Do you have a vision for your improvement?

A team member at one of my clients was quizzing me the other day, he was struggling to share his vision of an improvement with the rest of his team.

He needed them to get onboard, so that they could help in any way they could, but was struggling with how to arrange his thoughts.

I gave him the following structure, and I thought that I would share it with you too via this blog.

The approach is a variation on the '5W1H' approach (or, Rudyard Kipling's Six Honest Serving Men - if you know that reference!).

Also, before you use this approach you need to have brainstormed a number of different elements to the vision (which could include appearance, productivity, team working, uniform, tooling, support, routines etc...), any of the different perspectives you can use to help articulate your vision of where you are trying to get to.

Here we go:
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Title of improvement

Why the improvement is worth doing (this might be your business case, or just a list of really good reasons).

Vision element number 1

What (describe what this element will be like after the change)

How (outline any routes you think will take you to the change)

Where (specify any location details linked to this part of the change)

When (provide information about any time restrictions / time scales)

Who (detail any key personnel who need to assist / lead this element of the change)

(The above questions are then repeated for each element that you have previously brainstormed)

Conclusion (A short summary of all of the above)

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I hope that you find the above easy enough to follow.

I find that an approach like this can really help when you are trying to gather your thoughts, especially when the improvement is a little more complicated than saying 'it is a good idea because of X!'

It can certainly help your colleagues to understand (and hopefully agree) on where you want to take your changes to.

Good luck composing your thoughts,

Giles

Giles Johnston
Author of Business Process Re-Engineering and creator of the 'Making It Happen' online course for improving continuous improvement skills.

P.S. If you are looking for other practical continuous improvement approaches then check out my programme 'Making It Happen' Read more...

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