1. What competencies do you need to develop at each level of your organisation?

One key observation I have made across many Change Programmes is that there isn’t real clarity on what competencies need to be developed at each level of the organisation and consequently what should the individuals learn.

You will most probably agree that the competencies you are aiming to create should be different for different roles. Yet, it is not rare to see the exact same training content being delivered to individuals working at different levels of the organisation. This of course leads to some negative feedback from the learners saying they don’t feel the training was relevant to them and to their role. 

At the leadership level, fostering a culture that prioritises continuous improvement can be hindered by resistance to change and a lack of commitment to investing time and resources in developing new processes. Middle management may struggle with aligning operational goals with strategic objectives, and frontline employees may encounter difficulties adapting to new methodologies and technologies. 

Communication gaps between different levels can further impede the seamless integration of operational excellence practices. To overcome these challenges, organisations need to establish a top-down commitment to operational excellence, ensuring leadership support and involvement. Middle managers should receive training and support to bridge the gap between strategic goals and day-to-day operations. Providing comprehensive training programmes and fostering a transparent communication culture will empower frontline employees to embrace operational excellence practices. Regular assessments, feedback loops, and recognition programmes can reinforce the commitment to continuous improvement, creating a resilient and adaptable organisation capable of overcoming the challenges associated with building operational excellence capability at different levels.

2. Which delivery method(s) will best achieve these competencies?

In order to build the right capabilities across your organisations, you need to choose the most appropriate delivery methods. In other words, for the learning to be successful, you cannot just focus on the content, you also need to carefully choose the delivery methods based on your audience, timeframe, location and cost. Here are some of the key points to consider before you make a decision:

Classroom Training

This approach, although often over-used, is ideal for training Operations Excellence techniques to internal Improvement Practitioners as it gives them the upfront knowledge of the methodology and tools. Classroom training can also be very effective for teaching Operational Managers and Team Leaders the different Continuous Improvement techniques they can use in their work environment.

One word of caution though, classroom training also requires some planning so for practical purposes, it is not always possible to deliver a classic classroom training ‘just in time’, meaning that some people might not get the opportunity to use their new skills just after the training – and your organisation will not be able to capitalise on its investment as much. It is important that you don’t restrict yourself to classroom training.

Face-to-Face / 1-2-1 Coaching

An approach which can unlock huge potential for individuals and allow people to understand where their current capabilities lie and where they need to develop further. Coaching ideally will be planned after workshops or training at different intervals for individuals to further their development and support practical use. I would recommend all individuals to seek personal coaching as this is appropriate at all levels.

Facilitated Group Workshop

This is in my opinion an ideal approach for engaging Senior Leaders, agreeing how the group can lead Operations Excellence and devising the strategic objectives for the next 2-3 years. The best senior leaders workshops I have observed have included a ‘go and see‘ element of an area/organisation deemed as best practice. Classroom training with this audience is typically less effective as is less action-orientated.

eLearning

I have seen this delivery method grow considerably in the last 5 years. eLearning can be successful to create widespread awareness at a global level quickly and at a reasonable cost. I strongly believe in the benefits of giving access to this learning ‘just in time‘. For example if the learning was specifically on Root-Cause Problem Solving, the individual could access this just before attending a problem-solving workshop with the added benefit that it will give the group of learners some common ground knowledge and get them in the right mindset even before the workshop starts, allowing for a more focused and productive workshop.

eLearning has evolved so much over the last 10 years, that it is now possible to tailor the course to your exact needs, making it much easier to not only amend the content to make it highly practical and bespoke to your organisation, but also to make it fit within a wider learning approach. Back to our example: your eLearning course could include a video recorded by a member of your organisation explaining the reason for the training, what is expected of the learners and how this online course is an important first step before the workshop. The aim here is to drive engagement and that is one of the main benefits of eLearning.

Although it is predominantly used for awareness level, it is interesting to note that now that it is possible to do much more from a development and design point of view, eLearning is also becoming a credible option for organisations who wish to develop their Change Practitioners using a work-based eLearning solution. The University of Buckingham’s online BSc in Operational Excellence is the first one of its kind in the world and is proving to be highly successful for the students who have enrolled on this degree. eLearning does have limitations and it cannot be used as a complete replacement for all classroom training; it is in fact predominantly recommended for awareness level learning or for individuals learning alone. If you are looking for a delivery method that requires your students to discuss concepts as a group, or wish to give them the opportunity to ask a tutor live questions, then a face-to-face approach is better suited.

