Embedding Lean & Continuous Improvement capability in Family Fund
As a charity, Family Fund provide grants & services for families raising a disabled or seriously ill child/young person, on a low income. Since 1973, they’ve delivered over 1.5M grants to families in need to ease daily pressures and improve quality of life.
“Like many charities, we’re always trying to do more for our beneficiaries and give a better service, without adding to our overhead - and that means being able to work smarter. I’d come across Lean methodology in a previous role, and I thought it would be worth exploring at Family Fund to streamline some of our processes and create more capacity to do the things the charity really wants to focus on. However, I knew we’d need some support for this, because in a busy organisation, it can be difficult to give initiatives the dedicated focus they need without some outside help.” (Louise Wood, Chief Operating Officer at Family Fund)
To ensure these families receive the maximum benefit possible, Family Fund wanted to optimise efficiency across the organisation in a sustainable way. Ad Esse was contacted to improve the supplier complaints process as a proof-of-concept project before rolling out Lean & Continuous Improvement (CI) capability across the organisation.
Nicola Foster is a Family Contact and Information Manager at Family Fund. Keep reading to see Nicola’s experience of the supplier complaints project, training, and working with the team at Ad Esse.
The challenge
We had a period of significant transition at Family Fund, including a significant change to one of our big grant programmes as well as system changes. People had to change how they worked quickly with process workarounds put in place as we moved to a new CRM, Dynamics, and a new finance system.
Our Chief Operating Officer thought Ad Esse could help and would be a good fit. For us, it was important to make a significant, long-lasting change, so we wanted consultants who could provide ongoing support instead of just delivering one project in isolation. Ad Esse had the same values as Family Fund and have worked with similar charities, so are familiar with the challenges we face and able to dive in effortlessly. Yeukai really got on board and understood what we do, why we do it, what was important to our families we support, and then helping us to highlight that through our process.
“I really wanted someone who would understand our ethos as a not-for-profit organisation, and who would work constructively with our team to build their understanding of Lean methodology. That was what drew me to Ad Esse. My first contact with Ad Esse was a discussion with Rhiannon, and when I described our organisation and what we were trying to achieve, it was clear we’d found our consultancy. She really got what we needed to do, and was right on board with building the team’s skills so that we’d be able to continue our Lean journey at the end of the contract.
It felt like it was going to be a genuine partnership, and that Ad Esse would both respect and challenge our team. Ad Esse were genuinely invested in getting a good result for us and providing value for money, which matters for any organisation, but especially a charity.”
Proof of concept: Redesigning the supplier complaints process
As a proof of concept, we worked with Ad Esse to improve the supplier complaints process before embedding wider Lean & CI capability across the organisation. Initially, there may have been reluctance across departments because we’ve been through a lot of change and people are tired. However, I found the process engaging and collaborative; Yeukai was excellent at guiding us and we were empowered to identify problems & improvements for ourselves and work together to rebuild.
The solutions felt right because we’d all contributed and worked with different departments. This way, everyone felt onboard with the change because they had been involved and leading it. From this project, we’re starting to use the language, look at things differently, and question ways of working more. It was helpful working across departments because any change we make impacts them as well and vice versa; this is something that we’ve taken forward and still talk about now.
It was surprising how quickly we saw improvements. The biggest breakthrough for us was realising that small incremental changes, like reducing duplication and clarifying roles (who does what and why?) has a significant impact on efficiency. Before we did the Value Stream Mapping, we didn’t realise how much duplication was in our process. Making those small changes quickly was motivational and I’m thinking how we could use and share this knowledge wider in our teams.
Yeukai is incredibly knowledgeable, approachable, and super supportive. She has that balance between guiding us and then empowering us to take the lead, certainly for me. I was given the tools to go and do it with honest feedback, and I think this mentoring style has built my confidence. The ongoing support after the project has been great, being able to refer and build on the things we learned during the supplier complaints project.
“As a sponsor, I appreciated that the project wasn’t just about process. Ad Esse’s approach was about connecting the work to our purpose as a charity, and that really helped to position the work with our teams. When people hear the word “Lean”, it can have negative connotations, but when you put the work into the context of providing the best service for customers, it makes more sense to people.”
Lean and CI training
Now, we’re focused on embedding Lean and Continuous Improvement throughout the organisation, and this is part of Family Fund’s growth agenda and strategy. During the training, the techniques and tools were presented in a way that was easy to understand. Yeukai explained the purpose and theory, then we would use them in practise. This made it easy to apply the Lean tools in our teams. I think this created a sense of ownership and that was key to everyone feeling involved. The sessions were productive and made such an impact when we could see all the outputs at the end.
