How can habits change culture?

Dr Morgan L. Jones, Chris Butterworth andBrenton Harder

Many organisations have launched continuous improvement, business improvement, process excellence or Lean Six Sigma programs with varying success. The typical model is to employ an experienced external executive to engage directly with the senior leadership team, develop a deployment plan, train a small cohort of green or black belts, identify and deliver some immediatewins, build momentum with more low-hanging fruit and hope the top-down approach will permeate the organisational culture due to an obvious display of logic and benefits. Building individual capability of green belts, black belts and sometimes sponsors is a successful approach for creating a proof point that that these methods work within that organisation and its culture.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA -winner of a Shingo Medallion 2016) and the Bank of New York Mellon (BNYM) decided that they needed to try a different approach and have had tremendous success embedding a culture of continuous improvement through the application of five simple habits.

Taking the lessons from the Shingo teachings both organisations started with defining the culture they wanted and the ideal behaviours that would be needed to bring this culture to life. However, it was felt something more was needed to really bring the behaviours to life and so they defined five simple habits that everyone could learn and constantly practice in the workplace. The habits also enabled the practicing of the ideal behaviours as they were not just some theoretical “nice to have” but were actively demonstrated by applying the habits. The habits quickly became a way of changing the way people thought about their job at all levels of the organisation.

It is important to keep the habits as simple as possible. It is very easy to make things complicated and continuous improvement professionals need to avoid complex models that may well be intellectually stimulating but do not help widespread understanding. Keep it simple – if it takes lots of explanation and people do not immediately connect with what’s proposed, then it needs changing. The four core habits used in this case are:

  1. VMB – Although the Visual Management Board is a tool, the commitment to continually updating it is the real habit. There is also an explicit link to the customer with the integration of the Customer Value Proposition (CVP) which is explored further in Chapter 2
  2. Huddles – A short 5- to 15-minute standing discussion around the VMB
  3. CI - Continuous Improvement ideas generated by the team, their interrelationships with each other, and their collective power using PDCA
  4. SOPs – Standard operating procedures result in standard work rules, enabling tasks that are repeatable and reducing the process variation significantly
  5. (or the + 1 habit) is Gemba walks- The opportunity to embed the habits through coaching conversationsby leaders at all levels

As with many things in continuous improvement it is not what we do that’s important but rather the way we do it. Many organisations, for example have Visual Management Boards but fewer are really able to use them to their full potential. What made them successful in the case of both CBA and BNYM organisations was not to focus on the tool but the behaviours and the benefits of using them to the teams and individuals. The “what’s in it for me” question was explicitly addressed and by integrating the VMB to the other 4 habits each one became mutually reinforcing. This is illustrated in the diagram below:

Figure 1.1 The four habits working together. Source 4+1 Jones, Butterworth Harder 2017

As can be seen from figure 1.1 there is also a direct link between the habits and customer value. The Customer Value Proposition (CVP) is used to document a deep understanding of real customer value and this in turn is translated onto the VMB and the habits drive a culture of constantly striving to make the customer experience better whilst at the same time making things as simple as possible for everyone.

It quickly became apparent in both organisations that the habits where actively embedding the ideal behaviours and that practicing the habits created the opportunity to practice the behaviours. A lot of research in the field of neuroscience explains how the brain quickly adopts new habits that are regularly practiced and equally defaults to existing behaviours and assumptions unless given new stimuli and challenges. Understanding the underlying neuroscience is a key aspect to the successful implementation of the habits.

In other words HABITSdrive the rightBEHAVIOURSthat deliver therightCUSTOMEREXPERIENCE, highly engagedPEOPLE and sustainable business RESULTS.

The ideas in this short article are discussed in much more detail in a new book , which donates all profits to Children’s Cancer Charity RedKite:

“4+1 Embedding a Culture of Continuous Improvement in Financial Services” by

Dr Morgan L. Jones, Chris Butterworth and Brenton Harder 2017 ISBN: 978-0-9873477-1-8 Copies can be purchased on :

MorganJones will be presenting on the key messages from the book at the AME Conference in Melbourne on the 8thMarch . See this link for details:

Brent Harderwill be presenting on the key messages at the 29th Shingo International conference in Atlanta on the 27th April. See this link for details: