Tag Archives: operational excellence

Agile for sales, Super7 for sales: the change towards lean sales teams

Agile for sales or Super7 for sales – implementing lean teamwork has great potential for sales effectiveness. In a lean team, individuals can spend a larger share of their time on what they excel in. And it is this excellence that delivers results.

A sales team that truly works together will sell more than the same number of efficient sales agents working independently. Great successes have been achieved in financial services with lean-based ways of working. Agile and Super7 Operations are perhaps the most well-known examples of this. And now, within financial services, experiments are starting with lean-based teamwork in sales.

The required change seems quite big, as sales agents were rewarded for their individual success up to now. This resulted in what I like to call a “lone hero culture”, where successful individuals were valued over team players. In a lean team, team members are willing and able to help each other. The culture will become that of a learning organization. And the team continuously improves on their cooperation and effectiveness, striving towards outsourcing everything but excellence.

Recently, I was invited to a brain storm session on how this Dutch bank can transform its sales organization towards lean sales teams. Together with an expert consultant in sales effectiveness, an Agile Coach, Super7 practitioners and sales managers, we designed the outline for lean sales teams on the basis of our Agile and Super7 Operations experiences. I expect that experiments will start soon and I’m looking forward to seeing the results.
Menno R. van Dijk

Replace operations team managers with Super7 Coaches

As Super7 teams get more mature, it may be wise to assign Super7 Coaches and scale down even further on opertions managers.

More and more organizations are succesfully applying small, autonomous Lean teams – Super7 teams – within their operational departments. More autonomy, more employee engagement, better results. In this transition towards Super7 Operations, the role of the operational team manager has changed enormously.

Within the Netherlands, ING has been working with Super7 teams for almost 5 years now. As more experience is gained, new questions are raised. One in particular (thanks Ingrid and Jacqueline!) really made me think: should ING assign Super7 coaches, in parallel with the Agile coaches that are widely applied in Agile organizations?

The parallels between Super7 Operations and Agile are eminent. After all, both are based on very similar principles, derived from the same classical Lean production principles. So why not learn from the ‘management’ roles that Agile appies.

As you may know, Agile doesn’t use managers. Part of the of the old manager’s responibility is delegated towards the autonomous teams. The people/skills development part is now the responsibiltiy of the Chapter Lead. And Agile coaches are responsible for helping the team to become mature in autonomy and agility.

It may be wise to assign Super7 Coaches and scale down even further on opertions managers. Our experiency with Super7 teams shows that it is hard to maintain the momentum in team development. Some teams do fly, some teams reach a certain level and then developments seems to slow down or stop altogether. In theory, the team manager should help the Super7’s with their development towards maturity. But is this the best solution? Super7 coaches may be better equipped for this job.

But what would that mean for the oprations team managers? As with Agile, part of the old manager’s responisibility – planning, senior process knowledge, scheduling – has already been delegated to the Super7 teams. When Super7 coaches take over the responisibilty of coaching the team towards maturity, the role of the team manager becomes smaller again.

The team manager would still be responsible for the development and appraisal of individuale. And, he or she would still be the one that set the output targets for the teams, translated from the departmental goals.

To keep work load large enough, we would however need less managers – more direct reports per manager. This would mean that some of the team managers would lose their job, and I do understand that can be a dificult situation. However, a trend towards less management does seem fitting for an organization that works with autonomous team, don’t you think?

Menno R. van Dijk.

 

 

 

Situational Leadership for development of autonomous team

Leaders of developing autonomous teams can use the Situational Leadership theory to help and support the teams in their growth towards autonomy. Autonomous teams – Super7’s, Agile Squads, Scrum Teams, etc., can’t be fully autonomous from day one. So, how does a manager manage an autonomous team or Super7 that is still developing towards true autonomy? The answer: apply Situational Leadership.

Situational Leadership is based on the Hersey Blanchard Leadership Style matrix (see figure).

Hersey Blanchard Leadership Style matrix

leadership styles for autonomous teams

A newly formed not-yet-autonomous team benefits from the directing leadership style. For instance, an Agile Squad in this phase needs to be told how to work the agile way. And the operations team manager of an immature Super7 team may need to tell the team to use their team board for daily planning.

As the autonomous team develops, the required leadership style changes accordingly. From Directing to Coaching, then on to Supporing and finally Delegating.

In practice, however, this can be quite challenging for a team manager. In my experience with Super7 Operations, the most difficult part of the implementation of Super7 is often to apply the right management style at the right time. And, every manager has his or her preferred style: the style that he or she does best. In a traditional operations department where managers steer on input and use strict quantitative controls, directing and coaching are most often needed. In a mature Super7 organization, however, Delegating and Supporting are the most useful styles.

