We often get questions about whether the Lean management methodology can be applied in the financial services industry. Because of its manufacturing roots, many people assume that it doesn’t apply to banking or other services-oriented sectors. However, because banking is very process-intensive, the Lean approach can generate significant operational improvement and waste reduction. That’s why many financial services organizations have implemented Lean in one form or another.

Much of the information published about establishing a culture of Kaizen is written for leaders who are introducing the concept to their entire organization for the first time. But once the Kaizen mindset is established, the job is not done. Looking for opportunities for positive change may be second nature to your long-term employees, but many new hires will have no knowledge of Kaizen or daily improvement. Without a plan for familiarizing these new team members with Kaizen, your carefully developed culture can quickly become diluted. That's why it is critical to bake Kaizen into your employee onboarding process. Here are our top tips for doing precisely that.

When people think of structured continuous improvement methodologies like Lean and Six Sigma, they usually associate it with manufacturing. However, these days, financial services firms, under immense pressure to reduce operational costs and improve efficiencies and effectiveness, are embracing formal continuous improvement programs. Many of the most popular methodologies can easily be tailored to the needs of financial services firms. They can also take advantage of the technology leveraged in other sectors to support improvement.

For many companies, the COVID-19 pandemic has shined a new light on environmental, health, and safety (EHS) programs. Workplace conditions that were once taken for granted are now being reconsidered through a new lens. Many organizations have realized that this is the right time to consider a more formal approach to managing compliance with regulatory guidelines and perhaps going above and beyond what is required. Over the last several months, we’ve spoken with many leaders and managers considering implementing software to boost their EHS efforts.

We’ve compiled a list of their most common questions.

In support of my friend, Deondra Wardelle and her work to end racism, I participated in a KaiNexus webinar a few weeks ago called “Sharing our Visions and Voices to #RootCaseRacism” (click here to see the recording) and was asked to speak about the obstacles to overcoming racism. 

Deondra was one of the original members of the over 500 women that make up “Women in Lean” – an online community started a year ago by myself, Karyn Ross, and Crystal Davis. The question about obstacles to overcoming racism was difficult to grapple with as I had to address the reasons for my own lack of action. I answered the obstacle question in the few minutes I had to speak during the webinar and have since reconsidered those obstacles in terms of the Toyota Kata model.  

I am a continuous improvement consultant and leadership coach. I started practicing Toyota Kata four years ago and have become such a believer (#katageek) that it is hard NOT to apply either the Improvement Kata or the Coaching Kata pattern. As was the intention of the author, Mike Rother, the patterns are a meta-skill that can be applied in any context. 

The Toyota Kata practice routine is comprised of four steps:

The Leapfrog Group is a nonprofit organization founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers of healthcare concerned with quality and safety. The cornerstone Leapfrog Hospital Survey collects and reports hospital performance, giving consumers and other purchasers the ability to make informed decisions and find the highest-value care. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their patient safety record, providing transparency around critical issues such as errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.

The best performing hospitals on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey are recognized each year with the prestigious Leapfrog Top Hospital award. These hospitals have better systems in place to prevent infection, reduce medication errors, deliver the highest quality maternity care, among other qualities. To be eligible to receive the award, hospitals must have received a Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade of A in the most recent scoring round. The award is not limited to a particular number of hospitals; instead, all teaching, rural, general, and teaching hospitals, that meet the high standards for each year can receive the award.

Recognizing and rewarding employees on their efforts is a critical component of a continuous improvement culture. Without recognition, it’s typically challenging to drive employee engagement. Your employees need you to recognize the work and contributions they make, and as a result of recognition, they’ll continue to produce work that both you and them are proud of.  The recognition program can range from something as simple as thanking them for their work, or you can have a more formal program like Employee of the Month.

The team at Rockwater put together a program to encourage KaiNexus participation and drive overall continuous improvement engagement. Here’s more detail on the participation and bonus program they created.

McKinsey and Company, one of the country’s leading management consultancies, reports that up to 70% of systemic change programs fail to reach their business goals.

Why? According to the firm, “Common pitfalls include a lack of employee engagement, inadequate management support, poor or nonexistent cross-functional collaboration, and a lack of accountability. Furthermore, sustaining a transformation’s impact typically requires a major reset in mind-sets and behaviors—something that few leaders know how to achieve.”

What these challenges all have in common is that they revolve around the way people think about change. Creating a culture that values process improvement requires a transformation in how leaders behave and how engagement is recognized and rewarded.

Here are five things you can do to increase engagement and accelerate the pace of positive change in your organization.

McKinsey published a study that reveals the four most important behaviors of successful leaders. As the report says, “Over 90% of CEOs are already planning to increase investment in leadership development because they see it as the single most important human-capital issue their organizations face.” McKinsey research has often emphasized the importance of good leadership for organizational health.

Although everyone knows leadership is important, there’s long been a lingering question of what aspects of leadership are most important to develop and reward. Should the focus be on communicating with staff? Modeling desired behaviors? Making quick decisions, or encouraging staff engagement? With so many leadership behaviors in the pot, it’s no wonder CEOs are unsure of which ones to focus on; only 43% of CEOs feel their investment in leadership will yield results.

Oil & Gas companies need to be ever more flexible and agile to succeed as the industry continues to face price volatility, technical innovation, and an uncertain regulatory environment. Given these unstable conditions, it’s not surprising that some Oil & Gas companies are reluctant to adopt a standardized continuous improvement method. However, when applied thoughtfully, with an eye on the long-term, the principles of continuous improvement are relevant and can drive results even in the most dynamic environments. That’s why the Lean Six Sigma model is gaining traction in oil & gas.