How Do You Capture Your Actions?

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

Comments

The Kaizen Checklist is here!

Do you want to get better results from your Kaizen programme? Improve your business results quickly with my downloadable kit (including guidebook, workbook and templates) for only $39. Are you looking for a sustainable way to identify and implement improvements across your business? Practical improvement strategies The Kaizen Checklist is a downloadable kit that you can use with your management team to develop a system that suits your business and allow you to quickly implement Kaizen effectively at your place of work. This works great if you use it as the centre piece of your own internal workshop. The kit includes a 40 page guidebook, a workbook, four appendices and three templates. All parts of this kit are designed to get you up and running as fast as possible. If you are unfamiliar with Kaizen, let me stress that this is a simple improvement philosophy that is so much more than just ‘a Japanese word for continuous improvement’. I’ll cover what it...

How to get started with continuous improvement

We all know that continuous improvement is a strategy that is essential for business. It involves constantly seeking ways to improve processes, products, or services in order to achieve better results and outcomes. However, for many people, the thought of starting on the path of continuous improvement can be daunting. The fear of doing it incorrectly or not knowing where to start can be overwhelming. The key to successful continuous improvement is to start small and gradually build upon your successes. Here are some tips to help you get started if you are unsure of how to begin: 1. Identify areas for improvement: The first step in continuous improvement is to identify the areas that need improvement. This can be done by looking at the processes, products, or services that are not performing as well as they could be. It is important to involve all stakeholders in this process to gain a comprehensive understanding of the areas that need attention. 2. Set specifi...

Nail the number one improvement project

Over the past few weeks I have intervened in my client's continuous improvement programmes . I did this for one good reason: They weren't getting results. They caught the improvement bug, like so many organisations do. They got caught in the trap of wanting to change everything now! As I said, this happens to most of us from time to time. You start with some small improvements and you then identify more improvements you could get your teeth into. The next thing you know, you are trying to run ten improvement projects as well as deliver your day job. I know from bitter experience that this usually leads to having lots of loose ends rather than tangible increases in performance. So, what can you do about this? I know that with careful experimenting and resource management, you could find your sweet spot and figure out how many projects you can handle at once. Or, you can take the quick route and pare back your list until you have one priority. The one project that will give you t...

The Smartspeed Performance Improvement Blog