Addressing OE Challenges with Culture & Sustainment

Joseph D. Vacca has written an article on his interpretation of the Global State of Operational Excellence Survey Report - Critical Challenges & Future Trends - 2018/2019. Click here to read the full Survey Report 2018/19. 

The Most Comprehensive Study of Critical Challenges and Future Trends within Operational Excellence

With nearly 1000 respondents, 37 insightful questions, detailed analysis & insights from 40 industry thought leaders, and the BTOES Insights executive team, this 130 page report is recognised as the most comprehensive study of critical challenges and future trends within Operational Excellence, and is considered a key resource for the industry. Areas covered include:

• The Critical Operational Excellence Challenges faced by executives.

• The Current Scope of Operational Excellence.

• How is Operational Excellence success measured?

• Key Findings & Roadblocks.

• What are executives focusing on over the next 12-18 months?

• What have been the greatest developments?

• What are the key drivers pushing change in Operational Excellence?

• Industry Perspectives.

• Small, Medium & Large Corporation Perspectives.

• Detail Analysis & Insights from BTOES Insights Executive Team.

• Detailed Analysis & Insights from 40 Industry Thought Leaders.

• Analysis of key themes, including Cultural Transformation, Customer Delight, Sustaining an Operational Excellence program, Need for end-to-end Business Transformation, Keeping up with new technologies/impact of digitalization and Leadership Buy-in & Understanding.

 

 

Complete form to access Report now

 

 

Addressing OE Challenges with Culture & Sustainment

Operational Excellence (OE) has a wide range of definitions.

Accordingly, OE programs are applied in very different ways across companies and industries, with varying levels of success. Click here to read more Articles on The Global State of Operational Excellence: Critical Challenges & Future Trends - Research Report 2018/19.

 

 

 

Insights on BTOES Global State of OE Survey 

Interestingly, the BTOES Global State of OE Survey identified 1) Culture and 2) Sustainment as the biggest challenges facing OE programs, regardless of how narrowly or broadly the program is designed. Studies suggest that an alarmingly high number of transformational OE programs fail to sustain in the long run, in part due to the challenges related to culture.  Further evaluation of root causes lead to the following insights:

 

1. Employees didn’t understand or believe WHY the program was important (or the WIIFM)
2. Leaders did not fully buy-in or demonstrate the desired behaviors
3. Tools-based approach was deployed, as opposed to a more flexible principle-based approach
4. Inconsistent mentoring; not enough repetitions were cultivated to sustain new habits

 

 

 

OE programs that successfully sustain

Conversely, OE programs that successfully sustain over time exhibit a very different set of attributes. Employees understand and embrace a purpose.  Leaders “walk the talk”.  OE principles are introduced to employees, but they are encouraged to apply them in ways that make the most sense for their teams (generating engagement). Reinforcement and feedback loops are ingrained into how work gets done.

 

 

The Recipe for Success 

So if we use this as a recipe for success, incorporating each of these ingredients into your OE program will likely help address many of the cultural challenges that your organization is facing. Engagement will be generated by enabling mastery, autonomy and purpose to flow through and empowered workforce. Here are a few suggestions to consider:

• Conduct an honest maturity assessment of your OE program across the 4 success factors
• Use structured problem solving to address maturity gaps, and engage employees in the process
• Encourage leaders to “Go & See” how your OE program is manifesting on the front lines
• Align incentives to leadership behaviors, and celebrate progress across the organization

 

 Another key success factor is related how OE teams are organized and deployed.  As highlighted at the beginning of this article, some OE organizations narrowly target the highest impact problems, while others broadly deploy a holistic business system.  It’s usually one OR the other.  Which approach is more likely to have a bigger impact to your company’s results?  Evidence is growing that the most successful OE programs are structured to deploy a combination of BOTH approaches, in a complimentary way.

 

 

 

Final Thought 

As a final thought, I’d like to add some historical perspective around the concept of excellence and the journey to achieve it by sharing one of my favorite quotes:

 

“Excellence is never an accident . . . it is the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution”

Aristotle (~350 BC) 

 

Principles of excellence have been around for centuries!  And yet it’s the unique application of these principles that generate new forms of excellence every day.  So my advice is to focus your OE program on core principles that have been proven over time, but apply them in ways that make the most sense for your company and the culture you’re trying to build and sustain.