Ugly, dirty and effective

Do you get hung up on the idea of perfection, when it comes to improving the performance of your business?

Most of us do. People are watching what we do and this can be off putting.

But, rather than watch what people do, what should we (all) be focussing on?

Results!

Perfection can be an absolute pig when it comes improving our business performance. If we could jump from where we are today to some perfect state, we'd all do it.

The important thing for non-critical improvement projects is direction of travel, followed closely by pace of travel.

Finding something that works better than today and implementing it puts you ahead of most people trying to improve their business. Once you have it in place you can iterate and upgrade what you have done, moving you another step closer to your vision of perfection.

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If you subscribe to the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Act) approach, then this is an ideal time to put your belief into practice. Take the results, mull them over and then have another go to move your performance forward.

The title of this post is 'ugly, dirty and effective'. It is a good mantra to have when you get caught up trying to make your improvement plans perfect from the outset.

Instead of paralysing you and your team, why not do something that isn't the best option but pushes you forward? Deploy the new equipment and finalise the location later on. Create the checklist today and add to your management system next week. You get the idea.

Better results are what we are all after, ideally with fewer resources being used to achieve them.

If you find yourself getting stuck because you don't have a perfect plan, remember 'ugly, dirty and effective'!

Giles

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?'.

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