Mentoring

I have seen this method used successfully when there is an expert in a particular field able to give advice and direction to others.

It is important to recognise that if we are fortunate to be an expert in our field, there are many disciplines we are not able to competently mentor although with coaching skills we can support others to develop themselves.

In the subject of Operations Excellence, I am for example able to mentor Improvement Professionals on how to design an Operations Excellence Programme but I move to a coaching approach when supporting an Operational Manager to implement Operational Excellence in their working environment. The Operational Manager understands the day-to-day operations in their environment, but they are likely to need support to think about how new ways of working may improve performance in their service.

Finally, a common pitfall I have observed across many organisations is the lack of emphasis on coaching vs classroom training. Training helps us to build up knowledge but this in itself will not build competency.

An ideal ratio for supported time for a change practitioner for example could be 80% coaching and 20% training. Unfortunately it is not uncommon to see the ratio flipped the other way, to the detriment of the learner and their organisation.

3. Is using bespoke material worth the investment?

There is typically a cost benefit to using industry standard training materials vs having bespoke materials for your organisation, but will you always benefit as much from industry standard training materials and is it worth investing your time and budget in more bespoke materials?

In my experience, the answer mainly depends on who the audience is. Training for Operations Managers and Team Leaders should be strongly focused on specifically what the individuals will be practicing in the workplace. For example, how to create purposeful measures in their environment or how to facilitate an effective huddle. For this reason, it is usually more effective to create bespoke materials.

For Improvement Team Practitioners there is often a benefit to attend industry standard training away from their organisation and learn new concepts which challenge their existing thinking. This can enable them to bring new learning to their organisation and expand their improvement tool kit. Learning from peers in other organisations is often very beneficial.

Tailoring a training course can be as simple as branding your materials with your organisation’s logo etc. In which case, depending on the course objectives, eLearning can be a good option as it will allow you to use a more off-the-shelf solution, but still make it yours by keeping the language and branding consistent. Although this will increase the learning budget, it can still be a very cost-effective solution vs classroom training.

Senior Leader workshops should be carefully designed and kept very relevant. In most circumstances, there are few opportunities to have dedicated time with Senior Leaders together so making a great impression is vital. The group agreeing a plan of action as an outcome is crucial.

4. Will an accreditation of competence add substantial value to your learners and to your organisation?

Having a recognised internal or external accreditation can motivate individuals to embrace the learning and achieve a level of competence. An external accreditation can help to benchmark individuals from other organisations and industries using a recognised standard. Cardiff University‘s Lean Competency System, would be a good example of this as it has qualifications from awareness to expert level.

Internal accreditations can also be very powerful in supporting the promotion of the right behaviours, and achieve a high level of interest. These are usually innovative accreditations with effective internal branding that help individuals by giving them a clear picture of where they currently are on their development journey, and also give them a sense of purpose. On the other hand however, the different colours of Six Sigma Belts seems to have caused confusion across industries with many organisations creating their own assessment criteria, making it difficult to benchmark different individuals outside of an organisation.

There appears to be different interest in different parts of the world in terms of focus on external accreditation. I work with Change teams all over the world and I have witnessed a particularly high interest in India and Poland for example on external Lean accreditation.

Final words

Whatever your requirements, be clear on how your capability development approach aligns with the competencies you are trying to develop at every level of your organisation. Bear in mind that the quality of the content taught has as much a role to play in the success of your capability development plan as the flexibility of the delivery methods you choose. One last word of advice: one size doesn’t always fit all so it is important that you keep an open mind as you will often find out that a blended approach to learning can be more efficient than focusing on a single methodology. Find out more about our Operational Excellence Blended Learning Programmes.

Who? What? Where? When? How to build the right improvement capabilities for your business

Building capability is business-critical. But there are common challenges Continuous Improvement leaders face when building capabilities across a diverse workforce. These include:

• Engaging operational managers and front-line leaders
• Building CI across hybrid and remote workers
• Getting buy-in from senior leadership teams
• Adapting content to diverse learning styles
  Delivering consistent content across multiple locations and languages

Our whitepaper addresses these challenges and includes practical solutions and training programmes to help overcome them.