The 3Ps? Sure, we’ll get there in a moment. Right now, it’s the 3Rs, as in: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This blog was first published in July 2020 and, for reasons lost in the mists of time, never made it from the old website to the current version. But here it is now. Not much reduction, if any, and I’d say Reuse rather than Recycle.

Alright, let’s get going.

We’ve all heard, and we’ve all probably said at some stage, concerning the state of our processes, “Everything is fine”. This may have been followed up with: “Our processes are working well, they don’t need to be improved. We carried out a review a few months ago, and we meet sector best practice.” Or words to that effect.

While this can be the case, many times I find the speaker is not able to say so confidently, for they do not have that level of familiarity with all the ins and outs of organisational processes. I understand why; it is not their role to know all the fine details.

So, how do we deal with this situation? We call on the 3Ps.

Regardless of the sector in which we work, e.g. charity, higher education, law and public services, and regardless of where, e.g. Australia, Ghana, Ireland, the UK or the USA, the 3Ps always feature.

The first P is ‘People’. Organisations do not function without people.

The second P is ‘Process’ – wherever you get people, you get process; otherwise, how will people interact and how will the organisation deliver its services or produce its goods?

And wherever we have people and process, we also have the third P: ‘Potential’. There is always potential for improvement. A process does not have to be broken or performing badly to be capable of improvement. Indeed, a process can be working perfectly well and still be made simpler, quicker, more effective or easier for the people involved.

That potential applies particularly to process and, by extension, to people: their understanding of processes, their ability to see opportunities for improvement, and their ability to make those improvements in a structured rather than an ad hoc way.

I always have the 3Ps at the ready and introduce them into the conversation when needed. I’m particularly interested in the third P, Potential. I’m constantly thinking about how I can help you, your staff and your organisation realise your potential.

One way is to get you thinking that realising potential is the default position. This is where our ‘Wall of No Excuses’* comes into play.

But first, let’s look at our ‘Wall of Excuses’*. When you start hearing the likes of ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, ‘This isn’t the right time’ and ‘It’s too risky’, you should be having doubts about the desire of the speaker to change, and their degree of commitment to the Lean fundamentals of continuous improvement and respect for people.

I’ll confess here and now, I made many excuses in my pre-Lean working life. While I expect I hoped the excuses were ‘good’, if unsubstantiated, reasons for batting away irksome change, I did not at the time realise I was closing myself off to opportunities to learn, to grow and to help my organisation improve. I did not see that I was disempowering myself and reducing the resilience of my employer. I needed a good dose of Lean.

Back to the excuses. We immediately move to the flip side and start thinking about our ‘Wall of No Excuses’. Instead of accepting ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, we move the discussion on to ‘It ain’t broke, but we can improve it’. Rather than ‘This isn’t the right time’, we’re looking to hear ‘It’s time to change’. And when we hear ‘It’s too risky’, we prefer to hear ‘We can manage the risk’.

Excuses are not helpful, and they are not empowering. They are not conducive to continuous improvement and show no respect for people.

To end on a positive note, the 3Ps help move conversations and mindsets from ‘can’t do’ to ‘can do’.

We continue to help organisations realise their potential through Lean training, process improvement and practical support. If you would like to find out how we can help your organisation, please contact us.

*You can download our ‘Walls’ here.