1st Edition
Why Care? How Thriving Individuals Create Thriving Cultures of Continuous Improvement Within Organizations
We live in an ever-changing world in which organizations find it increasingly difficult to stay ahead of the changes needed to be successful without thriving people. The authors believe that when people are valued and respected it improves their overall mental well-being and workplace experience, which in turn, makes them more motivated to help meet the purpose and objectives of the organization and adapt to external drivers.
This book explores how mental well-being and a culture of continuous improvement are intertwined and mutually reinforcing. The authors contend that to create a sustainable culture of continuous improvement there must be an organization-wide focus on mental well-being at the individual level. A culture of continuous improvement nurtured in the right way, however, will indeed support mental well-being and help create a thriving organization.
The key benefit of the book is demonstrating how important mental well-being is for sustainable organizational success. It explores this through many different lenses such as the individual, teams, leaders, and the organization as a whole, and explains the key elements needed for success. Leaders at all levels are able to understand why mental well-being is critical and how to nurture it in the workplace.
In addition, the book explains the importance of diversity, equality, inclusion, and belonging, and how this is integral to mental well-being and a thriving organization. This book provides unique insight into how mental well-being and a culture of continuous improvement are intertwined explaining how thriving people and a thriving culture of continuous improvement create a thriving organization.
Introduction 1. Why Care about the Brain? 2. Why Care about Thriving DEIB? 3. Why Care about Psychological Well-being? 4. Why Care about Thriving Individuals? 5. Why Care about Thriving Teams? 6. Why Care about Thriving Leaders? 7. Why Care about a Thriving Improvement Culture? 8. Why Care about the Thriving Organization? 9. Summary and the External Environment
Biography
Chris Warner is an author, speaker, and coach. He has been applying and teaching the Lean methodology within the automotive and mining industries for the past twenty-five years. His career has allowed him to work globally within numerous large multinational organizations. He received senior executive training and accreditation at the Toyota Motor Company on the Toyota Production System. Chris has been one of the foremost thinkers on the application of the Lean methodology within the mining industry. He authored the first book on Lean within the mining industry Flick The Switch: Five Principles to ‘Flick The Switch’ from Good to Great within mining. Chris is a mental health advocate and has shared his own story dealing with mental health challenges to many people. As a co-author of Why Care? he seeks to help bring more awareness of the critical role mental well-being has in ensuring organizations create a thriving culture of continuous improvement. He can be contacted at www.flicktheswitch.com.au
Caroline Greenlee is passionate about developing people and partnering with organizations to learn together to achieve exceptional performance. She has extensive first-hand experience working as a Lean/ Continuous Improvement Coach, both inside and outside organizations, achieving double-digit improvements in quality and productivity, whilst also improving the working environment (Safety, Well-being) and empowering people. Her background in Lean is complemented by her work in Learning and Development and Organizational Development, and her Masters specialized in Management and Leadership, underpinned by the real-life experience of working as a leader for over 20 years. She is a qualified Executive Coach, a certified Systemic Team Coach, a member of the International Coach Federation, a member of the British Psychological Society, EFQM examiner, and Six Sigma Green Belt. She can be contacted at: www.sustainablepeopleperformance.com
Chris Butterworth is a multi-award-winning author, speaker, and coach. He is a certified Shingo Institute master-level facilitator and a Shingo Institute Faculty Fellow and examiner. He is the winner of the Best New Speaker of the Year Award for The Executive Connection (TEC) for his talk on Lean Thinking and the co-author of the widely acclaimed Shingo publication award-winning books 4+1: Embedding a Culture of Continuous Improvement and The Essence of Excellence and is also the editor of the Shingo Institute book Enterprise Alignment and Results.
