GA 504 | Gemba Academy’s 2023 with Ron Pereira

Hey everyone, this is Ron Perera and today we're going to do a little bit a slightly different type of show. It's going to be just me live here on the microphone, but I want to just explore a little bit about what we've been doing here at Gemba Academy in 2023. And I want to share some audio from some of our new newest courses that we've released over the, over the last year. But so just, I mean, really just kind of looking back as we sort of wind things down here in 2023, it's been a great year for Gemba Academy. It's been, been a lot of excitement, a lot of change, a lot of good change. And one of the things that we have really done this year, really explored is what we've dabbled with this in the past and, and it was some live instructor. So we've always done some live instructor stuff over the years, but was never really, you know, formal or intentional. But we, we really formally launched a new live instructor training arm of Gemba Academy this year. Obviously our core platform of videos and our video based library is still our core business, but we wanted to complement that with some live instructor training. And so we've actually done a number of live training workshops here in our Keller, Texas training center. Keller is in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex here in Texas. And we've done a number of them there. But we've also realized just by listening to the customers that some people want us to come to them. And you know, if you have 20, 20, 25 people that you want to train up on a topic, it's probably more affordable for us to send a trainer to you. And so we've done that a number of times as well. So it's been a lot of, a lot of exciting things going on there. We're learning how to do it. It's really, it's a completely different business really than what we've done as far as, you know, marketing and sales and all that kind of stuff. So that's been a really fun learning experience for our team. But yeah, so that's been, that's probably been the, what one of the biggest changes really in 2023 for us now, obviously our core video based learning platform has continued to evolve and I mean it's evolving every week. I feel like we're doing and adding to that library. I think last time I checked our content development team, they've produced, I believe over 150 new videos so far in 2023. And so there's A number of courses that these videos have fall and some of these, some of the topics of the. Some of the new courses are change management. That was one of my favorite ones. Honestly we've done, we've had a big focus on just general leadership topics. So you know, even for folks who weren't. Maybe they aren't into Lean or Six Sigma, but everybody's into leadership. So things like change management Facilitation was another one that we did there. And then kind of in our core lean world we've. We did a whole series on lean logistics. So how to design internal logistics, delivery routes, what's a water spider? So lots of cool stuff there on lean logistics. Then we, we did a really good cool course on just cellular design. Like you want to have U shaped cells and well, how do you go about it? How do you right size your equipment, what do you do? So that, that was another good one. And then we've, we over the years we've had a lot of requests for. People love to do simulations. So, so we've done a number of courses teaching you how to run your own simulation. And so we've. There's a couple of them are. There was one called the bridge game. It was a really fun one letter puzzle game. Another one, this bouncy ball game where you just get a few people and well you see it involves a bouncy ball as the name implies. So a lot of really good stuff that we've done over the years.

So super proud of our content development team.

So what I thought we would do for the rest of this episode is share the audio from a few of these new video. Now we're going to link to all of these videos in the show notes. So all you got to do is scroll down on whatever app you're using and you'll see then in the show notes area the links to go out and actually watch these videos. But for now I just want to have a listen to get an idea of what we're talking about. That's what we want to accomplish. So the, the first course that I want to focus on is, is change management. We talked about that earlier. So I mean obviously if you're involved in lean or continuous improvement or even if you aren't, change is all around us. This change management course. Actually I heard yesterday I was talking to one of my colleagues, they said that I haven't actually talked to John Miller about this, but John Miller is my business partner. He heads up our whole content development team. And, and word is that John said that he thinks this might be one of the best courses that we've ever produced. So I mean, I, I, I'm for John to say that that's a, that's a pretty big statement. So, so there's 20 videos in this course and some of the topics like what is change management, how to use a racy chart, what's risk management, Steep factors, all kinds of really cool stuff. So let's have a listen to this is the overview video or the first video of this change management course.

