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:
About the author:
Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes and embracing Kaizen.
Giles is also the author of Effective Root Cause Analysis and 'What Does Good Look Like?'.
"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 minutes every day, before you get lost in emails, meetings and whatever else your normal day has in store, can make a difference. Don't write off a small amount of time, it really can be used well.
So, if you are struggling to make headway with your improvement (and strategic) projects, then give the Parkinson's Law approach a go. I've used it personally to great effect. My clients use it and I am sure you can find it will work well for you.
About the author:
Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes and embracing Kaizen.
Giles is also the author of Effective Root Cause Analysis and 'What Does Good Look Like?'.