Access the essential membership for Modern Managers
Continually improving performance should be a permanent objective of any organization, and needs to be at the forefront of its mission and values. Truly effective organizations understand that making continuous improvement activities part of their culture, and fosters and maintains an environment of excellence and high performance.
A Business Philosophy, Not a Defined Process
Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, processes and customer value. An organization’s strategic plans should be underpinned by the need for excellence, and they should exploit key business performance measures to highlight when something isn’t working as well as it should.
It is important to emphasize that continuous improvement isn’t one particular system or specific way of doing something. It’s a mindset, based on the knowledge that there is always a better way of doing things. Whatever form a continuous improvement initiative undertakes, its key features remain the same:
Who: all stakeholders in the organization should have the opportunity to be involved in continuous improvement, including directors, managers, employees and customers. Clearly defined responsibilities and resources will be needed to ensure a systematic and consistent approach to continuous improvement throughout the organization.
When: continuous improvement should be an ongoing cycle. As client or customer requirements and the product/service delivery environment change, organizations will need to respond to these changes with new ideas, processes and ways of working in order to survive.
What: the focus of continuous improvement is on the key processes an organization uses to meet its customer or client needs.
Why: it can be easy for organizations to become overwhelmed by the day-to-day demands of keeping the business ticking over. Continuous improvement makes good business sense because it provides focus by providing business goals and objectives to work towards.
What Can You Improve?
Organizations will have many reasons for making improvements – they may want to reduce costs, increase revenue or improve quality.
Key performance measures will identify problem areas and should be monitored on an ongoing basis. These will vary depending on your organization, but some common ones are:
- The time, cost and resources needed to design, develop, create and deliver a product of service.
- The quantity of outputs or number of customers served.
- The amount of variation in the quality of products or services, i.e. the number of errors or defects.
- The skills, knowledge, experience and behaviors of employees.
Once you have identified the areas for improvement, the next steps are to:
- establish the cause of the problem
- find a realistic solution
In general, improvements are created by examining and reviewing:
- processes
- systems
- products and services
- resources
Analyzing Problems and Sourcing Solutions
Here are some examples of methods you can use to analyze organizational problems and find solutions.
- Customer feedback. Customers will be able to comment on your product or service from a perspective that won’t come quite so easily to you. They are the people who are looking to you to provide something, so their input is invaluable. And remember that customers can be internal as well as external.
- Staff feedback. You might be involved in designing systems, but it is often others that have to work with the processes. Similarly, it might be your responsibility to develop or maintain products or services, but others may have the responsibility for dealing with the problems or enquiries that may arise from them. Ask these people for their ideas on where they think improvements could be made. Do they feel they could benefit from some training in order to develop their skills or knowledge, which in turn will improve customer service levels?
- Benchmarking. To compete with other organizations, you need to be aware of what they do and how you compare. Benchmarking involves looking at the competition, seeing what they do well, how they do it so effectively, and establishing what you could learn from them. It’s essential for any organization to look externally, as many best practice ideas can be obtained this way.
- Brainstorming. This is probably the best-known method of stimulating creativity in people. It allows everyone’s ideas to be gathered – and can trigger an entire chain of new ones. Have regular brainstorming sessions with your colleagues to generate new ideas for improvement. You might be surprised how quickly your collective ideas stack up. Make sure you have sound procedures in place for capturing and implementing these ideas.
- Process-mapping. There are times when you might be aware that something isn’t right with a process, but are not entirely sure what the issue is. Or, perhaps, you’re cautious of amending it in case it adversely affects another procedure. A process-mapping exercise allows you to step back and thoroughly examine all key aspects of a process, identify areas for improvement (possibly by taking out elements that add time but not any value), and assess its relationship with other systems and processes.
Creating the Right Environment for Continuous Improvement
There are several key points you should observe to ensure that continuous improvement initiatives are successful:
- Be realistic. Trying to change everything immediately would just be confusing. Instead, you can add value to your organization by establishing what’s realistic given the time and resources available. Often, it’s better to start with a simple, yet effective, improvement, before building up to a system overhaul. Starting slowly helps to build credibility (by getting things right), momentum (by building on improvements), and commitment (by encouraging colleagues to get involved).
- Communicate effectively. The progress of any ongoing improvement exercise must be communicated. Organizations need engaged workforces to bring about change, and a key element in this is explaining what is being done, why and how. If you’re leading a continuous improvement initiative, communicate clearly and regularly, highlighting the benefits to the organization and its employees.
- Be clear it’s not this year’s fad. Many employees may have seen continuous improvement projects start, but then watch them come to nothing. Whatever initiative you undertake, make it clear to all parties that you’re committed to its delivery. If, for whatever reason, it doesn’t come off, be sure to let everyone know why.
- Encourage ideas, questions and feedback. Processes and procedures need to be examined and challenged on a regular basis in order to improve. Solicit ideas, invite questions and ask for feedback from those around you. By doing this, continuous improvement will become ingrained within your organization.
- Celebrate accomplishment. Acknowledge success and, where possible, reward it. This creates a great, positive environment for improvement, which in turn inspires employee participation. Your organization will thrive as a result.
- Involve your customers. Concentrate on delivering increasing value, which means getting regular feedback on how beneficial your improvements have been to your customers. Customers are often great sources of new ideas and feedback.
- Adapt, don’t just adopt. Benchmarking is a great tool for identifying improvements. Take ideas from your competitors or colleagues and adapt them to fit within your organization.
- Look outside your own industry. Fresh ideas can be generated by looking beyond your immediate competitors. If those outside your industry are coming up with innovative solutions that you think would benefit your organization, use them.
- Evaluate thoroughly. Like any other project, it is important to thoroughly evaluate any continuous improvement initiatives that have been undertaken. Evaluation should test effectiveness, and highlight areas that still need refining.
- Remember it’s an ongoing process. Continuous means keeping the momentum going. Do this by continually sourcing new ideas for improvement, and by measuring the outcomes of your new initiative to ensure it continues to deliver. Make continuous improvement part of your business culture.
