LESSONS FROM NORTH AMERICAN FIRMS IN DESIGNING HIGH PERFORMANCE LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS*

LESSONS FOR SUCCESS (+’s)

• Develop a High Performance Learning Organization (HPLO’s) – tailor made "it" to your situation.

• Find qualified (external/internal consulting) help

• Hard work is after design is completed and during implementation

• HPLO’s must be actively supported by training and retraining (10-12% average after 3-5 years); also, time and trainers – trainees.

• Start out slow (don’t just throw teams together)

• Need better employee pay (innovative) systems

• Do the "change" for "business reasons"; not "people reasons", clear success factors from the HPLO System

• Determining the need for change/why change is Critical? (NOT Why "others" should change; Why "we" should change.)

• Develop a "Vision Direction Setting Package" (VDSP) towards leaner/flatter structures and other design features supported by values, philosophies, principles and clear/concise expectations.

• Training at the right time; not for training anytime

• Maintain good communication; cannot communicate too much!

• Smaller organization (# of employees) size is better (communication/resolving problems, peer pressure, etc.); directly associated with financial return.

• Some employers hire high school graduates as minimum requirements; some require 2 year associate degrees

• Cultural change (paradigm shift (not incremental change) in the way we do business

• Don’t be afraid to make mistakes—we all do! However, learn from these mistakes.

• Accurately assess employee attitudes (an assessment from outside) before design/implementation

• Go for the "quick, bang-for-the-buck" fixes ASAP! (80-20 rule does apply – don’t expect "perfection".

• Self-Directed Work Teams (SDWT) "leadership roles" (in team) and coach’s role need to be clearly defined; also, the "technical tasks or skills" and the "team activities/business activities" skills

• Top Management "buy-in"/support is a must!

• Constant communication for all is essential; cannot have too much communication

• Keep all employees involved throughout the design and implementation process

• Develop performance (balanced scoreboard) measures against business objectives

• Communication and review (ongoing) the vision direction setting package and mission

• People involvement is the key

• Coaches and middle management need training upfront (and in the design process)

• Training dollars and time/people for training (10-15% of time per year)

• Seek input from all stakeholders for design and implementation ownership

• Focus on a few balanced performance measures (in early going); then have a "balanced scoreboard".

• Continue to "redesign" after the "design" has been implemented (not set in concrete)

• HPLO costly to start – but end results is highly profitable high performance system (6.8% economic value added (EVA) in a redesign system to 10.1% - EVA in a New-design)

• SDWT leadership roles are integrated with technical skills acquisition (from the start) – both white and blue-collar teams; then, white-collar SDWT’s at the plant level and account teams at the business level.

• Skill assessment builds commitment

• Develop a "trust" level that enhances open and honest communication (suggestions/ideas/conflicts all worked)

• Make use of external and internal facilitation

• Have adequate training/retraining as you go along

• Job rotation and multi-skill within the SDWT (a must!)

• Reward accomplishments as you go along – have fun

• Company willingness to back the effort with dollars, time, resources, etc.

• Involve the people that are affected/involve the people from the start

• Upper management, local management and factory floor buy-in during the design and implementation is critical!

• Management must lead by example (behavior or actions required – not words)

• Involve everyone in the design and implementation (from the start)

• Clear guidelines and boundaries around decision making (plant level, operations (business) team, and each SDWT (develops a decision Matrix for each level)

• Must have multiple champions (Business level and Site level) up – the chain of command; use the "hook" strategy

• Gather (higher-up) support before you begin the design

• Pay-for-Versatility/Contribution: technical, business/team activities, and leadership roles are a must for successful SDWT’s

• Make time for "redesigning the design" (sometime after the implementation phase which usually lasts 12-24 months)

• Create a work environment that creates trust

• Personnel selection is the key to success – right people can accomplish anything (use Targeted Selection)

PITFALLS (-’s)

• Track and monitor business, plant and SDWT (business and people) performance data

• The more self-directed you want there to be, the more integrated organization transformational strategies you need

• Start out with a performance measuring stick – stand back to see "how we are doing"

• Information must be shared honestly – confidential information also

• Need a Vision Direction Setting Package (VDSP) that is well defined and clearly developed by the key stakeholder – very directional

• Certain pay systems (e.g., gainsharing) likely to fail if implemented too soon; start with individual pay (Pay-for-Contribution (PFC) or Pay-for-Versatility (PFV) – then proceed to the site and business level reward systems.

• Self-directed work teams (SDWT) leadership roles (in team) and coach’s role need NOT to be clearly defined

• Start with a "core" (common design features) redesign across the business, site and then – all units at once

• HPLO is not a short-term fix

• Pay systems (Business Success Sharing, Gainsharing) too soon!

• "Self-managed" is seen as "self-employed"!

• Involve lower-level supervision later and to "right degree"

• Responsibility/leadership lacking

• "Sticker shock" from the redesign proposal (stepwise change; Note: lack of upfront planning and incremental change expectations)

• Not everyone is willing to change (everyone else – NOT "me" or "us")

• Lack of management support

• Incremental learning

• Extra resources, time/overtime costs

• "Big team" looses focus; lacks consistency of purpose – continuity of management – focused, clear, and consistent direction "West"

• Make changes while progressing - processing

• It’s been 3 years – we still have "we/they" attitudes

• We have too much work to do before we’re "ready to begin"

• Lack of accountability/responsibility

• Lack detailed implementation plan (60% of the entire change effort is implementation)

• Going from design to handle cultural problems, i.e., placement

• Hard to embrace change

• Don’t push the "program of the day" – have ducks lined up

• Champions are a must at a high level – "business champion; plant champion" – both are a must"!

