Ep 2: The Process Improvement Leader State of Mind - The Traits

In this episode, we dive into the essential traits that define a PI (Product and Innovation) leader. What makes a leader truly effective in driving transformation and innovation? We explore the mindset, behaviors, and attributes that set them apart. From strategic thinking to resilience, adaptability, and a customer-centric approach, we break down the core qualities that empower PI leaders to navigate complex environments and deliver impactful results.

Whether you're an aspiring leader or looking to refine your leadership style, this episode provides valuable insights to help you cultivate the PI leader state of mind. Tune in to discover the key traits that can elevate your leadership journey.

Transcript

Welcome!  Thanks for spending a little time with me today.  As a reminder, please feel free to provide feedback and discuss these ideas on LinkedIn or YouTube.  There are no experts here, only practitioners.  I look forward to learning from you!

Today’s topic is The Process Improvement Leader State of Mind.  First, this is going to span across 3 episodes because as I said in the introductory episode.  My plan is to focus less on the nuts and bolts of tools and statistics (things you can readily Google) and more on the human element.  And since you are presumably human, there is no better place to start than you.  You are the “tool” you will use the most often!  The three takeaways for you - the three things that we will discuss in this block of episodes - are:

1. Episode 2: what are the traits of a successful PI leader?
2. Episode 3: what is the mentality or mindset that will make a successful change agent?
3. Finally in Episode 4, what behaviors are derailers for a PI leader?  This isn’t a common term, so a bit of explanation: a derailer is something that takes the train off the track - so it’s a good metaphor.

I was really excited to share these thoughts first, because I believe that before we can talk about sponsors, stakeholders, methodologies, tools, or even statistics, we have to start with you.  What should you as an individual bring to the table?  How should you act as a change leader?  And how should you NOT act as a change leader?  What is it about you that will create success?  Or hinder success?  And what behaviors will bring you closer to your goal, and what will push that goal further away, perhaps even out of reach?  

In this episode, we will start with traits.  I got 16 of them which is to say there may be way too many or there may be a lot missing.  Think of these as conversation starters perhaps.  Or think of these as thought starters as you think about hiring or performance reviews.

            The 16 are: change agent, truth seeker, patient, business savvy, data analysis, data savvy, influence, organizer, prioritizer, culture builder, grit, happy warrior, willing to get dirty, willing to go to gemba, good listener, and finally, you can talk from top to bottom of the organization.

            So here I’ve delivered the meat of this episode.  In a minute I’ll talk about each in a little more detail, but most are honestly pretty self-explanatory.  So before I continue I wanted to talk a little about the Why.  How do you use these?  How is this information useful?  Naturally I have a few ideas.  First, I think if you’re hiring for people who need to be change agents, I would use this list of values in your job description and in your interviewing and selection process.  Second, you can use these in assessing your current team.  Maybe consider each person who is expected to be a change agent, and assess how they perform against each of these, and incorporate that information into an active development plan.  For example, perhaps you have someone who is reluctant to put on the reflective vest and go visit the warehouse or production line.  You owe them the feedback that making change is a contact sport, and you need to spend some amount of time on the floor where the value is being created and delivered.  As I dive a bit into the details of each, I encourage you to think about how to use these traits to advance your continuous improvement program, and I DEFINITELY encourage your feedback on this list as well as your ideas on how to utilize such a list of traits in your organization.

            So, let’s dive a little deeper into the 16 traits of a successful process improvement leader!

Firstly, you are a change agent.  Your role is to bring about change.  You’re a catalyst in the sense of a chemical reaction.  A catalyst gets added in the presence of some raw materials and you cause a reaction that makes something change.  You have to be a lover of change.  Everything you do is about change.  When you’re added to the mix, then change is expected!

Next, you are a truth seeker.  As you delve into the processes you are going to be lifting rocks up, looking for bugs and golden nuggets.  You have to do this like a scientist who lets the data guide you instead of opinions or self-interest.  You can start with a hypothesis but it’s absolutely critical that you are a seeker of truth.  If you’re an outsider, you may be starting this effort with little to no credibility.  Don’t blow it by not being truthful.  You are finding out information that likely is unknown to the leadership - what is really happening on the floor?

