One thing that happens when you get involved with continuous improvement is that you find other, related, actions start to appear. They might be things that you can't do immediately (for time constraints let's say) but that you do want to do.
How do you capture all of these actions that spring up?
On a wider note, how do you capture all of the actions that come forth from you business that you have been asked to do, or need to do?
The ability to 'capture' the actions / tasks that float around your business is a critical activity in my opinion. Just being consistent with logging the actions is a part of being effective with dealing with both improvement and general management, day to day.
The corresponding activity of 'execution' of these lists of actions is obviously the other essential ingredient, otherwise they are just lists for lists sake.
We could end up in a whole debate about time management, but thankfully blog posts are generally short!
So, the question I want to pose to you is this:
Do you have a simple and accessible method to capture all of the stuff that is floating around you (so that you can deal with it later on)?
I see minutes from meetings with actions listed on them, that don't get acknowledged until the next meeting (with a response of 'oh, er, I haven't done that yet') by people who don't even recognise the action.
I hear conversations about good ideas that get nods of agreement, but the ideas don't get captured and nothing changes.
And, I see lots and lots of loose ends. Actions started and never (consciously) closed out.
Don't be the same as this; find a method to capture the ideas and actions, related to you, floating around your business and then systematically flush these lists. If you are looking to become more effective in both terms of management and improvement then this approach won't let you down.
Giles Johnston
Author of Business Process Re-Engineering