• you get less than you expected at the planned cost,
• or you get what you want but at a higher cost,
• or you get less than you expected at a higher cost,
• or the project fails completely, and everything is shut down and the money spent up front is thrown away.

So there is a huge amount of money going into projects that fail. So the upside of having better control in your projects is huge.

The benefits of running projects right are huge

With a little calculation based on the benefit-value analyses that I myself have been involved in over the years, we can calculate that the projects that fail are on average 20% more expensive. This is a rather conservative calculation, but I thought that the precautionary principle should apply here. Let’s imagine that your organization is involved in projects worth 500 million per year.

So what does it mean for your business if we adopt the above figures?

1. Of your projects, 35% achieve their objectives, which in monetary terms means that SEK 175 million reaches its target, i.e. the money does the good that the project owner intended.
2. The remaining SEK 325 million will not reach the target, but with a 20% increase in costs, they need to be increased by SEK 65 million to get what you intended. So your budget is half a billion and you need to add 65 million SEK to reach your goals.
3. Or you can turn the calculation around and say that you get SEK 65 million less value if you choose to keep the budget and instead you completely or partially delete some functionality along the way. In other words, you don’t get what you intended and were prepared to pay for.

And the above calculation is per year. This cannot continue, something needs to be done about it. One way to do something is to ensure that you have a well-functioning project model and that you make sure to train staff in how to use the project model.

Project model? Ugh…

Some organizations have a project model, but they don’t really care about it. It is more voluntary whether you have to follow it or not. The people who care most about the model are the project managers, and that is not enough. Other organizations have a project model and say that it must be followed, but due to a lack of understanding of what the model actually means, it is usually mainly the professional project managers who follow the model. Then they have to chase the other role holders to get them to act as expected. It is not at all unusual for these project managers to end up being the ones who run all the roles themselves. “You are so good, can’t you write the project directive for me,” says the person who should act in the role of project owner, “you know what we should do?”.

For some, everything is a project

Still other organizations misuse the word project and use it for just about anything, where something is to be done that is a little outside the usual work. But they don’t meet the definition of a project, and they don’t give the person they call project manager the right conditions to succeed. Still others have allowed the finance department to get hold of the word “project”, where it exists in the financial system more as a cost center. Costs are entered there, even for things that have nothing to do with actual projects.

To stop this major leak, you need to do something! Project modeling is one thing. Training in the model is another. Monitoring its use and providing ongoing support to those working in projects is a third. You need to make sure that all three work. When it comes to training, don’t forget about staff turnover. It is not enough to hold the training once and then hope it works. You need to make sure you hold training on a regular basis. Both as a refresher for those who have already been trained and work according to your project model. And don’t forget the new employees in your organization.

• Do you not have a project model? Clean Stream can help you develop a well-functioning model for your business. We start from a well-functioning basic model and adapt it to your needs.
• Do you have a project model, but it is not working well? Clean Stream can help you improve your project model, seeing what works and what can be improved.
• Are you missing training on how to work according to your project model, how to manage projects, how to lead projects or how to plan projects? Clean Stream has the knowledge and training you need, both online and in person.

Contact me and I can tell you more. But above all, do something about your projects so you don’t have leaks in your business. If the above example applies to you, imagine what you could do with 65 million a year. I am convinced that it would be transformative for you to have this money for other things.

The post A project model that is followed saves you money appeared first on Clean Stream.

We were similar, but no longer

Yes, we are transferring it to two businesses that many years ago were in the same place in terms of working environment, quality, customer satisfaction and finances. They were very similar between the operations. But then we can say that one business has focused and structured its development, while the other business has not. Let’s call the first business Positive and the second one Neutral. After a few years, Positive has gradually developed and improved. It has happened at such a slow pace that it is almost hard to see, both from the inside and the outside. The employees of Positiv have felt a, as their name reveals, positive development. It feels “in the air” that something positive is happening. This has made it easier for Positiv to find the right staff. And it has also meant that they are getting more positive feedback from their customers, whatever they may be called. To concretely see that Positiv is on the right track, you need to see the development over time, and then it is clear what has happened. Those who work in Neutral do not have the same feeling. They have also developed over the years, but not at all at the same rate as Positive. Their development has been more about the general development in society. For example, they don’t write by hand now, but use computers. An improvement, sure, but who hasn’t taken that step? Neutral doesn’t have nearly the same ability to get the right staff. They have short-term contracts and high rates of sick leave.
Their customers are not nearly as satisfied as those dealing with Positiv. Their finances are not as strong as they would like, as they constantly have high quality shortage costs. These include costs for temporary staff and having to redo things that were not done correctly in the first place. While Positiv is sailing on a wave of success, which they themselves created, Neutral is struggling in a headwind, a headwind that they also created themselves. The Neutral team takes their condition for granted:

