Change Management Tips

Lean is an ongoing journey, not a destination. It offers the greatest rewards to organizations that sustain the long-term commitment, support, and enthusiasm of everyone from upper management to front-line staff.

These selected tips, based on our PSG Lean curriculum, will help ensure a rewarding process for all involved:

• Before attempting any change, use observation and Lean tools to develop a deep understanding of the current process.
• Consider frontline staff the resident experts. They are best suited to evaluate and redesign the work processes.
• Explore issues from the point of view of the external customer or client.
• Redesign work processes using the scientific method. Each change is an experiment, and each experiment may lead to new experiments.
• Assure frontline staff of a safe and supportive atmosphere for experimentation. Any issues that arise are seen as opportunities for further learning.
• Minimize meetings and workflow disruptions. Collaborate on problem solving in the course of daily work.
• Faciliitate staff participation by taking advantage of e-learning options such as webcasts, podcasts, and videos. Many of these are available around the clock and accessible from any computer. They are ideal learning tools for people with demanding or unpredictable schedules.