GEMBAfication – Details, episodes & analysis

Most organisations set out with clear goals and good intentions.
But change is rarely simple. It’s often messy, non‑linear, and full of surprises.

GEMBAfication is PMI’s new podcast for improvement professionals looking for an honest view of what improvement really looks like in practice. Because in our world, every experience is valuable.

Hosted by Susannah Clarke, Managing Partner at PMI, the series goes behind the scenes with leaders and practitioners who’ve driven change in their organisations. Sometimes with great success, sometimes with unexpected setbacks. You’ll hear about the methods that helped them mobilise, measure, and deliver results, and what they learned when things didn’t go to plan. These are candid conversations about what it really takes to improve, adapt, and lead when change meets the realities of day-to-day work.

Launching on 18th March, GEMBAfication explores change as it really happens.
Subscribe now so you never miss an episode.

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Alannah Martin shares what really happened when her team replaced a traditional Interactive Voice Response telephone system with natural language technology in a live contact centre.

“We knew that understanding our customers’ needs and why they were contacting us was fundamental to being able to improve anything.”

 In this episode:
 
 00:00 Introduction and the problem with call transfers  
 02:08 Why traditional phone menus fail customers  
 05:23 Testing change safely with a phased rollout  
 08:55 Unlocking self‑service without forcing it  
 13:58 What success actually looked like  
 16:19 What didn’t go to plan  
 20:22 Lessons on stakeholder trust and leading change  
 27:01 Outro

How to unlock your full potential with expert performance improvement consultancy

If you’re serious about improving your organisation’s performance, then you need to get serious about process improvement. Our consultancy services can help you achieve your goals.

Explore Consultancy: https://pmi.co.uk/consultancy/ 

Visit us at pmi.co.uk for more:

• Dive into our Knowledge Hub for more tools, videos, and infographics
• Join us for a PMI LIVE Webinar
• Explore Lean Six Sigma Certifications
• Follow us on LinkedIn

An honest conversation with Fraser Cowe about readiness for change, bottom-up improvement, and why success in one part of the business doesn’t guarantee success everywhere else.

“We assumed the capability was there. It wasn’t. And that was on us.”
 

In this episode:
 
 00:00 Introducing Continuous Improvement at scale in Tesco’s contact centres
 03:21 From hearts and minds to boot camps: building frontline capability
 08:47 Why facilitation skills matter as much as CI tools
 10:27 Making performance visible through PQCD dashboards
 11:54 What success actually looked like
 14:49 Getting it wrong first time and why
 18:55 Leadership alignment as the missing piece
 20:30 Readiness for change and avoiding fatigue
 24:07 Outro

Make Continuous Improvement stick in your organisation

Rolling out CI tools is one thing. Embedding the capability, building trust, and sustaining change at scale is another. Our performance improvement consultancy supports organisations to assess readiness for change, build real problem‑solving capability, and create improvement systems that last.

Explore Consultancy: https://pmi.co.uk/consultancy/ 

Visit us at pmi.co.uk for more:

• Dive into our Knowledge Hub for more tools, videos, and infographics
• Join us for a PMI LIVE Webinar
• Explore Lean Six Sigma Certifications
• Follow us on LinkedIn

As improvement activity grew at Currys, so did the number of ideas.

Phil Knowles shares what happened when that pipeline became harder to manage, and how focusing on specific operational challenges, with clearer governance and faster feedback, helped create the conditions for improvement to work across the business.

“If colleagues only see the polished success stories, then they assume that failure is unacceptable.”

In this episode:

00:00 Introduction and the challenge of scaling improvement
01:57 Why improvement was inconsistent and reactive
05:23 Building a bottom-up framework across 2,500 colleagues
08:12 The metrics that proved it was working
11:22 The gaps in the sustain model and early rollout
14:41 When the ideas pipeline becomes the problem
19:14 Moving from generic ideas to targeted challenges
22:38 Keeping change relevant across different teams
25:11 Outro

Making improvement work across the business

Building momentum is a significant step. Our performance improvement consultancy supports organisations to put the structure, clarity, and capability in place to sustain improvement at scale.

Explore Consultancy: https://pmi.co.uk/consultancy/

Visit us at pmi.co.uk for more:

• Dive into our Knowledge Hub for more tools, videos, and infographics
• Join us for a PMI LIVE Webinar
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When everyone is working towards the same goal, it’s easy to assume everyone can see the same picture.

Carla Smith, Innovation, Strategy and Planning Programme Manager at the Midlands Cancer Alliances Life Science Hub, reflects on what it took to bring more structure and visibility to a complex mix of stakeholders, priorities and communication styles across NHS and industry partners, and what she learned about data, ownership, and different ways of working along the way.

“There are completely different levels of digital readiness, and that changes how people work, how they communicate, and what they need.”

In this episode:

00:00 Introduction and the challenge of visibility across complex teams
02:01 Why shared goals don’t guarantee a shared view of progress
06:13 Bridging different ways of working across stakeholders
07:16 Building alignment at pace through sprints
09:20 The uncomfortable discovery: the solution already existed
11:31 Making work visible through data and challenging perception
13:53 When too much openness slows progress and the need for clear scope
20:11 Advice for first-time improvers: start with scope, then get the data
21:13 Outro

Help Your Teams See the Full Picture

When progress lives in different places, decisions slow down. Our performance improvement consultancy helps organisations bring clarity to complex work, align teams, and create the visibility needed to keep improvement moving.

Explore Consultancy: https://pmi.co.uk/consultancy/ 

Visit us at pmi.co.uk for more:

• Dive into our Knowledge Hub for more tools, videos, and infographics
• Join us for a PMI LIVE Webinar
• Explore Lean Six Sigma Certifications
• Follow us on LinkedIn