Case Study - Team Coaching
Six, 2-day kaizen events were conducted in three months
that involved all staff in groups of 8-12 people.
Context
Whitesell & Company won an RFP to conduct an organizational review and strategy for a small municipality in Ontario. There were 55 employees, a new CAO and a Council that was determined to find a path out of the debt that resulted from the installation of a new municipal sewage system. They built it, but nobody came.
The organization review revealed many more problems than the municipality’s financial situation. Efforts to promote the municipality to industry and new residents failed because they were competing with larger municipalities in the region with larger urban footprints that provided amenities beyond the reach of the new CAO and her staff. Internally, morale was terrible and survival trumped teamwork. Workflows were more antiquated than their equipment.
Our consultants conducted the strategy process that included everyone from the road working crews to members of Council. Everyone wanted to succeed but defining and reaching consensus about what “success” looked like was an issue when the process began but they arrived at an agreement that generated the first signs of excitement that we had seen.
We decided to make some changes to the organization chart while the view to the future was clear. Two senior people were ill-equipped to lead the staff on the journey ahead and they were let go. Surprisingly, this change energized the small organization even more because they realized that lower level people would no longer be blamed for their managers’ lack of skill.
The municipality could not afford to bring in a team of consultants to help them get started with the end-to-end changes that were needed. Whitesell & Company was in a position of knowing more about the municipality than any person or group at that time, so we suggested the implementation of kaizen and lean technology to give the power to the people to make the necessary changes. We would provide a single consultant to provide the training, tools and coaching in what we call, “action learning.” We would define and solve real problems in real time by applying the new skills. Six, 2-day kaizen events were conducted in three months that involved all staff in groups of 8-12 people.
Outcome
The municipality has adapted the lean approach to their business and in the way that they serve the public. They are doing more with less effort; the municipality is out of debt and the township is growing again. Kaizen events are regularly scheduled to solve both old and emerging problems as the municipality uses continuous improvement as a vehicle to make their vision of the future a reality.