Some businesses that I have worked with have had so many opportunities to improve that they become paralysed. What improvement should we work on first?
It's a good question and usually a brief consideration of the benefits and ease of implementation of each improvement will allow you to prioritise the projects.
The problem then comes when you know your priorities but you go to work on something else. The item on the top of your list isn't as tempting (or technically satisfying) as one further down the list.
Have you experienced this situation?
It can be really frustrating can't it?
A simple way of making sure you're making progress, along the lines of the 'do less better' time management principle, is to be formal with your priorities.
If you chose your top priority on a weekly basis and then committed to not changing for the next week (unless you complete the project) you could find that you get a lot more work completed. Next week you can change your priority if you wish.
Chopping and changing priorities can really zap your productivity and sticking at improvement projects even when you don't feel like it can sometimes be the best course of action.
Giles Johnston
Author of 'Business Process Re-Engineering', a practical plan to improve business performance.