The latest Gallup Poll shows that a whopping 53% of employees are not engaged at work, and 13% are disengaged, including some whose actions will negatively impact the company. That leaves only 34% of employees who are engaged and actively working to bring creativity, productivity, and growth to your company. That means we have a lot of work to do if we want our employees and our companies to flourish.

Creating a Safe Environment

To win customers – and a greater share of the marketplace – companies must first win the hearts and minds of their employees. I have spent the past few weeks working with Dr. Andy Koehl, Dr. Carly McCabe, and Mary Roddy of Roberts Wesleyan College on a webinar, Excellence: Ethics in the Workplace. You may wonder, how does ethics play a role in engagement and business success. As we worked together on the webinar, we found so many links between our backgrounds and how to create an environment in which employees feel they are in a safe environment, supported, and creative. All of those elements lead to customer satisfaction and business success.

There are books and web articles documenting the ethical success stories of companies like Starbucks, Zappos, General Mills, The Gap, Cisco, and others.

Delighted Employees Develop Delighted Customers

How can you succeed as these companies have? One of the first steps is to create a vision of where the company is going. Therefore, you will have to envision what the environment in the company will look like and how it will interact with employees and customers. Next, you will need to reflect on your core values and the core values of your company. Then create guidelines for ethical behavior and decision making so your employees feel empowered and able to take action without fear of punishment or dismissal. Those work guidelines, values, and the identity of all employees should match with those they live by when not at work. That creates integrity. When employees live with integrity, they are delighted, motivated, and engaged.

Bringing Guidelines and Values to Life

Next, you will need to bring those values and guidelines to life. Hanging a banner on the wall with the company’s mission and values will not cause the employees to act following the guidelines. Stories of values in action will paint pictures of how they should act and how others were rewarded for their ethical behavior. The reward is not merely do this, and you will get a check, but rather in forms of recognition, self-esteem, a feeling of contributing to a purpose greater than one’s self.

Finding Examples and Proof

You can find positive stories of ethical behavior on the Internet and in many books on the topic. Also, each year, Business Ethics: The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility selects the top 100 companies that are ethical and profitable. They publish stories relating to situations in which the companies displayed ethical behavior. You can also find case studies of dilemmas and then hold lunch and learn discussion sessions asking what would you do?

Getting Started

You can learn more about the value of storytelling. Get our FREE mini-course on Why Storytelling is Critical to Your Success. We filled it with tools and tips to help get started. https://salestrainingsolutions.com/courses

If you find it helpful, you can enroll in our full Presentation Skills and Storytelling video course that takes you step-by-step to successful storytelling.

If your answer is yes, you are not alone. In spite of the fact that more than 50 countries around the globe use the Lean principles, many people still struggle with all of the Lean and Six Sigma terms and tools. So let’s define and explain a few of them so you can put the puzzle pieces together in your mind. Kaizen is the first puzzle piece. It’s a Japanese word that means change for the better. Kaizen is a change in organizational culture to continually being alert to opportunities to make improvements in work processes.

Do I have to start over?

How do you make these changes? Do you throw out everything and start over? Do you invest in the latest technology? No, you don’t have to do either of those things. Your first step is to map the current process and identify areas where physical steps or process steps create waste in time, materials, or motion. You also have to clearly define the scope and the boundaries of the area where change is required. Some problems need immediate action while others allow you to make incremental changes over time.

Kaizen events

Sometimes, the only way to make a change in the process is to hold a Kaizen event. It isn’t a party, but it may involve moving people and furniture or equipment to create a process that customers and employees alike will celebrate the success. The objective is to remove waste and create a smoother, more efficient workflow that makes everyone’s job easier. It allows companies to make significant improvements in a short amount of time. Kaizen events can take place in an office, on a plant floor, or a hospital operating room. You can view multiple videos on Youtube showing Kaizen improvements in everything from emptying the dishwasher to streamlining the order entry process from 63 to just 9 steps (Business Process Kaizen Team in Action). You can also see how hospital emergency and operating rooms can be made safer, more efficient, and provide faster service.

How does it work?

The improvement process is typically performed by a team that has identified a work process problem through mapping the process, touring the work area and collecting data, and using the appropriate Lean tools. The team must ensure they have well defined the project at the onset. The Six Sigma direction is to ensure you work on projects that will provide value to the customer, not just something interesting. A Kaizen event usually takes place over 3 to 5 days. For the event to be a success, the employees must be able to spend 100% of their time on the project and arrangements must be made for their regular tasks to be covered. That includes email and phone messages. Therefore, management support is essential Implementation is completed as much as possible during the event. However, it may roughly right and need some additional work as the employees use the new process.

I won’t cover the details of conducting a Kaizen event in this blog post, but I want to provide a brief outline. You may see the term DMAIC (pronounced de-May-ick). Kaizen is both a tool and event for improving the workflow process. DMAIC is a problem-solving method or roadmap for process improvement. The acronym represents the phases in the process: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.

A positive outcome for Kaizen events is that there are immediate results. I strongly recommend taking before and after photos as the results are usually dramatic and it gives the team a sense of pride and satisfaction to see how much improvement they were able to achieve.

Kanbans

Kanbans is the other word you often hear in a Lean culture. It is a Japanese term meaning “signboard.” It is a visual signal that triggers an action. Kanbans are very helpful in ensuring a smooth workflow as well as reducing inventory waste and cost. They usually contain a part number as well as the name, the quantity in an order, and authorization to order, make or take parts. Kanbans can be cards, lights, empty containers, signboards, or billboards. In manufacturing, it is an inventory control system that allows for just-in-time production. In the office or a hospital, it reduces clutter and inventory. It signals when tools or supplies are needed. Studies have proven that Kanbans improve productivity and efficiency. They also allow employees to identify errors or defects early as there is less work in progress. Kanbans are a significant benefit in reducing both cost and waste.