• No quick fix – more than a few months to "design" and 12-24 months to successfully implement everything in a step-wide change design

• Bringing in personnel (management, professional staff, hourly) without required training

• Management impatience for decision making process

• Reality check: Business and Site may need more time (assessment is needed)

• Too much corporate help! Corporate leadership "doesn’t know what they don’t know"!

• Lack of details in the design (implementation teams have a lot of work to do after the design proposal is finished)

• Involve supervisory and mid-management in the future direction of the business and site

• The coach, sits back and allows SDWT’s to develop

• Unclear roles prevents progress – supervisors and management

• Lack of unions (maybe?) is a key for HPLO success, sometimes NOT! Sometimes an effective union leadership can make a site progress faster than a non-union one.

• Status quo "OK" Change, "not OK"

• Upper management reluctant to give up power and control

• Pay systems designed before work system designed; poor design leads to poor business results

• Don’t underestimate training/retraining needs – it’s more than you think

• Dealing with dominant personalities

• Lack of communication within the SDWT’s

• Front-end loaded training vs. "as-is-needed" training

• Too large a SDWT – reduces focus; not "big team" or "shift team" – but "little shift SDWT"

• Allow SDWT members to set goals and set performance measures; coach and upper management are involved.

• Coaches spending too much time with problem people (5 -10% of population) – while the rest of the people are "ready to go" and are "by themselves" to "sink or swim"

• Employee meetings without need, cost, time and focus

• Not following through with the system design; lack of implementation (detailed implementation plan is missing)

• Not having training to do the tasks, team activities/business activities and leadership roles etc.

• SDWT development and system design are time consuming

• Assuming everyone is committed to HPLO’s

• Time spent in design and implementation – more than anticipated

• Change process requires time (in "regular" design or "fast track" design or "hybrid design")

• Ability to manage seniority

• Don’t start gainsharing too soon

• Technical reliability is a part of systems design

• Watch people getting promoted to key positions of leadership that are not consistent with the design

• The design Process for a High Performance System – realize the key success factors are unrelated (this is only a "people" effort)

• Not enough communications an unnecessary anxiety

• Scared to learn new things

• Lack of following through with ideas and suggestions

• Too many committees/leadership roles cause the site/business to be spread too thin

• Lack of both "local" and "business" champions hurt the overall change process

• Hidden design agenda: workforce (head count) reduction

• On a redesign, all the "units at once!"

• The internal consultants/management "don’t know – what they don’t know"!

1. Site manager too involved in nitty-gritty (day-to-day) site operations. (NOT enough in HPO - - balance needed)
   
2. Design team selection:
   a. Need a first line supervisor
   b. Needs stronger technician/clerical/maintenance representative
   c. Needs stronger professional representatives
   
3. Internal (consultant) resources needs more education of the CWI process in advance, e.g., process consultation, organizational design, CWI process, Socio-tech conferences, etc. Internal resources needs to be available 50% of time three to six months in advance, 50%-70% during Design Team and 100% during implementation.
   
4. Design process "best accomplished:" Part time versus full time. This way, the Design Team remains a part of the Site operation further enhancing communication.
   
5. Use external consultants in expert role of design or redesign; plan to increase Site’s internal capability.
   
6. Plan for sharing of this process so internal Company capability is increased.
   
7. Design Team needs to operate as an effective team; therefore, team building up front (first few weeks) is important to increase their effectiveness.
   
8. Communication to the troops (Design Team needs to do it, Design Team members have three roles).
   a. Design
   b. Face to face communication/feedback with coworkers and managers
   c. Perform tasks/roles (job) back in their Unit
   
9. Knowledge and information level of management team on design process is too low. Train them first so they can better support the CWI effort.
   
10. There is a feeling in the site that "new" design will be set in concrete. People need to understand that the design will be flexible. Need strong renewal process to provide for continuous work improvement.
    
11. Management group always running the site while design team is not available needs to run the site ALL the time; therefore, freeing the design team members from the management team to work on other strategic issues, special projects, etc.
    
12. A major difference between "new design" and "redesign" is that redesign is two to three times more difficult than new design.

HPO Concerns

1. Training required for design implementation. Technically, we are weak. 70% of effort needs to go for technical training. The other 30% of training effort needs to go to non-technical, business, interpersonal skills training.
   
   Options:

• Take best technicians and supervisors and make them trainers (provided they could do the training).

• Need trainers and need to allow them time to train.

• Three usual ways to train: Overtime; extra people per major "chunk" of work; and, extra crew (five crews on a four crew schedule).

2. Time and resources for implementation – can we provide it? Need the Internal Consultant 100% plus extra resources and free up workforce to work on implementation team(s).
   
3. The Company needs to take its best line (management) people and put them into internal resource role for two to three years and, then, return them to line management.

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* Developed from the Survey of Innovative Organizations, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX