Principle 7: Enthusiastic People (Item 5)
Potential of an organization is realized through its people's
enthusiasm, resourcefulness and participation.
You should make certain your employees are properly enabled to carry
out their work (ie provided with sufficient skills, knowledge, resources
and authority).
In order for employees to be able to be enthusiastic volunteers, they
need
- Knowledge of what is expected of them
- Skills and resources
- Desire
 The diagram shows some
of this relationship. Only when someone knows what to do and why, has
the skills of how to do and the desire to want to do, is that person
enabled.
How can you expect employees to do their work if they do not have the
minimum skills for that job? The old thinking was "I can't afford
to train them". Can you afford not to train them and have them
deal with your customers? Or work with your processes?
New employees need training in the technology and processes they will
now have to use. Existing employees will need training whenever you
change your process or technology. You cannot assume that people will
know how to use the new process or the new technology. The best ways
of doing things are often unused because people are not shown how to
do it that way.
You should invest in the development of your workforce through education
and training and by providing opportunities for continuing growth. Employees
increasingly need opportunities to learn, practice and demonstrate new
skills. Development must to meet ongoing needs of employees and the
company.
Education and training should provide the knowledge and skills that
employees need to meet their work and personal objectives, as well as
meeting the company's need for skilled employees. Employees' education
and training requirements will depend on the employees' responsibilities
and stage of development and the nature of the company's work.
Examples of development programs include: leadership, knowledge sharing,
communications, teamwork, problem solving, interpreting and using data,
meeting customer requirements, process analysis, process simplification,
waste reduction, cycle time reduction, error-proofing, priority setting
based upon cost and benefit, and other training that affects employee
effectiveness, efficiency, and safety.
Your developmental plans also might include:
- basic skills such as reading, writing, language and arithmetic.
- initiatives to help knowledge sharing and cross-functional interactions
throughout the company
- creation of opportunities for employees to learn and use skills
beyond current job assignments
- developmental assignments to prepare future leaders, executives
and managers
- individual development or learning plans
- formation of partnerships with educational institutions to develop
employees or to help ensure the future supply of well-prepared employees
Increasingly, training, education and development need to be tailored
to a more diverse workforce that is using rapidly altering work practices.
Education and training programs may need to be delivered through advanced
technologies, such as computer-based learning and satellite broadcasts.
On-the-job training offers a cost-effective way to train and to link
training to work processes.
We often hear "We have excellent work practices here, but people
won't use them". This can be because the employees do not know
of the work practices. Alternatively, as we saw in Principle 4 (`To
Improve the Outcome, Improve the System'), they may have tried to
use the "excellent work practices" and found they are impractical.
This leads us to another skill that people need – the skill of
how to let you know when the process does not work. That is, not only
do you have to be prepared to listen but you must also provide sufficient
skills so that processes workers can identify what is wrong and what
needs to be done to fix it. The skill of process improvement.
Skills fall into several broad categories
- Process level skills – how to do a task
- Education level – why doing the task is necessary and how it
fits with other classes of tasks – a knowledge level
- Development level – the skills and knowledge needed at other
levels and parts of the company.
What is the difference between training and education? People use them
interchangeably. Many schools have a formal curriculum for `sex education`.
It is considered by many to be a very good idea necessary for the modern
world. But what school system would introduce a formal curriculum for
`sex training'? Did you feel the change that happened in your mind as
you read that? There are very strong differences in meaning between
these words. One is about knowledge; the other is about skills. Do not
use them interchangeably.
Specific training is usually required for customer-contact employees.
For example:
- knowledge of products and services
- selling skills
- how to listen to customers
- soliciting comments from customers
- anticipating and handling problems or failures ("recovery",
"diffusing anger")
- customer retention
- effectively managing expectations.
Employees need adequate and appropriate resources to be able to carry
out their job. Resources can include all those things that screw up
the job when they are not available:
- the right number of people on the team with the right skills
- the right equipment – digging a hole with a bulldozer instead
of a shovel
- the right technology
- the right funding – the boss decided you could do it for half
the $100k that you estimated
- the right amount of time – trying to do it in two days when
you needed six weeks
All the things on this list directly affect the capability of the process.
All relate to the part of the process that the boss controls. They are
all scarce. There are trade offs between all of them.
As well as planning to have the right numbers of skilled, knowledgeable
and empowered people available, your strategies could include such elements
as:
- reduction in the time to fill jobs
- redesign of work units and jobs to increase employee responsibility,
authority and decision making
- initiatives to assist labour-management cooperation, such as partnerships
Data and information provides alignment with company Goals and objective
and is a very useful source of employee motivation.
The old thinking was to keep people in the dark. But, when people know
how the company is tracking, this can provide the stimulus to modify
processes, find out what is or is not working, or work harder to reach
Goals and objectives. You can achieve significant change by focusing
on the results achieved or not achieved.
If people do not know how the company is tracking, how do they know
that there is a need to do anything differently? Why would they modify
processes, find out what is or is not working, or work harder?
Data should be tied to indicators of company or work unit performance,
for example on process outputs, customer satisfaction, customer retention
and productivity. (Principle 5 `Improved Decisions')
You should provide data and information to employees that they think
is useful and of value.
Employees are the customers of most of the data used internally. Because
they are customers, their needs must be included.
- The data and information should be useful to them – not a waste.
- Principle 4 (`To Improve the Outcome, Improve the System')
tells us that we should make collection and distribution of the data
easy so collecting and using it does not become a distraction.
- Principle 3 (`Customers') tells us that presentation should
display the variation in the data.
- Employees will need skills in how to interpret and use the data.
You also need effective systems for collection and transfer of data
and information so it is useable.
You need data and information to assist in:
- integrating human resource practices – selection, performance,
training and career advancement
- developing, cultivating, and sharing the company's knowledge that
is possessed by its employees (Principle 8 `Innovation')
People have to want to volunteer, to contribute, to be resourceful,
to be enthusiastic. Most of the discussion in Principle 7 is about how
to provide this desire – this motivation.
Have fun and do neat stuff. For many employees, the opportunity
to "have fun and do neat stuff" is what creates the desire
to volunteer – to keep on having fun and doing neat stuff. Having
an exciting place in which to work and having their needs met is extremely
motivating to people.
As we saw in Principle 4 (`To Improve the Outcome, Improve the System'),
employees know most about the details of the processes they work in.
They also know most about what is wrong with them. When you enable people
by providing the necessary skills, knowledge, power, resources and authority
to fix those systems you unleash enormous energy.
Bosses act to fix processes. As we also saw in Principle 4 (`To
Improve the Outcome, Improve the System'), although it is the employees
that know most about the processes of the company, it is the bosses
that control almost every phpect of the process that will make significant
difference — the technology used, the resources, the capital. Employees
may be able to change a few steps in the process and save a few dollars.
However, the boss controls and therefore constrains the process.
Most team-based projects fail because the boss has limited the scope
of the project so much that the team can only fiddle at the edge of
meaningful change.
Managers are responsible for processes and must form partnerships with
their employees in order to fix those processes. Each party cannot do
it without the other. The employee has knowledge but insufficient power,
and the manager has power but insufficient knowledge of the process.
The manager has knowledge of coordination and getting things done.
Building these partnerships unleashes huge energy from enthusiastic
employees and managers, and gets the changes made that significantly
improve the company.
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