Hello and welcome. When we follow a good strategy, complete an important project, or install a new technology, we expect to realize its benefits. However, many organizations find that people are slow to adopt the improvements or don't adopt them at all. Most of these struggles or failures are because we didn't manage the human side of change adequately. Change management is the process of planning, preparing, implementing, and monitoring changes in an organization's structure, processes, technologies, or culture. The goal of change management is to help organizations succeed and sustain their efforts to improve, innovate, and grow. Change management also helps organizations adapt to meet the demands of a changing world. Specifically, change management takes a systematic approach to preparing and supporting people to make the transition from the current state to a desired future state. Change management includes a variety of activities designed to address seven common challenges of failing change initiatives. Let's review these challenges and how change management practices address them. The first reason that organizations fail to put good ideas into practice is a lack of urgency to change. Organizations must be nimble and agile and able to act quickly when they recognize threats or opportunities. Common techniques for creating and communicating a compelling case for changes include SWOT analysis, benchmarking visits, steep factor analysis, listening to the voice of our customers, and gap analysis. Creating a sense of urgency for change within an organization or team is challenging, but it's an important skill that we can learn when leading change. The second common challenge when managing change is lack of clarity on goals and objectives. If we don't know exactly where we're going, it can be difficult to measure progress or determine success. During a change initiative, leaders must establish clear, measurable goals and objectives and regularly assess progress against those goals. As part of change management, leaders must align change initiatives with organizational goals and objectives. This enables focus, collaboration, and the achievement of desired business results. The third common challenge when managing change is failure to identify and mitigate risks. Overlooking technical, people, related, or schedule risks can lead to missed deadlines, missed opportunities, and increased costs. We can avoid this by including proven risk management practices into our change management framework. The fourth common challenge when managing change is providing inadequate resources to achieve the change. Even when we have excellent ideas, if we run out of time, money, or personnel to put them into practice, we'll fail to achieve the results we wanted. Leaders must include resource planning activities within their change management framework to ensure that this doesn't happen. This includes considering both resources to make the changes as well as resources to manage the change process. Resources include not only budgets for new systems, equipment, and training, but also the time leaders must dedicate in forming a steering committee to oversee the change process. The fifth common challenge when managing change is poor communication. Miscommunication can be a major obstacle during change management, especially if stakeholders have different perspectives or information needs. Following structured change management processes helps leaders to develop clear and effective communication strategies that that reach all stakeholders, build trust, and increase support. The sixth common challenge is the failure to empower and engage people in making changes. One of the key responsibilities of change leaders is to give people a sense of control over the changes that affect them. Steering committee members make sure there is open and transparent communication as well as multiple ways for people to learn about and get involved in making the changes. The stakeholder engagement plan is a helpful format to make sure we've considered where people are in their level of support and involvement in change and where we need them to be. The seventh challenge of failed or stalling change efforts is resistance to change. Successful and sustained change requires buy in from a large majority of stakeholders. However, people resist change for a variety of reasons, including fear of the unknown, loss of power or control, or concerns about job security. One of the first steps in change management is to identify stakeholders, learn their needs, and make plans to engage them. In addition, the change management process prepares leaders with a variety of techniques to recognize and address the causes of resistance. These are seven of the most common challenges faced during change management. There may be other challenges specific to the organization or or to the change initiative, but they generally fall into one of these categories and can often be addressed by following a structured change management framework. By following such a framework, leaders can anticipate and manage potential challenges, minimize disruptions, address the human element, and ensure that changes are successful and sustained. That wraps up our review of change management.

Okay, so the next course that I want to touch on is focused on the topic of facilitation. This is another one that would into what we're calling sort of our leadership series. So if you're ever tasked with running a meeting or maybe some people are coming together for a workshop and you're in charge or you got any Sort of session where other people are coming and you need to sort of lead it. Well, this is what facilitation is all about. And obviously it's not easy to do and we've all been in meetings that weren't run well, probably one to one yesterday.

Right.

And so this course, there's 13 videos in this course and there's kind of. The part of the course is touching on seven facilitation skills and these, these skills include things like how to engage everybody, how to do active listening and how to maintain focus yourself, but most importantly for the people that are in the session with you. So some really good stuff in this facilitation course. So here's the audio from that overview video. Again, you can watch this whole video to scroll down and you can click on it and it'll bring you to our website where you can watch this free of charge.

