A recent survey of operational excellence practitioners around the world found that one issue looms far above all others in blocking process improvement: company culture.

The Global State of Operational Excellence 2017 industry report found that 55% of those surveyed listed “improving company culture” as the most critical challenge facing operational excellence.

That’s ahead of keeping up with new technology (21%) and lack of skilled workers (10%) – two areas mentioned far more often in the media.

So, what gives? In many cases, it’s a lack of commitment from the top.

Lack of Commitment

In an opinion piece for Industry Week, Dan Markovitz, president of Markovitz Consulting, pointed out several issues he sees with leaders attempting to implement process improvement.

  • A focus on tools and techniques rather than making the process human-centered with a focus on changing mindsets and committing to change
  • A lack of commitment by leaders to spend time, routinely, on process improvement projects
  • Poor framing of methodologies such as Lean as representing a different way for people to do their jobs rather than about a fundamental shift in culture

Leaders like this don’t help, they get in the way. Clearly, it’s a problem many see across all industries. The issue might seem particularly frustrating given the wealth of information out there about success stories using process improvement.

Toyota and General Motors

Anyone with an interest in Six Sigma or process improvement should take a look at the long report on General Motors joining forces with Toyota that was published in the MIT Sloan Management Review.

The author, John Shook, a senior advisor to the Lean Enterprise Institute in Cambridge, Mass., wrote about the joint venture that ended in 2010. The two companies had joined to work together at the Fremont, Calif, General Motors plant.

In one year, with the same workers, the plant went from the worst to the best-performing General Motors plant. Previously, workers had often went on strike and even sabotaged the cars.

Shook wrote, “The plant had produced some of the worst quality in the GM system…this was the early 1980s. So to be the worst in GM’s system at that time meant you were very, very bad indeed.”

The plant instituted much of the Toyota Production System. Workers embraced the program. Absentee rates fell from 20% to 2%. But perhaps most importantly, everyone in a leadership position spent two weeks in training, learning about process improvement and making a commitment to putting it into practice.

It worked. As Shook noted, even the “old troublemakers” were still in the plant.

“The only thing that changed was the production and management system – and, somehow, the culture.”

Part of that was to change behavior first, which led to a change in thinking.

There are other examples, both big and small. An interesting example comes not from the manufacturing floor or office building, but the halls of Congress.

Encouraging Six Sigma

Sen. Thom Tillis came to Congress in 2014 as the junior senator from North Carolina. Before entering politics by running for the state legislature in the Tar Heel State, he had worked as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Tillis expressed the belief that all employees should be trained in process improvement methodologies. Asked about his management philosophy, Tillis said he wanted to add “another component” for those working on Capitol Hill.

Tillis said he is interested in “providing educational opportunities for the staff that would be nontraditional for a Capitol Hill office. I want them to think about completing either certificate work or advance studies. I want them to study Six Sigma.”

In another example, a Houston-based temporary staffing firm and supply chain company recently issued a news release for the express purpose of recognizing staff members who have earned Six Sigma designation. And Six Sigma has been put in place in pharmaceutical labs, medical offices, government agencies and school districts, all with successful outcomes.

Convincing leaders of the need for cultural change to start with them is clearly an issue. But given all the success stories, it perhaps should be easier.