9 Critical Roles for Top Management in Improvement Programs
The success of improvement programs in most organizations not only impacts their competitiveness, but in many cases also their survival. Programs like Operational Excellence, Lean Transformation, Process Re-engineering, Cost Reduction, etc., are launched with a lot of fanfare, but sadly, they either die an unnatural death after some time or become painfully slow.
Much care is taken to roll out projects and initiatives across an organization, and high expectations from the working teams are set. However, what are normally overlooked are the critical roles that top management needs to play in order to ensure success. While the intent and objectives of these programs are in place, not being able to support them with the appropriate policy and procedural changes is one of the key reasons for failure or subsequent slowdown. It is the top management’s responsibility to effect those changes in policies and procedures while such programs are being run in the organization. Read on for 9 critical roles that the top management needs to be play to ensure success of transformational programs.
1. Create the Right Vision
This is not the organizational vision. This has to be crafted by top management for the improvement journey and clearly entail the overall objectives and timelines. Articulating this vision and communicating it ensures that the employees understand the purpose of the journey, while the objectives and targets will motivate the teams. Conversely, absence of a clear vision can lead to mis-aligned initiatives and ‘dull moments’ during the journey.
2. Set the Right Improvement Team Structure
There could be a need for subtle re-structuring of many teams along ‘routine’ and ‘improvement’ oriented tasks/objectives. About 10-15% of the team strength may need to fully focus on improvement with fewer routine jobs, while the rest should focus on routine with fewer improvement objectives.
In many improvement journeys, cross-functional teams play a key role in delivering success. It is important, therefore, that the right kinds of teams are formed for driving the initiatives. These types of structures are not usual and the top management needs to play a key role in guiding the structuring.
3. Align the KRAs and KPIs
The KRAs/ KPI of the individuals and teams need to incorporate the improvement goals. Again, for the identified 10-15%, 90% KRA should be on improvement and 10% on routines (vice versa for the other group.) In many organizations, the teams and members may not be used to having ‘improvement targets’ as part of the KRAs and the top management support may be required to implement them. After all, what gets measured, gets improved…
4. Establish the Right Review Mechanism
An appropriate review mechanism is a must to ensure proper and regular monitoring of the improvements. This would involve:
– Identifying & establishing the right review structure;
– Identifying ‘what needs to be reviewed’, and
– Defining the review frequency.
While establishing the review structure, ensure that the competency of the reviewing team is appropriate for all the various levels. In many cases, when the reviewing team is not competent enough to review the improvement initiatives, the working teams get more frustrated than motivated.
‘What needs to be reviewed’ should only be reviewed. Overly elaborate reviews can make the process boring and can cause the critical performance measures to be missed. The design of appropriate benefit improvement trackers is important. The reviewing frequency should not only be determined, but also strictly adhered to. Missing out on the review schedules or postponing them frequently would raise doubts about the seriousness of senior management for the journey.
5. Ensure Adequate Resourcing
In many cases, while improvement objectives are handed over, team members are not able to free themselves from regular jobs so it becomes an additional responsibility. Top management would need to ensure that teams are adequately resourced. In the absence of this, over-stressing could lead to frustration and slowing down of the initiatives. Top management should also provide some authority to the teams for making decisions regarding modifications and changes, including expenditures. This would ensure that ownership is developed within the teams.
6. Remove Hurdles – Make Prompt Decisions
Many challenging situations crop up during the improvement journeys which need senior management involvement and prompt decision making. It is top management’s priority to not only identify such situations, but to also make prompt decisions and reach swift resolution. If alacrity is not displayed by top management, there can be slow-down in the areas with many ‘balls in its court’. There is a catch, however. Too much involvement can be detrimental. Whenever the resolution is possible at working levels, top management should judiciously send it back so that teams do not get into the habit of ‘delegating upwards’.
7. Appropriate Reward & Recognition
The reward policies of the organization may need to be recast to identify and recognize improvements. These could be done in many ways like monetary rewards, share of benefits accrued, career benefits, public recognitions, etc. The organization would need to frame the appropriate policy aligned to its culture.
8. Invest in Skill Development
Most improvement initiatives would require new skills to be learnt by the employees at various levels. It is important that the top management considers this skill development as a necessary investment for ensuring success. Failure to upgrade the skills of employees, where it is necessary, can lead to many dead-end situations in projects.
9. Periodic Process Walkthroughs
Did someone say this is traditional and passé? Well, some techniques are forever. Nothing motivates teams more than when senior management visits and people have the opportunity to show their improvements on site. While doing this too frequently will dilute the impact, with the right frequency, this will create tremendous pride in the teams for their work and initiatives.
By Anirban Mazumdar
Anirban is a widely experienced Consulting & Industry professional. As a consultant, he has worked on projects spanning across industries like FMCG, Food & Beverages, Paints, Pharmaceutical, Consumer durables, Glass, Packaging material, Retail, Engineering and Auto Components. Prior to consulting, he has worked in supply chain functions with Coca Cola and Castrol.
Anirban has been leading consulting engagements in the areas of Supply & Demand Planning, Sales & Operations Planning, Lean & Operational Excellence Programs, Business Process Re-engineering, Business Planning, Strategy Development and Execution Planning. Anirban is currently an Associate Director with Valcon Management Consultants, India.
