9 out of 10 Teams Make These 3 Mistakes in Improvement Programs. Are you one of them?

When I see successful Continous improvement programs, I’m reminded of a quote Denzel Washington, “I’m a 12-year overnight success”.

In a world of instant gratification, we expect from improvement programs, I’ll share the mistakes I’ve seen avoided prior to the success we often see based on running such programs for over 2 years.

By avoiding these mistakes, you’ll short-cut your process to a successful continuous improvement program and create a strong foundation for transformation in your own teams.

The challenge comes when we want quick improvement results and do not have intentional frameworks to achieve those results.

As GE’s Larry Culp once said, “The how much is important but the how is far more fundamental”

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to use benchmark assessments to break the status quo and start the path to continuous improvement. You can read that here (https://msr.beehiiv.com/p/want-to-break-the-status-quo-in-an-organization-try-using-a-benchmark-assessmentnengikrukrubo)

Now, these are the 3 biggest mistakes I’ve seen teams and organizations make after they have assessed their teams/organizations and begun driving improvements.

Mistake 1: They do not assign trained champions.

Simply put, if your improvement initiative is not resourced by an assigned team member, it’s not important to you. I’ve seen organizations make this mistake which then results in a slow start because they are then letting their teams know this is NOT as important as the core activities in their teams.

A good champion will shortcut the roadblocks because she/he will:

• Learn the new way of working and become the subject matter expert.

• Learn enough about how to fit the improvement process into your team.

• Coach teams on the improvement approach you plan to take.

• Lead and support improvement events.

• Communicate and cheerlead new wins in this new way of working.

• Create best practice sharing opportunities and much more.

Thus, as you contemplate your Improvement transformation, you will want to make sure you’re allocating the human capital if not, you will move slower than you expected.

Mistake 2: They do not make the time to plan for Improvement

After an assessment has been made, many organizations leave it to chance on what the next steps will be to improve. The best organizations I’ve seen handle this differently. Here’s what they do.

• They schedule time within 2 to 4 weeks after the assessment for an improvement planning session led by the champion.

• They decide which areas of the assessment they want to improve on in the coming 3 to 6 months.

• They decide which scores they will move in those months. (i.e move from 0 to 1, 1 to 2, etc)

• They decide which actions will move those scores

• They decide who can take those actions

• They understand it is a long journey and take targeted actions

In short, if you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail

Mistake 3: They do not make the time to review their planned actions.

While some teams avoid mistakes one and two by having champions and improvement planning sessions, most make the 3rd mistake which is not making time to review their planned improvement actions. Here’s how I’ve seen the best organizations avoid this mistake.

• They make improvement planning part of the daily management process where they include improvement actions in their daily management reviews.

• They have a site or team-level review weekly to ensure all tasks are on track or help is provided as needed.

• They have a steering committee or senior leadership review monthly to ensure visibility of the improvement process and that the improvement process is going as planned.

In short, they inspect what they expect from the front line to the conference room.

TD:LR

Avoid stagnation in your continuous improvement programs by

• Assigning a Champion.

• Making Time to Plan for Improvement.

• Making Time to Review Improvement Actions.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week!

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