Performance Excellence Frameworks

How Lean Methods Goes Beyond the Traditional

With a long history in performance excellence, we at the Lean Methods Group believe in a holistic approach. All of the pieces of the performance excellence puzzle must come together and paint a picture that is clear to each and every associate who views it.

Every facet of your business is part of a system that can be managed or improved by applying sound principles.

For this reason, organizations often start with a model or framework that ties all components together. These frameworks are rarely functional in nature but are designed to help the workforce make sense of things. As the statistician George Box once famously said, “All models are wrong but some are useful.”

Regardless of the framework chosen, the focus is the application of defined principles and practices to the systems and processes that deliver value to customers.

Every facet of your business from sales to production to talent development to customer service is part of a system that can be managed or improved by applying sound principles. This allows you to align all activities to delivering customer value, thereby avoiding the siloed thinking that prevents many organizations from achieving their strategic goals.

Examples of Performance Excellence Frameworks

 

What the Lean Methods Group’s Approach Shares with Other Frameworks

In comparing other popular frameworks, such as Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge and The Shingo Guiding Principles, with the Lean Methods Group’s System of Performance Excellence, there are several characteristics that our approach shares, including…

  • Relentless focus on delivering value to the customer.
  • Alignment of all activities to the customer perspective, from the strategy to associates’ day-to-day work.
  • Constant pursuit of improvement and innovation, and a deep understanding of change and motivation.
  • Support of behaviors, actions and a culture aligned to the organizational purpose.

How the Lean Methods Group Links Specifically to the Shingo Model

Specifically, clients have asked how our services align to the Shingo Model and Shingo Prize, an assessment of an organization’s culture and how well it drives world-class results. our services, highlighted below, uniquely align with the Shingo Model of Operational Excellence, providing organizations a complete package that fulfills the guiding principles and model for excellence. Additionally, the Lean Methods Group goes beyond traditional enterprise excellence to incorporate innovation and strategy creation into our framework.

The Lean Methods Group’s Performance Excellence Services

Results
  • Identify deep customer insights using qualitative and quantitative research.
  • Identify the Job To Be Done and define value in current and future offerings.
  • Translate customer insights into the strategy and tactics of the organization.
  • Map the customer journey.
  • Monitor results across all aspects of the customer journey and experience.
  • Tie customer insights and metrics to internal metrics and performance and build the metrics into reviews at all levels.
Enterprise Alignment
  • Facilitate strategy creation.
  • Develop senior leaders into strategic thinkers.
  • Identify market and technology trends that highlight opportunities for growth.
  • Identify deep customer insights using qualitative and quantitative research.
  • Establish a strategic planning process to achieve your strategic goals (Hoshin Planning).
  • Facilitate the alignment of your organization to the future vision.
  • Design and implement a performance excellence system to transform your operations.
  • Align performance management systems, process management, vision and culture.
  • Create a scalable and sustainable innovation ecosystem.
  • Build a core competency in strategic thinking.
  • Create aligned and cascading measurement systems.
  • Implement a Daily Management system.
  • Drive a culture of Alignment, Accountability & Sustainability – the Leadership Triangle.
  • Define and develop or modify the business systems needed to support the strategy.
  • Align the strategy and the culture of the organization.
Continuous Improvement
  • Understand, map and manage the organization from a system/process perspective.
  • Conduct qualitative and quantitative research to uncover customer needs and outcome expectations.
  • Identify the most important needs to differentiate the customer experience.
  • Assess current capability and gaps in process performance.
  • Assess, build and align measurement systems to monitor and improve processes over time.
  • Understand, map and manage the organization from a system/process perspective.
  • Conduct qualitative and quantitative research to uncover customer needs and outcome expectations.
  • Identify the most important needs to differentiate the customer experience.
  • Assess current capability and gaps in process performance.
  • Assess, build and align measurement systems to monitor and improve processes over time.
  • Implement sustainability components including Daily Management and Leadership Standard Work.
  • Identify the right innovation and improvement opportunities.
  • Apply structured, systematic and data-driven methods and tools (Experimentation, Rapid Problem Solving, Lean, Six Sigma, Innovation and Design) to innovate and improve.
  • Build confidence and enhance high-performing teams.
  • Lead teams through innovation and improvement projects.
Cultural Enablers
  • Develop a set of guiding principles that drive your organization’s future.
  • Identify any barriers or misalignments in the existing culture.
  • Boost leadership skills at all levels in strategic thinking, the role of the leader in performance excellence, leadership standards and standard work, the cycle of accountability, and the leader as coach.
  • Understand the psychology of leadership and change, including six emotional drivers to accepting change.
  • Develop change strategies and plans for the organization and initiatives and projects at all levels.
  • Develop high-performance teams.
  • Build your organization’s change leadership capability and coach your people to lead change successfully.
  • Assess individual’s behavioral styles and use to expand leader and team performance.
  • Define and develop or modify the business systems needed to support the cultural vision.
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