Kanban is considered a pull system. In typical manufacturing environments, companies use a push system. Each step in the process makes what it thinks the next process will need and pushes the output forward. This process creates a buildup of work in process and allows for defects to accumulate as well. In a pull approach with Kanbans, the steps in the process are regulated using the signal for replenishment. Kanbans are not just for the manufacturing process. Think of the auto deliveries in supplies in offices and medical centers. Using a purchasing department without Kanbans can lead to excess inventory or shortages. Kanbans provide order and a smooth flow.

How to Implement

Kanbans are excellent tools but going all out with Kanbans everywhere can create an unmanageable number of problems. It is best to start on a small scale and expand as you learn the process and the actual correct amount for a Kanban order to avoid excess inventory or shortages. Kanban boards are helpful as they can not only offer signals for supplies but also make a location for safety and product information available to everyone. They supply essential visual information. Remember though they are tools, and tools are only valuable when people use them.

Trash Can

I did mention trash can with a bit of humor. But, the objective of Lean is to reduce steps and eliminate waste. So it is important to follow the steps of 5S:  Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. So, have a cleanup event clearing out the waste, clutter, and excess inventory. Clearly marking areas for equipment, deliveries, and output avoids costly errors. Reducing inventory not only saves space, but it also eliminates the cost of the money used to purchases the inventory. And finally, employees will be more productive, efficient, and happy in a clean, organized work environment.

For more hints and tips visits our websites: www.salestrainingsolutions.com and our eLearning site for printers digiprintacademy.com

Note: Other resources for getting started with LEAN:

Liker, Jeffery K, (2004). The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Mann, David, (2010). Creating A Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions (3rd Edition), Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Rother, Mike, (2010). Toyota KATA: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness, and Superior Results. New York: McGraw-Hill

About the Author: Phyllis Mikolaitis is a sales coach, author, and speaker with over 30 years’ global experience.  Phyllis has had training in Leadership Through Quality, Six Sigma, Lean and is now working with organizations including print providers on Lean and People-Centered Leadership. Visit Phyllis and her business partner John Switzer on other pages on this site and on www.salestrainingsolutions.com.

 

Winning sales reps have learned that you must connect and your message must resonate before you can share your insight and convince the prospect to take action. That’s where storytelling comes into the picture.

The psychological goal of influence is to connect your goals to your prospect’s self-interest. The goals and self-interest of the prospect are like an iceberg – part is visible above the surface (in the conscious mind) and part is invisible below the surface (in the unconscious mind). Stories are powerful because they reach both areas.  They have a circular model and the listener can co-create with the teller and envision their story so the power of influence grows as it is passed between the storyteller and the listener.  Stories have the power to leverage your sales efforts because they employ a pull strategy and pull attracts pull.  Therefore it moves toward a collaboration which is an end point vision in insight selling. Stories also have the power to redefine situations which allows you to change or redefine the mindset of your prospect. [Read more…]

Storytelling is a game-changer.  As Peter Guber of Mandalay Entertainment and Annette Simmons, author and story expert tell us the person who tells the best story wins. Here is a short video that explains why a good story beats a PowerPoint presentation and wins the sale.

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• Discover the importance of word choice and get contrasting examples.
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Ever wonder why your presentations are not having the desired effect on your audience? You know the target audience. You include data or reference a case study about customers that have been successful with your product. You provide lots of benefit statements. What’s wrong?

You have failed to connect with your audience and they are not fully engaged with you. Telling a story that allows the customer to envision being in the story or a part of the presentation will enable you to make a connection and make your presentation so much more powerful. Painting a picture of “what can be” for the customer helps him/her to clearly see the possibilities. Asking open ended questions helps the customer extend the vision and elicits the desire to take action. Here are some tips for organizing your presentation for greater impact:

1. Don’t start with the PowerPoint template! – Start with a story! Storytelling associated with examples of “what is” compared to “what can be” provides the tension necessary to motivate and achieve a transformational change. The person who wants the audience to make a change by using the solution she offers will be much more successful with a properly-told story, which is more compelling than a PowerPoint presentation with lots of charts and graphs. Gather your resources including the demographics of your audiences, results data, definitions of terms, and case studies or interviews. Craft a compelling story related to your topic to begin your presentation and capture their interest. Open your story with one true statement that captures the core of the story. Be very clear about where you are going.
2. Use emotional words – People react to emotion, so use active and emotional words in your story to bring it to life. Provide connection by sharing the bumps and bruises that you or the customer in the story experienced on the journey. Explain how the challenges were overcome.
3. Handle the objections before they occur – Make a list of anticipated objections. List the responses. Then weave the objections into the presentation or story. For example, “One of the myths about top athletes and box office superstars is that they make it look so easy they probably don’t have to practice. Nothing is further from the truth. They practice more than anyone else in their field. They hire great coaches and they practice longer and more diligently that everyone else. That is why it looks so simple and so effortless.”
4. Lead the audience with a transformation – Bring the audience with you on the journey. Relate the story or content of your presentation providing information on how the you or the customer (hero) was transformed and how the audience will be transformed with your product, service or idea. Bring the vision to life.
5. Don’t drift off or leave the audience hanging at the end. – End on a high note and provide a call to action. The audience wants you to tell them what you want them to do next. So be very clear in your call to action.

Rolf Jensen, a futurist and Director of the Copenhagen Institute for Future studies provided these quotes:

“The highest paid person in this century will be the storyteller.” “People don’t really buy a product, service or idea; they buy the story that’s attached to it.”

Choose to organize your next presentation using the tips in this post for an opportunity to make more impactful presentations and achieve greater success.