Think Before You Change

It should be a simple thing to figure out, but often times the individuals in charge of making decisions do not necessarily think all of them through. This is true many times when it comes to making improvements in a business practice or process. In order to get leaner and much more efficient, the company will bring in someone from the outside to help teach them and the staff how to work smarter and more effectively.

This idea and practice in itself is not a bad thing, and can reward those that put the effort into the changes with many benefits. But there is a drawback that can go unnoticed or ignored by those that don’t necessarily have to deal with it. That drawback is the bringing in of an outsider, somebody that doesn’t know anybody in the company, and of the dynamics or really the history of the company as it pertains to how things evolved at that particular location, and start hammering for changes.

These changes might be good and they may be necessary, yet all too frequently they go in with a blind eye to actually working together with the men and women that they need to and instead begin ordering all the new changes to be completed. An illustration of this is when the efficiency expert takes aim at a specific vendor. Maybe that vendor has worked closely with the company to stock high volume production products on the factory floor.

After months or maybe years of learning from mistakes, growing and changing, they come up with a system that works for both of them. After all, a good business relationship is reciprocal. The efficiency expert calls items to the vendors attention, wanting to know why this and how that, but not in a method that facilitates trust and a building of relationship, but more in a questioning and accusatory manner.

This is not the way to build trust and a relationship and more often than not, this is the way the expert goes through each department and each manager. Instead of working together, they will often make it a “them” ! verses & #8220;me” mentality where the my way or the highway culture begins to form. This can be because the upper management has given them the idea that they will make the changes and if anybody doesn’t like it then they will be moved out of the way for progress. The point is that working together; taking into account everybody affected by any changes and incorporating ideas from different viewpoints is the best way to go about implementing long term changes.

6 sigma is a processes that has proven beneficial to all businesses that use it. To find about getting a Six sigma training program in your business check out sixsigmaonline.org.