Episode 13 - Just Because It's a Problem Doesn't Mean You Should Solve It

Change efforts don't usually fail because they're bad ideas.

They fail because they're buried under noise.

As Continuous Improvement leaders, we see problems everywhere. We spot waste, inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and opportunities that others miss. But one of the hardest lessons to learn is that not every problem needs to be solved right now.

In this episode, we continue the C.H.A.N.G.E. Shaper™ series by unpacking the third characteristic:

Advocate for What Matters

Because advocacy isn't about pushing harder, selling your ideas better, or convincing people you're right. It's about helping people see what truly matters and connecting improvement efforts to the outcomes the organization needs most.

The Hidden Trap for CI Leaders

Most CI professionals are naturally drawn to solving problems.

The challenge is that organizations rarely suffer from a lack of problems to solve. They suffer from a lack of focus.

When every opportunity becomes a priority, teams become overwhelmed, leaders become distracted, and improvement efforts lose momentum.

Advocacy is the ability to cut through the noise and answer one critical question:

What problem do we need to solve right now?

Not what problem we can solve.

Not what problem we want to solve.

What problem will have the greatest impact on the goals the organization is trying to achieve?

What You'll Learn

In this episode, you'll learn:

• why advocacy is about alignment and clarity rather than persuasion

• how to connect frontline problems to strategic business goals

• practical questions to uncover the barriers preventing progress

• why not every improvement opportunity deserves immediate attention

• how to translate CI-speak into ValueSpeak™ so leaders understand the impact

• what to do when leadership still says "no"

Connecting Strategy to Reality

Organizations often communicate strategy through high-level objectives:

"Increase EBITDA."

"Improve labor productivity."

"Reduce costs."

But those goals rarely mean much to the people doing the work every day.

This is where CI leaders create value.

Your role is to connect the organization's strategic goals to the real frustrations, obstacles, and problems people experience on the front line.

When leaders can see how frontline issues impact business results—and frontline teams can see how their daily challenges connect to organizational goals—clarity begins to emerge.

That's advocacy.

Questions That Help You Find What Matters

When you're trying to connect strategy to improvement work, ask questions like:

• What conditions need to exist for us to achieve this goal?

• What would have to be true for this to happen?

• What currently prevents us from reaching this target?

That final question often reveals the real barriers standing in the way of progress.

From there, your job becomes identifying which problems matter most and validating them with data.

Because data has a way of cutting through assumptions and helping people focus on reality.

Learning to Say "Not Right Now"

One of the most difficult parts of advocacy is deciding what not to work on.

Some problems are real.

Some opportunities are valuable.

But not all of them are the highest priority.

Advocating for what matters sometimes means helping people understand that a problem will not be solved today—not because it isn't important, but because something else is more important right now.

Remember:

You're not saying "No."

You're saying "Not right now."

And that focus is often what allows organizations to make meaningful progress.

Translating CI-Speak into ValueSpeak™

One of the biggest challenges CI leaders face is communicating upward.

We often present problems through the language of process improvement while senior leaders are listening through the language of business outcomes.

Leaders want to understand:

• How much money will this save?

• How will this improve productivity?

• What business result will this affect?

• How does this support our strategic objectives?

The stronger your ability to translate problems into ValueSpeak™, the easier it becomes to build support and create alignment.

Reflection Questions

Think about a change effort you're leading right now and ask yourself:

• What truly matters in this change effort?

• Have I clearly explained why it matters—in their language?

• What does the organization need us to solve right now?

• What can we say "not right now" to so we can focus?

• Where am I avoiding advocacy because it feels uncomfortable?

The Shift

Advocacy gives change structure.

It helps organizations focus their attention, energy, and resources on the problems that will create the greatest impact.

Without advocacy, change becomes scattered.

With advocacy, change becomes purposeful.

And that's where real results begin.

What's Next?

Next up in the C.H.A.N.G.E. Shaper™ series:

Navigate the Business Environment

Because even the best ideas struggle when you don't understand how decisions actually get made.

Want More Support?

Most of the women I work with aren't struggling because they lack knowledge, skill, or good ideas.

They're struggling because they can't get those ideas heard, understood, and acted upon.

They're stuck between leadership priorities and frontline realities, trying to create change without the influence they need.

That's exactly what we work through inside Credible. Heard. Used.

It's a 5-month development program designed specifically for Continuous Improvement leaders who want to build credibility, increase influence, and get their ideas used.

You'll find more information in the link below.

Video

Links

ValueSpeak™ Quick Translation Guide

Credible. Heard. Used.

