I wanted to start the new decade with something that we have seen over and over in the world of human and organizational performance deployment. That challenge is when leadership teams don’t “do” HOP right. You may remember way back in Robservation 11, I discussed the top 5 HOP deployment problems. That episode has been extremely popular and has spawned interest and numerous questions from both senior leaders and practitioners. I realized after the episode aired that I may not have effectively covered the WHY associated with organizations doing HOP right and avoiding the Top 5 deployment problems. So let’s start the new year off with a refresher of those challenges and then the WHY!

1. The leaders are “on board” but not DRIVING the improvements
2. The tools were rolled out to the field too early, and ineffectively
3. The organization thinks it can be done without education or training
4. Organizations deploy without integrating
5. Leaders do not use a system or process for leading HOP. There is no “intentionality” to their HOP leadership

My Robservation is that many organizations are not aligned on the WHY of HOP and the concepts. This results in a delayed, ineffective, or stalled initial deployment. When the workforce, including managers, supervisors, and other employees FEEL like the leadership is not aligned on the why, then they tend to feel like HOP is being done TO them instead of the organization embarking on the next logical step in improvement together. In our technology, we would capture this under a failure in the element of shared vision and values.

Many organizations have tried one thing after another to try to improve performance over the years, usually focusing on the workers. They have said things like “maybe they should be more careful” or “maybe they should pay more attention” or “we have good procedures, they should just follow them..”

Since many organizations have a bit of a history of the leaders pushing the problems off on the workforce, then it requires some leader behavior and language changes to effectively deploy and integrate HOP concepts. In these organizations, the workers are watching! They are waiting to see if this is “just another program.” You may only get one shot at HOP, and then if it is ineffective, what’s your plan?

Leaders need to be intentional about their knowledge, language, and behaviors around HOP concepts. The plan to deploy shouldn’t just be bout how you are going to get the workers to do things differently, but how the leadership team will do things differently, FIRST. LEAD the HOP deployment integration and deployment efforts, and the result will be sustainable, resilient improvements in performance across the board in safety, quality, effectiveness, efficiency and productivity. It will also result in leaders who are respected and trusted to take the organization to the next level of performance.

Visit our website at improvewithfit.com, and remember, Intentional leadership starts with YOU.