At this point in time, IAG was focused on cost savings to reduce its bottom line. Continuous improvement was a key focus, I was able to put my Lean Six Sigma skills to use and work with great Lean Six Sigma experts in the business.
How might we create a system of work to help identify opportunities to improve IAG's core business?
To kick off the project, the team and I ran a kickoff session so that our team could align on ways of working, objectives, and assign work and deadlines. The first phase of work was to conducted Discovery / immersion on the problem to understand the specifics on what we were trying to solve, who should be involved, and determine the current effectiveness of the continuous improvement process at IAG with regards to meeting its objectives.
The first sprint was to understand how the existing continuous improvement process (called LLA) was being conducted. My team and I immersed ourselves at the frontlines where continuous improvement boards were placed.
After understanding the specifics of our problem space and how the continuous improvement process was aiming to deliver on this, we then measured its effectiveness through interviews and surveys with key staff members and users. We had a clear view of the gaps of the continuous improvement process across IAG.
It appeared that most staff loved the idea of sharing a problem as they arose in their day to day (think call centre staff dealing with clunky systems and angry customers), however the process of walking to a board to raise an issue was a problem. These boards were stationary and rarely managed by business leaders. Nobody knew where these ideas went, if they were even being looked at and considered to begin with. This resulted in staff lacking the motivation to raise ideas and issues, making the continuous improvement process fizzle.
On the flipside, back office staff managing key parts of the continuous improvement process were under the impression that frontline staff were not motivated to raise issues and problems and that their lack of motivation was the reason why continuous improvement at IAG was not effective. We uncovered that whilst there was a lack of motivation from frontline staff for continuous improvement, the root cause was the process.
The team and I designed a new solution to solve the problem. We remodelled the existing continuous improvement framework and eliminated key wastage points throughout the process, making the process leaner with clear roles and responsibilities for back office staff who were fixing the issues that arose from frontline.
We also configured and implemented a new platform called Brightidea which digitised the entire continuous improvement process. This allowed all IAG staff to view and track ideas across all divisions. Frontline staff would have their name attached to their ideas which gave them a sense of recognition for their suggestions.
We also tightened up the process to raise ideas / issues as previously, frontline were either suggesting problems without any potential solutions or visa versa. We designed the suggestion form to have key questions to provide back office teams with the right level of context and also provide the opportunity for frontline staff to make suggestions. We found that when people are close to the problem, they usually come up with better ideas on how to solve the problem than staff who are in back office roles, disconnected from frontline and customer perspectives. Back office staff would have an opportunity to build on these ideas or come up with completely new ideas if the initial suggested idea didn't solve the root cause of the problem.
To wrap up the project up, we created a process for governance and a single source of truth on Confluence. This contained onboarding, supporting material for the teams and staff that were taking over the project to become a business as usual (BAU) initiative. The feedback was well received, and in the first quarter, one business unit alone saved over $500k from ideas suggested.
The Brightidea platform had also grown to over 5000 monthly active users across IAG with loads of positive feedback about the new process and system of work. Upon reflection, the key thing that helped up make this company wide implementation of both process and system was proactive stakeholder engagement. Getting buy-in early and being methodical and empathetic about change management made the process very smooth.
"I’ve had the great pleasure of working with Saj for the past couple of years at IAG to lift productivity and innovation. He has a keen sense of priority and the ability to cut through to the really important factors of a problem or opportunity.
Saj combines this clear thinking capability with a communication and engagement style that goes well beyond what would be expected of someone so young. His creativity, determination and energy make him a perfect entrepreneur with leadership qualities to deliver high impact on the goals and high standards he sets."
Tony F - Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, IAG