The design phase of Super7 implementation

The design phase of a Super7 Operations implementation project focuses on setting ambition, creating teams and assigning work process, and designing the tools and processes with which the team can manage their daily work. Super7 Operations integrates the Lean principles for administrative work, a.k.a. Operational Management, with the concept of autonomous teams. When you want your operations organisation to make this next step in Lean and Operational Management, there are three steps you should take in preparation.

  1. Set an ambitious ambition. Any change needs a clear goal. It has to be clear to everyone why this change is needed, and what it will bring. In modern day Banking, there is a strong focus on costs and automation. In my experience in Super7 Operations implementation projects, cost reduction has been most often the main quantitative goal. We’ve seen that implementation of Super7 Operations can lead to 20-50% increase in efficiency. The organisation has to be prepared to reduce FTE capacity when the efficiency is increased. Of course, you could get additional work done with the same number of people. But in Banking, where digitalization is the key word of today, most often there is no additional work for the operations department.
  2. Create clusters of work processes, that are similar enough so that all team members can learn them. These clusters should be sufficient work for a small team of 7 (of 5 to 9). A team can consist of several sub-groups with their own skills, but only if there is an intention to become multi-skilled. Team members must be able to help each other.
  3. Determine how the team will manage their daily work. What is the output that they will deliver? When has it been a good day? What are the restrictions that the management sets? How does the visual management board look like? In my book on Super7 Operations, I explain the way of working in more detail. But in short: working without queues, Today In, Today Out (TITO), results in the simplest management system. Other daily goals have been tried and tested also: working with large peaks in demand where TITO isn’t possible or even setting quality improvement as one of the daily goals. I will explain this last possibility in one of my next posts.

Menno R. van Dijk.

 

Understanding each other’s belief systems

Leon de Caluwé’s theories on Belief Systems can help Super7 team to become successful. Teamwork is essential in Super7 Operations, and understanding the points of view of your team members can help you and your team enormously.

Recently, I had the privilege to attend a seminar by Leon de Caluwé, the well-known Dutch professor and advisor. Leon de Caluwé is one of the thought leaders in the field of Belief Systems and their impact on change. He explained that there are five Belief Systems that color a person’s approach to change. De Caluwé has associated each of them with a color. All of these colors can be found inside each of us. We predominantly use one or two, and the others are our allergies. But it is best to be able to use all of them to some extent, to be able to understand “from which planet your team mates come from”, as De Caluwé puts it. Below, you can find my summary of the theory, by listing words and convictions that you may hear when working with someone from that particular planet. I strongly recommend Leon de Caluwé’s excellent books for anyone working with Super7’s.

Yellow print thinking:

  • Power
  • Support
  • Coalitions
  • Key players
  • Strategic questions
  • Mission, vision, goals
  • Keeping your options open
  • Getting people to change though fear

Blue print thinking:

  • Results
  • SMART
  • From A to B, from Current State to Desired State
  • Analytic and rational
  • Think before you act
  • Change is simple
  • Getting people to change through pressure and competition

Red print thinking:

  • You must avoid “must”
  • A favor for a favor
  • After work drinks
  • Social pressure
  • Communication
  • Team work, cooperation, teams
  • Togetherness
  • Change is appealing
  • Getting people to change by seducing them

Green print thinking:

  • Being adaptive
  • Feedback, customer panels
  • Safe environment, being open and vulnerable
  • Paternalistic
  • Learning by doing
  • Free to choose what you learn, but not free to choose how you learn
  • Learning organization, organizational development
  • Learning and changing are synonyms

White print thinking:

  • Self-steering, autonomous teams
  • Moving in the same direction
  • Where is your energy, what is your strength
  • Transformation theory
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Tolerating variance
  • Getting people to change through shared vision and removing obstacles

You might have guessed it: Super7 Operations is definitely invented by white print thinkers, in close cooperation with blue print thinkers. But Cooperational Excellence can only be achieved when people understand each other.

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.

Do’s and don’ts of managing autonomous teams (or Super7’s) – part V

Managing autonomous teams, or Super7 teams, requires a different management style than managing regular teams. Here’s the last part the key do’s and don’ts from my practice as a Lean Super7 consultant. And, in my opinion, this one is the most important.

Perhaps most importantly, Do: Use your own strengths and talents.
Don’t: Put all your efforts on improving your weaknesses.

The best advice I can give any manager is: be the best person that you can be. Use your talents as much as you can. If you only focus on improving your weaknesses, you won’t be able to perform at your best. You will be most effective when you do the things you like to do and use your own unique talents while doing them. When faced with a transition from a more traditional organization towards autonomous teams or Super7’s, you might at first only see those elements that are difficult for you, that you don’t like and where you can’t use your talents. But if you give it a chance, if you start experimenting, you might find that there is a way to use your strengths in the new way of working. In my experience, most managers will find a way that fits them. Of course, managing autonomous teams or Super7’s will not be the perfect job for everybody. It is important for your happiness and for your chances to success that you keep searching for an environment where you can do the things you like and use your talents at the same time. And in some cases, this may mean a change of career. But, there isn’t just one way or one perfect style of managing autonomous teams. Take a chance, experiment, and you might just find the style that works for you and for your teams.

