Category: Organizational Effectiveness - Juma Vera (Maitreyi Gautam)

Developing a Lean Culture

8/7/2018

Organizations which follow Lean principles of continuous improvement in their daily workings are called "Lean" organizations. They have a culture of Continuous Improvement that utilizes efficient processes with reduced (ideally zero) waste.

Lean organizations understand the importance of increasing customer value and because of this, focus their effort towards continuously enhancing customer satisfaction. Companies with a Lean culture help their workforce to move in the same desired direction of meeting corporate goals and vision by moving forward in an efficient and organized manner.

Here are three steps that you can take towards developing a Lean organizational culture...

Develop a Continuous Learning Culture- Train your workforce to have the best skills and competencies to do their job. Then inculcate in them the spirit of Continuous Learning, so that your employees are always enhancing themselves with the latest knowledge in their field and bringing back that value to your organization.
Maintain Open & Clear Communication Channels- It is important for your people to know that their voice is heard without any bias or fear of repercussion. Provide clear mechanisms for receiving feedback from your workforce. Communicate any subsequent action-steps that were taken to incorporate suggestions and resolve issues.
Encourage Efficient and Engaged Way of Working- Recognize and reward employees that show active engagement in the organization's vision and growth. Create a workforce culture where suggestions and feedback are welcomed, and efficient ways of working are immediately recognized and commended.

Implementing Lean principles is only the start of an organization's continuous improvement journey. Developing and maintaining a Lean culture is very crucial for sustaining the implemented efficient processes. A Lean workplace culture will encourage your employees to continuously augment customer value with minimal waste/cost, which in turn will increase profits and enhance the organization's bottom-line.

Maitreyi Gautam MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

#LeanOrganization #LeanCulture #LeanSixSigma #BusinessExcellence #SandhyaBhat

What is a Lean Organization?

7/20/2018

Lean is a collection of practices, tools and methodologies which help to improve process efficiency by focusing on delivering increased customer value by maximizing efficiency and reducing waste.

Lean principles can be applied to every functional area of an organization. It can be implemented in a bottom-up or a top-down approach. Because of this, Lean principles become a philosophy which pervades across the various divisions and departments by becoming part of an organization's core work-culture.

Organizations which follow these Lean principles of continuous improvement in their daily workings are called "Lean" organizations. Since Lean involves creating an efficient work environment, it is important that the workforce feels empowered and believe their suggestions/ ideas/ opinions will be heard irrespective of their level within the organization. Because of this Lean helps in enhancing Organizational Effectiveness.

Lean organizations understand the importance of increasing customer value and because of this, focus their main processes towards continuously enhancing customer satisfaction.

The final objective of a Lean Organization is to be able to provide maximum benefits and value to their customer by utilizing efficient processes that have reduced (ideally zero) waste.

Maitreyi Gautam MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

#LeanOrganization #LeanSixSigma #BusinessExcellence #SandhyaUBhat #ContinuousImprovement

Building an Effective Organization: How to have an Engaged Workforce?

7/3/2018

In today’s day and age where people think of corporations as ‘cold entities’ only interested in increasing their bottom-line, it is important for organizations to improve their effectiveness by utilizing their biggest assets- their human capital, thru optimal engagement. Ultimately, it is the people within an organization that allow for products to be made and services to be delivered. Improving Organizational Effectiveness is not an option when a company truly wants to be successful in their financial worth and a leader in their industry.

… and having an engaged workforce is extremely key to enhanced Organizational Effectiveness. Here are five ways by which an organization can empower its employees and make them feel more engaged and valued:

1. Clear Corporate Vision:When you have a clear corporate vision, then employees know where and how they will be contributing to the grand action-plan. This in turn will help to make your employees feel a sense of meaning and purpose in their daily work activities and also about their role within the organization and their work-team.

2. Challenge them to Evolve & Grow:Make it a point to provide clear career and personal development plans to your employees. This will not only allow them to evolve and grow in their own right but seeing how much the organization values their growth and progress will make them feel more engaged in their work activities and overall organizational success.

3. Show Trust with Guidance ‘vs’ Management: When employees feel that they are being ‘managed’ it can have an adverse effect on their productivity. They will not feel trusted and will not feel comfortable to express their ideas and feedback. Instead when employees are provided mentoring and guidelines to do their job, they will feel appreciated for their core competencies and be more open to molding themselves to organizational and team needs.

4. Allow for Flexible Work Times: This may not be possible for all industries or job categories, but as much as possible provide employees with flexible work times. When employees are provided with flexible working times, they will be able to better balance their work and personal commitments. This in turn will reduce their stress levels and help them to be more strategic (instead of tactical) and engaged in their work activities. Ultimately this will reflect as increased overall productivity.

5. Provide Positive Feedback with Accolades and Negative Feedback with Constructive Criticism: Positive feedback in terms of accolades, rewards and awards goes a long way in making an employee feel valued in their organization. This in turn reinforces their commitment not just to the organizational goals and vision, but also their work team and projects at hand. By the same token when an employee has not met their performance expectations or their goals, provide them with constructive criticism along with concrete tangible actions that they can take to improve and develop. Such a healthy feedback cycle will make the employee feel engaged and valued within the organization.

There are many ways in which an organization can empower and engage their workforce. These five points above are a great way to start mobilizing an effective human capital vitalization strategy for your organization.

