Achieve Operational Efficiency with Process Improvement

Are you seeing the impact you want from your organization's efforts? Tune in now and discover strategies to enhance operational efficiency with Dr. Janet Pilcher and Dr. Pat Greco. Gain insights on improving processes, maximizing outcomes, and identifying hidden inefficiencies. If you’re committed to better serving your employees, students, and families, listen now to learn how to drive peak operational efficiency.

This episode addresses questions such as:

• How does a focus on operational excellence contribute to an organization’s financial health?
• How does the rounding process contribute to process improvement and employee engagement?
• How can leaders harness the expertise of their employees to identify and eliminate process barriers?

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Recommended Resources: The Culture-Strategy Equation: Reflections from the AASA Conference, Lean In, Stay Curious, and Other Leadership Lessons, Grow Your People

Read and study: Each episode of the podcast aligns with the tactics and principles of our host's book, Hardwiring Excellence in Education: The Nine Principles Framework. In conjunction with that book, you can join the mission to create great places to work, learn, and succeed by leading a book study with your leadership team for Hardwiring Excellence in Education. Our free, on-demand book study offers additional tools and resources created by Dr. Pilcher and our Studer Education leader coaches. Each chapter in the study also features exclusive interviews with influential education leaders sharing how they’re making a difference in their districts and beyond.

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Transcript

Pat Greco: People improve. Systems don't. So as we're thinking, systems only improve if the people within it are engaged in improving.

[Intro music plays in the background.]

Introduction

Janet Pilcher: Hello everyone, welcome to the Accelerate Your Performance podcast. I'm your host Dr. Janet Pilcher, President of Studer Education. Today we're going to jump into part two of the conversation we started last week with our colleague Dr. Pat Greco. 

But before we do, let me invite you to our Virtual Destination High Performance Conference. It'll be held April 15th through the 17th. We've packed each two-and-a-half-hour day with mini masterclasses, thought-provoking keynotes, and interactive panels. You'll explore all kinds of topics with us: everything from hardwiring daily practices for success, to applying the PDSA cycle to achieve high performance outcomes in classrooms. 

And each day focuses on a unique thing: organizational excellence, internal service excellence, and leadership excellence. If you're committed to building great places to work, learn, and succeed, you don't want to miss this conference. I hope you see us there, and I look forward to connecting with you there and in our future podcasts. 

So when you join this conference, you'll also get access to the recordings for up to four months after the event so you can revisit and reinforce key learnings at any time you want. Go to Studereducation.com/events to see the agenda and register. I'll leave a link in the show notes. I can't wait to see you there. 

And now let's jump into my conversation with Pat. You'll remember Pat is the Senior Director of Thought Leadership at Studer Education and former partner of ours from back when she served as Superintendent of the School District of Menominee Falls in Wisconsin. I'm thrilled to have her back. Always love the conversation with Pat. 

Today we continue our conversation on the critical role of operational excellence. We talk through improving processes and engaging teams to problem-solve effectively. So let's jump in with Pat. 

Interview

Janet Pilcher: Last week I had an opportunity to connect with Pat Greco about the conference experience and the work of our partners and the work of our coaches in the field. 

And we talked about today doubling down a little bit on operational excellence. So Pat, welcome back to the podcast. I look forward to this conversation because I know there's some excellent work that you've been doing in the field around this and looking forward to hearing an example. 

Pat Greco: Really excited to spend the time together and to really honor the hard work that's happening in organizations across the country. 

Janet Pilcher: That's great. So let's dive right in and talk about operational excellence. So just the question here, Pat, is how does a focus on operational excellence both improve services and contribute to the organization's bottom line, their financial health as well? Because that's really what we're trying to get to. 

Pat Greco: Yeah, and Janet, I'll take just a foundational step first of when we think about improving organizations, and similar to what most communities really are focused on, is they want great outcomes for their children. They want to retain great people. They want that great relationship with their families, and they want to prove to their taxpayers that they're being efficient and effective with the resources that they have. 

You know, so when we think about most strategic priorities, they fall into consistently those four areas, and then there might be a fifth or a sixth area based on something that's particularly tender for a community that they want to focus on. So when we think about operational success, and as we talked in the last episode, half of our people are not classroom teachers, but our classroom teachers are 100% dependent on the processes and the systems within the organization to work effectively. You know, when they have resources, when they're, you know, when they're needing to make sure that they have support for their personal well-being for the structures of the day, for the systems, all of that actually falls into that operational improvement. 