Now why call this out?  Am I implying that you are going to be dishonest?  Of course not.  What I am calling out is that you are going to collect facts by asking really good questions, and those facts may lead you away from the preconceived notions of you, your stakeholders or your project sponsor.  Don’t come into this situation thinking you need to parrot back what you’ve been told or that you need to find only facts that support anyone’s hypotheses.  The whole reason why the organization is investing the time and money to dig into these processes is to find out what’s going on!  So do that!  Even if it means the project gets canceled or if something unflattering gets discovered.  Use your sponsor to help you if you’re unsure or uncomfortable.

Once I was tasked to find ways to improve performance at a third party vendor we used to process our customer contracts.  They received the physical paper, scanned and processed it, and stored it in a massive fireproof vault system that was a real feat of engineering.  I flew out there and dove fairly deep into the processes.  I mapped them out and asked a lot of questions and drove a lot of clarity.  But the big improvements that I was sent there to find weren’t there.  Turns out, things ran pretty well.  I would have loved to stay there and do some improvement projects, but I didn’t find anything that would justify the expense.  But our leadership knew a lot more than they did before.  They had a better sense for what that vendor did and how they did it.  They could move forward with this information to make better judgements.

Next: you’re going to need some patience.  Just be ready for it.  You’ll need to be patient for so many reasons.  Firstly, you may not get a welcome committee at the airport.  You may not get the time, focus, and attention you need.  Resistance is a whole topic in and of itself.  But remember that change is hard, and that resistance is based on the culture, the individual, and the environment, to include the amount of change already going on.  Be patient and be understanding.  Also remember that although this project may be at the top of your list, it may be the 17th item on your process owner’s list, it may not be on any list, they may not even know about your project at all!  But remember as you find these barriers that you may also be finding some of the root causes of why the process isn’t delivering.  In military terms, you’re conducting a reconnaissance in force, and you’re drawing some fire that will tell you a lot.

Business Savvy is pretty important.  That doesn’t mean you need an MBA but you do need to understand the basics of how an enterprise works.  You know every business must sell a product to a customer, and the ability to sell is a function of our ability to meet a customer’s needs.  You should understand revenue and what it does for the company.  And you should of course understand cost, both direct and indirect. You should be cognizant that labor cost could very well be the biggest cost of the process.  Also, what about risks?  There are safety risks, first and foremost.  Then you have operational risks and some of the more intangible risks like reputational and regulatory.  And the enterprise must be in compliance with national, state, and local laws and regulations.  You need to be able to think about these things in a way that an executive and a shareholder would.  So be conversant in customer, product, revenue, cost, safety, risk, and compliance.  

Let’s talk about data analysis.  You should be very comfortable with data analysis.  Everything you do ought to be quantifiable.  Every process should be quantified.  One of the biggest cultural issues you may run into is the lack of a data-driven mindset.  As you drive real, tangible, and effective improvements, it’s easy to leave the metrics plan behind.  This is a challenge for me, I have to admit.  I love to solve problems, and when everyone is on the same page, wanting to solve problems, you drive to solutions and implement them and you see things actually getting better.  But talking about data can get in the way.  After all, the customer doesn’t pay for data, but for a process that works.  Everyone is excited, things are getting done, we can see the process is working qualitatively, but bringing up the “hey how do we want to measure this?” seems to put the brakes on.  But you need data to demonstrate that there is a problem, you need data so you can measure your improvements, and you will need data so you can detect when the process goes sideways again (and it WILL go sideways again).  You will need to be comfortable being the only voice asking for data.

Along with being comfortable with data is to be data savvy.  This is critical.  I would argue that if I had to pick between someone who is good with data analysis and someone who is data savvy I would take the latter. We have never had more data.  According to the German company Statista, we are growing data exponentially.  We’ve gone from 2 zettabytes created, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide in 2010 to a forecast of 181 zettabytes in 2025. A zettabyte, by the way, is equal to a trillion gigabytes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettabyte_Era 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/871513/worldwide-data-created/  We are awash in data!  You will increasingly find yourself with data coming out of your ears.  But you need to be savvy to know what is useless, what is interesting, and what is critical.  In Army Intelligence you learn about the difference between data, information, and intelligence.  Here’s an example.  The human head weighs 8 pounds.  Great.  That’s data.  Ok, now there are 100 of those heads attached to bad guys, and they are organized and equipped as an rifle infantry company.  Ok, that’s information.  And that company is infiltrating northward and they are planning to attack your base from the south at dawn.  Now that’s intelligence! 

