Gain Management Support

“People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete – the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are.”
― Peter Drucker

How Do I Get Management Support?

Support for what?

• An incident Investigation?
• A quality improvement program?
• Stopping SIFs?
• Improved equipment reliability?
• A safety improvement program?
• Operational excellence?

If you can answer that question, you have started the quest for management support. If you can’t clearly state what you are trying to achieve in measurable terms, you will have a hard time getting management support.

“The first step out of the gate has to be knowing where you want to end up.”
– Stan Slap

Is It a Management Top Priority?

Now for the second question. Is what you are trying to get support for a top management priority? If it is, and your improvement initiative or investigation aligns with that priority, you are on track to get management support.

If what you are doing IS NOT a top management priority, you task is much harder. You will have to figure out how to convince management what you are trying to do SHOULD BE a top management priority.

Show Alignment

Management must speak with one voice.
– Pat Riley

When programs align with management’s priorities, all programs are more successful.

If your investigation or improvement program aligns with management’s top priorities, you need to show them how it aligns and how your program contributes to their goals.

If you have managed to have a trial at one of the company’s facilities that has measurable results, that is great. It should help you get management on board. Especially if the trail showed concrete, measurable results. Results measurable in dollars saved or costs avoided.

And improvement program that pays for itself and produces a return on investment AND helps management achieve one of their top priorities is hard for management to ignore.

Start Small and Grow

“You can’t grow long-term if you can’t eat short-term. Anybody can manage short. Anybody can manage long. Balancing those two things is what management is.”
– Jack Welch

If you can start your program without a large initial investment and continue to show progress, thats great! The bigger the initial investment that is required, the more proof you will need (or the more resistance your idea will face) to get continues management support.

So success short term to get support for the longer term.

Get a Key Manager as Your Sponsor

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He gets people to do the greatest things.”
– Ronald Reagan

We you are starting the program, try to get an influencial senior manager intersted and sponsoring your program. This can help you get other managers to develop interest and support the program (they can jump onboard).

The support of the right influencial senior manager can sweep away challenges and overcome roadblocks.

Keep The Management Team Involved

As the program progresses, show what you have accomplished and what is yet to be achieved. Showing real dollars saved can be crutial to having continued support.

If there is a cost for maintaining the improved level of performance, make sure that management recognizes the cost and recognizes the benefits (again, measured in dollars saved) that produces a continued ROI.

Nothing was final – that was the hardest lesson to learn. Men do not stay trained. No matter how firm or how formally procedures were promulgated, the insidious and subtle process of erosion sets in at once.
– Admiral Hyman Rickover

Management will need to see why their continued involvement is needed and what they get for their support.

Don’t waste managements valuable time. If management see their time being wasted, their support will evaporate.

Continuous Improvement and Alignment Adjustment

“Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success.”
– Henry Ford

Whatever type of improvement initiative that you create, you will need to continuously improve what you do to continue to show new gains and positive ROI. It is important to show what has been improved and how it continues to support their top priorities.

As time progresses, management’s priorities many start to shift. If you can continue to keep your improvement initiative aligned with the new focus, you will continue to maintain management support IF they recognize that your program is still supporting their goals and continues to produce a positive ROI.

There is always a potential for management to stop supporting an old program even though it has produced amazing results. New managers want to have their own new success. The grass is always greener on the other side. You may need to make your program be seen as new just to sustain the success you have accomplished. Consider developing and rebranding your program when new management arrives. The old program is proof that the new program will be even better.

Keeping Management Support is a Challenge

“Good Ideas are not adopted automatically.
They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.”
– Admiral Hyman Rickover

You can’t rest on past success. There are always new consultants with convincing presentations that want to get their new ideas funded.

You have to be more convincing than they are to keep your proven improvement program progressing. If you aren’t more convincing, your program may fall victim to the “flavor of the month” syndrome that promotes a constant churn of improvement initiative that start to work only to be replaced by the next new shiney object that gains management’s attendtion.

Discuss Ways To Get Management Support

Wouldyou like to go more in-depth with ways to get management support? Talk to people running improvement programs around the world? Then you should consider attending “How To Gain and Maintain Management Commitment” session at the 2027 Global TapRooT® Summit.

Find out more about the Summit HERE.