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 (Support for what?), 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, your task is much harder. You will have to figure out how to convince management that what you are trying to do SHOULD BE a top 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 how it does so and how it contributes to their goals.

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

And an improvement program that pays for itself, 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, that’s great! The larger the initial investment required, the more proof you will need (or the more resistance your idea will face) to secure continued management support.

So, success short-term gets 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

When you start the program, try to get an influential senior manager interested in and sponsoring it. This can help you get other managers to develop interest and support the program (they can jump on board).

The support of the right influential 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 crucial to having continued support.

If there is a cost to maintaining the improved level of performance, make sure management recognizes the cost and the benefits (again, measured in dollars saved) that produce 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 understand why their continued involvement is necessary and what they receive in return for their support.

Don’t waste management’s valuable time. If management sees 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 you create, you will need to improve what you do to continue to show new gains and positive ROI. It is important to show what has been improved and how the program continues to support their top priorities.

As time progresses, management’s priorities may start to shift. If you can keep your improvement initiative aligned with the new focus, you will maintain management support IF they recognize that your program supports 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 of the fence. You may need to make your program seem new just to sustain the success you have achieved. 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, which promotes a constant churn of improvement initiatives that start to work, only to be replaced by the next shiny new object that gains management’s attention.

Discuss Ways To Get Management Support

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

Find out more about the Summit HERE. Or, watch this video…