Simple Steps to Drive Change

This was inspired by a post on my LinkedIn profile, which was a much more abbreviated version.  Here I can expand a little more.

Here are some simple steps to finding, driving and leading change:

1) Get out from behind your desk, cubicle, office or where ever your comfort zone exists.
2) Go to the gemba.  The gemba is a Japanese word for where the value is created.  The gemba could be any area, any system or any process, whether your in a product or service business, whether you're in the public or private sector.  The gemba is a production line, point of sale, order entry, patient admitting, A/R, or anywhere else a process exists.  By the way, everything is a process!
3) Watch the process happen.  Don't rush this, spend a few hours watching if you can.  Don't focus on individuals, watch the entire process.  Use this observation time to look for waste, all 8 forms of it.
4) Gather the stakeholders.  The stakeholders are anyone involved in the process, and you can't afford to miss anyone.
5) Ask "why?" where issues and problems exist?  Do this without blame or finger pointing.  Keep asking why until you get to the root of the problem.
6) Generate solutions to address the root cause of the problem(s).  If you don't drill down to the root of the problem and implement solutions for the root of the problem then the problem will persist.  For example, if a customer is invoiced incorrectly and you simply credit and re-bill then all you've done is fix the problem.  You've done nothing to prevent the invoicing error from happening again.  Why did the invoice error happen in the first place?  Start digging!
7) Implement the solutions with a HUGE emphasis on training.
8) Share the results with your organization.
9) Repeat.