Menno R. van Dijk.

Do’s and don’ts of managing autonomous teams (or Super7’s) – part IV

Managing autonomous teams, or Super7 teams, requires a different management style than managing regular teams. Here’s part four of the key do’s and don’ts from my practice as a Lean Super7 consultant. This week, we’ll look into the competences that an output-manager needs. When your department introduces Super7 Operations, or other forms of autonomous teams, this may help you to adapt to the new situation you’ll face as a manager.
Do: Adapt to the new situation and experiment with the required competences
Don’t: Expect this change to be easy
Other skills and behaviors are asked from a manager when an organization makes the transition from a classical, input steered organization towards autonomous teams or Super7’s.
Typical skills are:
• Facilitating style, focused on output
• Creativity in developing improvement experiments together with the team
• Drive to improve continuously
• Group focus instead of focus on the individuals
• Flexibility, managers should be able to manage each other’s teams
• Working fact-based, using facts and figures for planning and forecasting
• Analytical; being able to interpret data to challenge the teams and to identify improvement opportunities
Typical behaviors are:
• Proactive in finding improvement opportunities and in implementing improvements
• Focused on customers and customer processes
• Inspiring the team to be customer focused and innovative
• Helping teams and team members in their journey towards autonomy

Keep an eye out for the last post in this series: the most important tip will follow shortly

 

Menno R. van Dijk

 

Do’s and don’ts of managing autonomous teams (or Super7’s) – part III

Managing autonomous teams, or Super7 teams, requires a different management style than managing regular teams. Here’s part three of the key do’s and don’ts from my practice as a Lean Super7 consultant. This week, we’ll discuss the do’s and don’ts of management metrics and dashboards for autonomous teams. When your department introduces Super7 Operations, or other forms of autonomous teams, this may help you to adapt to the new situation you’ll face as a manager.

Do: Use quantitative metrics on output performance

Don’t: regard output as a Boolean function (i.e. true or false, the output has been delivered or the output has not been delivered)

Many managers in Financial Services Operations are used to manage by spreadsheet. When switching to output steering, they might tend to overcompensate. Instead of managing productivity, Fisrt-Time-Right and throughput time, they just evaluate whether the output has been delivered or not. The outcome is black or white, good or bad: either the team made it, or they didn’t. Managers should use quantitative metrics to measure the output. When the target output hasn’t been met, the team should be able to see by exactly how much the target was missed. This allows learning and evaluation of improvement experiments.

Do: Use the well-known Lean steering metrics to evaluate performance and to give the team insight in where they can improve. (.e.g. Efficiency (productivity, availability), First-Time-Right percentage, throughput time)

Don’t: Use these Lean steering metrics to manage the team on a daily basis.

As said, many managers in Financial Services Operations are used to manage by spreadsheet. These spreadsheets may still be of value for autonomous teams or Super7’s. However, the teams should only be managed on their performance against the daily output target. All other metrics should be used to aid in the team’s continuous improvement efforts. Dashboards and spreadsheets give valuable insight in where the autonomous team or Super7 can improve.

Do’s and don’ts of managing autonomous teams (or Super7’s) – part II

Managing autonomous teams, or Super7 teams, requires a different management style than managing regular teams. Here’s part two of the key do’s and don’ts from my practice as a Lean Super7 consultant. When your department introduces Super7 Operations, or other forms of autonomous teams, this may help you to adapt to the new situation you’ll face as a manager.

This week: protecting the boundaries of the team – with more than one different meaning of the word boundaries.

Do: actively manage the boundary conditions, keep optimizing

A manager can improve on performance by setting and adjusting the boundaries. As a manager, you are responsible for how much resources can be used to finish the task. You set the boundaries, for instance on how much flex-hours can be used this month. But don’t get complacent if everything keeps running smooth: too much green lights is also bad. Green lights tell you that everything is perfect, while there is always room for improvement.

Don’t: overload the system, prevent overburden (or in Japanese Lean-speak: Muri)

In many classical operations departments, managers used rigid controls, like hourly standardized work packages. These confine creativity and hinder team work, but they protect the employees also from over-burden. A Super7, or any autonomous team, won’t have this protective cage. Keeping the workload manageable is your responsibility as a manager. A team with performance that is up to par (i.e. 100% productivity in productive time and less than 20% unavailability) should be able to get the work done within the time they have. If they can’t finish on time day after day, you may have under-capacity. You as a manager should protect your team from overburden.

Do: Offer help by adding flex capacity from within the boundaries of Super7, rather than by adding extracting people from other Super7’s.

A recent study into Super7-effectiveness show that help by asking a team member to come back from home is better that help by asking a team member of another team to step in. Help from within their own team is appreciated more, and increases the team bond. With flexible (min/max) contracts, it is possible to increase available capacity without adding people to the group. An unexpected study result it may be, but it appears that a strong independent Super7 team is better than two Super7’s that work closely together.

