One of the ‘tricks’ of continuous improvement is that it is continuous. It doesn’t stop, it might re-direct, but the improvements keep on coming.
So, how is it that most of us get knocked off course when it comes to continuous improvement?
If it was easy then I wouldn’t write about strategies for continuous improvement. So, there must be something in our way.
Search for obstacles
If you choose to think about what the obstacles are that you have infront of you, you won’t have to think hard. Without a moments notice you’ll probably come up with a list of obstacles such as:
- Crises
- Urgent meetings
- Team members appearing at your desk
- Mistakes that you have just spotted
- Workload
- Getting to grips with a new process / software tool
There are a lot of reasons why you don’t have the time, or focus, for continuous improvement.
Brainstorm the antidote
If you do pull together a quick list of obstacles, it is also possible that you could pull together a quick list of solutions.
For each item on your list you could come up with some ideas. Some might be perfect and some may not eradicate the problem but could certainly alleviate the problem.
Don’t forget Parkinson’s law
Something to bear in mind, whilst you come up with your list of strategies, is Parkinson’s law:
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”
Useful to remember, but what does this mean for us?
In short, if you put some continuous improvement tasks into the start of your day you will have the best chance of undertaking them. If you try to schedule them for when you have time, or at the end of the day, it is very likely that you won’t get a chance to start them.
This approach works for any priority; applicable to our discussion about making continuous improvement continuous.
Test a strategy
Try out some of your solutions to removing your continuous improvement obstacles.
Use the PDCA (Plan – Do – Check – Act) cycle to test them out and see what works for you.
Within a few weeks you will likely have a strategy, a game plan, that works for you.
When you start to see consistent results from your continuous improvement endeavours you’ll know it is working.
Find your recipe
Finding your own winning recipe is one of the keys to making continuous improvement become continuous. If you haven’t read my book The Reverse Fishbone, it helps you to determine winning recipes for any business (or personal) goal that you are trying to achieve.
In the meantime, have a go with reviewing the obstacles to your continuous improvement efforts and see if you can come up with a more effective way of working.
Nothing is perfect, but coming up with a better strategy is the name of the game!
