In a recent meeting, I mentioned to a colleague that one of their clients might benefit from undertaking a ‘Greenbelt Project’ and by applying Lean Six Sigma (L6S) principles to the client’s administrative practices. Cue the blank looks from my colleague.
Most people aren’t across Lean Six Sigma principles – and nor was I until I’d completed a L6S Greenbelt Course. What little I knew about Lean Six Sigma principles came from a passing reference in a fantastic film – The Lunchbox. The story revolves around a once-in-a-million connection formed between a lonely Indian housewife and an older man – and all due to a mistaken delivery of a lunchbox. That connection was literally one-in-a-million because the Mumbai lunchbox delivery system was all but infallible. Mistakes virtually never happened – and hence, the premise for The Lunchbox. And that brings me back to the Six Sigma part of the L6S principles, which is a data-driven collection of techniques aimed at reducing errors (sigmas or standard deviations) in business processes to one-in-six million. The ‘Lean’ part of the equation relates to ‘trimming the fat’ or reducing wasteful processes.
The Japanese automobile industry pioneered Lean Six Sigma-style techniques that helped reduce assembly line errors – and became the model for American industrial firms, like General Electric. But how could you apply ‘shop floor’ techniques to legal advisory work? The same questions came to mind as I went through my L6S Greenbelt Program and Certification, along with a healthy dose of cynicism. But a walk-and-talk-through how our legal team processed and uploaded contracts quickly turned me from cynic to optimistic believer.
A key part of my Greenbelt Project involved ‘Gemba Walks’ through my then-organisation’s contract library and document retention processes. My Japanese is all-but non-existent, but I understand that 'gemba' is a Japanese term, meaning ‘actual place’ or ‘being in the place.’ In simple terms, a Gemba-Walking manager steps into the shoes of their colleagues to understand the day-to-day rhythm of their work. The goal is to elicit feedback about how the experts-on-the-ground do their 9-to-5s. More importantly, they ask why they do each step in a process, along with open-ended questions about how things could be done better.
In my Greenbelt, the Gemba Walk was part of Value-Stream-Analysis (VSA). The key goal with a VSA is to chart all the ‘dance moves’ that staff do in their daily routines – think of 1960s style dance steps, like the Rhumba, laid out on the floor. The manager tries to parse which steps add value or not, then they cut out those that don’t. Overlaid on the VSA or value-stream-analysis, our group asked the 5-Whys? The American Quality Society explains the concept here, and you can find a great summary at this link. The 5-Whys is a simple L6S tool involving a series of questions, like – Why are we doing this step in the process? On average, it takes about five decent ‘why’ questions to get to the heart of virtually any problem, along with finding solutions that are often right under our noses.
The result? We mapped every (dance) step in our contract saving-and-uploading process and then sat down and asked whether each step was necessary and added value, or was it a waste? In my pre-VSA dance mode, I assumed that our administrative rules, protocols and other ‘dance’ moves were set in stone. Wrong! My other erroneous assumption was that our team had no authority, nor agency to try and improve those protocols. Wrong, again! However, when we did – the results were quite incredible. Our team identified huge time-savings. That allowed our group to devote more time and energy to tasks that were more interesting and added greater value to our organisation. Win-win. The obvious question is – Who has time to run through that kind of L6S exercise? The answer comes with another question – can you afford not to?
In my experience, the investment is well worth the temporary resourcing costs. In addition, public sector lawyers, regulatory groups and other related business areas are uniquely placed to promote business process improvement activities. Why? Lawyers and other regulatory specialists have a degree of professional independence to raise issues and recommend improvements that won’t be immediately rejected by operational groups. Plus, their roles require a broad understanding, not only of their own organisation’s operations and priorities, but also in the wider legal and regulatory landscape. In other words, their job is to think holistically – and not only about their own ‘patch.’ That means lawyers, regulatory specialists and related roles are well-placed to find ways to ‘work smarter, not harder.’
Of course, pointing out flaws in organisational processes can be very challenging. Process improvements can be viewed as personal or professional slights. For that reason, it is difficult to have these challenging discussions – even if everyone knows that they need to have them. It requires a ‘safe space’ for staff to raise questions and provide constructive feedback, along with an open organisational culture. That begs the question – How can Commonwealth and State Government agencies and other organisations create a safe space where their staff can undertake Gemba Walks, identify waste and value-adds?
The answer could take the form of an ‘old school’ suggestion box or a quality review process that’s 'booked-in' on monthly or quarterly basis – and includes not only executives, but everyone in the administrative hierarchy. Another simple technique is to develop a 5-Whys-Friendly organisation, where staff are primed to ask questions, like – Why are we doing what are we doing? Why and how is it adding value to the organisation – and to the broader community? And if not, why not? Whatever form business process improvement tools take, they should be guided by a commitment to openness and intellectual curiosity - and a bit of fun. Maybe some dance steps on the lunchroom floor? Rhumba, anyone?
Key to Synergy Law’s operating philosophy is to consider and recommend uplifts to our clients’ practices, business processes and protocols that can generate operational and resource efficiencies over the long term. We can help clients achieve these operational efficiencies through simple, but practical business process excellence (BPE) and Lean-Six-Sigma (L6S) tools and techniques that are sustainable and take a whole-of-agency and cross-functional approach. We’re keen to explore those issues – and see where we can help.
