The Problem and Goal Statement

The Define phase is all about the ‘think before you start running’. This is where you figure out what it is that you’re exploring, what the actual problem is and of course what your goal is.

A problem statement, in this case, consists of 1 or 2 sentences and clearly describes the problem and it’s consequences.

A good problem statement is:

- written as a fact and not as a question

- specific as it includes relevant data and facts

- does not lead to causes or solutions

An example:

“The baking process at Cookie Monster Inc. takes up so much time that we have difficulty getting all the requested cookies to our customers and we have no more time for sales and marketing”

The goal statement, is a sentence or 2 in which you describe what result you will have reached by the end of the project.

Sometimes a goal statement is simply the opposite of you problem statement but be sure to take some time to think this over as it is not always the case!

A good goal statement is at least SMART.

This means that it is:

- Specific

- Measurable

- Acceptable

- Realistic

- Timebound

In the Cookie Monster example the initial goal statement is to ‘shorten the baking process so that we save a total of 1000 minutes a day. This way we can easily meet customer requests and we have time for sales and marketing’

Your Improvement Project

Try and define the problem an goal statement for your project and perhaps share it on the discussion board or with a select few other colleagues or students. Usually it helps when different people take a look at it as they are not necessarily caught up in the content and the desired outcome.

The Project Charter

In this video I go over all the elements in the project charter. Download it from the supplementary materials and keep it next to you as a reference!

• Project name and project manager: that's you!

• Problem and Goal statement: exactly like we discussed in the previous video

• Scope: this is where you define what is, and probably more important, what is not part of your project. If you’re for example improving a sales process in a larger organisation you might want to scope it to ‘the inbound sales process starting from a lead coming in to a signed contract’. And you could mention that all outbound or other types of salesprocesses are excluded.

• Business case: this is the one thing every manager understands and loves; as long as the business case is good, you’re good to go to spend time and resources on it. Just to be clear: a business case is simply a calculation of the benefits that will come from doing this improvement, usually against the resources that need to go in the project.

• Stakeholders are those people that are somehow involved in the process that you’re improving or in the result of that improvement. They can therefor vary from your end-customers, your direct colleagues, your manager, your managers manager etc. Everybody who has a stake in what you’re doing is involved and needs to be recognised as such.

• Risks: Preparing for that what might go wrong is what risk management is all about. You’ll need to take some time and think what might hinder the success of your project. This might be other projects working in the same area, budget restraints, vital stakeholders being against the change or simply not having any time to do the project.

• The milestoneplanning in your projectcharter is a simple overview of when your main phases will be done. This will give you and your colleagues a structure to work with.
  

There are 4 questions that sum up the Define phase:

• What is the problem (in 1 sentence)?
• What are the goals (SMART)?
• What is the context
• Who are involved?
• What are barriers for success?

Your Improvement Project:

Fill in the project charter for your project by using the template attached.

Remember the following:

• Do not rush this phase!
• Remember the charter is an organic sheet: if you do not have the data right now make sure you now fill in the basics and come back later to refine
• Use the template and Cookie Monster Inc. example for guidelines on filling in the charter
• Do this together with your team if you have one
• This is the one page you will take around with you constantly and is the one that will 'sell' your project to stakeholders.
• From reading just this one page a manager should for example be willing to give you all the required time and resources to make this happen. Of course, only given the business case is interesting enough.

This video is all about the how and what of the Measure phase!

The goal of this phase is to be able to look back at your problem statement and be able to quantify it; you know what the problem costs you and where these costs are made in the process.

There are a few steps in this phase:

1. Draw up the high-level process using the input you have gathered from previous exercises or talking to people. Do not make this a highly elaborate exercise though; it serves mainly as a basis from which you can work and to give you an initial clue of what is going on.
2. Invite the main people who work within the process to a workshop. Make sure you take enough time for them to clear their calendars for this or even ask them upfront, but make sure they are there. Be careful with inviting managers though; often people feel hindered in saying what they actually want to say with their manager there!
3. In the workshop, explain the goal of that session and go over the problem and goal statement with the group. If necessary, be sure to also explain the improvement process to them using the documents provided in the supplementary materials.
4. Validate the process with the group. Prepare the process by using post-its or printouts in A5 size on a flipchart or brown paper beforehand and then ask the group to add, substract and shuffle as much as necessary until everybody agrees that this is indeed the process as it is right now.
   

   
   
   Example high-level process from the Cookie Monster Inc. example.