As a result, the managers that are good at Directing and Coaching often make the most progress at the start of the implementation. But in the long run, a Super7 Operations department thrives under managers that are good at Delegating and Supporting. This asks a lot from the managers. It is good to acknowledge this fact. A successful implementation needs to address not only the methodological side of Super7 , but also take into account the ‘warm undercurrent’ of the change on a personal level.

Menno R. van Dijk.

 

Improvement Kata for Agile teams, Squads, Scrum and Super7 teams

Improvement Kata for Agile teams, Agile Squads, Scrum teams or Super7 teams: the Improvement Kata is an excellent tool for all forms of autonomous teams.

Agile teams can use Improvement Kata in their start-up phase, to quickly get to the next step of team maturity. They can use the improvement kata to solve issues, impediments and problems.

Improvement Kata is also an excellent method for their support staff: Agile coaches, Scrum masters, Lean coaches and Lean Six Sigma Blackbelts.

Similar to how Agile develops, Kata improves in small steps and doesn’t plan the whole path to the desired improvement. The desired end state or ‘definition of awesome’ is known. But only the first achievable target condition is determined in advance. No further milestones.

Additional to how Agile develops, Kata Improvement put even more emphasis on learning. An experiment may fail, as long as the team has learned from it. Agile does this to some extent, by working on minimal viable products that can be tested in practice. The experiments in the Improvement Kata are even more frequent. Many small experiments ensure continuous learning and continuous improvement.

How does Improvement Kata for Agile work?

Traditional improvement is project based – see figure 1.

figure 1 - the old way of improving

figure 1 – the old way of improving

 

 

 

 

 

The Improvement Kata doesn’t plan the whole route: only the next target condition is clearly defined. See figure 2.

 

Figure 2 - the Improvement Kata

Figure 2 – the Improvement Kata

 

 

 

 

The Improvement Kata doesn’t tell you how to get to the next target condition, let alone how to get to your desired situation. It doesn’t tell you which steps to take to reach this year’s target. The Improvement Kata lets you discover the route as you go. See figure 3.

 

Figure 3 - finding the path to improvement

Figure 3 – finding the path to improvement

 

 

 

 

More theory and examples of Kata coaching can be found on www.lean.org/kata or in books and you-tube posts of Mike Rother.

The improvement Kata shows strong similarities to Agile and Scrum. This makes it the best improvement and problem solving method for Agile teams, Squads, Tribes, Scrum Teams. And it has proven itself for Super7 teams, also. It’s the best way to get to a true learning organization and continuous improvement. This enables you to cope with the ever changing demands of customers and regulators, especially in the current market for Financial Services.

Menno R. van Dijk.

Hoshin Kanri for agile: align Squad backlog with mission and purpose

Hoshin Kanri for Agile – Toyota’s lean policy deployment translated to Agile – is also an excellent tool to align Squad backlog with their Tribe’s purpose in an Agile organization. In my previous post on Hoshin Kanri for Agile, I introduced an innovative way to apply Hoshin Kanri to align the mission of squads with the purpose of their tribe. But the effect carries on even further: the entire backlog of the squads will remain in line with the mission and purpose. Again, this requires a slightly different use of the principles of Hoshin Kanri.

Agile squads work in sprints. At the end of each sprint, they deliver fully functional solutions for their customers. These solutions should be in line with their mission. And this mission should be in line with their tribe’s purpose. Innovative companies like Spotify use this Agile way of working to continuously deliver improved user experiences. Their product range is relatively simple, and their services are fully digital. But how will this work when traditional companies, banks for instance, transform into digital agile companies? Hoshin Kanri is the right tool for the job.

Hoshin Kanri Policy Deployment starts at a strategic level:

  1. Formulate break-through goals for 3 to 5 years ahead. These are the goals that will make a real impact on the purpose of the tribe.
  2. Translate these break-through goals into one-year goals. This is the annual plan for the tribe, with challenging but achievable goals.
  3. Translate these goals to Squad Missions. These missions describe the processes that need to be improved.
  4. Determine which metrics will show the progress of the improvement.

Then, the squad gets to work. But not by creating a backlog directly from their mission. The mission should be used as a starting point for improvements. The squad has a set of proven Lean improvement techniques at their disposal. From large scale to small scale (and from low to high frequency):

  1. (Re)design, e.g. Value Stream Mapping, Design for Six Sigma or Washing Lanes
  2. DMAIC projects, executed by green- and blackbelts
  3. KAIZEN improvements, team improvement sessions
  4. Kata improvement, weekly improvement as a habit
Hoshin Kanri for Agile
Hoshin Kanri for Agile

 

Finally, the backlog is filled from each of these improvements. As each of the improvements are focused on the same strategic priorities, the backlog will be completely in line with mission and purpose.

