Want faster continuous improvement results? Go visible!

One strategy that is worth considering, if your improvement projects aren’t going as well as you would hope, is to go visible.

‘Going visible’ is slightly different to ‘going public’ for one simple reason.

If you make a public declaration (internal, or external, depending on how bold you are!) that is great. It is good communication about your plans but if you don’t keep the communication up the information can slip away from other people’s conscious thoughts and the positive pressure to deliver can fade.

If you raise the overall visibility of the improvement, however, you have an opportunity to impress the idea of the change (and an associated deadline) into the minds of your colleagues (and customers / whoever you choose to involve) and keep the improvement as part of the ongoing conversation.

I’m sure that you can think of ways to increase the visibility (and hence the positive pressure to complete the improvements). Here are a few that come to mind as I write this post:

Company newsletters
Agenda item on regular business meetings
Regular / schedule project update meetings
Written and verbal reports
Continuous improvement noticeboards
Associated Key Performance Indicators

Raising the visibility is a great strategy if your projects are starting to lose momentum or focus.

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 toolkit.

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