Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22

/ Canadian Government Executive

// September 2016

Deliverology

Solution:

Create a safe

environment to experiment,

learn and innovate without

fear of repercussion

A 2015 Google study tried to identify “The

five keys to a successful Google team”.

The research group expected to discover

that the most successful teams were com-

prised of the smartest, most experienced

people. They were shocked to learn that

the number one driver of success, far and

away, was psychological safety. As a per-

formance factor, the intelligence and indi-

vidual skill of team members was almost

irrelevant in comparison. Psychological

safety was defined as an environment

where members feel safe not having all

of the answers, and feel safe trying things

out, and perhaps failing initially and be-

ing vulnerable.

The fear of failure smothers the ability

of the organization to learn, understand

and then to solve the complex root issues

that prevent the target to be reached. It is

therefore wise, especially in complex sys-

tems, to create a Deliverology trajectory

that first attains and rewards learning and

experimentation, before it then rewards

performance results. Inserting perfor-

mance targets prior to understanding the

true drivers of performance in complex

systems is strongly associated with tunnel

vision—focusing on attaining the goal, but

not the skills and knowledge to attain it.

Which directly causes the next challenge.

Challenge 4:

Changing the

target, but not the process

to achieve it.

Using traditional thinking, a Deliverology

target for an already overloaded organi-

zation to provide benefit cheques in less

time might result in increased overtime,

burnout, cutting corners, or cheating. A

superficial view of the value chain is a

recipe for applying Band-Aid solutions.

The Deliverology delivery chain analysis

as captured in the book Deliverology 101

may not look sufficiently into the value-

creating process, and often requires deep-

er thinking to be effective.

Solution:

Change the

underlying process

Using deeper thinking, engage staff to

solve the underlying process by elimi-

nating rework and non-value work, by

smoothing incoming demand and open-

ing bottlenecks allowing the target to be

met with less effort and then naturally

sustained. The Lean value stream map-

ping approach is perfect for this task.

A superficial Delivery Chain review of

“who is accountable for what” is perhaps

necessary, but not nearly sufficient to

identify the actions required to reduce

and eliminate this backlog, and improve

service delivery to the citizen. Superficial

solutions, created under pressure without

first fundamentally understanding and im-

proving the system, make truly improved

delivery less likely. The Environmental

Protection Agency in the U.S. publishes an

online list of government case studies that

demonstrate that Lean thinking and tools

are the perfect approach to understand

and improve underlying processes.

Challenge 5:

Incentives to

meet the target, not the

intent.

The combination of the first four challeng-

es going un-addressed, combined with the

frequent check-ins (or stocktakes) in De-

liverology encourage urgent behaviours

to take action to meet the target, creating

an incentive to do the wrong thing to get

the right score instead of methodically

solving the underlying issues. A terribly

sad example of this at the Stafford (UK)

Hospital was described in a BBC report:

About 400 more people died at Stafford

Hospital between 2005 and 2008 than

would be expected, the Healthcare Com-

mission said. It said there were deficien-

cies at “virtually every stage” of emergen-

cy care and managers pursued targets to

the detriment of patient care. Health Sec-

retary Alan Johnson has apologised and

launched an inquiry. One of the worst ex-

amples of care cited in the watchdog’s re-

port was the use of receptionists to carry

out initial checks on patients.

In the same hospital, patients were

reclassified into less serious categories

in order to take advantage of easier-to-

achieve service targets in these lower cat-

egories. While the official report blames

misguided use of targets for 400 deaths,

other reports have suggested that up to

1200 deaths occurred as a result in the

same time period. If the underlying driv-

ers of system performance have not been

addressed, as in this example, gaming of

the system to meet the target is a likely

outcome.

Solution:

Address the first

four risks and choose

targets carefully.

First, it is critical to understand what

needs to be learned in order to meet the

target. Next, map out the process using

Lean value stream mapping. Then cre-

ate a trajectory that encourages the orga-

nization to identify how value is created

and the root causes of why the target is

not currently being met. The trajectory

should reward learning of these drivers

before it rewards performance against the

target. Then begin piloting experiments

to improve the service delivery. The pro-

cess of doing this increases buy-in and

ownership, and validates that the solu-

tions work, making a performance target

easier to attain, and improving delivery in

a sustainable way. A review of incentives

and disincentives to meet the target or to

game the system is also recommended.

Conclusion

Deliverology, or Results and Delivery,

sets out to achieve a laudable goal: to im-

prove the delivery of services to citizens.

It brings considerable assets with it: clear

direction, focus, and rigorous routines

and follow-up. It is encouraging that its

proponents have given signals that they

are open to adjusting the approach, and

to improving its own delivery. Using the

principles of Lean strategy deployment,

the five challenges identified above are

all within the control of the organization,

and making a deliberate effort to address

them pays off in higher employee engage-

ment, and improved, sustained delivery to

citizens.

raig

zelestowski

is the President

and Founder of Lean Agility Inc. In

his time as a Vice President at the

Royal Canadian Mint, and later as an

independent Lean Government facilita-

tor, trainer and coach, he initiated and

has led some of Canada’s most notable

public sector Lean transformations.

craig@leanagility.com

Watch for incentives

to do the wrong

thing to get the right

score, instead of

methodically solving

the underlying

issues.