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Helping Your Teams to Spot Improvement Opportunities

I chatted with a production team the other day about ways in which we could improve their performance . They had recently overcome some major operational issues but still weren't in a place that they needed to be. We overcame the awkwardness of the conversation by talking about the overall ambitions of the business and the relevance to them and then got talking about general performance improvement. Available from Amazon and iTunes At first the conversation was really stilted because, for them, where do you start? This is a challenge for all management and leadership to overcome, helping your teams to see the opportunities for improvement and then helping them to help themselves get past this sticking point into action. In this particular conversation I split up the ambitions of the business into multiple areas. Each area was small enough to have a meaningful discussion around it that naturally generated a range of improvement opportunities for the team. Breaking big pictur

Do you want a fast way to get continual improvements started?

Have you tried the Concern - Cause - Countermeasure approach with your team? You might also know it as CCC or 3Cs, either way it is a brilliant tool to help you engage your teams and manage continuous improvement opportunities. I help many of my clients to use this tool and it really does help to make the improvement conversation flow. I have just uploaded a template and instructions, to help you get the most out of the CCC approach, to my main website here -  http://www.systemsandprocesses.co.uk/process-improvement-download-toolkits/ccc-worksheet/ If you are looking for a quick way to engage your teams, focus on a specific improvement topic, or drive general improvements within a function of your business it really is a great tool. And, as with most of these things, the way that you apply it is key to getting great results. The short (only 3 pages) instructions can help you to do this. As it is part of the Kit 'n' Go range on my website the whole download is only

Three ways to take the sting out of continual improvement

Continual improvement only happens when you actually do something. So, why do we generally spend so much time talking about change rather than doing something about it? Available on Kindle , iBooks and in paperback Whilst there are a whole range of reasons as to why we opt for debate rather than action, most of them boil down to people being afraid of change itself. With that in mind, here are three quick and simple ways to get change to start taking effect if it has stalled in your business. Use experiments Remember when you were at school and you performed experiments? You didn’t know what the outcome was going to be and that was OK . When we undertake continual improvement activities it is highly likely that we don’t exactly know the right formula for a successful change. So, we can use the same idea (it is an experiment) and learn from our results. We don’t have to be iron cast with our changes and by sharing this lack of expectation with our team can help to do just

Do you want to be right, or get results?

Isn't that a question to get you thinking? I speak to lots of people that get stuck in this dynamic. They know what is right and they stick to their guns, but (occasionally) at the cost of not getting the results they wanted. Getting results often means that you have to do things that you think that someone else should do, or in a way that isn't 'perfect' in your eyes in order to see the results that you want. Have you been guilty of being stuck in this mode from time to time? Getting results doesn't mean that you have to do someone else's work, rather that you put your pride to one side and perform tasks that you could consider as being beneath you for a short period of time. A perfect example of this was when I recently had to get some stickers cut to size and no one wanted to undertake the task on the team I was working with; they all turned their noses up at the idea. However, the stickers had to be resized to prove that the imaging system on the

Are your reporting lines helping your business to become more productive?

Do your reporting lines help you to become more productive? It is question that appears to be rarely asked. Reporting lines exist for most businesses, but to directly increase productivity? Organisation hierarchies are often thought through with a great deal of care. What isn't considered as thoroughly is how the objectives of the management team are cascaded and how the reporting of critical information is handled.  A Simple Feedback Loop The sketch below depicts this consideration: In this model the manager clearly articulates the objective, goal or target that they need their team member(s) to achieve. The objective should help the business to increase its performance - including its effectiveness and productivity. The team member communicates the relevant information to the manager at agreed intervals to the level of detail that has been agreed. Formal reporting can take a number of forms, including: Written reports Meetings One to one catch ups Visua

Where do you focus your OTIF improvement activities?

When it comes to delivering on time, how much of your focus is on the early business process steps? I find that many businesses might fixate on on time delivery to their customers (rightly so, of course) but don't look at what is going on at the stages before the final step. Here are some ideas to whet your appetite when it comes to improving OTIF (On Time In Full) for your organisation. Recognising and discussing the domino effect Each step in your process feeds the next step. A failure to deliver on time at one of the upstream activities can snowball and really push out your deliveries. Being aware of this phenomenon and having an ongoing discussion about this in your business is a good first step. If your team aren't willing to discuss this issue then it is unlikely to get resolved. Make internal OTIF part of your normal conversation and change will be much easier later on. Develop KPIs that support on time delivery Most of us have KPIs (Key Performanc

Do you learn from your continuous improvement experiences?

I have the great fortune to work with a wide range of up and coming continuous improvement professionals. Some of them I get to mentor and some I only get to spend time with on projects. I have noticed a distinction within these groups; some progress a lot faster than others. The individuals that progress their development faster than the other group aren’t necessarily better skilled, or have some other talent, but they do one thing the other group don’t: They figure out what works and do more of it and what doesn’t work and do less of that. Not exactly rocket science, but something that I strongly advocate to those that I mentor. These individuals reflect on what they are doing and what they have done and spot the lessons lying underneath the activity. The lessons themselves are unlikely to be the results of the activities, but more what was learned about carrying out the activities. Lessons often include: How to plan more effectively. How to communicate more effectively.