 

Menno R. van Dijk

Agile risk management – from portfolio to scrum

Agile risk management could mean that risks specialist let go of their own account portfolio and start working as a scrum team. This is how this could work:

When a traditional bank transforms into an agile organization, its risk management department need to become agile as well. Risk management is often organized as a team of individualistic specialist, each with their own portfolio of accounts or cases.

Agile organizations are flexible in adjusting priorities and reassigning capacity. Teamwork is often the quickest way to introduce this flexibility. A team of specialists can set priorities across all of their portfolios. When one portfolio requires more capacity than its owner can deliver, the team can reassign capacity.

Cooperational ExcellenceOne way to organize this is to create risk management Scrum teams.

There is a downside to this approach – the reason that Scrum isn’t widely used in risk management today. It takes time to get to know the details of a complex case, and it would be a waste of time when a running case is transferred from one specialist to another. However, the benefits could very well be greater:

Scrum teams will work in weekly sprints, delivering ‘fully functional’ deliverables in each sprint. This is the first benefit of this way of working: transparency on what will be delivered each week. In the old way of working, throughput times could get quite long from time to time. And the weekly rhythm gives the organization the agility to adapt to changes. What exactly ‘fully functional’ would mean will depend strongly on the type of risk management.

Second benefit: optimal priorities. The sprint deliverables are made up from the priorities (must haves and nice-to-haves) of all individual risk managers for that week. However, after this first round of collecting priorities, a ‘product owner’ will decide which of these individual priorities are most important. Priorities can be given to where the highest impact can be made on reducing risk. In the old situation, focus would always be on the highest risks within one portfolio. Scrum would give priority to a nr 2 or 3 priority from one portfolio when the related risk is higher than the nr 1 from another portfolio.

Third benefit: the power of teamwork. A team of professionals knows more and can make better decisions than individuals. Our experience with Super7 Operations shows this, also in highly specialist organizations like arrears management.

It’s going to be interesting how a truly agile bank will organize its risk management. I’m looking forward to learning what works. Menno R. van Dijk.

Super7 teams benefit from Lean Operational Management

Super7 teams benefit from having the standard processing times and performance dashboards in place. These elements from Operational Management help a Super7 team in steering itself. When these basic elements from Operational Management are missing, implementation projects tend to take more time. It takes longer before the Super7 teams become autonomous.

Super7 Operations claims to be the next step for Lean in financial services. But how much does it owe to the previous Lean wave in financial Services? Which elements from Lean Operational Management are essential for the success of Super7 Operations?

The Next Step for Lean builds on the previous step

The way I see it, Super7 Operations is the logical next step for Lean in financial services. The first lean waves in financial services were often aimed at introducing standardized work,  standard processing times, and making performance visible in performance dashboards.

Standard processing times make the work plannable. In Lean Operational Management, managers use them to plan the work for their teams. And afterwards, actual production is compared with planned production to calculate performance*. The manager then retains control through performance dashboards.

As I explain in my book, Super7 teams are steered on output. And, in Super7 Operations, the teams get the freedom and responsibility to plan their own work. However, both output steering and planning your own work becomes much easier when standard working times and dashboards are in place.

In Super7 Operations, the customer determines what needs to be done: the workload is based on the actual demand from that day. The manager sets the boundary conditions: that all requests are processed the same day (Today In, Today Out, or TITO). Work is often planned on forecast. But, to make planning decisions, the team needs to be able to match the forecasted workload to their planned capacity. And this can only be done when the forecasted number of customer requests can be translated into hours of work with the help of standard processing times.

Dashboards are equally important in Super7 Operations, but primarily for the teams themselves. They need to be able to see if all their Continuous Improvement efforts are paying off. And dashboards can be used to constantly raise the bar, both by the team itself and by the manager. Too many green lights become a red light, as the saying goes. This means that when the daily targets are met every day, this should lead to a more challenging target. More service in the same time for instance, or doing the same work with less capacity.

When standard processing times and performance dashboards, two basic elements from Lean Operational Management, are missing, implementation projects tend to take more time. It takes longer before the Super7 teams can make the decisions that make them truly autonomous.

Menno R. van Dijk

*Performance in Financial Services is often expressed in Total Team Effectiveness, a derivative of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) which is the standard within manufacturing.

 

ShuHaRi as a way of implementing Super7

Implementation of Super7 Operations can benefit from ShuHaRi, the Japanese learning-technique that is often used to introduce Agile Scrum. This way, you can give the team the responsibility for how to apply the principles of Super7, as soon as they are ready for it.

