What are the key roles in effective Improvement programs ?
When an organization embarks on an Improvement program, they need to consider how to resource the program – who will do the work ? what are the key roles needed ?
The amount of resourcing needed is, naturally, defined by the effort needed in the Improvement program and also a few design choices that need to be made up front – primarily:
- Is this a Continuous Improvement program or a one-off Transformation program ?
- Will most of the initiatives be implemented ‘in the line’ or by a separate project team ?
- Will external consultants be used ?
This post will look at a high level at some of these design choices and also run through the typical resources needed in an Improvement program (both Transformation and Continuous Improvement programs).
Design choice - Continuous Improvement vs Transformation ?
Is this a Continuous Improvement program or a one off Transformation program ?
A major Transformation usually involves effort, governance and resources. A Transformation implies that the improvement program has specific business objectives and will be of a fixed duration (although potentially extended if needed). Major transformations will typically run for 12-18 months or longer.
The expectation in terms of resourcing is that there will be a ‘Head of Transformation’ (or potentially a Chief Transformation Officer, Program Director, Program Manager – depending on the title chosen). And that this Head of Transformation will have a team to support them including workstream leads, analysts and potentially HR/Comms specialists.
The workstream leads reporting lines may vary and sometimes be solid line to the Head of Transformation and dotted line to the allocated business owner or vice versa.
In Continuous Improvement programs, there is likely a ‘Head of Continuous Improvement’ but the expectation is that almost all the resources are embedded full time into the allocated business areas as ‘Change leads’ (or ‘Improvement leads’ or some similar title). Again, the reporting lines of these Change leads may vary (and sometimes be solid line to the Head of Continuous Improvement and dotted line to the allocated business owner or vice versa).
Design choice - In the line vs separate standalone project team ?
From a resourcing viewpoint, a key decision to be made is whether the initiatives are implemented ‘in the line’ or by external resources.
If the improvement is ‘in the line’ then the expectation is that initiative owners are mostly from the line and implementing the initiatives whilst continuing to do their day job. In practice, initiative owners may become overloaded and need assistance; potential solutions include:
- Supporting the initiative owner with an additional resource (either internally or short term fixed contract)
- Backfilling the initiative owners’s day job, releasing them from day-to-day duties and allowing them to focus on the improvement initiative
If the skills needed to implement the initiative are specialist and outside of the expected skills of the line – then resourcing is going to be via a separate team (think ‘Digital’ transformations, or IT type projects). In these instances, the program set-up is going to be quite different. The ‘line’ will be the final customers and will be heavily involved in both defining the business specifications for what is needed and testing the product but won’t actually be doing the majority of the implementation.
Typical roles and responsibilities
Whether it’s a major Transformation or a Continuous Improvement program, the key roles and responsibilities of the roles are quite similar – although the titles may vary widely.
The key roles include:
- Business sponsors (for each business area involved in the Improvement program)
- Gate approvers – usually business sponsors, Finance and the Improvement team
- Initiative owners – from the business areas involved
- Program lead – the overall lead for the entire improvement program
- Workstream/change team leads – the designated improvement lead for each business area
Additional roles that may also exist in larger improvement programs such as a Transformation include:
- Analysts – tasked with on-going analysis and reporting
- HR/Comms specialists – providing guidance on HR issues and also defining/implementing comms plans
These additional resources typically report to the Program lead and together form the Program Management Office (PMO).
Business Sponsors
The business owner funds the implementation for costs for any planned improvement, incurs the associated business risks, but also, ultimately benefits from the resulting improvements.
The key responsibilities for the business owner when making improvement are to:
- Determine improvement priorities
- Set the vision for what the improvement will look like
- Set expectations on outcomes to the improvement team and everyone directly involved in the improvement
- Setting targets (top-down and bottom-up)
- Ensure the improvement team is resourced to make the change
- Provide on-going direction to the improvement lead
- Lead the progress reviews
- Constantly communicate improvement progress
Whilst there is quite a lot to the role of the business owner/sponsor – most of these responsibilities are directly in line with the expected leadership responsibilities expected of a business owner.
Gate approvers
The gate approver is responsible for giving gate approval when requested by ensuring the initiative meets gate requirements and – crucially – giving guidance if the initiative does not meet requirements.
Gate approvers are generally of three types:
- Business owner, their perspective as the owner will be to review the initiative as a business case and determine whether the initiative is worth implementing.
- Finance: focused on the expected dollars from the initiative and if the estimated value is correct ? and will it really deliver the expected dollars to the business.
