Implementing any trendy business improvement methodology can look a lot like common sense by itself. However, it’s not common practice. There is a significant difference between recognizing common sense, practical steps that can lead to change and putting them into practice.
Doing so requires a commitment to learning the tools and techniques offered by the methodology and understanding how best to apply them. It sounds easy, but it is far from it. Even committed organizations often fail due to miscommunication, lack of commitment, poor leadership or other reasons. Sometimes, again and again and again. Why?
Here are some steps to keep in mind when implementing any business improvement methodology.
🟢 HAVE A GOOD REASON
When leaders of organizations say they want to adopt the business improvement methodology because they want to be more “efficient,” everyone agrees. After all, who opposes becoming more efficient?
But concepts such as improved efficiency don’t exactly light a “process improvement” fire under managers and employees. What they need are concrete challenges and definitive goals. The challenges should be measurable, such as the specific number of errors in a process costing a specific amount of euros. The goal should be clear and… motivating enough to do something about it.
🟢 GET BUY-IN
If the key person doesn’t care about something, neither will the employees. Leaders provide guidance, set a tone and show what needs to be focused on by their own behavior and directives. Any business improvement methodology can help improve processes only if executives commit to its implementation, including providing employees access to training or certification. If not, it will die just like countless “improvement initiatives” that came before.
🟢 START WITH QUICK WINS
One way to avoid apathy and increase engagement is to use the simplest tools first and start with small improvements that would bring quick visible results. This will help increase the energy and motivation for change.
🟢 PROVIDE RESOURCES
This goes together with the buy-in. It’s difficult to get any improvement initiative off the ground without the proper personnel, leadership, funding and other resources allocated to this. People show what they really care about by how they spend their money. So do businesses.
🟢 EMPOWER AND TRAIN PEOPLE
No business improvement methodology will reach its potential without core, purposefully dedicated improvement leaders, and trained or certified people. It’s like putting together a basketball team full of people who have never put the ball in a basket. Be realistic, it just won’t work.
🟢 ENSURE PROPER TECHNOLOGY
This comes under resources, but it’s worth emphasizing again. Every business improvement initiative should be driven by qualified people, data, proper IT systems, tools, etc. It requires access to this and the people onboard who know how to do it.
🟢 USE COMMON SENSE
The tools of many business improvement methodologies are truly powerful. And many of them are inseparable from the everyday life of innovative organizations as a condition for successful growth, expansion and development. However, this is the key to success only for those organizations that are creative enough and can find their unique way – they apply tools and systems not in a template way but adapt them to the specifics of their activities and the stage of development. Only a methodology that is well “infiltrated” and adapted to a specific organization can be effective – if it is not, then perhaps it is not needed at all.
In the next IDEA FOXUS article, we will share a more detailed overview of the most popular business improvement methodologies, their features, focus, differences, main tools, implementation complexity and benefits.
Stay tuned!