Skip to main content

One strategy to accelerate continuous improvement projects

You're right!

There are many strategies to help accelerate continuous improvement projects becoming a reality.

But, I want to share one fundamental strategy, without this the others are largely pointless.

Have a list of your improvement projects.

That's it; pretty basic I know.

It is however a strategy that I see missing from businesses that are struggling.


(Quite often they are not just struggling with continuous improvement projects, they seem to have loose ends everywhere!)

There's lots of things you can do with a list:

  • You can prioritise it.
  • You can stop having to 'remember to remember'.
  • You can share it with your bosses and colleagues.
  • You can use it to balance out workloads.
  • You can convert parts if it into action plans.
  • You can use it as a point of focus for the business.

But, you can't do these things without a list in the first place!

You can make a difference today


So, if your continuous improvement projects aren't going the way that you had hoped and you don't have a shopping list of continuous improvement ideas then I would recommend that you start there.

And, if you want to discover at a range of strategies to improve how you implement your continuous improvement projects then check out my Making It Happen course where you can practice new skills and improve your business at the same time. You can find out more about it here.

Enjoy writing your list,

Giles



About the author
Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes.

Giles is also the author of Business Process Re-Engineering and creator of the 'Making It Happen' continuous improvement strategies course.

Popular posts from this blog

Take the pressure off! Using the Y-curve with your Kaizen improvements

Do you feel under pressure when you have to make changes happen in your business? It can be scary when we try something that we have never done before. I remember thinking to myself 'how on Earth am I going to figure this out?' on many occasions. I think the last time was a few weeks ago! Years on from becoming reasonable at the art of change I am still faced with the same dilemma. It is scary and it is clear to me why so many people shy away from making change happen. It is natural to get stuck in this oscillation. On one hand you need to make change happen; the business needs the improvement benefits. On the other hand you don't want to screw up... Last week I was talking to a young engineer that I am mentoring. He was paralysed. Changes were not happening at all. There was always some early promise with his projects and then, as completion (and judgement day) loomed, progress would evaporate. The engineer asked me for my views on this  during a recent conversati

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 rea

Do you need a burst of improvement ideas for your business?

If you haven’t created your improvement action plan for 2020 yet then I have something for you. I have just completed my latest project – The CI Focus Tool . This Android App is now available on Google Play and provides a simple method for generating as many effective improvement ideas as you need. This is the same basic method that I describe in my book Effective Continuous Improvement  and is now available as a simple to use app. In essence it is a brainstorming focus tool. Press the focus button and you will be presented with a random continuous improvement focus. Brainstorm ideas around this focus with your team (whilst the timer is running) and there you go – a number of great ideas for you to prioritise and implement. The reason that this works so well is because of the focus. When your business runs out of its immediate problems to fix you need a different strategy. Very focused brainstorming helps you break past this problem and configuring the app to meet t