You can’t unsee it. You can’t unhear it, and on the long drive home, you can’t stop thinking about it.
As a consultant, I’m often brought in for a week or so to improve processes. However, within hours, I sometimes find something far more dangerous than a bottleneck.
I find The Norms.
I bet you’ve seen it:
The workaround that’s been in place for six years.
The quality defect that usually doesn’t cause an issue.
The blatant safety risk that everyone walks past because “that’s just how we do it.”
The Gordon Ramsay Moment In Kitchen Nightmares: Ramsay doesn’t start by teaching the chef how to sauté. He starts by pulling the rotten meat out of the fridge and shoving it under the owner’s nose. “Smell it!”
Sometimes, as a Master Black Belt with a Director’s background, I have to do the same. I have to push harder than a conventional trainer. I’m not just there to teach you the DMAIC roadmap, I could be there to make you realise your business is haemorrhaging (cost, safety culture, customers) while many are oblivious or not wanting to face the reality.
The Danger of Norms When I facilitate an FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), the biggest hurdle isn’t the mathematics, it’s often Complacency. (One of the “Dirty Dozen” human factors from aviation that leads to disaster).
When a team is used to poor behaviours, they subconsciously:
Underestimate Severity: “It’s not that bad, I doubt we’d lose a customer, I doubt anyone would get seriously hurt.”
Underestimate Likelihood: “It hasn’t happened so far and we’ve been doing this for a while.”
And remember, I’m not making personal or emotional judgements about these less than optimum behaviours. They are just something we need to analyse and improve. Every organisation has challenges and a history that is a blend of amazing positives and risky negatives.
However, as a member of the Institute of Directors (IoD), I’m looking at it through maybe a different lens at times. I’m thinking, does the Board know this is happening? Would the shareholders be okay with this level of risk?
Unfreezing the Culture According to Lewin’s Change Model, you cannot move to a Refrozen better state until you Unfreeze the current one. Unfreezing is messy. It requires challenging the very culture that allowed these norms to materialise.
I’ll be honest, this approach is a risk for me. Pushing a room that hard, or escalating issues, doesn’t always guarantee repeat work. It’s uncomfortable, but I’d rather lose a contract than leave a business thinking that their rotten meat is a 5-star meal.
The tools (Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, Global 8D) are world-class, but they are useless if we don’t face reality and grasp the opportunities with tenacity.
And remember, most of the “Ramsay” restaurants turn it around, but only once they Smell the Meat and accept the need for change.
Gavin (Lead Consultant)