Should we ask the people from the shop floor to participate in the design of Super7? As Super7’s are supposed to be autonomous, why not give them autonomy in how Super7 Operations is applied in their teams? These questions often arise when organizations are planning to adopt Super7 Operations.

I feel that it is a very good idea to give the Super7 teams full autonomy on how they apply the principles of Super7. However:

  • People can only be expected to master the principles, and apply them to their own view, when they first fully understand them;
  • And, they can only fully understand them after they have experienced working with them;
  • And experience isn’t gained through explaining and training, but through doing.

My approach to implementing Super7 Operations is based on ShuHaRi, a Japanese teaching philosophy. So, a bit of theory, then:

ShuHaRi describes three phases that you go through when learning a technique:

 Shu: As a student, you follow the teachings of the master precisely. You don’t have to know the underlying principles. You practice the standard way that the master teaches you.

Ha: You are now able to execute the new technique, and you start to recognize the principles and theory behind it. The teacher may help you by explaining the principles to you. You now start to experiment with applying the principles, not only the standard that you have been taught.

Ri: You are now able to improve on the standard, by applying the principles. You use your experience to make the technique better for your situation. The principles are so clear to you that you can apply them without help from a master.

The ShuHaRi method is now widely used within Scum and Agile software development. Alistair Cockburn translated this Japanese martial arts best-practice to a way to learn techniques and methodologies for software development.

In our most recent Super7 Operations implementation projects, we’ve applied ShuHaRi in combination with the Improvement Kata. See my previous posts on the subject of Kata for more information. ShuHaRi and Improvement Kata are combined to give the team weekly target conditions that they can experiment towards, where the focus shifts from instruction towards freedom to change the method as seen fit. But this is perhaps too abstract, too much for one blog post. I will go into my approach to implementation in more detail in the near future.

Menno R. van Dijk.

Super7 with Quality Improvement as output

Quality Improvement can be used as one of the output targets for Super7 teams within Super7 Operations. The trick is to set a target for the amount of time that a team spends per week on continuous improvement. This target then comes on top of the output target of helping all customers on time in full.

In my book – Super7 Operations, The Next Step for Lean in Financial Services – several examples are given of Super7 teams that use throughput time as target for intra-day self-steering.

Recently, I was asked to help an operations department that wanted to drastically improve their quality and customer satisfaction*. The management had taken a liking to the ideas of Super7 Operations. However, they felt that throughput time as main output wasn’t suitable for their type of work. The daily focus had to be on helping the customers, first time right. And this had to be achieved through continuous improvement. For they strongly believed – as I do – that bottom-up continuous improvement is the best way to sustain strong performance.

*Many companies, especially banks, use the Customer Effort Score (CES) as a metric to customer satisfaction. This didn’t replace Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a metric, but many companies have found that customers aren’t that likely to become promoter after going through a ‘process’ that they regard ‘basic service’ (like opening a savings account, for example).

The teams were given a target for the amount of time that a team spends per week on continuous improvement. This target came on top of the output target of helping all customers on time in full. As the improvements led to better quality and therefore less rework, the amount of time available for continuous improvement was likely to increase over time. We had anticipated this beforehand and developed a system where the weekly improvement time target would automatically be increased each week. This forced a productivity increase and at the same time made sure that the teams would spend enough time working on continuous improvement.

The journey of this particular department has only just begun. Who knows what successes I can report about in the near future?

Menno R. van Dijk.

Free ING master class (in Dutch) on Output Steering by Filip Vandendriessche

ING organizes a free master class (in Dutch) on Output Steering by Filip Vandendriessche. This is a unique opportunity that you don’t want to miss out on!

Out with input-steering, in with output-steering: Dutch bank ING organizes a master class Output Management (in Dutch) on October 28th, 2014. No other than Filip Vandendriessche himself – the Belgian Output-steering guru – will explain the ins and outs of output steering and Invisible Leadership. This is an excellent opportunity for anyone who’s interested in ouput steering. I have attended one of his master classes before, and in my experience Mr. Vandendriessche is both an excellent speaker and an inspirational trainer.

As you can read in many of my posts (for example link, link, link or link), I strongly believe in Output Steering. Moreover, it is an essential part of Super7 Operations.

You can enlist on ING’s Dutch recruitment site: http://www.ing.jobs/Nederland/Over-ING/Ontmoet-ons/Kalender/Evenement/Masterclass-Onzichtbaar-leiderschap.htm

Knipsel big

 

And you find more information on ING on www.ing.nl and http://www.ing.jobs/Nederland/Home.htm

Menno R. van Dijk.