A brief introduction to what should be done about corporate culture before starting and during operational excellence efforts.

1. Corporate Culture
and Its Relation to Organizational Development
and Operational Excellence
Operational Excellence Series is an informative set of
documents prepared by Simple and Pragmatic Consultancy
Simple and Pragmatic
Consultancy

2. What is this document about?
Competition in business-life obviously
increasing.
A simple research shows that, most of the
top-100 companies in the world 60 years ago are
not in the list anymore.
Speed of change is increasing globally and
companies need to adapt better than ever.
Actually, adapting only helps survival.
Companies need to lead change in today’s world.
In the previous presentation we discussed what
should be done before starting operational
excellence efforts in the company. Additionally we
also defined the Shingo principles which are
regarded as pillars of operational excellence.
Human factors as well as technical factors
influence achieving operational excellence. The
social climate in the organisation, behavioural
patterns of employees and their values are all very
important for achieving desired OpEx levels.
Corporate culture therefore remains as an
important topic to be covered for those who want
to understand and carry out operational
excellence practices.
Without understanding corporate culture, it
becomes very difficult to design and run OpEx
projects. In the end, all these efforts require
employees to adapt their way of thinking and
behaviours to new and better ways of doing the
company’s job.
Therefore, we will briefly introduce the concept of
corporate culture in this document.
Organisational Culture is a very important
factor affecting OpEx projects

3. What is culture?
To truly understand what
company culture is, we need,
first to understand what the
CULTURE is?
According to E.B. Tylor, English
anthropologist and founder
of cultural anthropology;
Culture is the whole complex
s y s t e m w h i c h i n c l u d e s
knowledge, belief, art, morals,
law, custom and any other
c a p a b i l i t i e s a n d h a b i t s
acquired by man as a member
of society.
..without understanding
culture, it is hard to solve
organisational
problems…

4. What is corporate culture?
..without understanding
culture, it is hard to solve
organisational
problems…
Shortly, culture is the values and practices shared
by the members of the group.
Company Culture, therefore, can be defined as
the shared values and practices of the company's
employees. Exceptional organizations create and
sustain a culture that engages and motivates their
employees.
Creating a company culture requires :
• Meaningful work
• Deep employee engagement
• Job and organizational fit
• Strong leadership

5. How to transform corporate culture?
..transforming the
company on purpose and
with control is critical…
In reality, every organization is
n a t u r a l l y i n s o m e s t a t e o f
transformation.
The critical question is, to what end
i s t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n b e i n g
transformed and who are the
architects of the transformation?
5 Steps to transform company
culture are :
• Figure out what aspect of culture
needs to change
• Identify the influencers in the
organization and bring them “in”
• Start walking the talk in small
steps
• Be courageous in weeding out
behaviors that do not align with
the Company Culture
• Communicate and celebrate the
winning culture

6. How to create a continuous
improvement culture?
In order to achieve success in
operational excellence efforts,
corporate culture should be
t r a n s f o r m e d t o s o c a l l e d
“ c o n t i n u o u s i m p r o v e m e n t
culture” (CIC).
In creating CIC, it is critical to get
employees committed and involved
in the change process of the
company. Every employee needs to
share the CI vision, which is about
focusing on the customer and
making the word “improvement”
part of the company’s DNA.
The executives may demonstrate
their commitment to CIC by,
• Setting clear objectives and
priorities
• Identifying the right team
• Continuously developing CI skills
within company
• Preventing from excuses when
deviations happen from the plan.
Continuous improvement begins
by clearly defining value through
the eyes of customers.
The four goals of improvement
must be making things;
• Easier
• Better
• Faster
• Cheaper
for the customers.
..continuous improvement culture should
be embedded in the corporate DNA…

7. How to create employee
involvement in continuous improvement?
Employee involvement is central to the
philosophy of continuous improvement.
CI involvement is about:
• Leading by doing
• Asking the right questions
• Listening to all ideas
• Regularly reviewing key CI projects
• Empowering all employees to make
improvements
Operational excellence requires a
widespread commitment throughout the
organisation.
A culture must be developed where every
person in the organisation demonstrates a
high level of respect for every other person.
..continuous improvement
culture should be embedded in
the corporate DNA…

