For My Fellow Process Improvers

I’ve had very fun opportunities to work with a number of different process improvement teams over the years in a number of different settings, from Six Sigma Green Belt candidates to Master Black Belts, from Kaizen events to 1:1 coaching to tailored change enablement workshops I’ve developed and delivered.

Most process improvement individuals are pretty skeptical about the benefits of change enablement at first, and it’s almost always for the same reason: They think that good data is enough to convince people to adopt a change.

The reason they show up to my workshops or participate in coaching is because they have learned, usually the hard way, that this is not the case.

If you are a process improvement professional, you have probably experienced the following situation at least once:

The business identifies a problem, maybe in collaboration with you. You work with them to clearly define this problem. You do all of the research and all of the data calculations. You develop conclusions and recommendations. You not only KNOW but can also PROVE that your proposed change is warranted, that it’s the right thing to do. You pull together all of your documentation and maybe even invest considerable time and effort putting together a presentation that anyone should be able to understand.

The business representatives sit there and pay attention as you review the research and the data with them. Then, they look at the black numbers on white paper and nod and say, “Yes, we understand. But no, thank you.”

It’s incredibly frustrating. You know your data is right, and no one disputes that. You know your conclusions and recommendations are logical, and no one disputes that.

They just don’t want to make the change.

Does this sound familiar? Situations like this are all too common within the process improvement world, but there IS a way to get the change successfully implemented.

Please email me – I’d love to help you eliminate this frustration once and for all.