The Change Agent

A Change Agent is any executive that "makes things happen"

also known as Executive Sponsor

Importance of the Change Agent

The Change Agent is the single most important role
influencing the success or failure of any systems improvement project

How important?

Without a Change Agent, the highest level of success that your process improvement efforts can hope for is "pockets of excellence". One lone person, or a small isolated team.
If any major change initiative is not actively sponsored by an effective Change Agent, the probability of success for that project is not just close to zero - it is zero. There is zero chance of success.

Ideal profile of a Change Agent

Any high-level executive with vision and drive can be a Change Agent.

The Change Agent should ideally have executive-level control over most of the activities within the processes being changed.

Although it is rare to find two Change Agents within a single company, it is possible - and every Executive should be encouraged to develop their "Change Agent skills".

Unfortunately, it is more common to find executive teams that have no Change Agent. It is then the responsibility of the President/CEO to either:

accept that no significant improvement activities are likely to happen - or...
encourage and motivate at least one executive to exhibit Change Agent behavior - or...
make personnel changes to add a Change Agent to the executive team

The most important thing to look for in a Change Agent is initiative.
Ironically, in the early phases, the Change Agent needs to be a "benevolent tyrant" pushing through many top-down initiatives in order to overcome stuck-in-the-mud inertia to institute sustainable systems for continuous improvement. After about 5 years, the continuous improvement systems become very much a part of the company culture, and changes will then "bubble up" from the line & staff workers themselves.

It usually takes about 5 years of intensive training, doing, and re-training (because there is no way that everyone will "get it all" the first time) before Kaizen transitions into a bottom-up activity - with most changes coming from the self-directed Kaizen Teams that have now established continuous improvement as a way of life.

Be forewarned: Without frequent re-training, there is a VERY strong tendency for middle managers to slide right back into the "safety nets" of building inventories using batch & queue processes that are so much more tolerant of sloppiness and mistakes.

Even after those first five years, however, an effective Change Agent is still essential to continued success. There are many case studies of companies that achieved remarkable levels of excellence with deeply ingrained lean culture - only to watch it all slowly wash away after a merger or take-over by a new parent company only interested in "managing the numbers".

"Problems with buy-in are almost always problems with leadership."

~ David Mann - Author of Creating a Lean Culture

"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."

~ W. Edwards Deming

What a Change Agent needs to succeed

A sensei. Every sensei needs a sensei.
Please note: Systems2win does not provide consulting services. So this is not a self-serving statement. It's just true.
A President/CEO that maintains a steady hand at the rudder when the crew wants to turn back to familiar shores.
Lean thinking. Dual focus upon both - results, and the processes that produce the results. Dual focus upon both: lean production systems and the lean management systems needed to support them.
Front-line (not side-line) involvement and knowledge. Willingness to be taught and to brainstorm alongside "subordinates", and to get your hands dirty when machines & desks need to be moved. The Change Agent isn't expected to know everything about Kaizen Lean Training, but does need to identify what is needed, and then ensure that it is provided.
Leverage. The Change Agent needs to be able and willing to apply heat - because some people change when they see the light - and others wait until they feel the heat.
Patient persistence. Understanding that there will almost certainly be "one step back for every two steps forward", and that "nothing is ever perfect", and yet still find ways to consistently move forward with a bias for action and quick experiments (rather than lengthy analysis).
Contagious Vision. The ability to ability to spread vision. To be understood by upper management, the Board, fence-sitters, and all stakeholders as promoting ideas with enormous potential benefit for everyone. Strong conviction that things can be better; with contagious energy to make it so.
Emotional intelligence. Be able to identify, understand, use, and manage emotions to flexibility to draw the most from different types of people. To get out of the way of superstars that have both competence and motivation. To support & train people that have motivation but lack skills. And to motivate or replace people who take too long to adjust to the changing culture.
To continuously improve performance evaluation systems that encourage and reward desired behaviors, like team orientation, kaizen participation, idea contribution, adherance to standard work... even working with other executives that manage people on cross functional teams.
Lean systems for process improvement. Not just one-liners - but field-proven systems - with tools, and training, and systems for following through.