Thoughts on Change Page

Transcript

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Change efforts fail quietly all the time. Not because they're wrong, but because they're buried under noise. We focus on the noises instead of on the real signal. And then when we don't see the outcomes we need, the assumption is that the change has failed. But what if we were focusing on the wrong things? In today's episode, we're moving into the A in Change Shaper, advocating for what is really important. Because advocacy is how clarity survives. Welcome to Thoughts on Change, the podcast about the messy, political, emotional, deeply human side of leading change. I'm Kelly, and I believe anyone can implement lead tools until they actually have to get people to use them. Ran here, we talk about how to move culture, how to build credibility, and how to influence without bulldozing. Basically, how to herd humans without losing your mind. So what is advocacy? Merriam-Webster defines advocacy advocacy as the actor process of supporting a cause or proposal. I think of advocacy for change leaders like you more as being a voice for what matters when competing voices are pulling attention elsewhere. Advocacy is about alignment and clarity, not persuasion. It's about building understanding and visibility to what is happening and how that connects to priorities. Advocacy for us is asking what problem do we need to solve right now? Not what problem do we see or want to solve? And this can be really difficult. There are always so many things that could be improved. And as CI people, it is so easy for us to see the problems and opportunities all around us. We see problems everywhere. We are a hammer, and so all we see are nails, nails, nails. One of my favorite images that depicts this is a golf green covered in leaves. And you see a golfer crouched down near his ball, looking across the green at the hole, trying to plot the best path to putt. Looking at that, what do you immediately want to do? Yes, remove all the leaves, all of them. But here is the real question. What do you need to do? All we need to do is remove the leaves on your way to the hole. And here's the real challenge because we see there is a problem or a better way, but that doesn't mean we need to solve it right now. Instead, it is all about what problem do we need to solve to meet our current goal. This means we need to have a really good grasp of that larger objective and the goals for the organization. And then we need to make connections from those to the specific problems we see and the improvements that need to be made. Now, making these connections is where we can help cut through all of the noise and get to what is really important. This is where we help senior leaders see what specific actions need to take place to really shift the business outcomes. We need to connect strategy to the frontline problems and then frontline problems to the strategic initiative they impact. Because when an organization shares a strategy, it is generally in terms like become a 20% EBITDA company. And now, not many people below the most senior leaders and finance understand what it really takes in daily production terms to get to a goal like this. So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out what levers to pull to affect that larger outcome, in this case, EBITDA. And then what levers to pull to affect those levers until you get down to the things that the site, a cell, and production people experience. So here's an example from a site I just came from with a strategy session, and they want to become a 20% EBITDA site. One of the levers that affects that that we're looking at is labor. And we're looking at how many people they need to produce their volume. They have a lot of machines, a lot of molding machines. So they have set a strategic goal to have one person operate several machines. Now, right, that's a little easier to digest for a person on a production floor. And they can share that, but it still won't connect with what does that mean that I have to do on the line or what problems do I need to solve every day? Instead, what you'll probably get as a reaction from a frontline person is, well, we need more people because we can't we can't make what we need to without what we have. And you're just going to be asking us to go faster and work harder. Does this that sound familiar to anybody? And here is where you come in, my CI warriors. This is where you need to advocate. You need to help connect the dots from that strategy of one person operating several machines down to the pain the operator is feeling and the problems they are currently experiencing. And then take those problems and connect them back up to your senior leaders so they know what exactly they have to do in order to achieve that goal. So, how do you actually do this? There's a series of questions that I like to ask to help me in a case like this. So let's go through those. Question one, what are the conditions that need to exist for us to operate with one person for several machines? Okay. Question two, what would have to be true for us to operate with one person for several machines? So you can see those two questions are very similar, but just framed a little bit differently, depending on how your leaders listen and hear and what they're focusing on. All right, now, third question. What currently prevents us from being able to operate with one person for several machines? Now, this last one should definitely get you some answers because you notice the first two are more thinking, you know, what react, what new reality do we need to have? What new condition has to exist? Where that third question is tell me your problems. Tell me the things that are in our way, which we are much better at answering. And so in my example, I asked that last question and I got a whole laundry list of problems. Then it's my job to filter through these to make connections to the problems the operators feel, and then corroborate those with real data because data does talk. Now, this does work both ways. When people on the front lines have problems, we also have to try to make connections between the problems they experience and talk about the higher-level strategic initiatives of the organization. And now there will be cases where a problem on the front line is not the most important thing, according to the business strategy. And it takes real courage to admit that and to say to a frontline operator that we cannot solve that problem right now. And you can use the business strategy to help with the conversation. And don't