#OrganizationalEffectiveness #HumanResources #HumanCapitalManagement #HumanCapitalUtilization #SandhyaBhat

Sandhya U Bhat MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

Right balance between Competency & Attitude

12/4/2017

The key to building productive and profitable teams is to

#WinningTeam #CompetencyvsAttitude #BuildingGreatTeams

Read of the week: Enhancing Work-Environment

10/15/2017

Finding and keeping good talent is increasingly becoming a challenge for corporations. Employees leave their company for varied reasons- but lack of engagement and stressful environment are probably two of the main reasons!

Human Resources teams are constantly looking to come up with ways in which they can engage and retain their employees. It seems like Microsoft has come up with a truly innovative way to provide a less-stress work environment which is sure to be a crowd-pleaser!

Tired of the office? Microsoft builds treehouses for its employees was recently published on Market Watch. A wonderful article that shows how Microsoft is not only trying to find a foothold as a pioneer in technology, but is also trying to do so in Talent Management and Organizational Effectiveness.

#TreeHouseMeetingRooms #EngagingEmployees #RetainingTalent #OrganizationalEffectiveness #KeepingGoodPeople

Understanding Employee Engagement

9/22/2017

The Management Journal’s semi-annual Employee Engagement Index reports that 60% of employees are not
engaged, 15% are actively disengaged and only 25% are actively engaged at work.

The etymology of the word “engaged” comes from the French, gage – to pledge one’s self or enter a contract.
Because of this, engagement is created through an intangible psychological contract- between the employee
and their leader (Organization).

Employee engagement requires that leaders clearly communicate expectations from each personnel, then
establish trust by leading thru example and then allowing those personnel to take ownership of their tasks along with being responsible for their performance.

There are many reasons an employee can feel dis-engaged. Some of them are:

They don’t understand how their work fits in the big picture.
They are fearful of organizational changes and how it could impact them.
Unfair, unreliable or temperamental boss.
Being over-worked.
Not being recognized for their work.

Disengaged and not engaged employees lead to loss of productivity and add to operational costs. They also
affect team morale and performance.

There are many way to increase employee engagement and commitment. Some of them are:

Provide clear guidance on what is expected from employees and how it fits into the bigger team or organizational vision.
Clearly communicate (as much as possible) on any upcoming Organizational changes and what is being done to mitigate personal and business impact.
Select right managers that are able to actively engage their team. If needed, provide them coaching and guidance on how to enhance team morale.
Develop realistic Employee Engagement metrics.
Coach and mentor managers (if needed) and hold them accountable for their employees' engagement.

Engaged and committed employees will increase the true value of your Human Capital investment and reduce
employee turnover costs. It will also increase employee satisfaction and morale, which will reflect in increased
work quality & performance efficiency.

Sandhya U Bhat MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

#Employee #HumanResource #OrganizationalEffectiveness #EmployeeEngagement #LearningandDevelopment #CorporateTrainingTV #Leadership #Management #Coaching #Mentor

3 Reasons you need Lean Six Sigma for Better Relationship Management

9/18/2017

Business (or Client) Relationship Management is a key area for any department but it is particularly important
for functions in any Organization. Functions provide services internally to the organization and many a times,
client’s view of what they do and what they are supposed to do can easily get skewed! Providing transparent
metrics to clients about their service offerings and subsequent improvements along with clear channels of
receiving customer feedback goes a long way in helping to establish a solid Business/Client Relationship
Management Framework.

Here is a short info-graphic on three ways in which Lean Six Sigma can help to better Business Relationship
Management.

3 Reasons you need Lean Six Sigma for Better Relationship Management Lean principles allow for Voice of Customer to be systematically obtained and evaluated. It ensures that all clients are heard with equal attention and importance without any bias to the louder or more aggressive opinions. Using Lean principles, we can easily portray how customer's feedback and opinions have been incorporated to provide improved and enhanced service/products. Simple and clear metrics such as Quality Indicators (QIs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be included within the Customer Service Framework to ensure that client requirements along with greater vision for service-providing department (e.g. HR, IT etc.) and the overall Organization are comprehensively met. This allows for clear objectivity to be maintained and removes hearsay from Business-Client Relationship conversation. When clients can objectively see how their opinions are not only being heard but also being incorporated to provide improved service/products, it helps them to feel valued. This in and of itself helps to improve customer satisfaction. Clarity from metrics helps to identify areas where the root problem or concern for client dis-satisfaction could be beyond the capabilities of service-providing department. In such a scenario, metrics and other gap details which are intrinsic to Lean-IT methodology can help to build strong Business Case for change-initiating ventures and projects.Picture

#BusinessRelationshipManagement #CustomerSatisfaction #CRM #LeanSixSigma #LeanforCustomerSatisfaction

LEAN- IT (slide 3)

3/25/2017

Lean can help with reducing

This is a nine-part infographic series on how Lean principles can be used to increase IT effectiveness. Here is the third slide. This slide-series was published in ASQ Ottawa Valley newsletter- May 2017. #LeanIT #LeanSixSigma #ITTransformation

5 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement

11/29/2016

Here is a nice info-graphic which I created for our Learning & Development portal which provides 5 ways in which an organization can increase employee engagement. As we all know employee dis-engagement is a major cause of not only reduced productivity by a particular employee but can lead to a systemic adverse impact to the organization's profitability and bottom-line. So increasing employee engagement has a direct benefit of helping to increase productivity and thus profitability.

#Employee #HumanResource #OrganizationalEffectiveness #EmployeeEngagement