• It thinks that this is how it is to work here, not much to do about it.
• It’s a bit tough, but who isn’t?
• Finances are a bit difficult, but times are tough now.
• We’re not doing so well, but who can do that in the general world situation?

It is also the case that the people at Neutral do not feel that they are generally doing badly. They are not doing great, but still pretty good. Sure, it’s hard, but it’s not a total loss. And hard, it’s something you’ve told yourself it should be. It is a normal state. This perception means that people don’t take on the task of actually working on improvements.

It’s easy to get carried away

I think the lesson is that it’s so easy to plod along at your own pace. Then the years have passed and you have stood quite still in development, or perhaps even gone backwards. You don’t see that it’s your own lack of focused and organized improvement work that has put you in this situation. They blame someone else: the market, customers, politicians, the boss, the EU, the economy, and so on. However, it is not the fault of all of them, it is Neutral’s own fault. Now, if you recognize yourself working in a business like Neutral, it might not actually be your fault. Because you may be new to your organization and cannot be blamed for past events in the organization. But if you stay there for a while and there is no development, then it will be your fault. Because you did not take hold of the development. You slacked off too. And you waited for someone to do something. You think that the manager above you just has to go first… Those in IT just have to go first… And so on.

The call this week is to;

• You need to work in a focused and organized way to improve in a targeted manner.
• You need to question yourself and what you are doing, where you are also keen to challenge the constants that exist in the business. There are things that are just there, but no one thinks it can be done about. It is possible, as long as someone starts.
• You need to be open to seeing alternatives to how you do things. Put aside counter-arguments like “it doesn’t work for us”, “it sounds good but…”, “it might work for them, but we have…that makes it impossible”, or similar.
• You need to be the one to take charge of improvement. If not you, then who? If not now, then when?

Keep in mind that there are only two options: either you evolve, or you dismantle. The latter may take time, but if you do not develop, the day will surely come when you are no longer needed. If you want to discuss your situation in your business and talk about the options, opportunities and get some pep, then I think you should email me again on this email and let me know. Then we can fix an online meeting where we talk. No cost, no obligation on your part. Email me directly via matts.rehnstrom@cleanstream.se.

The post We live in two different realities appeared first on Clean Stream.

You need to go out into the business

As a leader, you need to go out into the business to find out for yourself what the reality is. Talk to employees out there. See what customers experience. Meet reality as most people in the business see it. Because only then can decisions be correct and grounded in reality. Within LEAN and the twelfth management principle, there is a concept called genchi genbutsi, which translated means go out and see for yourself. In an organization that successfully works according to LEAN or similar principles, visible leaders in the organization constantly go out in the business. They visit the “floor”, i.e. where the value-creating work takes place. Example:

• Go through the production and talk to the employees.
• Accompany the home care workers to the users to see what their reality is like.
• Ride in the garbage truck to pick up waste and then drop it off for proper handling. Employees are asked about their experiences.
• Go with the salesperson on customer visits, not to take over the meeting, but to learn and see what customers are talking about.
• Join a night shift on a Saturday in the emergency room, not because you might be able to contribute, but to learn.
• And so forth.

Note that I am not talking about the kind of visits we sometimes see from politicians who put on a helmet, whether required or not on the spot, and have the media with them to document. This behavior is more for show, not for learning. As leaders who have to make decisions about things that are important to the business, they don’t need to be seen, it is the wise decision that is more important. It is doing the right thing for the business. If you do the right thing for the business and are in the right business, then those decisions will stand for themselves and you will naturally be seen as a wise leader.

To think about…

So, if you are now a manager and leader in your business, think about two things: How can you be more constant in reality to get a natural flow of information that is important for the business in your decision making? How will you use go and see for yourself the next time you are faced with a particularly important decision? Write down your thoughts, so you have them for review going forward. So what happened to the fog? Well, when I got out into the real world I saw that the fog was lifting. You could easily see a kilometer or so, which can no longer even be called fog. So it was a nice trip home, where the sun broke through and turned the dark water into light blue again.

