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Showing posts from December, 2023

The one thing you would change for 2024

One of the challenges with continuous improvement is prioritisation. I sit with teams that want to do everything today. There might be twenty opportunities on their list and every single one of them becomes a goal for the business.  When it comes to scheduling these, each one is considered in isolation. The end dates for the goals are often within the next three months. Reality shows that this is often impractical. When it comes time to review the progress against these goals, morale can drop. The team realise that they are behind schedule. It doesn't feel great and catching up can be difficult when you already have a full work load.  If this rings a bell with you, try this simple strategy. Just pick one . Yes, it can be that simple. One primary improvement goal at a time. What about crises I hear you ask. Well, they'll be jumped on when they arrive. You don't need to plan for crises. Hopefully your improvement activities will dampen both the frequency and severity of the c...

Are you making the most of Parkinson's Law for your CI projects?

One of the ideas I really like is Parkinson's Law. If you don't know this by name, you'll most likely know it as this phrase: "Work expands to fill the time available" What does this mean for our continuous improvement projects ? In short, it means that if you are struggling to make progress with your projects, start your day with them. How does this work? As a psychological principle, this means that you can pause your normal day to day work for a short period and get your head down with your improvement activities. You'll behave differently with the rest of your working day, effectively (and naturally) raising your productivity. Of course, there are some practicalities about using this. You probably can't spend 90% of your day on your improvements and still expect to get your usual work done. You need to be practical about this, you'll know how much time you can spend without jeopardising your work. If in doubt, start small. Something like ten minute...