Company Culture and Lean: Communication
In a recent post, I listed eight components of company culture. The idea is that these eight components are the building blocks of culture. Further, they are eight "levers" that we can "push or pull" in order to change culture within the company.
Nobody will be surprised to see Communication at the top of the list, I'm sure. Communication is, simply, the manner in which members of the organization pass information back and forth and the channels they use to do so.
As we go through the eight components or "levers" of culture, we'll find that each will have a continuum associated with it that we'll use to describe the company's culture. In the case of Communication, the continuum goes from Tight on the one end to Loose on the other.
The closer a company is to the Tight end of the continuum the more likely it is to have close-to-the-vest, "need to know", untimely, infrequent communications through impersonal channels, e.g., posted notices, emails, "paycheck stuffers", etc. There will be formal policies regarding who is allowed to see what, hear what, transmit what.
Performance data, in particular, is likely to be closely controlled. I once had a client who I was helping to implement TQM methods. One of our first initiatives was to develop and share performance data, e.g., scrap, efficiencies, downtime, with everyone. One plant manager told me that, in the past, he would have been terminated for sharing such information with employees.
A lodging company I worked for didn't share customer satisfaction feedback with guest service employees until its TQM initiative started.
On the other hand, the closer a company is to the Loose end of the continuum, the more information (of all sorts) is going more freely through more channels. Communications are more frequent, more likely to be transmitted face to face. Information is transmitted on a "want them to know" basis. Performance data is more freely shared.
There are circumstances and conditions under which a Tight Communications culture is to be preferred: think of patient medical records in a hospital, or individual account information in a bank. In most organizations, though, a culture that is too close to the Tight end of the continuum risks having low trust, slow reaction to problems, slow decision making, and low morale.
The effective use of lean concepts and tools generally requires an organization to move down the continuum toward Looser Communications.
Nobody will be surprised to see Communication at the top of the list, I'm sure. Communication is, simply, the manner in which members of the organization pass information back and forth and the channels they use to do so.
As we go through the eight components or "levers" of culture, we'll find that each will have a continuum associated with it that we'll use to describe the company's culture. In the case of Communication, the continuum goes from Tight on the one end to Loose on the other.
The closer a company is to the Tight end of the continuum the more likely it is to have close-to-the-vest, "need to know", untimely, infrequent communications through impersonal channels, e.g., posted notices, emails, "paycheck stuffers", etc. There will be formal policies regarding who is allowed to see what, hear what, transmit what.
Performance data, in particular, is likely to be closely controlled. I once had a client who I was helping to implement TQM methods. One of our first initiatives was to develop and share performance data, e.g., scrap, efficiencies, downtime, with everyone. One plant manager told me that, in the past, he would have been terminated for sharing such information with employees.
A lodging company I worked for didn't share customer satisfaction feedback with guest service employees until its TQM initiative started.
On the other hand, the closer a company is to the Loose end of the continuum, the more information (of all sorts) is going more freely through more channels. Communications are more frequent, more likely to be transmitted face to face. Information is transmitted on a "want them to know" basis. Performance data is more freely shared.
There are circumstances and conditions under which a Tight Communications culture is to be preferred: think of patient medical records in a hospital, or individual account information in a bank. In most organizations, though, a culture that is too close to the Tight end of the continuum risks having low trust, slow reaction to problems, slow decision making, and low morale.
The effective use of lean concepts and tools generally requires an organization to move down the continuum toward Looser Communications.
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