And we can work really hard every day in strong systems with strong processes, and we can work really hard every day in systems that have weak processes and weak systems. The outcomes for children and the outcomes for families and the outcomes for the taxpayers will be stronger when our operational processes are mirroring the hard work that's happening across that system. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, and so important, and Pat, we were talking in our last episode that this is, you know, I loved what you said is a blind spot. You know, so we are doubling down on the focus of certain areas of what we do, but not focusing on the areas that really provide that great support so that we can get the results. And, you know, just, I've always had, you know, this is one thing I've just been, been passionate about in our work from day one is because I think that what I learned pretty quickly was that it's really difficult to get the results that we want if we don't have all of the people who are working with us moving in the same direction. Their arrows are moving in the same direction. 

So, you know, can you, when you think about a particular example, can you just give like one example of when we're talking about operational excellence, you know, let's go a little bit deeper. What do we mean? 

Pat Greco: Yeah, and it's a really good question, Janet, because also when we're working every day, we don't typically think of the core processes that are supporting the work. You know, so when you're thinking about a building principal, you're really dependent on having really strong people available to hire, the ability to bring in subs when needed, the ability to have that effective onboarding so that they know the core systems. 

So, at a building level, when you're thinking about a classroom teacher, they're dependent on the hiring process, on the retention process, on your ability to get resources. All of that, all of those core processes happen on the operational side of the house. 

I was working with a team in Northern California, and they really wanted to make sure that their new team members felt supported in that first week, first 30 days, first 90 days, for six months on the job, so that they didn't lose their instructional aides. Because the instructional aides play a vital role in supporting their most vulnerable children in special education, but they weren't necessarily thinking about that as they were, how were they starting? Do they actually know how to support those most vulnerable children? Do they feel confident in the work that they're doing? And without that level of onboarding and support, they were losing them more quickly. So, as you say, your best hiring strategy is retention. 

You've just spent four months trying to hire great candidates. And because that process wasn't supportive of that onboarding and those strong handoffs and then really applying rounding in those one-on-one conversations of, “do you have what you need and how can I be helpful to you?” That rounding lives within that process of effective onboarding. And then, how do you actually build that level of strong process from your hiring to your onboarding to your normal “now we have an employee who's in, who's feeling comfortable, who knows the routines, who has the support. We've given them the direct development to be successful, not just as a member of the school, but for their specific roles and responsibilities.” 

Then coming alongside that, we have the IT department. Well, they own the responsibility of do they have their emails? Do they have the equipment that they need? Do they know how to access the system in order to be able to call in sick? Do they know how to get help when their equipment isn't working the way that it needs? 

When we think about a system, it's all interconnected. But when we think about our individual job role responsibilities, we typically look at it as a silo. But really, when you look at it from that, the people closest to the work, it is truly a wraparound because you have that aide who is supported by the teachers that they're supporting, the building principal, HR; they're supported by IT and by finance because they're getting the billing and the payroll set up so that there isn't a lag in their own payments. 

So that one human is a perfect representation of how systems work when they're working well and how barriers really deflate people because we want to keep them. But if I don't feel supported and I don't have my equipment and I don't know who to call and I'm not getting a response when I'm calling HR or IT or the business department and my check is late, right? So that's a heavy lift. If I'm going at it just on, “I want to do good work.” I want to do good work, but I want to do good work within a system that feels like it also wants me to do good work, and it's there to support me. 

So those really specific challenges are all representative of our processes are clear. People know what part of the process they own. They know the timeline. They know how to be responsive. They're looking for feedback of where the barriers are and they're solving for it so that that next day feels a bit better for those people closest to the work. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. And before we get into a specific example, just a little bit more here, Pat, we know, you know, when we think about processes, it also connects to our budgets and our efficiencies and savings, right? 

Pat Greco: Yeah.

Janet Pilcher: You know, so, and now we're in times of tight budgets are unknown. You know, talk a little bit about how this helps us with really being able to build efficiencies that help the bottom line. 

Pat Greco: Yeah. And Janet, it's near and dear to my heart because you know, I've spent my, my leadership career in the state of Wisconsin. We were under revenue limits for decades, you know, within the state. We couldn't cut our way to improvement. You know, and we were performing with our children at the bottom of the barrel in two different organizations for our children who were most vulnerable. 

You know, so when you think about I could have said, “well, we're not going to invest in adult learning because we can't afford it. We're not going to invest in leadership development because we can't afford it.” We couldn't afford not to. And we needed to know how to make more efficient decisions and make sure that the decisions we were making were really creating the impact that we wanted to create. 

You know, so that investment in the development actually allowed us to see where was the system not functioning? How do we work effectively together as one team? How do we not blame one another for impact, but really lean into the impact that we had really specifically? You know, so in our case, we, you know, we were spending a lot on workers comp claims and having that leader development of rounding with the team members, figuring out where was it really fragile? How do we safeguard? What development do you need to feel safer in the roles that you have? That saved us nearly a million dollars every single year, which was money just straight out of pocket. That, that investment in our leader development paid back tenfold just on that one challenge. 