From the training with Yeukai and the online training modules, along with the ongoing mentoring and support, we’re able to tackle our own improvement projects in-house. We’re also sharing the learning with other departments and building Lean & CI capability across the organisation.
Feedback from the Lean & CI training sessions:
-
“I hadn’t worked with Lean before, so it was new to me. I really enjoyed the process. I’ve really enjoyed the workshops. Yeukai is fab. Full day workshops can be heavy going but the way in which it was delivered worked brilliantly. Everything was well explained, and engagement was encouraged from the get-go but in a way that all ideas were welcome and nothing a silly question.”
-
“I enjoyed the whole process of the workshops, working with other teams and all having participation in the mapping. Everyone got involved and seeing the full processes mapped out on the post its make it easier to see the waste, etc. Yeukai was great and knowledgeable, everything was well explained, fun and informative workshops.”
-
“Yeukai gave us space to give our opinions and find our way to answers through group discussion, which definitely helped the different teams understand each other’s processes. Yeukai always managed to keep us on track and reinforced the principles of Lean throughout the workshops.”
-
“Everyone was super engaged and able to participate - a very positive atmosphere. I liked that the way things are currently done was questioned in ways no one expected. I.e. why do they do that? Couldn't they do it instead? I knew a little about Lean processes but seeing it in action was excellent. Yeukai led the workshops so well, making sure everyone was engaged and understood, and worked with us to flesh out what we do and how it might be different. Yeukai has a lovely open personality and is refreshing to work with. So happy to have been included in this. I think using an independent expert rather than an internal person was a really good way to ensure the process was looked at objectively by everyone.”
The impact of Lean & CI at Family Fund
We’ve seen clear efficiencies in our processes which has created additional capacity within our teams, especially in the supplier complaints project that we worked on as a proof of concept. We’ve moved to Information Centres on Sharepoint, helping us to communicate as a team. The supplier complaints service is more streamlined, responsive, and trackable. I think there’s also been a noticeable culture shift, certainly within the departments that have already been involved in this process. As we roll out Lean & CI more widely, you can see people’s change in mindset as they’re more reflective and increasingly proactive in thinking about their approach to change.
I’ve noticed staff members are more confident to identify improvements and take ownership of change. Previously, they probably felt like change was something that somebody else would take care of, and it wasn’t something they could challenge. It’s great to see people proactively bringing problems and opportunities for improvement forward; they’ll say, “this has come up, but it’s a stranger. It’s fine, but how do we deal with this?” There’s a difference in our language and approach which has been nice to see, and we’re working to make sure it continues organisation-wide. Although the projects with Ad Esse have finished, the ongoing mentorship and tools available on the Knowledge Hub have been brilliant.
We would absolutely recommend Ad Esse to anyone looking to build internal capacity and drive change. We’ve had a positive experience throughout and it’s been a partnership. Practical, supportive, and everything has been tailored to our needs.
Thoughts from Louise Wood, Chief Operating Officer:
After the first project, it was clear that Lean had a lot to offer us as an organisation, so we worked with Ad Esse on some additional initiatives to reduce waste in our business support processes and introduce more consistency. It’s still quite early days, but our Audit team have reported a time saving of five days per month as a result of their Lean project, and three days per month in our Finance team. These are very small teams, so an efficiency gain like that can make a really big difference.
The legacy of these Lean projects isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about culture. We have a number of Lean champions now who are taking the techniques they’ve learned from Ad Esse to make continuous improvements in their areas of business. As a Director, that’s amazing, because you start seeing this chain reaction of CI, and it is happening organically from the teams themselves, not from “management”. We’ve actually got teams now asking when they can do a Lean project, so there is an appetite for improvement. We’ve also seen people really grow in confidence and ability to problem-solve as a result of the Lean work, and that is so important for us. As a charity, we operate in a volatile environment where we compete for funding, so we must keep improving and adapting to survive. Lean has provided us with a framework for making changes that will help us to stay competitive.
In terms of the future, we are looking to grow as a charity, so we’ll be continuing our Lean journey to create the capacity to do more for more beneficiaries. We’ve given ourselves a capacity-gain goal as part of our Operational Plan, and the results of our Lean work will feed into that. We want this to become part of our DNA, and Ad Esse has really put us on the path.
I would definitely recommend Ad Esse’s services to any organisation looking for a continuous improvement partner who really “gets” the not-for-profit sector. Highly professional, hugely committed and great value for money.
The team at Ad Esse Consulting are proud to have supported Family Fund with embedding Lean & Continuous Improvement capability. At Ad Esse, we work with social purpose organisations, like charities, social housing, healthcare, hospices, local authorities, and more. Let’s have a chat about how we can help you to improve performance in your organisation. Email hello@ad-esse.com to get started today.
Nicola Foster,
Family Contact and Information Manager at Family Fund
