Number 113 – Use Standard Work

Use Standard Work for Leadership and Non-production Processes.

Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic

This OpEx TopEx immediately calls to mind leader standard work and all the resistance I have experienced over the years.  If everything we produce is the result of a process, and we expect process standard work to be adhered to and improved upon in our production processes then help me understand why this is not just as applicable in non-production processes, including the relational processes found in leader standard work?  There is never a solid or valid argument.  There is only ego and the avoidance of responsibility.  That may sound pointed.  I have met too many managers that resemble this to express anything different.  Just use standard work.

The fourth quarter is also strategy deployment time (you didn’t think I was finished with this topex).  The desired outcome of strategy deployment is a condition of organizational readiness, and there is a repeatable process that will effectively and efficiently deliver that outcome.  Do you know how to measure that outcome?  Well, if this is the first time you have encountered the idea of deployment equals readiness then you probably have never even given it a thought.  That is okay, but it is time to change that. 

Do You Use Standard Work?

When we can define the measures of successfully creating a condition of readiness, we can then evaluate our strategy deployment process.  Until then we will be operating with too many guesses regarding success and never understand why our strategic imperatives take nine months to deploy, if ever. If you are doing the math, you probably realize that means it is fourth quarter again and we are starting the process over again.  New imperatives, new communications, no momentum, no solutions, no outcomes.  Do you use standard work?

For any process to be effective we must first define the measures of success and then evaluate the ability of the methods and processes to effectively deliver them.  Why, then, are the most important processes left to chance and unnecessary variation.  Strategy deployment may be the most important process in the executive scope of responsibility.  Rarely do I encounter a strategy deployment process that is complete.

It seems appropriate to quote a line from a movie here.  From John Wick 4 we hear these words:
      “How you do anything is how you do everything.”
                                                                    -John Wick

Everything is the result of a process.  How you manage any process is how you manage every process.  Constancy of purpose and practice makes every difference in everything we do.  

Questions For Your Consideration

How do you manage your processes?

Do you think there is a difference between a leader’s processes and production processes?

Are you a willing participant in the processes in which you participate?

Are there processes you think are more important than others?

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