Hello and welcome. Facilitation is a set of skills and practices designed to engage people in change, improvement and innovation. The word facilitate comes from the Latin word that means to make it easy or less difficult to do something. Therefore, a facilitator is a person whose role is to make it easier for other people to achieve an objective. Specifically, a facilitator guides a group of people through a process. This may be a discussion, a brainstorming session, a problem solving activity, conflict resolution or other activity. However, it's very important to remember what a facilitator is not. The facilitator is typically not a participating member of the team's activity. This means that the facilitator does not have a vote, does not directly influence the outcome of the meeting, or attempts to influence an outcome. It's also important to note that the facilitator is not the boss, formal leader or decision maker for the group activity. In some cases, the manager of the group may also serve as the facilitator for a meeting or activity. This should only be done when the manager can remain neutral, demonstrates that they have little or no personal stake in the outcome and are committed to helping the team get through the process. In fact, it's often best when the facilitator is someone from outside of the team or even the company. It's not necessary for the facilitator to be familiar with the whole history of the issue or to be an expert in the topics being discussed. In fact, facilitators who know a lot about the topic can sometimes be biased or have their own opinions which may get in the way. The facilitator is also not expected to bring any solutions to the meeting. Instead, an effective facilitator makes it easier for the team to work through the issues and arrive at solutions by guiding people through a process of collaboration. This does require facilitators to have a basic familiarity with the issues they will be facilitating. This is important so that the facilitator doesn't feel intimidated by technical discussions or hold the team back trying to keep up. Now let's briefly review the skills and competencies of a successful facilitator. Effective facilitation requires that we develop seven fundamental skills. These start with being well prepared and creating an agenda to follow through the process. These are the first two skills. During the activity, a facilitator must know how to engage all participants and encourage contribution from everyone. This is the third skill. The fourth, fifth, and sixth skills are active listening, maintaining focus and getting discussions back on track and keeping the process moving on time. While facilitators must guide the team through the agenda and discussion or problem solving process, this is not enough. Facilitators must also use a variety of techniques to enable their teams to overcome obstacles and achieve their objectives. This is the seventh skill. In addition to these general facilitation skills, a facilitator must be very familiar with a specific type of activity or process they're facilitating. For example, a facilitator who is experienced in one type of activity, such as a quarterly half day strategic plan review, may not know the ins and outs of how to facilitate a five day rapid improvement workshop. Although the basic mechanics of preparing, facilitating and following up are the same for all activities, differences in the team composition, duration, speed, energy and intensity may place unique demands on the facilitator. The best way to become familiar with the new process or activity type is by participating as a team member, observing other facilitators in action, and reviewing facilitation tips specific to it. This means that even an experienced facilitator must continuously learn and expand their repertoire of processes. That wraps up our review of the practice of facilitation.

Okay, so the last course that I want to focus on now is a little bit one of the more technical topics that we covered this year and this topic is Quality Function Deployment or qfd. So if you've ever been involved any sort of design for Six Sigma or just general Six Sigma, you may have heard of qfd. It's not just a Six Sigma tool, but it's popular within that world. So Quality Function Deployment again, or QFD as that's called. It's a tool that we use when we want to transform customer requirements into technical requirements so we can meet the needs of those customers. So it's a really powerful tool. And during this course we cover the main components of the of what we call the House of Quality is the sort of a key concept within qfd. And so we walk through a step by step approach for constructing this House of Quality again in order to deliver.

The results that our customers want.

Now, there's nine videos in this QFD course, and so this is the overview video or the audio from that overview video. This one's called what is Quality Function Deployment? Hello and welcome. Quality Function Deployment, or qfd, is a systematic approach for transforming customer requirements into technical requirements for meeting those needs.

