The Standard we walk by is what we accept

In this week’s issue, I’ll break down a mindset I learned during a senior leader visit years ago during a lean transformation.

Our leadership team was walking this senior leader through a facility and saw a pallet in the middle of a driveway. Instead of stating the obvious, he asked if what we were looking at was okay. We all responded. “No”. Then he asked two more questions which were even more piercing…

“What kind of environment would make a team member comfortable enough to leave the pallet in the middle of a driveway?”

“Who owned creating that environment”?

His point was that at the time, as leaders, we had an environment that allowed those undisciplined actions to be acceptable. That lesson never left me and as I’ve led in more roles, I’ve taken the lesson with me and looked for ways to embed it as we manage for daily improvement.

The standard we walk by is the standard we accept

Here are three areas in which I strive to apply that lesson.

#1: Huddle Boards and KPI Reviews.

There are too many charts that leave us thirsting for more.

When I meet with a front-line leader, besides the stuff they just prepared to share with senior leadership, the standard I have is that we’re building performance from the bottom up so I try to support and reinforce topics like

• How we generate more innovative ideas from the frontline?

• How do frontline teammates see and stay informed of performance?

• How do frontline teammates identify obstacles, and issues during work?

• How do leaders create a problem-solving funnel for those issues with them?

Making sure we have those discussions sets the standard for what I’d like to see as we conduct our daily walk. What questions are you trying to reinforce as you review performance with your teams?

#2: Process Walkthroughs or Gemba Walks

This is an underutilized opportunity in teams for leaders.

Making the time to observe processes or walk through with the team to see hear and feel the culture at the same time. You also get the opportunity to support and challenge the standard you observe.

On a site visit once, I noticed as we walked through one of my sites a poster on a door that was not inclusive and I stopped to inquire. After discussing it with the leaders on the site, it turns out it was placed a long time ago and had just been ignored. It got removed but importantly, it was an opportunity to discuss and reinforce what kind of message and culture we wanted to have in that location.

This point doesn’t only apply to physical visits. It also applies to virtual environments where we want to encourage positive behaviors and deter negative ones.

#3 Employee Concerns and Complaints

It’s tough to unhear what you already heard.

As a leader, you’ll have the opportunity to interact with many team members, and that brings with it their concerns and complaints. If you walk by them, you’re accepting them.

We have an obligation to address them or we’re sending a message that those concerns and complaints are not important. That does not usually end well in my experience. So take them seriously. My recommendations around this are to;

• Develop a strong relationship with your HR partners.

• Keep them informed on the employee issues you’re seeing and addressing. Get their advice on how to respond.

• As appropriate always get back to the employees who raised concerns with you.

Thats it! Thanks for reading. Have a great week!

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