What is a Change Agent?

1. What is a Change Agent? Becoming a Change Agent within a Lean context to overcome Barriers to Lean www.uttana.com

2. Needing a Change Agent • As a Lean implementer, you need to persuade coworkers, management and employees about the benefits of Lean. • This sort of cultural change requires the skills and techniques of a highly motivated person, commonly known as a Change Agent. www.uttana.com

3. What is a Change Agent? • A Change Agent is broadly defined as a single individual who organizes and leads a reform effort, whether that is within an organization or in a larger social context. www.uttana.com

4. Social Science • Social scientist Malcolm Gladwell articulates the role of a Change Agent in his book The Tipping Point. • He says that, "... the success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts." www.uttana.com

5. Historical Examples • Movements and organizational change do not happen in a vacuum. They start as ideas pushed by a single individual and they spread through hard work. • While it is easy to think of historical examples of change agents, such as Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr., many change agents often go unsung. www.uttana.com

6. Dr. John Lister • Dr. John Lister • Practiced in the late 19th century • Believed that infection and disease were caused by organisms so small that they were invisible to the naked eye. • It was his belief that to protect patients, it was essential to sterilize all medical tools and operating tables. www.uttana.com

7. Dr. John Lister • He ran into significant resistance from the medical community, but by advocating and persuading, he was slowly able to enact changes that saved thousands of lives. • His achievements did not happen overnight. He had to persuade doctors one hospital at a time. Through determination and hard work, you can change a whole culture. www.uttana.com

8. What does this mean for Lean? • As a Lean implementer, you need to embrace your role as a Change Agent. • A Change Agent needs to have • the ability to see the big picture with an understanding of how small changes affect everyone involved. • the authority to alter the work environment and track projects through to completion. www.uttana.com

9. Demeanor of a Change Agent • You also need the right personality and temperament to generate cultural change. • You need to be relentlessly persistent in achieving your goals. • Your decision-making process needs to be grounded in hard data • Conversely, you need to have compassion for other's ability to change. Not everyone has the capacity to overhaul their work processes overnight www.uttana.com

10. Beginning Your Change • Being a Change Agent does not mean you have to change the entire organization. • You can be a Change Agent within your own department or team. • Start with showing the need for improvement. • Make changes in your own work processes to show others the positive effects of Lean. • Track quantifiable metrics to show coworkers, employees and management. This provides hard evidence of Lean's positive impact. www.uttana.com

11. An Agent of Change • All change begins with a single person. With the right training, determination and effort, you can be the Change Agent in your organization. www.uttana.com