So, what’s the difference between data analysis and data savvy-ness?  Your ability to sift through the trivia, past a lot of stuff that is really interesting, helpful, and distracting, and go right to the critical few key performance indicators or key metrics that will really help you define a root cause or provide a north star so you can make a difference.

 A big part of leadership is influence.  You need influence for 2 reasons: 1. Because it’s pretty likely people won’t do what you want them to do because you ask nicely, and 2. Influence is a key driver to gain change acceptance, which is where you persuade people that a change is necessary and you get their willingness to suffer in the short term to realize the longer-term success.  This point is important: if you don’t successfully drive change acceptance, the changes you make will simply not be sustained!   And this is to me the second biggest failure mode for projects is the lack of sustainment of the change.  You need to have the ability to lead not through issuing orders but through and exquisite mix of persuasion, setting conditions, and an assortment of carrots and sticks.

Organization is a must.  This one may seem to be an odd trait to add, but I think some of the best ways I’ve found to add value is by simply organizing the work.  Some of the tools we will later talk about, like the A3 Thinking and Five-S deal with organizing.  Organization drives clarity which we often are missing when facing a problem we don’t understand.

In this same vein, a great trait to have is prioritizer.  If you can prioritize, you can add a lot of value easily.  Once you get an improvement project underway with a decent amount of engagement, you will have no shortage of opportunities coming at you.  If you started working on them all right now, you probably would finish them all in about 3 years.  But you don’t want to wait 3 years to move the needle on what’s really important, so you must prioritize.  What improvements will drive the improvements we want?  We will talk about project portfolios and prioritization techniques later, but what’s important now is to bring a sense of 1. We can’t do everything at once, 2. We have a limited window of resources and attention that will become more limited if we don’t produce results, and 3. We truly value all improvement ideas, and we want to honor them … without actually doing them.  You admire your kid’s drawing, you are thankful for it, and then you put it on the refrigerator door.  By the way, here is where that business savvy comes to play, to know what is important or not important.

I suspect most of you are in the midst of deploying new ideas and new tools to your organization.  In this case you also need to be a culture builder.  You need to be able to change the culture through your actions.  Changing culture is very difficult to do and it takes significant time and effort.  But if it needs to be done it needs to be done up and down and across and it has to come from the top and from key influential voices in the organization.  Just contemplating a change in culture reminds me of another trait that is so important: grit.  You have to find in yourself the ability to persevere and endure.  I highly recommend the book written on this topic by Angela Duckworth.  In the book she lays out some interesting findings, including grit being far more predictive of success in life than intelligence.  If you want to change culture, you will need a lot of grit!

I need you all to be happy warriors.  You are likely going to do metaphorical battle against an ingrained culture that is in desperate need for change, or with intransigent teammates, or unsupportive leaders.  You may find yourself very, very alone!  Along with grit you will need to find within yourself the ability to enjoy the ride and have fun!  Believe me I’ve been there. How do you stay happy and positive?  Know that what you’re doing is important to someone important in your organization, and that as long as you have their support and you remain positive and keep moving forward, you will succeed.  Life is too short to be miserable, so have fun and learn how to laugh at the situation.  Don’t let them ever ever get you down!  That’s often the only way they have to win.

Happy warriors must also be brave.  Let’s talk about what you can’t be afraid of.  First, you can’t be afraid to get your hands dirty.  Leadership is often by example, which means physical courage and moral courage.  Be willing to tackle the hard jobs yourself and do the heavy lifting.  This can mean doing things that perhaps you don’t feel are up to your pay grade.  I’ve seen people above my pay grade in a distribution center picking up the nastiest trash up on the floor, because it was important, and it sent a message to me and everyone else.  We all can tell from the guy’s shoes he has no business picking up broken pallet pieces, which also tells us if he can do it, we all sure as heck can.

Sometimes doing the dirty work may be doing manual data collection or writing training manuals.  You should not be afraid of digging in, but of course this is also not meant to be a permanent state of things.  Get the ball rolling, flesh out the work, and then drive the handoff and long-term ownership so you’re putting yourself to the best use.

