Infrastructure development is the first stage in a long-term mentoring process of the organization's improvement activity. This first stage is critical for long-term success, and any omissions during start-up can come back to haunt an implementation later. This service consists of guiding the two core teams--the management steering group and the implementation team--to an mutual agreement on roles, accountabilities, resources, outcomes, time, and the key linkages to the core business strategies driving the improvement project. The approach is designed to align the organization's improvement effort with the organization's strategic direction and goals, multiple models as needed, other improvement initiatives, and the work behaviors of all parties affected by the improvement.
During infrastructure development, the management steering group is guided through a core analysis of its business strategy and improvement goals, the development of a substantial reinforcement strategy designed to operationalize improvement in the organization's culture, and some coaching for leaders in their roles in improvement. Basic concepts of leading change are part of the learning process, especially with respect to the leader's role and ccountabilities. This work typically includes the JumpStart and the QuickPlan workshops, a short course on Leading Improvement in Organizations, and ongoing consulting to solidify and maintain an effective infrastructure for ongoing improvement.
For the implementation team, infrastructure development consists of guiding the team through team development, setting clear goals and boundaries for improvement in line with the management directives, planning the work to get the outcomes, and learning basic skills in organization change and improvement. The work typically includes theJumpStart and the QuickPlan workshops, courses on Implementing Improvement in Organizations and Model Based Consulting, and ongoing guidance to solidify and maintain an effective infrastructure for ongoing improvement.