Articles by: Ankit Patel
05/07/10 by Ankit Patel | Uncategorized | No Comments »
In an analysis of 181 competence models, 67 percent (2 out of 3) of the abilities thought to
distinguish the best performers were emotional competencies. Compared to IQ and
expertise, emotional competencies mattered twice as much. This held true across all categories
of jobs, and in all kinds of organizations in what sets stars apart from the average worker
Source: Goleman: Working With Emotional Intelligence, 1998
Related posts:
The Missing Link: Emotional Intelligence
05/06/10 by Ankit Patel | Uncategorized | No Comments »
In an analysis of 181 competence models, 67 percent (2 out of 3) of the abilities thought to
distinguish the best performers were emotional competencies. Compared to IQ and
expertise, emotional competencies mattered twice as much. This held true across all categories
of jobs, and in all kinds of organizations in what sets stars apart from the average worker
Source: Goleman: Working With Emotional Intelligence, 1998
Related posts:
05/06/10 by Ankit Patel | behavior change, company culture, emotional intelligence | No Comments »
Lean and Six Sigma have a public relations problem. Their problem is that they are both viewed as tools by the majority of the world. Six Sigma can arguably be a set of tools and a way of managing a project but Lean is much more than just reducing waste. Lean is a way of thinking – build your business around your customers, add value, make your products/services “flow”, and respect for people. Six Sigma is great for reducing variation on a process and together Lean Six Sigma is a powerful methodology to address most business problems. Personally I’ve always seen improvements of 30% or better when Lean Six Sigma is applied on a company level. The one caveat is that you have to change your company culture to have these great sustained successes.
If it’s so grand then why do man Lean Six Sigma implementations fail? The fact is it’s easy to pick and choose the tools that you like but it’s very hard to make a cultural change. Many organizations have heard of IQ (intelligence quotient) but not many are familiar with EQ (emotional quotient) aka emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is defined by 4 traits:
1) Ability to perceive emotions – Emotions within you and others based on verbal and non verbal cues.
2) Ability to use emotions – Decision making process takes into account emotional information along with the numbers and data.
3) Ability to understand emotions – Perceiving emotional dynamics, blends of emotions, and how they influence behavior and thinking.
4) Ability to manage emotions – Managing emotions internally and with others adapting to get to an outcome.
EQ is the respect for people part of Lean Six Sigma. If you can successfully manage the four points above then you can manage a Lean Six Sigma transformation. Incidentally when you look at correlations, EQ is a better predictor of success than just IQ. However unlike IQ, EQ can be changed and improved well into adulthood. For every 1 percent improvement in the service environment (i.e. the EQ of your business), there is a 2 percent increase in revenues. If you really want a Lean Six Sigma implementation to succeed or you want to take your business to the next level you may consider first improving your organizational EQ. You need to do a base line first of where you are then then create an action plan to bridge the gap of where you are to where you want to be when it comes to the organizational EQ. Once you have better communications and trust built within the organization then you have a foundation for a Lean Six Sigma transformation.
05/03/10 by Ankit Patel | motivating employees | No Comments »
Building a good team is the corner stone of any management system and is especially crucial with a Lean Six Sigma management system. From personal experience at businesses ranging from fortune 50 companies to a small business, teams and personnel usually have to be coached and trained with the right system to work at the highest level. Motivating your employees and your teams can be one of the biggest challenges you face. Most businesses don’t have much of a budget so they have to find ways to motivate employees without money but money can be an issue and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explains when money is an issues and when it is not.
Maslow’s theory can be represented by the following graphic:
The message from the representation that is applicable to your business is that your employees need to have basic necessaries covered. What I tell most employers is to pay a little more than market wage or pay enough where the employee can earn a decent wage. That usually means paying more than minimum wage. When you do that, money is off the table and the issue of pay is not as relevant.
When the first 2 levels of the pyramid are meet then how do we get employees to work at their best and ascend through the pyramid. Businessweek published a report in 2008 that gives factors that motivate employees:
-Empowerment to Make Decisions
-Opportunities for Growth & Development
-Variety
-Mutual Support and Respect
-Sense of Purpose
-Desirable Future
You want to make sure that your management systems will address each of these factors above and if you have a Lean management system you will address all these.
Empowerment to make decisions – Autonomy is the expectation in a Lean management system. Before having people just go and fix their own problems you have to train to make sure everyone is solving problems correctly.
Opportunities for Growth/Development & Variety – Instead of having 1 person do only 1 job have them cross-trained. This not only give opportunities for growth/development & variety but it also helps alleviate attendance issues.
Mutual support and respect – Respect for people is a cornerstone for a Lean management system. What does it mean? The best way I can think of describing this is use the golden rule. If you were in that situation how would you want to be treated? Would you want your ideas at least listened to instead of ignored?
Sense of purpose – It’s important to have goals and objectives but goals and objectives that actually make sense. I’ve been in many businesses where the projects the people on the line did not match the goals of the company. Having strategic alignment is important and helps with having a sense of purpose.
Desirable future – Lean management systems are designed around growth. No one wants to be at a company that is reducing headcount. This is a mistake many companies make when adopting a Lean management system. Focus on growth instead of cost reduction.
related articles:
Factoid Friday – Motivation Doesn’t Come From Commissions, Money, Or Compensation
Motivating Employees Without Money – The Psychology Of Behavior Change
Motivating Employees Without Money
Hurry Up And Wait – Are You Motivating Your Employees Incorrectly?