5. Find out what problems are occurring in the process. Again use the post-it notes and let people stick them on the brown paper where they belong > no restrictions in what people can write! If it will help the process use the picture of the 7 wastes for this.
6. Specifying the problems. Usually there is much overlap and usually people want to talk about it so make sure you build in that room but also help them become very concrete and precise. You go over all the post-its, remove the doubles and rewrite the vague ones.
7. Quantify the problems. How often do they happen? How long does this take? How much money does it cost? The questions often vary per type of problem but get a good feel of the actual pain and make it measurable so your improvement becomes really clear as well! Sometimes this can't be done in the workshop and you will need to go back some other time when you've measured it all!

To conclude this video, the questions that need to be answered:

• What does the process look like?
• Do all the process steps add value to the customer?
• What are the problems in the process?

Whether you are improving a complex process in a multinational organization or the process of organizing your quarterly bakesale; the steps are the same, just tone it down or spruce it up where it needs to to best fit your environment and the people you work with!

Your Improvement Project:
Measure your problem by taking the next steps (preferably together with all the involved people):

- Write down the different process steps (I like to use post-its for this excercise)
- Run through all the steps and question whether they add value to the customer or are in another way essential for the process. Take into account the different type of wastes
- Define the problems (red flags) in the process
- Look at each flag individually and assess:
- How often it happens
- How much extra time, money etc. it costs
- In how far it impacts customer value
- Refine your project charter and business case

The Analyse Phase

This video explains you how to find the root causes for the problems you've found in the Measure phase. I use 2 tools for this:

• 5 Why Method
  Really, you just pretend that you’re 5 years old and have no clue of what’s going on or how things came about that way.

  Take the top 3 of 5 problems that you’ve defined to be the most costly, be it in time, money, customer satisfaction or any other important metric, and take another brown paper or whiteboard or flipchart, or whatever it is that you are using.

  Per problem you just keep asking why until the root cause is there! Again make sure you get some real answers and not get stuck at answers like ‘because we’ve always done it that way’ or something.
  

  

  
  This example shows how asking 4 times 'why' leads you to a whole new insights and perspectives.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Root Cause Diagram
  My favourite tool and best explained with an example

  

Obviously not all root causes are found in exactly 5 questions, some take 3, others 8 before you get to the point.

To conclude this phase, the main questions that will have to be answered:

• What is causing the problem(s)?
• What is the root cause to the problem(s)?
• What root causes do we now want to focus on considering size and impact?




Your Improvement Project:

Analyse your process by taking the following steps:

• Prioritise your 'red flags' from the measure phase according to time and impact
• Start asking 'Why'! (also check out the example I added and the root cause diagram in the Cookie Monster Inc project)

Sometimes this is really straightforward, sometimes it can get quite complex.

For the complex problems make a cause and effect diagram (use post-its):

• Start with the problem
• Ask 'why' this problem is happening
• Write down the reasons on separate post-its
• Again ask why for each reason and write the answers down on separate post-its
• Keep repeating until you get to the root cause

Update your project charter when necessary!

Analyse your process by taking the following steps:

• Prioritise your 'red flags' from the measure phase according to time and impact
• Start asking 'Why'! (also check out the example I added and the root cause diagram in the Cookie Monster Inc project)

Sometimes this is really straightforward, sometimes it can get quite complex.

For the complex problems make a cause and effect diagram (use post-its):

• Start with the problem
• Ask 'why' this problem is happening
• Write down the reasons on separate post-its
• Again ask why for each reason and write the answers down on separate post-its
• Keep repeating until you get to the root cause

Update your project charter when necessary!

This is where the fun begins! Here I talk about how to get your root causes translated to solutions and the best way to learn how to do this is by doing it!

Your Improvement Project

Gather your prioritised root causes and take your team to brainstorm on potential solutions. Use the following points as guidelines:

• Bring in the whole team.
• Use post-its, a flipboard or other low-tech means; these will not distract you from the creative flow
• Make sure 1 person in in charge of the process. This person ensures asks critical questions and aims to push the creativity further.
• In brainstorming there are usually more great ideas to be found after the initial exhileration has ebbed out; make sure you do not stop too soon.
• Try not to give feedback on 'crazy' ideas; in this phase everything is possible and welcome
• Challenge yourself by trying to limit the options. For example: only solutions that are free or cost a maximum of 2 hours to implement etc.
  