The post Get out in the field appeared first on Clean Stream.

But being in demand, on the other hand, can be too much. Unfortunately, many times in business, and personally, we have put ourselves in such a situation. We have built an organization that depends on certain individuals to solve certain problems. There is a lack of personal independence in the business, which makes it work anyway, regardless of whether you are there or not. Some, of course, have substitutes who step in. You can see this not least in the auto-reply to the email, which says “I’m on vacation and difficult to reach, but if it’s an emergency contact instead…” and a name, email and phone number. In other cases, it does not exist and then it is like submitting an inquiry or request in a black hole. It just disappears and nothing gets done for a few weeks. If there is a substitute, someone else will take care of the work while you are away, which can feel good. But does that mean the person in question has the same skills as you? No, probably not. If you have less pressure on your cases during the summer, for example, then you can manage thanks to that. The substitute will be more like a sentry for the function and may be able to answer that it will take a little longer this period. If there is no lower pressure on the need for service, which there is not around building permits, for example, then you solve it by delivering lower quality in the service instead. The lower quality is in the building permit example that it simply takes longer to solve the tasks. Maybe long enough for you to get back and then it was the customer, whatever it is called, who had to bear the cost of your personal dependence. If your business is based on a multitude of personal dependencies, it is neither good for you as a dependent, for the customer you serve or for the business as a whole. As a person, it is fun to be needed, but not fun to be indispensable.

The individual suffers from personal dependence

At first glance, being needed is flattering. But when the tenth call comes in during the holidays, just as you’re about to spend time with the kids or grill dinner, it’s not as fun. Nor when you come back and find that either the pile of “to do” is higher than ever, because only you can manage to work it off, or that there is something wrong with what is done. Then the stress level increases a lot. The fun of being needed soon turned into frustration of being indispensable.

The client suffers from personal dependence

It’s not good for the customer either. Because they do not get the same quality as they expect. It is someone else, with less competence, who takes care of the customer’s needs and tries to solve it to the best of their ability. An ability that is often not at all sufficient. You probably recognize this when you go into a shop or restaurant during the summer and meet temporary workers who are supposed to cover for regular staff. They don’t provide as good a service and they can’t answer your questions. But the price for the service is often the same, even though the quality is not as good as usual. It’s up to us, as customers, to be a bit lenient, which is not always easy.

The business suffers from personal dependence

Person dependency is not good for business either. A business that does not have the ability to reduce personal dependency will, in the long run, have frustrated customers who do not receive the quality of service they are used to. It will also have stressed and frustrated employees. Both those who are indispensable and are disturbed or feel guilty about being away from work, but also those who have to cover for those who are away. The temporary worker standing there in the shop naturally feels that he or she is not enough to meet the needs and demands of customers. A business that does not function properly will not have a good reputation either.

For someone running a business, it is a sure path to reduced revenue and soon bankruptcy.

For a public organization where revenue is not directly affected, a bad reputation makes it more difficult to recruit staff, for example. I talk to many organizations and they say the same thing; that it is difficult to get people. Not that the applicants are not qualified enough, but that they do not even get any applicants.

Working for personal independence

The solution is to work purposefully to remove personal dependency. You do this by having control over your value-added flows. You need to see the flow of your business, that is, you need to see your processes. When you design these properly, the way you want them to work, you make sure you define roles instead of people.

The role acting in the process needs to have a certain level of competence to carry out the activities assigned to the role. When you see that, you can describe the competence and then also teach it to more people than just one.

In addition, you can describe the different activities with routine descriptions, checklists, etc. so that others can learn how to carry out the activities. This gives people the opportunity to step into different roles and take part in the description that is available, and then also carry out the work required.

You are needed, which is nice. Make sure you don’t become indispensable too, because that’s not sustainable in the long term; neither for you, for the customer, nor for the business.

The post Many seem to suffer from personal addiction appeared first on Clean Stream.

Why not also value:

• Your mental health.
• Your physical health.
• Your joy at work about what you do.
• Your ability to take time off work when needed to balance the so-called ‘life puzzle’.
• Your freedom to control, yourself and with your employees, what to do to create value and how to do it (design your processes)
• Your ability to manage your own working day (process management).

