Baby Steps

by Don Harkey

There are so many concepts and so much information available for leaders trying to make positive changes within their organization. There are programs galore to choose from like Total Quality Management, Six-Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, 5S, 8D, etc... you get the idea. It can all be overwhelming.

Where do you start?

Start with baby steps. If you are thinking about change, you must first know what the change is. Change involves going from "A" to "B". If "A" is now, that means you need to know where you are. If "B" is the desired future, that means you need to know where you want to be. This is the first step of any deliberate organizational transformation (in other words "making things better").

The analogy of the baby step here is actually pretty good. A baby step is usually used to imply a very small step. However, we can go deeper into its meaning. A baby taking steps is seldom stable or confident. The first steps are extremely difficult and often result in falling. Yet each new step adds confidence and stability. Once a baby learns to walk, a whole new world is opened up. This is true in an organization as well.

You don't have to map out the entire transformation all at once. That is like trying to get a baby to run the 400 meter hurdles. Start off by pulling your best people together from across your organization and having some frank discussions. Where are we? What are we good at? What can we do better? What defines us?

Brainstorm a list of qualities on the board that your people consider to be desirable. Then discuss each quality and determine if your organization truly possesses those qualities. Some qualities will reflect the DNA of your organization. These are your core values.

Be honest and hard on yourself. I was participating in a session with a company that found discussed the quality of "excellence" and tried to apply it to themselves. The people in the room defined excellence as "being the best you can be in everything you do". A corollary of this could be "if its worth doing, its worth doing right". The company certainly does a lot of things right, but ultimately the group admitted to itself that it doesn't do everything right. For some things within the company considered to be low priority, the effort to do things really well was not very good. This was a tough admission for the team, but it really gave insight into where they were and where they wanted to be.

Most companies establish a list of core values and most companies have NOT been through this process of honest introspection. If you already have a list of core values, challenge yourself. Are you really following them? Do they really reflect who you are? Remember that you are defining yourself, not creating a marketing brochure.

These conversations can be difficult, but they will start to give you more and more insight into who you are and where you want to be. The next step is to look at the qualities where you fell short. If your quality isn't really the best it could be, would you like it to be better? This is an example of an "envisioned future". This is where you want to be.

There you go again! You are trying to envision the whole process through without taking any steps! It's OK. Most people do that. Start with the first baby step. Pull your team together. Ask them what is important to them. Listen. Bring in a trusted outsider to help keep you on track and get an external perspective (this will save you a lot of time!). Don't be afraid of getting lost or falling down. Once you learn to walk, you'll be leaping hurdles in no time!