forget, you're not saying no, you're saying not right now. And by being clear with those priorities, you are actually helping the organization actually get things done and fix problems. It definitely feels bad short term, but in the longer term, it will mean more improvement and better results through more focused effort. Because remember, if everything is important, then nothing is. Okay, so back to connecting problems upward to your senior leaders. To do this, you just work the levers we talked about earlier in reverse. So instead of taking that larger goal and saying what levers impact that and down and down, you would say this problem impacts this lever, which in turn impacts this, which in turn impacts something large like our EBITDA or whatever big strategic goal the organization has. And here is a really important thing about connecting problems upward to leaders. The connection needs to be in the language of the people who need to solve the problems or to hear that this is a problem to make that decision. Of course, this is true downward to the floor as well, right? It has to be in the language that they will understand. But in my experience, that's not generally where CI folks have problems, right? We have problems connecting upward to senior leaders and convincing senior leaders that this is the right response or that this is the problem we need to solve. And the problem here is generally that we are presenting in CI speak, right? And your leaders are listening in value speak. They want to hear things like if we don't do X, or if we do X, it will save Y dollars to our bottom line. If we change A, it will produce more product per person and improve our labor efficiency and spend. So to help you translate your problem into value speak, I've made I've made a quick reference sheet that connects most of the basic problems I see into value speak terms. Now, this is by no means a comprehensive list and it might not have your specific problem on it, but it will give you a place to start and a way to think about if you're struggling. Now, if even after that you're still struggling with how to connect a problem that you are seeing with Value Speak and your senior leaders, try connecting with a person in finance who can help you because they are really excellent at this kind of talk. In the organization I work for, I try very hard to make very good friends with my finance partners because they're the ones who are the most fluent in value speak and can help translate the best. And that translation to value speak is another way to help you and others see if the problem that you've identified really needs to be solved right now or if it needs to be left alone so that people can focus on other more important problems that will really move the needle. And now, of course, there are problems that don't connect to business strategies and initiatives and are harder to connect to financial numbers. And so then it's about connecting in a way that those leaders will still understand. So even if it's not a financial, what is the impact if we do nothing to our labor turnover and connecting it to people are going to leave, which means we'll have to train more people, which means our delivery will suffer and our quality will suffer. So the layers between some of those kinds of problems that don't have a direct tangible financial element can still be traced back to that financial side, but more from a risk perspective. So think about those in the context of if we do nothing, what could the impact be? All right, one final note about advocating for what really matters. You will not always be successful. I know. I know. But it's true. Sometimes you will make the exact right connections from a strategy or business initiative down to the frontline problem. You will have translated that perfectly from CI speak to value speak, and the senior leaders will still say, no, we aren't doing that. And here is something that is probably counter to what you have heard before. That's okay. In the end, other people have choice, and their choice is theirs. If they do choose counter to what you recommend, that is okay. You can disagree, and please do if you really believe in something. But once the decision is made and progress is chosen to move forward, your job is to now help the decision be as successful as possible. And this is that final and sometimes most difficult part of advocating. Because if you continue to talk about how you don't support the decision, you're no longer helping. You are poisoning. So as you go back out into your business, I want you to reflect on how you are currently advocating for what really matters. So ask yourself, what truly matters in the change I'm leading right now? Have I clearly named why this change matters in the language of who you're working with? And what does the organization need me to help them solve right now? And then what can I say not right now to so that I can help the organization focus? And lastly, where where might I be avoiding advocacy to stay comfortable? Lots of questions, I know, but lots of really good reflection to be done. Because advocacy gives change a skeletal structure, right? It gives shape and focus. Without good advocacy for what really matters, momentum can collapse because you don't necessarily see the results you need, the ones that leaders are paying attention to. And those leaders are the ones that make the decisions to continue working in continuous improvement. And without us advocating and making those connections from the strategy to the frontline and the frontline backup, we won't be here and we won't be in businesses. So go out and start advocating. Now, if this hit for you, if you're feeling stuck between leader initiatives and the problems you see on the front lines, and you're frustrated that you're not able to make that translation, I would encourage you to join Credible Heard Used. It's a five-month program for CI leaders like you who are stuck and frustrated that you're not being heard and getting your ideas used. We begin the week of June 22nd, and there are still a couple of spots left. Check out the link in the show notes for more information to grab your spot. All right. See you next time when we get into the N in ChainShaper. Navigate the business environment. See you there. That's a wrap for this episode of Thoughts on Change. If you're also out there trying to move culture instead of just installing tools, hit subscribe and share this with a fellow CI warrior. And remember, progress beats perfection, curiosity beats control, and culture beats everything. See you next time.