Building a continuous improvement culture
Short term “by-any-means-necessary” tactics are essential for survival in a global pandemic. While that may enable some companies to survive, those who can make the shift to a disciplined long-term focus on continuous improvement will flourish post-pandemic. As a result, successful growth-oriented companies strive to instill a culture of continuous improvement.
If you’re reading this article, you’re probably already familiar with the concept of Continuous Improvement and the many benefits it can bring to your organization (check out this article!). Company culture influences everything in an organization, from how the work will be done to the attitudes and values of employees and even the way that people interact with each other. Company culture is the cornerstone of any successful Continuous Improvement initiative. To foster innovation and learning in the workplace, companies must build a company culture that consistently focuses on these values.
Building your company culture around continuous improvement starts with adopting a strategy that aligns with the existing business model and workflows. Additionally, all the major stakeholders need to be bought into the strategy for it to be effective.
Here are some tips:
Make everyone, from the executive suite to the line workers part of the process and start with WHY improvement is necessary. This improves effectiveness of the process and makes them proactive in identifying areas for improvement.
Start by measuring current performance.
Dr. H. James Harrington , a pioneer in performance improvement, summarized that “Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”
Stabilize performance and achieve consistency in performance. One of the key problems with performance is that it is tremendously variable, but if you can predictably achieve consistent performance, that is a prerequisite to sustained improvement.
Set a target for improvement as measured by the metric established from measuring the performance.
Encourage everyone to think critically about the business process and identify any small observations/improvements that can be made.
Turn these Observations/improvements into action and track progress against the implementation of these suggestions, ensuring communication is fed back to the person who made the original suggestion. This increases buy-in and ownership.
Link measured performance improvements to the suggestions made/implemented. Communicate this widely to demonstrate these "early wins". These can even be further reinforced through the employee rewards and recognition program.
Once the targeted improvement is attained, engage the team in a further improvement target. Make it become their target and they will be exceptionally motivated to achieve it and this consistent improvement encourages new habits.
Continue to encourage all employees to think critically with principles of encouraging trying things that may not always work. Experiments are important to see what works and what doesn't, but if they always work then you aren't pushing the limits.
Finally, For the successful creation, implementation and expansion of a workforce’s Continuous Improvement initiative, the right platform should be provided for everyone to share insights, track progress, get recognition for contribution and participation.