Over the years I have many conversations with clients (and their team members) about how they don’t feel like they are winning with their continuous improvement programme. It’s understandable. Navigating change is difficult. If it wasn’t, change would just happen on its own…
In this article I’m going to look at three problems that derail continuous improvement and three strategies to help you address these issues.
Problem #1 – Everything seems confusing
If you knew everything there is to know about change and how to improve the processes in your business then that wouldn’t be change. The reality is that you are going to be learning when you are improving. Different actions, different results, new problems.
The unknown is often confusing when you are trying to make sense out of it. When you’re making progress with continuous improvement, this is a normal state of affairs.
If you feel this way, embrace it. Most people avoid continuous improvement because of this. It is felt to be safer and easier to stay still, even if the results aren’t what they need to be. Embrace the confusion as you recognise that you are on the path to improvement!
Problem #2 – You feel overwhelmed!
It’s ok to feel overwhelmed, most of us do when you have a day job as well as trying to make change happen. The normal job can be challenging enough on its own!
The feeling of overwhelm is, again, normal. And, like the last point, is another reason why so many people stray away from making change happen.
If you didn’t feel some overwhelm from time to time, there wouldn’t be the opportunity for you to change your approach to handling change and becoming more effective as an individual. So, when you feel overwhelmed, use it is as a guide to change your approach.
Problem #3 – You’re not making progress
It can be really frustrating when you realise that you are putting time and effort into continuous improvement and you aren’t seeing the results. Not making progress can kill off a well intentioned continuous improvement programme.
This realisation gives us the opportunity to review the time we can put into continuous improvement and review how we prioritise projects. Being honest about how much progress is being made is essential to an honest and practical approach to making improvements come to life.
Like the other two problems, realising that you aren’t travelling at the pace that you want is another trigger to step back and review your approach to managing change.
Ok, so let’s look at some simple strategies you could use to deal with these problems.
Strategy #1 – Working with others makes it easier
Working with colleagues brings with it a number of benefits.
You get different viewpoints and experience with a group of people. You also have the potential for extra capacity.
This one strategy alone can remedy all three of the above problems and a little bit of structure to how you approach this can make it manageable.
Strategy #2 – Remember where you have come from
It is too easy at work to focus only on the things that have gone / are going wrong. Many people’s continuous improvement programmes are solely focused on rectifying problems and not making great processes even more amazing.
Occasionally looking back and re-discovering the distance already travelled will help to put the current rate of progress into context. Doing this can help to relax some of the overwhelm when you recognise the challenges that you have already overcome and to take the pressure off yourself (temporarily) as you stop beating yourself up about the rate of progress being achieved.
Strategy # 3 – Focus on fewer items
When progress isn’t happening, when results don’t appear at the rate hoped for, reducing your focus is a great strategy.
Concentrating your time and effort onto a handful of improvements is a sure-fire way to bring about change faster. Seeing results helps to build momentum in the team and can lead to an acceleration in your overall continuous improvement programme.
If in doubt, do less better!
Conclusion – we can change!
The three problems I listed at the start of this article are common across all different business types in all sectors; they affect people.
Hopefully you are already using the three strategies that I have outlined, but if not, see if you can make some minor changes today to your approach.
And, the problems aren’t really problems:
- Embrace confusion to gain confidence that you’re on the right track.
- Use overwhelm to change your personal approach and become more effective as an individual.
- Recognise when you aren’t getting enough traction and use that as a trigger to focus and call in the troops.
Enjoy fine tuning your continuous improvement programme for maximum results.
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