04/30/10 by Ankit Patel | factoid | No Comments »
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Greater happiness is associated with higher future income, research shows. A one-point increase in people’s assessment of their happiness on a five-point scale was linked to a 3% higher income five years later, according to a study cited by Saatchi & Saatchi S.
Source: Small Actions Big Impact: Foundations of the Personal Sustainability Project
Do you think it is happiness that causes higher income or the higher income that causes happiness?
04/28/10 by Ankit Patel | lean survey | No Comments »
Today I want to hear from you. Here is a short survey about your company and your Lean progress. The information will not be shared with anyone and is only for research.
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04/26/10 by Ankit Patel | generation y, motivating employees | No Comments »
Being that Generation Y makes up about 25% of the US population your business will eventually need to attract and keep generation Y employees. Generation Y are people born from about 1981-2002(dates vary depending on the source) and are also called the millennial generation, millennials, or echo boomers.
All the research shows what the value:
-Work life balance is must
-What higher levels of autonomy
-Flexible
-Socially responsible
-High work ethics; especially entrepreneurial
-Open work environment with lots of feedback
-The most diverse generation to date in the U.S.
I look at these traits and there are many overlaps with a Lean culture. In a Lean culture there is real respect for people. This means giving people the autonomy to work in their work area but give them guidance and training when needed. Respect for people is also respecting the fact that we all have families and a life outside of work; reducing or eliminating overtime is a win-win for the company and the employees.
Having a traditional management system that is managed from top down, mistakes are viewed as a people issue instead of a system issue, subordinates do what they are told, etc is a sure fire way to alienate a huge talent pool. Your business has to change with changes in customer demand as well as a shift in the talent pool. Make sure to implement a management system that works. Here is a quick summary of a Lean management system:
5 Points:
-Respect for people
-Add value/remove waste
-Make your product or service “flow” – Your processes should be a well oiled machine
-Start it now – Experiment early and often
-Continuously Improve
All these principles put the customer at the center of focus. What management system are you using? Is it attracting or scaring away potential employees? If you got a great employee how would you make sure you kept them with your company?
04/23/10 by Ankit Patel | factoid | No Comments »
To reduce ink use and save money, the University of Wisconsin Green Bay’s IT department has changed the default font for Outlook to Century Gothic, which it says requires 30% less ink in printouts than Arial, the most commonly used default font. Ink accounts for about 60% of the cost of a printed page, the IT unit says.
Source: University of Wisconsin – Green Bay via Harvard Business Review
Small changes can make a big impact. See related article:
Little Changes Can Mean Big Profits
04/22/10 by Ankit Patel | lean sales, veterinary clinic | No Comments »
Many times I run into a situation where the business think they understand what it means to add value and remove waste but don’t see how it will help their bottom line quickly. In larger companies it’s an easy argument to make that you will reduce costs, lower turnover, have a happier workforce, and save on the cost side of the business. In small and medium businesses their operations are not usually very large and may not see benefit of maximizing value/reduce waste on the operations side of the business.
I ran into this issue working with a veterinary clinic. The owner and employees didn’t think they would get much benefit to the bottom line by going through exercises that maximize value for operations but we still did the exercise.
When digging into the different value streams we found an interesting nugget. Over the past few years 20% of the animals in the area were diagnosed with heartworm. When your dog or cat gets heartworm it’s easily a $1000+ procedure that is painful for the animal, it’s not 100% guaranteed to work, and the animal will die from heartworm if not treated. Heartworm prevention is about $20-$30 a month which makes it much cheaper to prevent heartworms vs. treat for heartworms.
The employees came back with the idea of including a heartworm test with annual exams. This adds value for the clients in many ways:
1) They are informed about the risks of heartworm
2) Their pets are tested even if they are on prevention. Prevention is not 100% and if the animal has heartworms then the prevention company will pay for the treatment.
3) Since they are informed they now get heartworm prevention.
The results were better care for the patient and it has increased the sales of heartworm medication by 50% in the clinic. This is a win for all sides. How do you add value in your business?
04/18/10 by Ankit Patel | company culture, increase sales, lean culture, motivating employees, save money | No Comments »
When running a business there a a whole list of issues. No matter what industry you are in there are some common themes: motivating employees, increase sales, and save money all without money.
Many people think that these are all independent and not related but there is a common underlining cause. It’s your companies culture; changing your company culture will actually help you in all 3 areas. Here are two examples of what it means to have a different culture:
1)Traditional businesses are managed from the top down, work is managed in silos (ex. engineering department, painting, welding,shipping) instead of by your customer (ex. 2 door sports car line, heavy duty truck line, minivan line).
2)Traditional businesses the responsibility for change falls on managers and engineers in traditional businesses instead of the people doing the work on a day in and day out basis.
The changes that come with culture are mostly small incremental changes but it can have a snow ball effect. Continuously improving and removing waste will reduce your costs. Standardizing the sales process and testing new ideas is crucial to increasing sales. The most important and most difficult part is when you get the culture right you have lower turn over due to higher job satisfaction. Employers with the most engaged employees will have increase earnings per share by 28% year to year (*2007 Towers Perrin survey, 18 countries, 40 companies, 90,000 employees). After money employees value these factors:
-Empowerment to Make Decisions
-Opportunities for Growth & Development
-Variety
-Mutual Support and Respect
-Sense of Purpose
-Desirable Future
(*2008 Businessweek article)
Lean addresses all the elements above and you can read further on “Motivating Employees Without Money”. Some results that I’ve seen have been 30-50% reduction in costs. 55% increase in revenue due to increased sales volume, and 19% turnover rate to less than 3%
To save money, motivate employees, and to increase sales try changing your culture. It can be difficult but it is well worth the effort.
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