TWI recommended systems for getting continuing results

The leaders of the Training Within Industry program recommended six fundamental systems that an organization must have in place in order to succeed with continuous improvement:

Systems to assign responsibility for results
Systems to adequately train a large percent (if not all) of the supervisors
Systems for coaching
Systems for reporting, monitoring, and responding to results
Systems to give encouragement and credit for results
Systems to warmly receive new ideas, and efficiently approve (or disapprove) proposals for continuous improvement

And TWI astutely noted that it is not enough to just design the systems - but they must be supported, maintained, and continuously improved with adequate staffing (and more so today than 70 years ago --- IT support).

The philosophy of Systems2win tools

is to provide fill-in-the-blanks templates with on-line training for best-practice systems for continuous improvement. And to do do in a way that allows diverse organizations to piece those components together in diverse ways that still accomplish the common end goal ---
Easy-to-use, effective, systems for continuous improvement.

How Change Agents fail

One extreme - by being a heartless self-promoter or technocrat with no apparent concern for the sometimes painful human issues affected by proposed changes.
The other extreme - by failing to understand your role as a blocker for your Team Leaders carrying the ball.
Failing to apply leverage when it is needed.
By failing to give job assurances, or failing to prevent layoffs due to process improvement success.

Pocket Card for Second Line Supervisors

TWI Pocket Card A "second line supervisor" is broadly defined as:
"anyone that manages anyone that manages anyone"

Included with the Systems2win Lean Training templates
are templates that makes it easy to quickly make your own TWI Pocket Cards.

The Systems2win J2 Pocket Card for Second Line Supervisors
contains succinct reminders of what a Change Agent needs for success -
summarized on a credit-card-sized pocket card that can be easily personalized
with the success factors that your company believes are most important.

You can easily personalize your company's TWI Pocket Cards for your own best practices,
then print, cut out, laminate, and distribute to your second line supervisors as part of their managerial training.

Each card is perfectly sized to be the exact same size as a credit card.

In addition to the Pocket Card for Second Line Supervisors, there is also
a Job Instructions Pocket Card, a Job Relations Pocket Card, and a Job Methods Pocket Card.

How to know if you have what it takes to be a Change Agent

Here's one acid test.. If you don't have the political power to persuade your company to provide your project team with the inexpensive tools that they need for continuous improvement, then your are decidedly NOT a Change Agent.

Now that's okay, because you might still make a terrific Process Improvement Team Leader, but it is absolutely essential for an effective Team Leader to to recognize that his or her power is drawn from (and directly correlated to) the power of the Change Agent.

How to know if you have what it takes to be a Team Leader

Here's an acid test for a Team Leader... If you are unable to use your personal persuasive skills to convince a high level executive or manager within your company to fulfill the role of the Change Agent, then you need to face the reality that you have zero chance of success as a Team Leader... at least within your current company or division. You might be a terrific Team Leader in a company or division that has a strong Change Agent to support you.

Have you ever seen the movie Men of Honor? Where the first Black Navy diver in history takes 16 hours in freezing water to complete his final assembly test - because they cut his tool bag and strewed his tools all over the ocean floor?

If you have the drive and initiative to be a Team Leader, but find yourself in a company or division that won't even provide you with the tools you need to succeed, then maybe it might be time to do your career (and your family and your mental and physical health) a huge favor, and strap on the courage to face the truth that you have found yourself in the wrong career. It might be time to start your search for some eagles you can fly with, instead of wallowing with turkeys that cut your bag and strew your tools all over the ocean floor, and then hold you accountable for your poor performance.

Summary

For any project that will involve significant changes - you need a Change Agent.

Don't start a major change project without one.

Excel templates for Value Stream Mapping, Lean Process Improvement and Kaizen Continuous Improvement