Steps companies need to take to make a Opex culture.

1. Employee Engagement &
Operational Excellence:
Two Sides of the Same Coin
SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition
June 26, 2012
Karen Martin

2. 2
“I’ve become a better person, a better husband,
a better friend, from working at Gore.”
— Terry, a W.L. Gore Associate

3. 3
Energy Crisis: Widespread Disengagement

4. • World-class organizations – ratio of
engaged to actively disengaged
employees is 9.57:1.
• Average organizations – ratio of
engaged to actively disengaged
employees is 1.83:1.
― Gallup
4

5. We Know It’s Important...
5

6. What is
Engagement?
6

7. 7
“To be fully engaged, we must be
physically energized, emotionally
connected, mentally focused and
spiritually aligned with a purpose
beyond our self-interest.”
— Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz,
The Power of Full Engagement

8. How do we “get”
our employees to
engage?
8

9. 9
How do we
engage
our employees?

10. Enabling Engagement:
The Three C’s
10
Connection
ControlCreativity

11. Under-Developed Areas
• Onboarding
• Problem-Solving & Continuous
Improvement
11

12. 12
You had them at
“You’re hired.”

13. Enabling Engagement:
The Three C’s
13
Connection
ControlCreativity

14. To what degree do new hires receive all of the
tools and information they need to function
effectively on day one?
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
Always, Sometimes Rarely, Never
Before initial round
of improvement
After initial round of
improvement
14%
44%
63%
23%
© 2012 Karen Martin & Associates, LLC

15. Onboarding – Missing Pieces
• Tools
– Physical (e.g. desk, etc.)
– Technology (e.g. phones, computers, physical access,
access to applications needed, logins, etc.)
– Identifiers (e.g. signage, business cards, etc.)
• General information
– Company (e.g., customers, values, business goals, etc.)
– Org charts
– Phone directories
• Job-specific orientation
– Documented procedures (standard work)
– Apprenticeship approach: Observe, do with supervision, do
– Clear understanding about what constitutes “success.”
15

16. 16
Metrics-Based Process Mapping

17. Problem: A gap between where you
are and where you need to be.
Opportunity: A gap between where
you are and where you’d like to be.
17

18. Kaizen
18
Kai = Change
Zen = Good
Continuous Improvement

19. 19
Develop
hypothesis
Conduct
experiment
Measure
results
Refine
Standardize
Stabilize
© 2012 Karen Martin & Associates, LLC

20. Enabling Engagement: A3 Management
20
A3
Report
The vital role of
the coach/mentor

21. 21
Kaizen Event – Definition
A two- to five-day focused improvement
activity during which a sequestered,
cross-functional team designs and
implements improvements to a defined
process or work area, generating rapid
results and learned behavior.
Karen Martin & Mike Osterling
The Kaizen Event Planner

22. Kaizen Events Offer Myriad Benefits

23. Enabling Engagement:
The Three C’s
23
Connection
ControlCreativity
© 2012 Karen Martin & Associates, LLC

24. 24
“I went home yesterday and told my
family that it was one of the best
working days I’ve ever had.
I was able to fully use my
capabilities for three days.”
— Fred Valenzano, Professional Engineer

25. 25
Problem solving is a high.

26. The Next Frontier…
26The Middle Manager

27. Progressive Learning
27
© 2012 Karen Martin & Associates, LLC

28. Enabling Engagement:
The Three C’s
28
Connection
ControlCreativity
© 2012 Karen Martin & Associates, LLC

29. Where to Start?
• Improve your onboarding process.
• Train a core group of middle managers and/or above
in problem solving and improvement coaching.
• Transition your dedicated improvement
professionals from “do-ers” to “teachers.”
• Hold a few kaizen events each year to instill new
behaviors & shift culture.
• Make improvement part of everyone’s job.
• Never, ever make process improvement without
deep involvement of the people who actually do the
work.
• Advocate the truth that people aren’t the problem –
systems are.
29

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Additional Resources
Signing in the
SHRMStore
immediately after
today’s session!
Also available in the
SHRMStore

31. 31
Karen Martin, Principal
7770 Regents Road #635
San Diego, CA 92122
858.677.6799
ksm@ksmartin.com
Twitter: @karenmartinopex
For Further Questions
Monthly newsletter: www.ksmartin.com/subscribe