Skip to main content

Posts

Take the plunge with a pilot

When faced with an opportunity to change, many businesses stall and delay. There can be many factors that can contribute to this behaviour, but there are some simple approaches that you can take to make the change process easier for you and your business. The PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) approach can help you to educate your teams that if the improvement doesn't work the first time round you are allowed to tweak the idea until you get it working in your business. Many improvements are not perfect the first time round. However,  dismissing them altogether if they don't quite work builds up a level of resistance to trying other ideas in the future. Prove that the change is possible and worthwhile to yourself and others by doing a tiny version of the improvement first. If you can get the hang of the small version then you can ramp up to bigger and better things. Doing a tiny version first reduces the risk to the business and the ego! Learn as you progress and try other things

Focus on the system

The system in any business is what drives the performance. The individuals (the personalities) are essential to make the system work, but the performance of the overall business is due to the system. If you focus on the system then you are focussing on improving the overall business, not just pockets of activity within. When we look at the individuals we take our eye off the process that converts our customers wishes and wants into tangible products and services. Keeping this in mind means that we can work on developing our business system and improving the performance of individuals within the business at the same time. The system comprises of many parts outside of the individual, when we look at the whole system we are able to identify small improvements that can have large benefits. When we focus on the individual’s performance we ignore the large mass of the business that still isn’t improving. When we allow the individual to flourish through the system that defines the busin

Offer people a route to take

When a change needs to happen within a business it can sometimes be frustrating to the business management to see a lack of progress. In many cases a route needs to be provided that clearly marks out the transition that will need to be made. If support is provided to help make the change then the uptake is higher. Leaving the change to happen on its own may mean that it will not happen if the perceptions of the people needing to make the change are significantly different to those dictating the change. Discussions around the change usually throw up issues and beliefs that do not have a basis in reality. Dealing with these issues and beliefs allows the change to happen with less resistance. Defining milestones of change can provide a short term focus that can help many people to follow the route. If the overall change process looks too big, or too long (or both) then those people required to make the change may procrastinate. Showing our team how to progress in small straightforwa

Don't kill off an idea until you have the facts

In many meetings an idea or a suggestion is killed off quickly because someone present knows why it won't work. However, upon further exploration, it is usually the case that the person who knows that the idea won't work doesn't really know at all. When you have a group 'brainstorming' session you usually abide by rules. These rules include the welcoming of all ideas no matter how bizarre or ridiculous they might appear. Why not have the same approach to parts of our normal working practice. Getting the facts can tell you more about the situation than just guessing. Failure to even try to obtain the information is a failure to learn. Shouldn't we try and learn about the issue at hand so that we can make the best decision possible? The very idea that is being 'shot down' might have been tried in the past and the reaction that you are receiving may be someone's recollection of the situation. What if the idea was tweaked and we found out that the

Great information with low effort

Information that can help an organisation needs to flow through the business. In many cases this consideration, or the effort to produce the information, stops the information from flowing. The information does not need to be excessive. If you ask the members of your business what information needs to be produced you will often find that the requirements are refreshingly light. There are usually easy and low (or no) cost ways of getting the information out. Ask around there is usually something you can piggy back to help the information flow. Don’t spend too much time on the documentation. However you get the information out this is disposable, for internal use only. Quick and effective is order of the day. Creating a standard format to provide consistency is a good idea to help this information to both cascade properly and look acceptable. Find out what information can help oil the wheels in your business, it can reduce the level of unhelpful rumours and also improve productiv

Define the standard

When a task needs to be performed in a business it is straightforward to write a standard operating procedure and then hope that the results obtained are the ones you want. One way to improve this haphazard approach to results is to define the standard expected of the result. If you define the attributes of the result you can give people a far clearer picture to work with, this can help them to achieve your vision of the result more consistently. Explain which areas need to be rigid, and allow the other areas to include flexibility. The parts that are vital and really shape the result needs to be rigid, whilst the other areas can be done in a style that suits the individual. For example, if your business has a sign-off sheet that needs to include a signature, explain that it will not be accepted if there is no signature on the sheet. Be flexible as to what colour pen the signature is in - the important thing is that the sheet is signed. Maintain and measure the standard on a regu

Get close to the point of origin

Sometimes things just need to happen as quickly as possible to the point at which it occurred. When actions are delayed from this point a lack of detail can occur that can make a big difference to the outcome. For example if you have a meeting and need to agree the actions do it at the meeting, if you wait a day then you won’t remember the same amount of detail that you would have done yesterday – the oomph will have gone. If notes need to be written up then doing them as soon as possible after the event is key as clarity and accuracy decays quickly as time passes. Decisions made too long after the need to make the decision can skew the choice made, being able to make effective relevant immediate decisions is a great skill. In many instances closing out actions, making decisions and capturing information as close to the point of origin is a great business benefit. Is this worth reflecting upon in your business? Smartspeed Consulting Limited Deliver on Time with Smartspeed