efficient in how it improves processes, and effective in how it finds the best improvement to make next — picking the best trees out of a forest of possibilities.

It requires finding and growing team members that can handle such empowerment.

That’s what process triaging does.

It builds the teams that make processes scalable.

 

 

 

 

 

When ‘No’ is ‘Yes’ and ‘Yes’ is ‘No’

Borders create spaces, where something begins and what’s next to it ends.  Like our skin; me is on one side and not me is on the other.

When we make a choice to say “No”, we create a border. What we chose ‘No’ to is now on the outside. What is on our side, the inside is reserved.  We’ve actually created some time and space to put something within.WineGlass

The next choice is to fill this time and space with something we should say “Yes” to.  Something we can create.  So, “No” creates a ‘Yes’ opportunity.

Saying ‘No’ creates a container to fill with “Yes” things, like a crystal wine glass. The ‘No’s” create the glass.  We fill the glass with our “Yes’s!”

And as we fill our space up with ‘Yes” things, there is less and less room for other things, most wonderfully, the things we should say ‘No’ to.  So ‘Yes” eliminates ‘No’s”.

When we’re triaging business processes, the first step for the triage team is to collaboratively identify the series of containers they must fill in the right order. The work they should say “No” and “Yes” to in the right sequence is the process map and is essential  to creating teams that deliver scalable, high quality workflows.  Deciding what goes into each container — the “Yes’s” and what does not go — the “No’s” creates the most time and space for the most valuable work.

This is what brand positioning is ultimately all about.  What we are not — our “No’s” should be so clear – crystal clear, that all anyone sees is what we really are — our ‘Yes’s.”  Our business model should sustain our ‘No’s” and create more and more space for our ‘Yes’s.”

Here are some examples of such clear thinking — where the borders are clearly marked and the containers are well defined (download here)

So “No” is “Yes” and “Yes” is “No.”

Not All Bottlenecks Are Created Equal

All bottlenecks slow processes down.  These slow-downs are a problem when they’re on the critical path, the fastest way through a process network. 

However, not a bottlenecks are the same.  It depends upon their cause.

Here are three root causes to look for. Each has very different solutions.

  • Rework bottlenecks:  When work backs up because of errors, the good news is your quality control is working. Fix the inputs, work procedures or technology that introducing the error.
  • Resource or queuing bottlenecks: When work stalls out because you’re waiting on inputs or resources, the remedy is straight forward — fix the supply chain.
  • Waiting for permission bottlenecks: When work stalls out because you’re waiting for approval, such as an inspection or executive’s signature, determine if authority can be delegated. There are obviously proper, reasonable, and necessary checks to make in processes that make high risk decisions, but — remove bureaucratic, non-value added approvals,

What’s important about these three types of bottlenecks is their solutions are not interchangeable.  For example, adding resources to a rework-caused bottleneck will just exacerbate the delay.

Hat tip to Dr. Bradley T. Gayle and the Boston Consulting Group for these insights, from Managing Customer Value.  While a bit dated, these three types of delays have held up very well.

Here’s a helpful chart: Bottleneck Causes & Solutions