Process improvement and the management tools that support it relies on the active engagement and support of people, to be achieved and sustained. The alternative is a series of reports and recommendations that achieve nothing because they are not professionally implemented.

At Newport Consulting, we recognize three key stakeholders in achieving positive engagement with people.

• The top
  
  

  When senior managers have challenges that drive them to seek sustained change, they are committed to the process because the outcomes for the organisation are their responsibility. We understand this at Newport,as well as the role they play in leading change. Performance improvement does not occur in an obscure back room and everybody wakes up one morning with a better operation. It is a central theme of the organisation’s focus for that time and is therefore a key focus of senior management whose leadership and involvement is vital.

• The middle
  
  

  Managers in the middle have the most to lose from an operational improvement programme because they see any intervention in their division as an observation of their own performance. At Newport, we understand the major contribution people in this vital part of the organisation make, the knowledge they have, their impact on the future sustainability of the change, and the need to support them as they manage the operation with our technical input.

• The coal face
  
  

  The place where the work is carried out is where the money is spent by the organisation. This is also where customer satisfaction is achieved or failed and where next week’s fires are started or avoided. The people who live here know what the problems are but, lack the facility to communicate them or fix them. At Newport, this is where we spend a lot of our time, both understanding processes and developing solutions to improve operational performance.

Newport Consultants know what it takes to get everyone in the organisation to first see the value of positive change, and then embrace and perpetuate it.