Continuous Improvement

Company leader: “That is what we do”
CSi: ”What do you do?”
Company leader: “We continuously improve what we do.”
CSi: ”So what exactly are you doing?”
Company leader: ”My team is always looking for ways to do things better; that is what I pay them to do.”
CSi: So they know this, and they have a method and a process to do this, and you know exactly what they are doing to improve every day?

I have heard so many managers get defensive when I ask these questions. I do not doubt for a minute all have the best intentions, and there are many improvement initiatives going on all over their company. Best-in-class companies make Continuous Improvement a corporate initiative that is expected and measured. They enable their employees with improvement training and establish intentional improvement procedures, and set clear annual departmental goals as an expectation. To do this, there needs to be a chosen process or method to do improvement, just like we have for other daily tasks in each department. What gets measured gets done. Employees who are trained and challenged to do improvement initiatives will self-manage their initiative. We recommend management use visual management tools to measure their progress and accomplishments. These tools do not need to be elaborate, expensive, computerized dashboards. Simple whiteboards in each work area work great to keep the team focused on their goals, and all can easily see their accomplishments. Always remember, most employees want to be the best they can be. Managers need to enable and expect them to be just that.