Not to mention the fact that our student learning improved our relationships with the community improved. Every outcome improved as a result of the impact we were having on that cross divisional improvement with our leaders. 

But that direct impact was really, really visible. We were making better equipment decisions. We were making better personnel decisions. We were retaining people at a higher level. So our ability to safeguard the taxpayer dollars magnified because of the power of really being able to know how to improve culture and how to improve strategy. 

We've got groups right now, and I'll share a couple of examples. So how do we do this? When we're working on process improvement, you know Janet, rounding is foundational. It's that one-on-one conversation between a leader and the people that they supervise to figure out what's working, where are you getting stuck, how can I be helpful? When we think about process improvement, hiring, IT, you're really saying, “who touches that core process that needs to be sitting around the table when we start that problem solving?” So you might have 8, 10, 15, 20 people representing different departments, different roles. 

I might be working as a front office person in a building next to the IT director, next to the tech, next to a person from the business office, because they all touch a portion of that process. But you're really dedicating 2 hours, 3 hours to say in our current process what's working, where are we getting stuck, they pause long enough, and it doesn't take a lot of time, but it's really intentional to actually map out what does our current process look like. And within that, where are we getting stuck and then our ability to go into those 90-day actions? What are we going to solve for in the next 30, 60, 90 days? Then it becomes really intentional. 

Fundamentally, what you're doing is talking about a barrier that's known with the people closest to that process. You're unearthing what those next steps are and Janet, their ability to follow through is almost immediate because it's not me as a department leader telling them what they need to be able to do in order to improve the process. They've generated it. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah. 

Pat Greco: You know, so then then their action steps are really clear. And then that next wave of when there are other people who touch that process, it's bringing them to the table to say, “we've gotten this far, it may be incomplete, what do you see?” And now how do we take it to that next level of improvement in that next 30, 60, 90-day cycles? 

You know, so you had the opportunity to meet Tammy Bradford, Assistant Superintendent for Tulare County. They improved up to 14,000 a week in being able to improve how they were going through their identification process. There is nothing more intentional in identifying a child for special needs because everyone wants that child to have the support that they want and they need. And it's the most expensive decision for a district to overidentify a child for special education. And if we could serve them at a closer level without the labeling, without that heavy level of financial burden, it actually depletes one of the most significant decisions you make is to identify a child as disabled if they truly need a lower level of support, that lightest tool wins. And that process of getting the children the support when they need it absent the label is a significant safeguard. 

So, but again, as a system, you have to be able to see it and you have to be able to value the time to put those people closest to the work around the table to do that problem solving. And only leaders can do that, Janet, because they direct how people spend their day and whether or not they're going to meet across departments. So that's where the leadership role is critical. 

Janet Pilcher: Yes, and, and it's just the leader doesn't have to come up with the solution. I think that—

Pat Greco: —and can't, and can't 

Janet Pilcher: And can’t. [inaudible]

Pat Greco: Because they don't, they don't do the process. 

Janet Pilcher: Right. 

Pat Greco: You can't sit at your desk teasing through every barrier to come up with the perfect solution. You know that in its at its finest is the definition of park ranger leadership. 

Janet Pilcher: Right. 

Pat Greco: Right? You know so the reality of it is is often the blind spot for the leader is they're mulling it in their head trying to tease through how am I going to solve this. Their best next action is to actually get really clear with the people closest to the work of what barriers are we running into, and how are we going to take that next bite out of the elephant in order to solve for that, then that, then that in those short cycles. 

It's the greatest gift you can give to a team because it actually builds hope. And it shows you which strategies are creating a better impact, which allows you to make better financial decisions, because you're investing in the right work at the right time with the people closest to the work, and that you aren’t over investing in strategies that no one is really able to deploy. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. And the other part to that I think, Pat, is the employee engagement and the, their experience really improves because there’s not any magical fairy dust right sprinkling down. They’re just engaged. 