"I found the book to be an extremely well-researched body of knowledge. I saw it as a very powerful work to connect the dots between the different facets of a dynamic, live and inspiring Continuous Improvement culture built upon people interactions." Eric Piquant, Continuous Improvement Coach
"I found ‘Why Care?’ to be a very stimulating read. It should provoke an informed debate that leads to measurable change." Ken Nelson MBE, LEDCOM CEO
"Why Care? brings to the fore the key fact that Continuous Improvement cannot succeed without thriving individuals! It is not so much about the tools and techniques and more about genuinely caring for people and creating a culture where people feel safe to be/become the best versions of themselves. The book is full of wonderful nuggets of gold. It gives organizations a road map on how to take care of their employees. This is especially important to tap into people's discretionary effort." Ciara Carlin, Operations and Process Improvement Manager
"Well done to the authors of Why Care? in appropriately placing the individual front and center in the enabling and sustaining of CI cultures. For far too long the focus has been overly and overtly on tools and techniques, projects and results – whilst important elements in their own right, they have unfortunately been put to the fore of people. Faced with the immense challenges associated with integrating Lean with Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0, as well as with the demands of contemporary workforces, managers and leaders must now more than ever be truly “mind-full” of their people and individuals. This book should greatly assist those managers and leaders to understand why they need to care, and to reflect and recalibrate on how to lead and manage more effectively and respectfully." Darrin Taylor, Lecturer in Management & Lean Program Director South East Technology University
"The ‘people side’ of continuous improvement has, for too long, lacked adequate attention, yet it is crucial. This book makes a compelling argument for a deep focus on the ‘people side’, and combines a wealth of information, ideas and practical resources that can be used by anyone, at any level in an organization, to increase that focus. Recommended reading for anyone interested in helping their organization thrive." Nuala O'Hagan, CI Coach
"What a need I had of this book at the beginning of my career! Almost 30 years later, leading teams and projects in different countries or activities, I still have a lot of 'aha' moments. The importance of psychological well-being is still a neglected area and understanding how to bring it into your personal and professional life, is fundamental. A brilliant book pointing out why, how and what to do to continuously progress in minimizing the most important waste of our time, the lack of thriving individuals." Catalin Manoli, Factory Director, Danone
"While in companies, we sometimes witness debates and opposition between the deployment of CI and a human approach, this book reconciles the two. It shows how by placing the individual at the heart of the system and helping them to develop, we manage to create an environment of trust, kindness, high standards and professionalism that propels the individual into a powerful, committed collective and allows the company to accelerate its pace of progress. In the future, teams that develop in this way will be the cornerstone of successful organizations in an increasingly Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) environment." Olivier Marsal, Industrial Director, Hermès
"I'm captivated by this book, not only for its intriguing nature but also for its capacity to explore a vital question regarding continuous improvement. While the significance of people is frequently acknowledged, individuals often get absorbed in the technical aspects of work, neglecting the social components. However, our present work systems are more akin to a double helix rather than distinct social and technical columns. The technical & social are interwoven and inseparable. This book admirably addresses this issue by starting with the fundamental question: “Why Care?”"Skip Steward, Vice President, Baptist Memorial Hospitals
"To unlock the true potential in every individual in your organization, you need to create an environment of trust and psychological safety. Why Care?, gets to the heart of what it takes to truly understand every individual’s mental fitness so you can then create a team of high trust, respect, psychological safety, and continuous improvement. A must read for every leader or aspiring leader." Stephen Dargan, Cultural Transformation Executive
"Why Care is an excellent book on such an important topic in today's world. Psychological safety is essential in achieving excellence within an organization. The book explores the latest thinking and practical approaches to help. I recommend Why Care to anyone, regardless of position or role in an organization." Brad Jeavons, Author, Speaker and Organization Improvement Consultant
"This book does a terrific job in peeling away layers within an organizational ecosystem, through the strata of the “Why Care Model” to look at how a psychologically (un) safe environment can support or undermine a culture of Continuous Improvement – for individuals, teams, leaders, and for the enterprise. I look forward to sharing these practical approaches, frameworks and tools with my clients – and using them to fill critical gaps that many transformation programs would otherwise miss." Indi Ray, Principal Consultant, Vedas Advisory
"In the research I have carried out with the authors of this book, we found that you won’t create a sustainable culture of improvement by focusing on the well-being of your people alone, but equally you won’t create a culture of improvement if you don’t focus on the well-being of your people. Within the People Value Stream approach, we found that the key was not to start with how we manage people, but to start with your people, how they think, what they need, the value they bring as unique individuals, the safe environment they require and what they need to thrive. This inside-out thinking requires teams, leaders, and the whole organization to focus on these individual requirements for psychological well-being to create an environment where everyone can thrive. This requires a sort of mass customization of our leadership. The authors have skilfully explored why this is so, what is required, as well as how to do this. It escapes me how anyone can consider trying to create a sustainable culture of continuous improvement without reading this book first." Professor Peter Hines, Enterprise Excellence Network
