In engineering (and many other disciplines) there is a stage gate process that prevents too much activity from taking place until there is enough capability or experience available. This idea can be applied to business improvement quite simply by recognising the phases of your improvement work. If you are needing to go through many changes in quick succession it may be worthwhile to define the most appropriate sequence and then to work out what the right pace would be. By this I mean you need to decide what the criteria is that allows you to progress along your road map. If you don't qualify then you don't progress. By defining the stage gates in the road map you gain clarity of what the map actually looks like. Without this level of definition you end up with a hazy map of activity. From defining the various requirements to move to the next phase you are able to clearly communicate what needs to happen at each stage. This clarity can help to improve the quality of the ac

When you are looking to make improvements in your business do you find that your idea gets shot down too quickly? Ensuring that you have a number of options to choose from means that you can have better chances of people saying 'yes' and that you as a business get to choose the best option rather than just settling for the only option. When the other members of your business have five reasons not to go ahead with something, it may be in your interest to have six reasons why you should go ahead. The more options you have the better view of the world you obtain. When we have a limited range of choices we cannot guarantee that we are making the best choice. The more creativity we can employ to create options means that we are going to be presenting ourselves with a better selection - and this could mean better results. The mere fact that we have more options means that if our plan gets stuck then we may be able to find another route to reach our objectives. A hybrid plan may

Sometimes we are asked – “why the name Smartspeed?” It’s a simple response – we help our clients to think differently (SMART) and then act with improved effectiveness and efficiency (SPEED). If you think about the experiences that you have had then you will probably be able to recall times where you have seen this not take place! Have you ever seen projects that have begun without fully understanding the facts? ‘We don’t have time to do all the paperwork!’ you may hear, but then there is enough time to rework various elements and work unpaid overtime to get the job completed. It reminds me of the saying “we don’t have time to do it right, but we have enough time to do it twice!” We chase after improvements only to find that the wrong things get improved because we failed to do the correct thinking or analysis at the start of the project. If only we got really clear about what we needed in terms of results then we could define a simpler and easier way forward. What about the peak

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

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

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

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