Pat Greco: Right. Well, and Janet, that actually, you know when I'm with a team and we're doing process improvement and we're talking about the now next actions and the 30 60 90 day actions, and then we come back to that, you know, in that next update, you know, 45 days later, I can see, you know, by researchers and every leader is talked about getting your flywheel moving. I can see it in action. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, 

Pat Greco: You know, because that flywheel movement, you know, it's hard to move in a system. It, you know, people change. Organizations don't. People improve, systems don't, right? So as we're thinking, systems only improve if the people within it are engaged in improving, so that's really where it comes right back to culture strategy execution in those short cycles of impact really focused on what's the barrier, how do we solve that problem, and what outcomes should really be improving. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good, and so as we close today, Pat, I just, I want to put the wraparound because we're talking about it naturally, but sometimes when we speak about operations and efficiency, you know, we think that's isolated from a human element, and you're talking about as it's really not, you know—

Pat Greco: It's, it actually is tending for the humans. You know, so, you know, there was an analogy of as Americans, and I was reading a book that was written around improvement in other countries, Sweden, Japan, China, and what they talk about is Americans have a tendency to jump into technology as the savior. And the, the example is if you have a bad process, your technology is just going to make your bad process faster. 

Janet Pilcher: [laughs] Yeah, that’s true.

Pat Greco: So you really, the only way to improve the functioning of the team is alongside the people, and your people have in their heads, “if we were only doing this, it would actually solve for it.” But the leaders typically aren’t pausing long enough to put it together to have those conversations.

And it isn’t an artificial structure. It's not about saying, “I'm going to hold a PLC meeting; you guys go figure it out.” It's really building that close conversation. Where are you getting stuck? How can I be helpful? Who else does this touch? How do we put them around the table? What's that one next action we're going to try in the next 30 days? And then if it's improving, what should be improving?

Well, people should have their equipment faster. I should be able to get the needs that I have from IT quicker so that I have the resources I need when I need it. And I should feel supported, not blamed, when I keep on running back into the same barriers in the system. 

So when we think about systems improvement. it goes back to that adage of our current processes are giving us our current results. And 85, 90, 95% of the time, our people are doing the very best job they can within really fragile, tender processes in a system that no one's pausing long enough to see. So as leaders, it's actually freeing, because I don't have to carry that weight of figuring out the answers. I just have to dedicate the time for the people and sit with them as we're unearthing, where are we getting stuck, and what might we try next. 

And when I say it's freeing, I don't have to know all the answers. And I can't, because I don't do all of those processes. I just have to lean into the people who I know want to lean into it. And then it goes back to that adage of start with the people who you know are really leaning in and trying to tease through it. Let's start there and then work our way through the bigger systems as we go. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, as we close today, just inside of me is just being of great service to others, you know, that's, and that's really what we're talking about: serving each other well, being of service to those that we serve as our customers or just students to parents for us. It's to our partners. You know, this allows us to do that. 

Pat Greco: In a simple way that we can structure. You know, because Janet, you know, you know, we've always, you know, rounding, you know, for the leaders that have always been culture-centered, comes pretty natural. What they're not seeing, though, is it's instrumental as we're digging into what are the process barriers that are getting us stuck. 

So it's caring about our people, listening deeply, and then building better, stronger processes and systems so that we can safeguard resources, and we aren't investing in dollars in things that aren't actually creating the impact that we need. You know, so it really ends up being how we create better organizations as a whole rather than as fractured parts. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. And that's a great way to end because that's really what we're trying to do is to touch the people who are in the organization who are boots on the ground to help us solve problems so that we’re creating a better system and that better system comes back and builds the best for the people. 

And so Pat, thank you so much for the conversation today and the last couple of episodes. It's been great connecting. Always love the opportunity for us to be able to talk about what we do and talk about how we can continue to get better and better and better as we serve our partners. 

Pat Greco: And Janet thanks for your hard wor.k I affectionately say I'll do this forever. And as many people know I'm not kidding about that, you know, because this really is the work that's changing, you know, the outcomes and impact for communities in a really significant way. So appreciate you. appreciate the time together. and really looking forward to continuing to highlight really impactful work of the partners that we serve. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, and we'll have a chance to do that in April as well, Pat. I know you're going to be on with Hemet, and you’re gonna talk a little bit more about the operational excellence piece. I mean, unbelievable results there.

We could have talked all day long just about the number of examples, but I hope people will connect with us at our virtual event, Pat, and, and Jen Martin at Hemet will have a conversation very specifically about some of the results that Hemet achieved. So join us there, and Pat, thank you very much. 

Pat Greco: Always a pleasure Janet.

Conclusion

[Outro music plays in the background.]

Janet Pilcher: Again, that link to join us is studereducation.com/events. And let me tell you, anytime you have the opportunity to learn from Pat, I highly recommend it. She's a true expert making an incredible impact at Studer Education, and most importantly, for our partner organizations. 

Thank you, Pat, for your willingness to come on the show and remind us that good operational function directly ties to positive outcomes for the children, families, and employees we serve. 

As always, thank you for tuning into this episode of the Accelerate Your Performance podcast. I look forward to seeing you next week as we continue to focus on getting better at getting better, as Pat says, and achieving organizational excellence. Have a great week everyone.