So many people are stagnantly hung up on making the mystical transition from one immeasurable to another (ie. Good to Great – what’s great?!). But the truth is, it (great) can be measured and it (the transition) can happen with building Process Improvement initiatives into the foundations of your organization.
Some factors that can create, manage, and implement effective Process Improvement initiatives:
Leadership Commitment
Improving a process, changing things, is essentially about achieving some form of business transformation and it requires specific leadership qualities to make it happen; in my opinion, when I have seen this work there have been committed leaders with the clarity of purpose and drive to achieve breakthroughs in performance.
If you are a leader, and need support during time of change Tre has access to accomplished coaches and leadership development professionals that can help.
Strategy and Strategic Alignment
Defining then publicizing the goals of an organization is a critical component of any growth plan. Once organizational goals are set we can understand the Business Processes that are required to achieve them.
Six Sigma is one methodology that supports this basic philosophy being used in all areas of the business to align resources to solve critical business problems and deliver the strategic objectives. Six Sigma is not an Engineering specific methodology to develop better processes, products, and performance; and is used in many industries including: F & A, Computing, and HR.
Organizations that have successfully embraced and are dedicated to a Quality Assurance approach to ensure that the goals and key performance measures are constantly in mind.
Change Leaders
These are the people ready to make things better. They have to be trained, mobile, and dedicated to the vision and strategy of the organization. Training provides the necessary knowledge and capability to lead the attack on delivering break-throughs in performance.
Change Leaders help to identify opportunities, transfer knowledge on improvement methodologies, act as mentors and coaches and champion the methodology, and its tools.
Customer Service & Tracking
A well thought out and repeatable approach to gathering customer and market intelligence is essential if Process Improvement efforts are to be viable. Contact with existing customers is essential; tracking their satisfaction rating and changing needs, as well as keeping an eye on competition and other external factors builds up vital intelligence to making improvements that will last the long haul.
Bottom-line Benefits
Quick financial wins ensure an initial swell of support when an initiative begins. Such support will soon fade if that is not backed up with a more continuous flow of savings and monetary results (i.e. real savings and/or considerable revenue gains).
This focus is used to ensure that projects are selected on a balanced basis of maximizing return on investment and customer satisfaction.
Approach
A process by its very nature will reduce variability. Process understanding requires processes to be articulated, their mechanism fully understood and their ability to deliver on customer requirements fully defined.
Closing the capability gap between what the customers require and what the organization processes produce is at the heart of every Process Improvement methodology. Bruce Duncan
(An Obsession with) Measurements
Aside from waist size, you cannot manage what you cannot measure. Management and measurement must be integrated into your programs – in other words – collect data from every single business processes.
Analyze the data to drive improvement throughout the organization. Decisions made in improving organizations are based on facts – not guesses or hunches.
The consultants at Tre have over twenty years data analysis, system analysis and market analysis experience between them. Putting data into a spread sheet is not analysis. Understanding data, turning results and observations into information that can assist the leadership to make decisions is one of the core principals of Process Improvement, and is equally important in evaluations, strategic planning and fiscal planning.
Continuous Innovation
OK, so that sounds hokey, but initiatives don’t ever really end; great gradually becomes considered good and organizations have to seek further improvement to remain eligible for a great title.
Learning
Employees need access to knowledge, information to encourage organizational learning. Personal development and learning is also a key feature, there can be no concept of only training the management, the executives, the sales folk. There has to be a huge investment in training and awareness to ensure commonality of understanding.
Get outside perspective – a lot can be learned from a new source. Even if you just want to talk over coffee, talking out loud never sounds like a bad idea.
Continuous Reinforcement
This is something we talk about a lot, especially when it comes to the kind of change associated with Process Improvement. The reason for change must be communicated and encouraged, employees must understand the added value. I was recently told that it takes 9 observations of a change in behavior for a peer to change. Equally, it would take the average American 21 days to look at the ‘right’ wrist if he swapped which wrist he wore his watch.
There is no quick fix, to make something that is OK, amazing. It takes time, careful assessment, and sometimes dedication to ride out the storms sometimes attributed to change.
When weak managers think about avoiding improvement goals, or employees challenge the need to introduce a new initiative such as Process Improvement – it will tend to be the case that change is required even more.
There is no argument that it is a challenge, especially to do it greatly. But in the words of a true master of growing businesses: Business excellence and Process Improvement are not in competition, they are in complement.
