The document discusses Frank Devine's approach to culture change, leadership, and continuous improvement. It advocates for rapid, bottom-up employee engagement to create culture change, demystifying leadership skills through simplification and focus on success, and taking a diagnostic and preventative approach to continuous improvement. By combining these three elements, organizations can overcome barriers to change, increase the pace of progress, and better leverage improvement efforts.

1. Frank Devine
The challenges of change management
© Frank Devine 2014
and people management
Culture Change
x
Demystifying Leadership
x
Continuous Improvement

2. 3 Focus Points
© Frank Devine 2014
Big Questions
• Why do we struggle to get
employee ownership of
change?
• Why does so much
continuous improvement
sub-optimise?
• If we spend so much money
on leadership development
how do we get so much
variation in outcomes?
Today’s Diagnostic Focus
• Lack of radical, deep and
mass engagement
• Overconfidence re what we
“know”
• Guru mystification, time
interval between usage, over
complexity and over
specialisation

3. Culture Change x Leadership x Continuous Improvement:
© Frank Devine 2014
1 x 1 x 1 = 6
Rapid, Mass
Engagement
creating
Culture
Change
Demystifying
Leadership
(Cathedral
/Higher
Purpose
Model)
“Predict and
Prevent”
Continuous
Improvement

4. Culture Change x Leadership x Continuous Improvement: 1 x 1 x 1 = 6
© Frank Devine 2014
Rapid, Mass
Engagement
creating
Culture Change
Demystifying
Leadership
(Cathedral
/Higher
Purpose
Model)
“Predict and
Prevent”
Continuous
Improvement
Enhanced skill
levels leverage
any given CI
application
Aligns
leadership to CI

5. Culture Change via Mass Engagement
• Rapid, within weeks, and Bottom Up.
• Employees codify the desired continuous
improvement culture.
• Employees create a Higher Purpose or a plan to
achieve any given objective (varies by
organisation).
• Overcomes barriers to change including deep-seated
© Frank Devine 2014
restrictive attitudes and beliefs.
Rapid, Mass
Engagement
creating
Culture Change
Demystifying
Leadership
(Cathedral
/Higher
Purpose
Model)
“Predict and
Prevent”
Continuous
Improvement

6. Engagement Structure
Top Down and Bottom Up Top Down
Increased pace Pace entirely dependent upon
© Frank Devine 2014
leaders’ commitment and skill
Increased undermining of negative
filters, cynicism etc.
Effect on employees is indirect
Leaders held accountable from
both directions
Suitable when the future is
uncertain or when senior
leadership changes are expected
Ideal when rapid radical change is
needed either for competitive
advantage or survival!

7. Continuous Improvement
• Diagnostic and humble approach
e.g. brilliant basics.
• Hypothesis-based.
• Preventative not reactive.
• Humble in general but particularly to the limits of
analysis alone .
• Daily improvement not just spasmodic Kaizen
events.
© Frank Devine 2014
Rapid, Mass
Engagement
creating
Culture Change
Demystifying
Leadership
(Cathedral
/Higher
Purpose
Model)
“Predict and
Prevent”
Continuous
Improvement

8. Demystifying Leadership
• Focus is on setting leaders up for
success via simplification and brilliant basics.
• The leadership skills form a system.
• The system includes self-sustaining mechanisms
at overall system level and within each skill.
• The leadership approach is based on employee
input i.e. “customer” input.
• The skills are designed to leverage Continuous
Improvement applications.
• Delivered via a small number of key skills done
well and often.
© Frank Devine 2014
Rapid, Mass
Engagement
creating
Culture Change
Demystifying
Leadership
(Cathedral
/Higher
Purpose
Model)
“Predict and
Prevent”
Continuous
Improvement

9. Frequent mistakes
• Random “improvements” (strategic and tactical).
• Over focus on waste so neglecting direction
(“which improvements?”), culture, unevenness
of demand and overburden.
• Relying on the system to create the culture and
thus missing leverage and acceleration
(= time = money*). * see MIT Manufacturing Affordability Program
• Timid and Naïve engagement.
• Fuzziness reference what is “up for grabs”.
• Relying on “standard” leadership development.
© Frank Devine 2014

10. Frank Devine
Tel: 07801 374606
Email: acceleratedimp@aol.com
Web Site: www.acceleratedimprovement.co.uk
© Frank Devine 2014