- Improvement team: focused on Quality Control and looking at what general improvements that can be made to the initiative e.g., implementation plan, right KPIs?
Initiative Owners (+ rest of workforce)
The initiative owner is usually someone within the business who has potentially come up with the initiative and/or is well positioned to implement it (as the initiative is in their area). The initiative owner is responsible for successfully implementing the initiative through to ‘lock-in’.
Their main improvement responsibilities include:
- Generate improvement opportunities
- Create initiatives from those opportunities
- Initially define the improvement opportunity value
- Create the implementation plan
- Drive implementation
- Lock-in the improvement and sustain the end benefits
Program lead
The overall program lead is responsible for driving the entire improvement program.
Along with the business sponsors the lead shares the responsibility for the ultimate success of delivering on the business objectives set for the program.
Key responsibilities include:
- Work with business sponsors to define the improvement program (objectives, structure, duration) and agree on how governance will work
- Resource the program up and ensure the improvement program is adequately resourced to deliver on those business objectives
- Run the program for its agreed lifetime:
- Track and report overall progress
- Ensure progress reviews with business sponsors are regularly held (and that these progress reviews cascade down in each area of the business)
- Manage issue escalation
- Ensure the program has a comms plan in place and that the wider workforce understands the need for change and progress towards the agreed objectives
- Ensure that Business Owners/Sponsors are actively supporting the improvement program and give them coaching as needed
- Ensure Improvement capability building is in place for whoever needs it
This is a lot of work and depending on the size of the improvement program and certainly for larger transformations, the program lead will need supporting help from analysts to support the tracking and reporting requirements and possibly additional specialists (eg HR and comms).
Its also worth pointing out that the success of the entire program is not wholly dependent on the Program lead!
It’s on the business sponsors/executive leadership team as well to help ensure the improvement program succeeds. Without active support from the business sponsors, the improvement program will likely fail but, conversely, the business (and business sponsors) will benefit if the improvement program succeeds.
Workstream/change team leads
The improvement lead is responsible for driving improvement in the business area (or workstream if part of a large program).
The improvement lead’s main responsibilities include:
- Lead diagnostic work and run idea generation sessions
- Prioritise the ideas for implementation
- Evaluate the prioritised initiatives
- Support implementation planning for each initiative
- Support initiative owners during implementation
- Ensure effective progress reviews are occurring to help progress all the team’s initiatives
- Drive initiative ‘lock-in’
- Report on progress
- Build improvement capabilities in their business area
This type of role is usually full time or close to it and, along with the Program lead, is one of the most involved roles in the Improvement program.
To help ensure that the business is able to make on-going improvement, the Improvement Lead also needs to build capabilities both within their improvement team and also across their whole business area – so they need good expertise themselves in all areas of the Improvement program to be able to coach others.
Additional roles – Analysts, HR/Comms specialists
Larger improvement programs will also have additional resources to support the program – in particular the program lead. These resources are often collectively termed the Program Management Office (PMO) – and support the program during its lifetime.
Key roles often seen include:
- Analysts: Supporting the tracking and reporting of progress; multiple reports are usually expected during the program. Additionally, some aspects of the program will need analysis in response to queries from the program lead and/or business sponsors
- HR specialists: Provide guidance on HR issues that come up during the improvement program. In some Transformations, people issues will be central and HR specialist support is invaluable in providing guidance on redeployment, exit management etc
- Comms specialists: Some larger programs will also need significant communications – especially if major workforce impacts are expected. The comms specialists can be instrumental in developing comms plans across the program using multiple channels and also actually creating and sending out the individual comms
External consultants
Lastly, external consultants should be considered if you are missing key skills sets in your organization. They are easily available and can be used to augment your own team either for a fixed time at the start of an Improvement program or for the entire program duration. They will also add speed to your Improvement Program and get you moving quickly.
External consultants can be used as additional resources in different roles:
- Provide specialised consulting skills in the early, diagnostic stage to help identify opportunities
- Provide expert help during implementation, coaching the various roles and help them get up to speed during the Improvement program
- Provide specialist, project skills that might be missing e.g., digital specialists
As such, external consultants can be a valuable resource that can be easily utilized to help support the improvement program.
Conclusion
Hopefully this guide has been useful to you in understanding the main roles in any Improvement program and what they each do.
A well functional improvement team requires all these roles in place and to be working well.
Whilst Improvement programs vary widely – from Continuous Improvement programs o major Transformations – there is a lot of similarity in the key roles and their responsibilities even if the actual titles vary widely.