When you purchase a continuous improvement book, we all know that is not the end of the journey. That’s barely the start.
With so many continuous improvement books being purchased, is there a good way to get results from them?
In this article I am going to review a few approaches that can help you to get the most out of your book purchases.
Work with colleagues
The first point is that when you share a continuous improvement approach with a colleague, you instantly make the process of change easier. Any time we do something new it has a high chance that it won’t be easy, especially when you have no one to bounce around ideas with.
We need to remember that the author has many years of experience behind their ideas and strategies. Their approaches might be the first time we have heard of them.
To help develop the skills, working with your colleagues can make the process so much easier. So, find some allies and work through the methods together. Learn together and become proficient together.
Pick the principles that make sense to you
In every continuous improvement book there will be principles they are are based on. If you are running short of time I recommend looking at the essence of what the book is suggesting and seeing if you can apply that.
Instead of getting tied up with the specific methodology, see if you can follow the spirit of what the book is suggesting and try implementing that.
You can boil many things down to a simpler version and that can be more palatable when you have a busy diary. I admire people trying to achieve perfection but continuous improvement is often messy. Moving the needle of improvement in the right direction can be enough when you are busy rather than waiting for perfection, which often never arrives.
Add to existing practices that work
If you already have some good continuous improvement practices working, don’t lose them. Take the ideas in the continuous improvement book and figure out how you can augment your current improvement approach.
It can be tempting to assume that the book you have just read works perfectly, as a complete solution. But, it is likely that it will become part of a bigger jigsaw puzzle of how you, your team and your business operates.
It might be the case that you need to extract a handful of key ideas from the book and use them to extend what you are currently doing. Don’t lose what is already working!
Choose a limited focus and pilot
Biting off more than you can chew is always a risk to avoid.
If you have a track record of getting excited and wanting to do every improvement idea that floats through your head, but not closing out the changes (and getting the results), this is for you. Even though I know better, I still have the temptation to add another improvement project into my current mix.
I understand my failure in this area and have to catch myself. From there I can determine what I am going to focus my energy and attention onto.
As a mantra, it is better to complete one good project than start fifteen loose ends. From a continuous improvement books perspective, try not to let your enthusiasm for a good CI book distract you from your goals.
If in doubt, do less better.
Start your day with improvement
If you have read a really good continuous improvement book, discussed it with your team and figured out how you want to apply it… but don’t, then try starting your day with change
Instead of getting sucked into the day to day busyness, focus on your primary improvement when you get into the office. Put the ideas into practice that you have discovered and watch change happen.
If you try to implement change at the end of the day, and the day is going badly, it is unlikely that you’ll get around to starting. If you need to make some changes, it is a good chance that every day will be a bad one!
You might know this approach as Parkinson’s Law. Either way it is worth giving a try.
Resist going to the next book (right away)
The last point I am going to make in this article is this. If you haven’t gotten something useful out of a continuous improvement book then please look again before you move on.
It can be really tempting to think that the answer to your business issues lies in the next book, methodology or strategy. In my experience, every book has at least one nugget of wisdom that you can use.
There is no great secret to continuous improvement. Find an improvement opportunity. Come up with a plan. Focus some resources on the plan. Experiment, learn, grown, apply. Then, watch the results come. Having a good improvement method, or system, helps accelerate progress and can amplify the results.
If you have read numerous continuous improvement books but not got the results you were hoping for then I hope the above points have given you some food for thought. Seeing change happen is a really satisfying experience and one that I still get a buzz from.
