Jill Karena, FRRR’s Head of Granting, has written this piece reflecting on the benefits – including some unexpected outcomes – from investing in FRRR’s systems and processes.
What do philanthropy and motor vehicle production have in common? At first glance, you’d probably think nothing really. And if I’m honest, that’s what I first thought too. Then I met the team from Toyota System Support Centre (TSSC) and that all changed!
FRRR is committed to empowering community groups in remote, rural and regional Australia to create vibrant, resilient and sustainable communities. A key part of achieving that mission is getting funds to communities in need of support in a meaningful and timely manner. We’ve always sought to find new ways to improve our granting processes and practices. But what I now realise is that we didn’t have the right tools to do that embedded in the way we work. Now, thanks to the Toyota Production System (TPS) process, we do!
So, what changed?
Strengthening Rural Communities (SRC), FRRR’s flagship granting program, accepts applications year-round, with four assessment cut-offs. However, the full cycle of SRC granting – from applications closing, to groups being advised of the outcomes – was taking the team around 16 weeks. Not only was this impacting community groups, it also meant no downtime for our team between assessments, leaving no time to engage in other important activities, such as spending time in community or analysing trends and drawing out insights from reporting.
As a team, we knew something had to change and so we started looking for external support to help us work out what we could do differently. Our overall aims were to improve assessment processes, significantly reduce the timelines (ideally to halve the time taken), enhance applicant experience and increase overall quality assurance of the SRC grant program’s administration. In our search for a support, we discovered that TSSC and so our partnership began.
TSSC provided pro bono support, teaching us about the TPS process. Kaizen, meaning “continuous improvement,” is a core philosophy and methodology in their approach. It draws on the idea that many small, ongoing positive changes, combined with cooperation and commitment, can reap significant improvements.
A key element of the approach is the role of “shop-floor” employees. In other words, those on the front line who are most engaged in the granting processes needed to drive the redesign, rather than it coming from management. So, the project started by assembling a team of representatives from all levels of the organisation, from me as the lead, to state managers and our grant officers. Roles were assigned and we attended training about our specific project roles. This then led to highly structured and recurring investigative processes; trialling solutions; and implementation of daily check-ins to see how they were working. We also met regularly with the TSSC team, who coached us and supported us to move through the process.
Kaizen methodology works on having one carefully documented way of doing things. Through weekly meetings and a series of workshops, the SRC team was supported to map the existing processes and identify gaps, develop and test potential solutions and implement changes.
Our team really benefitted from learning this structured technique, as documenting and checking alignment to defined processes enabled them to check regularly and identify any other potential issues, or better ways to work together, embedding a culture of continuous improvement in the SRC team.
Initially, some staff were reluctant to participate, especially in the daily check-ins, feeling the process would mean being micromanaged, or criticised for their work practices. However, over time, confidence in the process increased, with staff recognising the critical importance of surfacing issues that were affecting workflow and their ability to do their own job well. As one team member put it, they have the confidence now to speak up and to share knowledge and support one another.
“We’re very grateful for the guidance Toyota has so generously given to us, as this has vastly improved our processes in this area and allowed our team to drive efficiencies across the organisation.”
– Jill Karena, Head of Granting
Thanks to this project, our team has been able to develop a more consistent, streamlined approach to assessment of funding applications, while still maintaining high levels of due diligence and engagement with communities. We simplified and clarified the grant guidelines and application process, which led to a significant reduction in phone calls from groups seeking help to apply. Externally, the most significant outcome was the time for grantees to be notified of the outcome of their funding applications nearly halved.
Greater efficiencies led to additional benefits too, with staff now able to be more involved in higher value work, such as evaluation, relationship management and community outreach. This provided communities engaging with FRRR with a much smoother and more positive experience overall. An additional benefit has been that it’s now faster to onboard new team members. Plus, daily check ins where staff share their progress against their targets means that the entire team knows who has extra capacity or who might need extra support, especially to manage around unexpected leave.
We’re very grateful for the guidance Toyota has so generously given to us, as this has vastly improved our processes in this area and allowed our team to drive efficiencies across the organisation. From an operational perspective, we have been able to improve systems and timeframes that benefit community groups, while simultaneously improving the culture and confidence of our team. FRRR employees tell us that the process has given them the skills, tools, and confidence to problem solve process problems and challenges across a range of organisational functions.
We have since embarked on a second project with the TSSC team, this time focussed on streamlining our final reporting and grant acquittal processes. Even though this project is still in its infancy, it has highlighted the transferability of the TPS way of working with new TPS team members quickly picking up TPS tools and approaches that they have been exposed to in their grant assessment work. By investing in the initial TPS process, we have strategically created the critical mass of trained staff that will be required to rollout the changes in managing Project Reports to other FRRR granting teams.
There is immense value in this kind of support for our Foundation, and we are eager for our team, and the communities we support, to continue to reap the benefits of investing in ourselves.
Hopefully, with support from our donors and partners for FRRR’s Backbone Fund, we’ll be able to continue to invest in this kind of innovation or in new systems and technology that enable us to more effectively work toward our vision of vibrant, resilient, sustainable and empowered communities.
