Mr. First of all, I've been getting a lot of questions about time, so I'd like to hear from you. At the study group, the time from preliminary survey to effect measurement is set to "8 months", isn't it?
Ikuta: That's about right. It's a little off, though.
Saito: Also, I would like to ask if you have any intentions regarding the period, as you have a cycle of "1.5 months" for each activity.
Ikuta: First of all, there is an organizational intention to "finish one group within the year." The start time is, for example, the time of accreditation of executives, and there is also such a thing as wanting to include new appointments (leaders). There is also a little bit of intention on the management side.
However, the minimum period of 6 to 8 months is that it takes a certain amount of time to turn the PDCA cycle, in which various initiatives are taken and changes are observed. At that time, "How many times should we set up an opportunity to meet as a group meeting?" Repeat and gradually change.
And that influence spreads through the team. At that time, I usually say "Let's do it four times". That kind of decision and another one. About the "1.5 months" between meetings. This is a little too short if you have seen the (conventional, general) "program that is done several times as training", and the verification of the action plan until the next time is "within a month". That's right.
Some people have a slow start to work on it. Also, it will take more than a month for it to become a habit to some extent and affect the surroundings. "Two months or more" is a long time. There will be slackness like 'the next episode is still ahead, so let's start working on it a little later'. That's why I took a break and set it to 1.5 months (laughs).
Saito: I see. "If (the leader) takes 1-2 weeks to bring it back and communicate it to the team members, there is about 1 month for action," so does that mean the period is 1.5 months?
Ikuta: Yes. Actually, there are some very detailed things to do.
First, a group meeting. Leaders have discussions, have their own feedback, and come up with something that they themselves want to "do something new." If this is done by the leader alone, the team's independence will not be born, so I will bring it back to the team once and have a dialogue with the team.
Saito: Yes yes.
Ikuta: However, it can't be done the next day (when the leader finishes the discussion). Depending on work circumstances, we may not be able to get together, so we have a little more than a week to spare. Within a week, have a team dialogue, decide on a direction once more, and put it on the sheet. Including us facilitators, send once to the leaders, "I'll do this kind of PDCA P."
There are activities from there, and before the next activity, I put together a sheet of "DCA" and send it to the leaders who are involved. In that case, the time between activities should be more than 2 weeks. That's why I've decided on this period based on a very detailed calculation.
Saito: The direction itself was gradually improved, or maybe it was the point where the content was changed.
Ikuta: Yes.