Of course, you can decide for yourself how the above shares are distributed. The distribution varies depending on where you are in life. Sometimes a salary is more important to build up a strong economy, while at other stages of life the opportunity for free time is more valuable. I’ve made a simple tool for you to use if you feel like it. It’s a Google Sheet template that I’m sharing via this link. Weigh the areas:

• Salary
• Position
• Mental health
• Physical health
• Joy
• Freedom
• Own planning
• Self-determination

You then enter your rating between 1 and 10 for the statement in each area. Then the template calculates a weighted score between 1 and 10, where 10 is the best, on how satisfied you feel now with your work situation. If you don’t have a Google account, send me an email and I will send you the tool in Excel instead. With that, I wish you a great summer and encourage you to take the opportunity to think the big, new and challenging thoughts about your work, and maybe other things too. Encourage others too, so that together we can reduce the 74% who are “mentally checked out”. People need to be in the place where they are energized and create value. Not everyone can fit everywhere, but everyone has their place. We need more people with commitment to meet the increasingly challenging future.

The post Measuring success appeared first on Clean Stream.

SpaceX has unprecedented speed

Several complete rockets have been built and launched with the knowledge that they will most likely just break up. Testing may seem completely logical, and NASA also did this at one time when they were active in developing rockets. The big difference is that SpaceX has a pace that has never been seen before in these contexts. The whole effort is that they go on and build and test, build and test, over and over again. It costs a ton of money to build these whole rockets. The idea is that it’s cheaper overall to build them and send them up now, in quick succession, than the overall cost of being too cautious and maybe facing a big failure at the end. We can learn from this when it comes to our improvement efforts. It is almost always better to develop and then try, to learn and then do again and better. All the time in a series.

Failure in business development

You will “fail” in your business development, where there will be things that do not work as intended, but note the quotation marks around “fail”. Because actually you have had success. Success because you dared and because you have now learned a lot along the way. With the new knowledge and the positive feeling of being on the way forward, you then take the next step and do the same; try again. You are constantly learning things that you would never have learned if you did not dare to try.

“Those who do not dare to take the next step, easily end up standing on one leg”
– Chinese proverb.

In an organization where it is not allowed to make mistakes, it is easy to become mentally locked and not dare to try. If you are punished in some way when you make a mistake, you are reluctant to try. Initiative is taken away from you and you wait and see. This is an enormous cost and an enormous potential that you miss out on. I see it over and over again in so many organizations. What is it like in your organization; is the cost of failure higher than the benefit of taking an initiative? In our Certified Improvement Leader and Certified Business Designer courses, we teach the importance of keeping up the pace and trying things out. The experience and knowledge you gain from trying almost always exceeds the price you pay for waiting for the perfect solution. Of course, there are times when we shouldn’t take chances, like when life and health are at stake. But most of the time, when it comes to our improvement work, we are not even close to the kind of critical things that can happen if things go wrong, and then caution harms our progress.

What is the worst that can happen?

Often the worst that can happen is that a customer calls and complains, or that a colleague has to do something again, or similar. Here, it is good to work preventively by informing various stakeholders that you are developing in the area. Once this has been done, most people who may experience something negative are content to just move on with their lives. Back to SpaceX. Launch number three ended with the spacecraft crashing on re-entry into the atmosphere. This was widely reported by the media as a failure.

At the same time, everyone who was more familiar with the issue cheered.

You will suffer similar when you now use the test-learn principle. The uninitiated or those who don’t want you to succeed will point that out:

1. you have failed,
2. that you have made mistakes, and
3. that the improvement work you are doing should be stopped as soon as possible.

But then you know better and take it easy, because you have learned a lot and you will do things even better next time.

Below you can see what SpaceX employees look like when others write about their failures. Not much of a trace of failure in these mines.

As my friend Anita, with whom I’ve worked for a long time, used to say: “we must dare to jump!”.

Dare to jump

So the question for you this week is: do you dare to jump? Do you dare to take the risk that everything is not perfect and that someone might get a little annoyed that something is not working as it should? Dare to fail in business development?

I hope so. Because the sooner you ‘fail’, the sooner you move forward. No one can predict all the variables over a long period of time, but you need to test yourself, in a real environment, with real people involved.

The post You will fail in business development appeared first on Clean Stream.