Take all your ideas and then prioritise them in the matrix in the attachment. Whatever comes up as high impact and low effort is what you do. Again some guidelines:

• Make sure to define what high and low means; this could be time, money, quality, customer experience etc. Look back at your goal statement for this.
• Solutions with a high impact that are still realistic in time and money should be put on the long-term improvement plan.
• When solutions are a no-brainer and hardly cost you anything don't fuss about them too much and just do them.

The Implement Phase

You take your solutions and you translate them into actions which you then make happen together with the team!

There are a pitfalls you want to stay clear from though:

1. The actions are vague.
   More often than not, actions get forgotten or sidetracked in the hustle and bustle of daily operations and having to come back to them when they’re only described in a vague way does not help in effectively closing them.
   
   
2. There is no action owner defined.
   Not assigning an owner to an action is setting you up for trouble big time because no way is that action ever going to be done by anyone else but yourself this way.
   
   
3. The action owner does not know or understand the action.
   Now this seems rather straightforward but it happens a lot! People just nod when you ask if you understand or perhaps you’ve assigned the action to someone who was not there and forgotten to tell them properly…either way; the action is not going to happen!
   
   
4. The date is not set, set too ambitious or way too far back.
   When you don’t set a date people will not feel any pressure to do anything and you have no foot to stand on when you next ask them whether this action can be closed of or not. Same thing happens when you set a date too far away in the future…this means that the pressure is of and an action can be forgotten easily because of all the other things that need to be done.
   
   When the action is set too ambitious things on the other hand, can get frustrating; people do not like not being able to deliver on what they promised and it’s no fun to tell someone off or feel like you have to because a deadline has not been met.
   
   
5. Actions are not managed.
   Now this is your job! Handing out things to do and letting go from there is unfortunately not the way to get things done. Managing your actionlist does not simply mean running after people and asking them whether or not they’ve done stuff already. You need to make sure that these things get done so you need to make sure that nothing is in the way of the people doing them.
   

Remember though when things get difficult, people are not against working or against changing; 90% of the time it is the circumstances that create this tensions and it is these that you need to manage.

The most important questions for this phase:

• Who is responsible for the final result?
• Who performs what actions when?
• Do these people know that and do they have the time and skills?
• What else is required to make this change successful?

Your Improvement Project

This is where you actually do the work.

You can use the attached template as an actionlist but of course you just need to make sure you use whatever works best in your situation.

The Control Phase

This is where you check whether you goal statement has indeed come true and the problem statement no longer exists.

There are at least 3 things that need to be done or in place to make sure something sticks and they come in all sorts of different shapes and forms:

1. Communication.
   You’ll need to figure out what the best way of communicating is and how to do this and you need to make it happen properly taking into account all your defined stakeholders.
   
   
2. Standard operating procedures.
   This is all about making the change part of your daily business. One of the ways to do so is by creating standard operating procedures or work instructions. These are detailed descriptions of processes and what needs to be done by whom in what step.
   
   Sometimes you will use a workflowtool that guides you through the steps. Other times you don’t have any other choice that to print out whatever needs to be know and hang it right above everybody's heads. It seriously does not matter how low tech it is, as long as it sticks in the minds of people so they don’t go back to the way that has already been proven not to be the best.
   
   
3. Standard metrics.
   With these I mean that set of metrics that you track on a, preferably, regular basis to assure you’re still on the right track or not. After doing your project you might want to take a look at the existing reports and the metrics within them and perhaps adjust the target or add a metric to ensure that that what you’ve just improved does not get lost.

The most important questions for this phase:

• What are the measurable results?
• Are the changes now part of the standard process? In other words, is it impossible to slip into old habits?
• What needs to happen in the future?

Your Improvement Project

Create your 'controlplan'; this will help you make sure you get your improvements to stick.

Take the following questions into account:

• Do the people who will need to do the work know why they need to do it differently?
• Do they have all the knowledge/skills and resources required to do the work?
• Are the changes part of the standard processes and procedures?
• Does the manager know, understand and support the changes?
• Should a KPI or KPI target change because of this improvement?
• Etc.

Change management is hard but important, vital even!

Check out the blogs on my website and also on www.thechangemanagementtoolbook.com and www.strategiesformanagingchange.com for more information.

Performance management should be an integral part of your continuously improving business.

Again, check out my blogs on my website but also follow Bernard Marr from the AP-Institute for some high quality blogs and books on this particular topic!

The first out of 2 videos that moves you along the Business Improvement Blueprint (see the additional resources).

These 2 bonus videos are great for when you want to get a birds eye perspective on your business and its processes and will definitely help you figure out which process to focus on first!