Tending the soil can lead to a successful improvement culture.
In this analogy, the soil is the work environment. The seedling plants are your people. It’s critically important to the growth of your improvement culture, that you focus on improving the work environment.
1. Preparing the soil
Sometimes the soil might be left parched or infertile. It might have been ravaged for years. A work environment is exactly the same. It might be hard and full of obstacles. Make practical efforts to remove those obstacles.
Try and streamline the onboarding process without losing it’s effectiveness.
Create a system where you prepare first, before the arrival of new people. This means not just an orientation program that covers their first week but where they learn at the gemba.
When you plant new people, ensure they’re not standing alone, buddy them with someone else that will walk with them and make them feel a sense of belonging.
2. Maintenance
The soil has to be regularly tested and checked to determine what it needs to return it to
the right condition. The same applies to your work environment. We need to be testing the culture by having your leaders walk the gemba, ask questions, listen and learn. If something is missing, action improvement.
Communicate, clearly and regularly. Test that the message is being received as intended.
Weeds are those practices that develop in competition to your important ones. Cut them out or replace them with those that are acceptable.
Pests are those wasteful processes that will eat away at your people. Be tough at driving out waste. Engage your people in ideas to remove the waste. Allow your people to participate in the creation and implementation of ideas.
I firmly believe Tending the soil by following these simple tips and creating the right working environment can help you to develop a successful improvement culture