Contents
1. Support Overview
We supported a development process improvement initiative for a system development team at a major foreign life insurance company.
Rather than treating “skill gaps” as a simple capability issue, we structured the challenges occurring within the team and aimed to establish a state where improvement initiatives can be run continuously and sustainably.
- Engagement Period: 2 months
- Support Style: Manager coaching and decision-making support (hands-on, ongoing support)
2. Background (Client Challenges)
The client’s manager shared the following concerns.
- Team members’ skill gaps were seen as a key issue
- They had tried multiple improvement actions in the past, but skill growth at the member level did not progress as expected
- The team was mainly composed of a manager and junior members (2–3 years after joining), with a thin mid-level layer
- They also needed to develop the next mid-level layer, but the team was fully occupied just keeping daily work running
On the surface, the theme was “development is not progressing,” but in reality, the situation suggested a high likelihood of structural factors that kept development efforts from working.
3. Core Issue: The “Gap” Between Manager and Members Was Not Visible
As we moved forward with the assessment, we found that communication within the team had become mostly one-way from the manager.
As a result,
- The manager felt “I’m communicating instructions and expectations”
- Members felt “I’m stuck but I can’t ask, so I try to solve it alone and end up stalled”
- Because their understanding of the situation did not align, improvement actions did not land effectively
This “gap” was creating friction.
In other words, before skill gaps, the root issue was that the team lacked a foundation to accurately grasp the current state and turn it into improvement.
4. Our Approach: Forming a Hypothesis Using the Success Cycle Model
We formed a hypothesis that the lack of skill growth was driven by a negative cycle within the Success Cycle Model.
We then conducted interviews with members and identified the following items that were not fully visible from the manager’s side.
- Which steps they tend to get stuck in
- Why questions and consultations do not happen (or happen late)
- Psychological and structural reasons why a “can’t do it” state continues
- Missing viewpoints in past actions (expectations, daily operation, follow-up mechanisms, etc.)
As a result, we confirmed that our hypothesis largely fit the reality and created a state where the issues could be organized not as “individual problems,” but as “team structure.”
5. What We Delivered: 10 Improvement Initiatives Linked to the Success Cycle Model
Based on the structured view of the issues, we proposed a total of 10 improvement initiatives.
The key point was not to treat them as one-off actions, but to map each initiative to the relevant stage of the Success Cycle Model.
This made it clear:
- Which initiatives improve “Quality of Relationships”
- Which initiatives raise “Quality of Thinking” and “Quality of Actions”
- Which initiatives directly impact “Quality of Results”
As a result, it became easier to align on priorities for improvement actions.
We also reviewed why previous actions did not stick, and redesigned the approach by filling in missing viewpoints.
6. Current Status
Based on the proposed improvement points, the client is now reviewing and re-running the initiatives.
We supported the team so that improvement efforts would not become “do-and-done,” and so the next actions would remain clear and executable.
7. Note: What Is the Success Cycle Model?
The Success Cycle Model is a way of thinking that team and organizational outcomes are created through a repeating cycle of four elements.
- Quality of Relationships (psychological safety, trust, ease of communication)
- Quality of Thinking (how problems are framed, hypothesis thinking, clarity of improvement viewpoints)
- Quality of Actions (execution, collaboration, continuous improvement, reflection habits)
- Quality of Results (outcomes, growth, delivery performance, quality improvement, etc.)
In this model, to improve results, it is important not only to change actions, but to start by improving “Quality of Relationships”.
On the other hand, when relationships worsen, thinking shrinks, actions slow down, results drop, and relationships get even worse—this becomes a negative cycle.
In this case, we used this framework to organize the team’s situation and design improvement actions to shift into a positive cycle.
8. Additional Proposal: Using an AI Agent to Keep the Success Cycle Running
From the Success Cycle Model perspective, to continuously improve results, it is important not just to increase actions, but to raise “Quality of Relationships,” then link it to better thinking and better actions.
Alongside redesigning improvement initiatives, we also considered an additional proposal: using an AI agent that learns the manager’s viewpoints and thinking as a mechanism to keep improvements from becoming one-time efforts.
In development teams, junior members often fall into states like “I want to ask but it’s hard to ask” or “I don’t even know what to ask,” which can lead to issues staying hidden, stalled growth, and rework.
To address this, we are trialing an AI agent as a “virtual manager” that members can use for easy, low-pressure discussion.
This AI agent supports the Success Cycle Model in the following ways:
- Quality of Relationships: Lowers the barrier to consult even when it’s hard to ask the manager directly, supporting psychological safety and dialogue
- Quality of Thinking: Provides questions and viewpoints to help members structure their challenges and notice new perspectives
- Quality of Actions: Helps turn consultation into clarity and next steps, increasing the frequency of learning and improvement actions
- Quality of Results: Helps reduce stalled skill growth and rework, supporting productivity and quality
A key design point is that this AI agent does not suggest “the correct answer.” Instead, it is designed to prompt awareness and reflection. This helps prevent members from learning incorrect content while supporting self-driven growth and reducing the manager’s front-line support load.
9. Key Takeaways (For Organizations With Similar Challenges)
In this case, we did not treat skill gaps as a simple “capability issue.” Instead, we improved outcomes by making the structure that prevents development from working (communication, relationships, and initiative design) visible.
Especially in the following situations, the first step is to organize the structure of the issues before adding more actions.
- The team is mainly junior members, with a thin mid-level layer
- The manager is working hard, but people are not growing
- Improvement actions are taken, but they do not stick
We help clients turn findings from interviews and structured analysis into a practical improvement roadmap with clear priorities, and support building a state where improvement keeps running.
Contact Us
If you are facing challenges such as “junior members are not growing,” “improvement actions don’t stick,” or “manager workload is at its limit,” we can support you from clarifying the current state to creating an improvement roadmap and running an AI trial.
We will propose an approach that fits your situation—please feel free to reach out.
- Manager coaching for development process improvement and people development
- Redesigning improvement initiatives based on the Success Cycle Model
- PoC support for an AI agent that leverages manager thinking