strategy & transformation

Excellence requires a disciplined thoughtful approach. This in turn requires development of a strategy. We help identify where you are, where you want to be, and how to get there.

Now you have a strategy. Next you need a roadmap to transform. What milestones will you pass on the way? What is the path to each milestone? We’ll help you build your roadmap. To be sure, like any journey, there will be course corrections. We’ll be there to help you with those as well.

maturity & readiness

Are we there yet?

How often have you hear this? We use a tool produced by the Shingo Institute called Shingo Insight Assessment. This tool polls a sample cross-section of your Executives, Managers and Team Members to determine if you are there yet.

We also help with course corrections and the necessary focused effort that is required to help move you along your journey to excellence.

leave no trace leadership

Leg Up Solutions® pioneered the concept of Leave No Trace Leadership. Our aim is to help your organization think long term on it’s journey.

To use a metaphor we learned while assessing the readiness of an organization to receive the Shingo Prize, we want guide you to “plant trees, the shade of which you will never sit under.”

This paradigm, when embraced, helps the organization realize sustainable results.

solution identification

There are often gaps between reality and the Shingo Model. A high proportion of organizations lose their momentum. Results suffer. Old habits of fire fighting and muscling results return and the “flavor of the month” mentality is more deeply imbedded.

We work with you to understand what is stalling your journey. We break that down into behaviors inhibiting your progress. We help you - Executive, Manager or Team Member - identify behaviors that lead to sustainable results.

patterns & framework

“The sum of the behaviors of an organization is its culture,” (Ken Snyder, Executive Director, The Shingo Institute).

Behaviors are driven by systems and tools. They are informed by principles. What is the framework of principles in your organization? Are the systems that produce results clearly defined and mapped out, including how they are to improve? Are the tools in each system appropriate intended results? We help identify patterns of behavior and the framework that drives them. We help you establish new patterns of behavior through a framework that encourages productive behaviors.

proof-of-concept

Most people resist change when their experience tells them every previous initiative failed to stick, perpetuating a “flavor of the month” mentality. We reject wholesale change and favor the PDCA cycle, applied to pilot projects and replication. This method is a proven approach to excellence.

We supplement this methodology liberally with transition management, the idea that in order for change to stick, the end of what was before needs to be acknowledged and address for all the stake

engaged training

All of our Shingo Model training includes a practical application of the principles taught. Each instructor is a Shingo Institute Certified Facilitator. Each workshop includes a minimum of two Go & Observe activities. Often known as gemba walks, these activities are designed to help participants learn how to identify behaviors that either impede or support sustainable results.

Our facilitators are experts with the the Shingo Model and its various dimensions. They are also recognized as leaders in delivering outstanding learning opportunities within the workshops and driving organizational excellence.

multiple modalities

We offer our workshops as public or private, in either a face-to-face or virtual format. Hybrid formats are considered on a case-by-case basis.

Public workshops are best to consider where an organization is leveraging the workshop for reverse-benchmarking opportunities. Multiple participants from various organizations and industries offer insights for the host site that often provide compelling opportunities for improvement, not previously recognized.

Private workshops are best for developing competence and critical mass within the organization.

coaching for excellence

Whether in the c-suite, on the shop floor, front line, back office, or somewhere in between, everyone needs a coach to help influence ideal behaviors to deliver ideal results. Sometimes, its helpful to have a third-party with no stake in the game to provide the appropriate coaching, follow-up and accountability to help people learn how their behaviors, especially toward others, influence results.

We are there to provide the coaching necessary to help your organization move as quickly as possible on your organizational excellence journey to sustainable results.