Complete Participation Changes Everything

Actively lead and/or participate in process improvement teams.

Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic

It may seem obvious, but when one examines the presence of all three participants, tactical, integrative, and strategic, how often do we see complete participation. Unfortunately, the answer is not often enough. Why is complete participation so important? Each participant has a reason to be present and a message to be sent to the organization.

The tactical participants bring knowledge to the party. These folks are closest to the processes being improved. Without their current state knowledge, we may suggest changes that clearly communicate our lack of knowledge and experience with the processes in question. Ownership is at risk, here, too. No process team participation, no process team ownership, no staying power post implementation. It’s easy to understand the importance of tactical level participation. The risk is to assume they don’t need the other two levels. They do, and we’ll look at that next.

Integrative participation brings execution and evaluation. The process owners are the ones held accountable for performance, failures, and successes. Knowing that one will be held accountable for certain performance expectations, one should be present to offer both advice and approval or question the decisions as they are being considered and accepted. If one’s reputation is on the line, one should be concerned about it.

Complete Participation

So, what about the Strategic level? What do they offer with their presence. Attention. When the sponsor is present the message is clear. This is important, and if you are part of this process, then you are important, too. The opportunity to notice and comment on the work of the tactical level within an organization is powerful. When leadership acknowledges the value of people, the people are encouraged and energized. What better way to move progress forward than to just show up and notice the good work people do.