KaizenTip 112: Spot the Lip

This week's KaizenTip was written by Haider ('Hedda') Imam of the Kaizen Team.
 
I discovered a curious word this week: 'esemplastic'.  It means 'shaping, or having the power to shape, disparate things into a unified whole'.
 
And it got me thinking about organisational life. How much of our business activities (for example, planning, projects, visioning, leading) can we wholeheartedly claim to be esemplastic (i.e. genuine, unifying & compelling) vs. 'plain old plastic' (i.e. 'lip service')?
 
Consider, for a moment, a few possible downsides of plain old plastic - it's:

• generally non-biodegradable i.e. organisms can't naturally break it down to use it
• often associated with mass produced products, not those special 'one-offs' (an investment compromise)
• less inspiring to touch & interact with compared to natural materials such as wood, stone or rattan
• challenge yourself to think of 2 more downsides!

 
And I'll suggest that when our activities are not designed to be naturally metabolised by our people & customers, involve less personal investment of ourselves and others and are less inspiring and less interactive, that they're probably less likely to deliver outstanding outcomes.
 
So, a sure-fire way to delay, de-rail or even kill a change programme, project, business plan or vision is to invite lip service to tea. The scary thing is that it will adversely affect most people within your organisation without them even realising it and the net loss will be their disengagement with your change programme, project, business plan or vision.
 
So how do you spot the lip? At it's most basic level, lip service simply means 'an insincere expression of intent or support' or 'not doing what you say you were going to do'.
 
Here are some of our favourite 'spot the lip' indicators:

• "Our people are our greatest asset" coupled with an annually shrinking training & development budget
• When "We put our customers first" goes out the window to hit targets and keep the shareholders happy
• "We're a flat company" with reserved parking spaces for senior management
• Senior figures persuading everyone "This training is critical to the organisation" then not attending themselves!
• Impressive sounding slogans and value statements designed by the top team (or even worse, an agency) with no thought to the real behaviours which demonstrate this at every level. No involvement from the front line and customers.

 
Bonus indicators for hungry hippos:

• Full of unspecific jargon and buzzwords
• Focussing on the numbers without consideration of human aspects
• Unspecific - no reference to the who, what, how
• Unrealistic - e.g. 'double digit growth' during a recession!

Call to Action:

• Review your change programme, project, business plan or vision. Which bits do you feel are plasticky, insincere or 'lippy'? Be bold and find out which bits others in the company feel are lip service.
• Run a stakeholder analysis: which stakeholders or groups, if any, do you feel are 'bringing the lip'? What conflicting or unmet interests do they have?
• E-mail your single best example of lip service to haider@kaizen-training.com to receive 4 more 'silent killers' - indicators of possible lip service within your organisation, or call for a chat about the issues you're currently facing.

 
Take Massive Action & Enjoy the Learning!