This approach defines quality function in the broadest sense as including all aspects of an organization for meeting customer demands. It's typically used in planning, design and development projects. QFD is used in operational excellence efforts such as design for Six Sigma or DFSS projects. It also plays an important supporting role in lean product development and agile development efforts. QFD doesn't aim to replace an organization's product development process. Instead, it helps to integrate customer requirements into how we design and deliver products and services. QFD can encompass the entire scope from concept development, detailed design, engineering specification, technical requirements, process planning, quality control, and more. QFD follows a step by step process. We organize and analyze the information we gather using a matrix called the House of Quality. This provides a visual representation of the relationship between customer requirements and the technical features of a product, helping teams prioritize and focus on what matters most to the customer. The process begins by collecting customer requirements, often termed VOC or the voice of the customer. These requirements can come from various sources such as direct customer interviews, surveys, focus groups, or other feedback mechanisms. Then we translate the voice of the customer requirements into specific product or service features, functions, or characteristics. This ensures that the product or service is designed based on what the customer wants. After we've completed the top level matrix or House of Quality, we deploy our findings to the next level to address the critical items. These items progress from the product definition at level one to designing systems and components of the product at level two. Then we develop production process characteristics and requirements at level three. In some cases, QFD may progress to more detailed levels to define process controls. The technical requirements from the higher level or the hows are deployed to the lower level to become the what's. In other words, the Level 1 Technical Requirements act as the voice of the internal customer requirements for the Level 2 design activity. This transfer of the higher level how to the lower level what happens at each stage of deployment Quality Function Deployment is not a one time activity but intended to be an iterative process. As the product design evolves, we revisit the QFD matrices and update them to ensure that we remain aligned with customer requirements. There are five main benefits to incorporating QFD into our product development process. First, the QFD process emphasizes customer centricity as the starting point. The translation of voice of the customer requirements across design levels helps to ensure that the product or service is designed with the customer in mind. Second, QFD takes a cross functional approach. This helps in breaking down silos between different departments. As a result, all areas or departments can align towards the common goal of fulfilling customer requirements. Third, QFD provides structure, discipline and documentation to product development. We use the House of Quality and additional matrices to guide the process, structure our thinking, show our logic, record our decisions, and sign our name in agreement. This clarifies expectation, improves communication, and promotes learning. In addition, the QFD format often meets requirements for documenting traceability that our external customers or regulatory agencies may have. Fourth, the use of a disciplined process for visualizing and ranking customer needs, requirements and capabilities simplifies decision making. This also contributes to reduced overall development time. Fifth, as a result of focusing on critical customer requirements and improving interdepartmental communication, QFD leads to cost savings. We achieve this by shifting to a more proactive development approach. This allows us to avoid miscommunication, avoid under designing process capabilities, and avoid designing features that customers don't value. As a result, we can use less time, energy, money and other resources to develop and launch products and services.

In essence, QFD ensures that customer needs and wants are at the forefront of our decision making processes from product design to production and even to post sales service. That wraps up our review of of QFD or quality function deployment. Okay, now again, as I've said, go ahead, scroll down and you can watch these videos. And also, in case you don't know, if you aren't a subscriber to Gemba Academy, if you go over to Gemba Academy.com and you click into any of the courses, the first video of every single course is unlocked.

You don't need a subscription.

So, I mean, there's enough videos there. There's a lot of courses. We've got. Gosh, I don't. We're over 1500 videos now.

We're going to be approaching 2000 here.

Soon, sooner than later. So lots of content that you can go check out. We also have a most of these overview videos are on our YouTube channel. So go ahead over to the Gamba Academy YouTube channel as well to check those out. But in, in closing, I do, I, I do want to give a big shout out of appreciation for Gamba Academy's content development team. So again, I mentioned earlier this, this team is led by my, by my business partner, John Miller. And I don't know if I like to brag on John a little bit. He's my business partner and a good friend. But John is actually was raised in Japan and so he speaks Japanese fluently. So he learned Lean by being a translator. He was like 21 year old kid. So he was running around with some of these Japanese gentlemen who came over from Learn from Taiichi Ono and people like that directly. These are the guys that Sean was translating for. So he did that for several years and then and that basically launched him into his own Lean consulting practice and one thing led to another and here we are again, the Academy, many, many years later. So John is fantastic and he leads that team. But Greg and Carlos and Megan and Jessica, oh my gosh, Demi and Rex with such a strong content development team and I'm so, so extremely thankful for all of them. And I'm also extremely thankful for all of you, our podcast family. So I was recently at the AME conference in and honestly I lost track of how many times people came up to me talking about the podcast. So thank you for listening and for sharing this podcast with others. Okay, well that's all we've got for today. We'll be back to a normal episode next week. And so again, thanks for listening. Now go make something better. Thanks for listening. Whether you've been on the continuous improvement journey for many years or perhaps you're just getting started, GEMBA Academy is here to support you. And while we're best known for our more than 1500 Lean and Six Sigma teaching and virtual tour videos, we also have a team of experienced Lean and Six Sigma practitioners available for one on one coaching, as well as a variety of Lean and Six Sigma certification options. To learn more and to schedule a demo, head on over to gembaacademy.com.