 

Hope you enjoyed this part II – part III will follow shorty.
Menno R. van Dijk.

Do’s and don’ts of managing autonomous teams (or Super7’s)

Managing autonomous teams, or Super7 teams, requires a different management style than managing regular teams. From my practice as a Lean Super7 consultant, I deducted several key do’s and don’ts. When your department introduces Super7 Operations, or other forms of autonomous teams, this may help you to adapt to the new situation you’ll face as a manager.

In the following weeks, I’ll share them with you on this site (www.cooperationalexcellence.nl). This week, I give you the first two sets.

Do: Let go, let the team make their own mistakes

Sometimes, the team manager sees problems that the team hasn’t recognized yet. A pro-active team manager might want to go and fix it directly. Fix it for the team, to help them along. However, studies show that teams that are allowed to make their own mistakes are more effective and more successful. You as a manager can warn the team, but the team must be left free to fix it or respond to it.

Don’t: Leave the team alone.

A team manager can let go too much. An autonomous team needs management support. They may not need detailed steering, but they do need coaching, facilitating and help in solving problems beyond their own circle of influence.

Do: Offer help when the team asks for it – ask questions later.

An autonomous team is capable to deliver results. Even more than the sum of what each individual could deliver. But there is a limit. When the team says they can’t do it, the team manager should help. What he can do to help depends on the specifics, but could include: add capacity, move resources from one team to another or approve lower output for that day.

Don’t: Always offer help when the team asks for it, without evaluating afterwards.

For example: a team indicates that they can’t meet today’s target, and the team manager accepts that some of the work is shoved foreword to the next day. The manager is right to offer help, but he should evaluate the average productivity of that day. Should it be less than normal, he/she should evaluate this with the team. And, the next time he can demand that the team steps to at least normal pace when they ask for help.

I will share more do’s and don’t in the next couple of weeks. In the mean time: keep experimenting!

Menno R. van Dijk.

Super7 Operations seminar for Lean and Operational Excellence professionals – a report

To present for an audience of Lean and Operational Excellence professionals: quite a daunting task! Last week, I was invited to discuss Super7 Operations with the experts of one of the leading Dutch consulting firms. Consultants, managers and directors: You would expect them to ask challenging questions – and they did. I really enjoyed the discussion with such sharp and experienced professionals. And, I regard it a great compliment that they were impressed with the results we achieved with Super7 Operations. And that they will be reading my book as a result.

As an author, I regularly get request to speak about my book on Super7 Operations. In most cases, I’m asked as an expert, and the audience is interested in how it works. This session was much more a dialogue, where the consultants shared their own experiences with Lean and Operational Excellence.

Key learnings from this expert seminar:

  • The small autonomous teams of Super7 Operations could be used outside financial services: for instance, energy companies have similar back-office operations, as do some telecom providers. And perhaps even healthcare? However, for logistics and production will benefit more from the original Lean approach from the Toyota Production System.
  • It is important to involve the Works Council in the pilots. There may be concerns about the flexibility in hours that is needed to work TITO. Also, changing individual performance reviews into team performance reviews may raise questions. On the other hand, in our experience at a leading Dutch retail bank, we have found that the Works Council is enthusiastic about the increased responsibility and autonomy for the employees.
  • Other Dutch retail banks and insurance companies may be interested in Super7 Operations and consultants could play a crucial role in spreading the idea of Super7 Operations across the Financial Services sector.

I’m looking forward to the next seminar for Lean and Operational Excellence professionals.

Menno R. van Dijk

Improve performance without performance dashboards

Can you improve performance without operational dashboards? As a consultant, I regularly speak with team managers about their team’s improvement efforts, or the lack of thereof. One cause of stalling improvement that keeps popping up is: “I don’t have accurate data. I can’t do anything about team performance without accurate data.” Of course, performance dashboards can be important for many reasons, for one to give focus to your improvement efforts. But is the absence of performance dashboards a reason not to improve? It doesn’t have to be.

An operational team should be given the responsibility to improve their work on a daily basis. Improvement should be their habit. It should feel weird not to be experimenting at any given time. This works best with autonomous teams, which work together on one common daily goal. The Toyota Kata has taught us that these teams should do frequent, small scaled experiments. And that it is equally important that the team learns from each experiment, as that the performance actually improves.

To start improving, a team needs time (a bit of overcapacity is needed to improve), and direction. The direction – what should the team’s improvement efforts focus on – could be derived from operational dashboards. But, often just as well, the direction could follow from a vision, translated into ‘target states’ (see The Toyota Kata). In Lean companies, the vision would be translated through ‘policy deployment’ or ‘hoshin kanri’ in Japanese, other companies would use for instance year-plans.

With time and direction in place, all a team needs is resourcefulness and a whiteboard. Well, you could do without a whiteboard, but in my experience it’s a great tool for improving and experimenting.

As a manager, ask your teams to start improving with what they know now. In parallel, you can work on perfecting your operational dashboards. Don’t wait for perfect dashboards. Start improving today.

 

Menno R. van Dijk.