Transform Behaviors, Transform Results!: Identifying and Using Behavioral Indicators to Drive Sustainable Change and Improvement

When trying to embed changes or new mindsets and behaviors, organizations tend to focus on following a particular methodology rather than clearly defining the underlying behaviors that will deliver the sustainable behavioral change and align the thought processes that drive the behaviors—whether their intent is to continuously improve safety or overall risk management or achieve a sustainable growth and improvement trajectory.

The key role of leadership teams is not to deliver results. It is to inspire and own the organizational culture that delivers the expected results. If culture is owned by HR, it is doomed to be another thing leaders have to do on top of their day job. Business leadership teams must oversee defining and managing organizational culture and have HR coach the capability of leaders to cast the right leadership shadow by role modeling the right behaviors, rewarding the right behaviors in their teams, and providing clarity on expectations around behaviors for all leaders and employees.

The most challenging part of any performance-improvement implementation is the identification of key behavioral indicators (KBIs). The purpose of this book is to assist with that challenge and make “behaviors” easier to understand and identify.

The book defines and describes the importance of focusing on the behaviors necessary for sustainable change rather than focusing on the tools and methodology behind change management. It discusses multiple lenses of change including Lean, Six Sigma, Agile, Risk, and Customer Experience and also addresses the weaknesses of complying solely with the methodology and tools. It proposes a behavioral framework to suit each particular lens.

This book begins with reasons most continuous improvement programs fail to deliver the expected results. More importantly, it discusses embedding the newly described mindsets and capabilities into the business. The book concludes by providing leaders a roadmap and a coaching framework for how to align and embed their new behavioral framework at all levels, starting from the front-line worker up to the CEO.

Essentially, this book leads the reader through the process of understanding the concept of defining behaviors and the difference between them and tools/methodology. It introduces KBIs for leaders to define and drive the desired behaviors at all levels. This will increase the probability of sustainability for the improvement initiative by focusing on and maturing the behaviors these initiatives are trying to drive.

Morgan Jones has more than 30 years' experience in Lean and 20 years in Six Sigma, a pragmatic and experienced improvement Leader, delivering over $2.1.Bn in hard savings to organization, improving customer, staff experiences and improved Health and Safety. The legacy capabilities of Business Improvement have resulted in over 23 international awards and chairing 27 international conferences around Business Improvement. Morgan is an international award-winning author and written 5 books. He has led a business unit with overall P&L accountability of $167M and led an organization to be the first bank to a Shingo award. He is also a Chartered Engineer, Certified Master Black Belt, Lean Master and Executive Coach. Morgan has leadership experience in Marine, manufacturing, government, military, mining, utilities, telecommunications, oil and gas, banking and supply chain.

Drew Butler is a Senior Shingo Examiner, Licensed Affiliate and Certified Facilitator. Mr. Butler is currently Vice President of Operations at Signs.com, one of the fastest growing tech companies in Utah where he is responsible for day to day operations, operational excellence, as well as Strategic planning to support their future growth plans. Prior to this Mr. Butler worked at Curtiss Wright as Senior Corporate Director of Operational Excellence.

Mr. Butler joined Curtiss Wright in September 2013. With over 30 years of operations experience, Mr. Butler was responsible for the implementation of Lean Operational systems and controls, methods, and strategies in the Oil & Gas Division and in 2014 transitioned into the role of Corporate Director of Operational Excellence for Curtiss Wright. As CW Corporate OPEX Director, Mr. Butler was responsible for leading the development and implementation of the CW Way Lean Operating System throughout Curtiss Wright globally.

Before Curtiss Wright, Mr. Butler was the Plant Manager with Boart Longyear Exploratory Mining Company in Salt Lake City, Utah. During his 30-year career, Mr. Butler has served in various roles of increasing responsibility in the Aerospace, Industrial, Consumer Products and Mining industries with companies such as SPS Technologies and OC Tanner. Mr. Butler holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Spring Garden College and a MBA from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa. He has worked with the Shingijutsu Consulting Group in the past and for over 15 years has been a Senior Lead Examiner with the Shingo Institute in Utah and travels the world evaluating world class facilities in manufacturing, medical devices and consumer products that have applied for the Shingo Prize. In the past, he has served on the Board and as Vice President of Expansion for Guadalupe School in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mr. Butler resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mr. Butler is also a Muay Thai Blackbelt.

Dr. Gerhard Plenert, former Director of Executive Education at the Shingo Institute, has more than 25 years of professional experience in organizational transformations helping companies and government agencies strive for enterprise excellence by utilizing the Shingo Model to drive cultural transformations. Dr. Plenert is an internationally recognized expert in supply chain management; Lean/Six Sigma; IT, quality and productivity tools; and in working with leading-edge planning and scheduling methods. He has literally “written the book” on leading-edge supply chain management concepts, such as finite capacity scheduling, advanced planning and scheduling, and world-class management. His experience includes significant initiatives with Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Shell, Aramco, Sony, Cisco, Microsoft, Seagate, NCR Corporation, Ritz-Carlton, the US Air Force, and numerous other branches of the US Department of Defense.

In addition, Dr. Plenert has consulted to major manufacturing and distribution companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Black & Decker, Raytheon, Motorola, Applied Magnetics, Toyota, AT&T, IBM, and Kraft Foods. He has also been considered a corporate “guru” on supply chain management for Wipro, AMS, and Infosys, and a Lean/Six Sigma “guru” for the US Air Force and various consulting companies. With 14 years of academic experience, Dr. Plenert has published over 150 articles and 22 books on Lean, supply chain strategy, operations management and planning. He has also written MBA textbooks and operations planning books for the United Nations. Dr. Plenert’s ideas and publications have been endorsed by people like Steven Covey and companies such as Motorola, AT&T, Black & Decker, and FedEx. His publications are viewable at www.gerhardplenert.com. Dr. Plenert previously served as a tenured full professor at California State University, Chico; a professor at BYU, BYU–Hawaii, University of Malaysia, University of San Diego; and has been a visiting professor at numerous universities all over the world. He earned degrees in math, physics, and German; and he holds an MBA, MA in international studies, and PhD in resource economics (oil and gas) and operations management. Dr. Plenert continues to serve as a Shingo examiner. He has published 22 books which you can see at www.gerhardplenert.com