8. Shingo principles revisited
As you might recall from previous
presentation, Shingo Principles were
regarded as pillars of operational
excellence. To remind you shortly the
Shingo Principles, they are;
1. Respect every individual
2. Lead with humility
3. Seek perfection
4. Assure quality at the source
5. Flow and pull value
6. Embrace scientific thinking
7. Focus on process
8. Think systemically
9. Create constancy of purpose
10.Create value for the customer
All the items above are related with CIC.
Especially the first three have a direct impact
on the culture. Therefore we are going to
mention these shortly in the following
section.
…shingo principles are directly
related with company culture…

9. Shingo principle 1 - Respecting every individual
..without respect as a
fundamental value in an
organisation, sustainable
outcomes are impossible…
Respect is a principle that enables the
development of people and creates an
e n v i r o n m e n t f o r e m p o w e r e d
associates to improve the processes
that they “own.”
Respect for every individual naturally
includes respect for customers, for
suppliers, for the community and for
society in general.
Some examples to respect as a
corporate value are as follows:
• Because we respect every individual (the
principle); therefore, we always place safety
first (the value).
• Because we have respect for every individual
(the principle); therefore, we empower people
to act independently (the value)
• Because we have respect for every individual
(the principle); therefore, we make all of our
key communications open

10. Why and how to lead with humility
Humility is an enabling principle that
precedes learning and
improvement.
A leader’s willingness to seek input,
listen carefully and continuously learn
creates an environment where
associates feel respected and energized
and give freely of their creative abilities.
Some examples to leading with humility
as a corporate value are as follows:
• Because I lead with humility (the principle);
therefore, I am open to good ideas and
innovation from anywhere in the organization
(the value).
• Because I lead with humility (the principle);
therefore, I accept responsibility and enable
change (the value).
• Because I possess humility (the principle);
therefore, I seek,
• trust and follow the direction of those with a
responsibility to lead (the value).
..humility makes employees feel respected
and energized and give freely of their
creative abilities…

11. Seeking perfection and
continuous improvement
The third principle of Shingo is seeking perfection.
Excellence is a non-ending journey. Improvement
from a certain level to another is achieved and this
success for sure deserves an appreciation.
However, the final destination to excellence is never
reached.
Keeping this in mind, the motivation and focus of
everyone in the company should be aligned for a
never ending continuous improvement.
A powerful incentive for employees at this stage is
an improvement and learning opportunity for
themselves. At first sight, efforts for perfection
seems for only company’s wellbeing.
However, continuous improvement efforts should
be designed and introduced also as opportunities
for improvement of the employees.
..seeking for perfection and
continuous improvement
culture should be embedded
in the corporate DNA…
CI is an improvement
opportunity for employees as
well as the company…

12. Creating and leading change
in the corporation
All we have mentioned and all we are going to
mention from now on are about a “change”
process. Unfortunately, most of the change
efforts are unsuccessful.
By systematically designing and managing the
change process, it is possible to achieve the
change desired.
The steps and the mechanism to be followed for
achieving change are going to be mentioned in
the following presentations. Till then, we are
inviting you to work on the obstacles refraining
your company from success in the change
process. Just take a piece of paper and write
down the items coming to your mind. Similarly,
also work on the items which are easing the way
on the change process.
We are going to use these drafts later in
managing change presentation.
…change is a process which
can be systematically
intitated and managed…

13. To be continued with other
Shingo principles
So back to Shingo principles; they are:
1. Respect every individual
2. Lead with humility
3. Seek perfection
4. Assure quality at the source
5. Flow and pull value
6. Embrace scientific thinking
7. Focus on process
8. Think systemically
9. Create constancy of purpose
10.Create value for the customer
Our following presentations aim to mention
all these items and give you a simple and
pragmatic understanding to apply the
principles in your organisation.
We have covered the first three items. We
are continuing explaining the rest of the
principles in our following presentations.
Additional topics related to OpEx are going
to be available as well.

14. About us
Simple and Pragmatic
Consultancy
S&P is a common initiative of
Leannovative and Performance
Club consultancy companies.
Our aim is to simplify things for
professionals and for our clients.
For more information about our
projects and for support please
contact us via e-mail through:
edursun@leannovative.com
tansu@kariyer-kulubu.com
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