You also must not be afraid to go to gemba.  Ok, first I’ll acknowledge I’m throwing a new term at you perhaps.  Let’s talk about gemba.  Lean Six Sigma practitioners are known to throw out random Japanese terms at you, and I apologize in advance, but this is a good one.  It is the name for the place where the work is really getting done.  Maybe it’s important to call out what gemba isn’t.  It isn’t the breakroom, it isn’t your boss’ office, it isn’t a conference room, and it surely isn’t your home office.  Gemba is a place where you might be uncomfortable.  It might be a place where you need to wear protective gear.  It’s a place where you may be getting a lot of sideways glances or you may not be welcome at all.  You may have to get on a plane and leave the country to go to gemba.  Gemba isn’t near your kid’s school or your gym, and it surely isn’t only during normal working hours.  But go you must and go you shall.  Why?  Because you must engage with the process and the problem with all of your senses.  Trust me - going to where the work is happening is not only invaluable but it is mandatory.  Do not undertake any project lightly if you cannot go to gemba.  Honestly, once you start doing this, it’s going to be fun for you!  I would say it’s the fastest way to grow your expertise in a process.  Take a moment and think about where gemba is in your organization.  Where is gemba in your home?  In my house it’s definitely the kitchen!

The last two deal with communication.  Thanks for hanging in with me!  First, I need you to remember the old saying about how God gave you 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason.  The idea is you should be doing twice as much listening as talking.  Well God should have given us 5 ears, because to be a good listener, I want you to aim for a 5/1 ratio.  Listen and learn.  I heard a story about an army general who visited some of his units, and he showed up and said nothing.  He let the soldiers do all the talking.  People don’t like silence, so they will fill the void with speech.  They end up saying much more than they planned, and the general learned a lot more than if he spent the time talking.  This is the effect you are going for.  

Now I will say that I do want you to ask lots and lots of questions when you’re not listening.  Do not lecture!  And you may find it opportune to take a few minutes to communicate the vision to paint a picture that excites the team.  But do this in the right way at the right time.  

Finally - and since we are talking about talking - you will need to be able to talk to people from the executive ranks to the floor associate.  You’ve likely heard this before, so let me share with you what I think this means.

When talking to stakeholders and project champions or sponsors, you’re going to speak in business terms (again, back to business savvy).  You’re going to be justifying the significant cost of your project.  You’re going to be providing succinct summaries in crisp communications.  You’re going to be adding value by moving the project forward in the right direction.

When talking to the team you’re going to be asking questions but you’re going to be showing sincere respect for what they do.  Remember that they are taking care of customers day in and day out (while you are not) and are likely being asked to do way too much, and they are taking time away from accomplishing their own goals and objectives to give you time so you can ask questions.  They may be out of their comfort zone.  If this process is in trouble enough for someone to send you to fix it, then they are likely trying to bail out a sinking rowboat with a leaky ladle, so keep that in mind and be empathetic.

When talking to associates on the floor or in the field, you’re going to need to put them at ease.  You likely stand out like a sore thumb.  They may become more worried about their employment.  Their behaviors may have already changed due to your presence.  Tell them why you’re there in general terms (they don’t need to know the project charter).  You’re going to be super respectful and you’re going to show interest in what they do, and ask good questions.  You may want to build some rapport but please be genuine.  For example, if an associate is wearing a Dallas Cowboys t-shirt don’t try to talk about something Dallas Cowboys-related unless you are knowledgeable and sincere.  Don’t be “ah yes, I also enjoy the American foosball sports competitions.”  If you want to talk about it, then just be genuine.  This kind of move when well-executed can be helpful, or it can make you look fake and manipulative, so use a lot of caution.  People like to talk about themselves, so that is probably a better move.  Talk about the work they do, and what they think about how things go.  Demonstrate open and non-threatening body language.  Thank them for their good work and their ideas.

With that, we are ready to wrap up.  To summarize I want you to be a truth-seeking change agent who is patient, savvy about business and data.  You need to be good at data analysis, influence, organization, prioritization, and culture building.  You are a gritty, happy warrior with the willingness to get dirty, go to gemba, with good listening skills who can talk to everyone in the organization.  

Stay tuned for the next episode in this series where we will talk about the process improvement mindset.  Thanks again for listening and making me a part of your day.  Please add to the conversation with LinkedIn or YouTube.  

As always, we are Onwards and Upwards!