Projects, especially improvement projects, have a tendency to get off track. There is often a clear distinction between projects for customers and projects for ourselves. If our improvement projects fall behind then our customers won't be barking at us; it is no wonder that if something is going to slip it is our Kaizen endeavours. For some people this can be a tough conversation to have. No one wants to be a 'failure' and pride often gets in the way. In my experience it seems that it is believed to be far more credible to ignore the requirement to improve than to admit that we aren't making progress. So, if you find yourself (and your business) in this situation, what can you do about it? Let me share with you two options to increase the visibility in your business around progress with projects and four options to help get your projects back on track. Increasing visibility Ok, no more hiding the status of Kaizen activities . This also means no more being precious about

I have heard many business owners over the year complain that change is pitiful within their business. Is this how you feel? I have seen this many times before; that the wrong behaviours get reinforced within these businesses. Their culture simply isn't helping. So, how do you change a culture like this? There are many books written on the topic of culture and changing cultures, but let me offer some of my observations. Getting better is OK Standing still isn't great. Reaching perfection is unlikely. Gaining confidence is great. So why not take some pressure off yourselves and realise that moving in the right direction is good enough at the start of a culture change? Great solutions can be developed by learning There can be so much pressure on people to come up with good improvement ideas. If they aren't used to generating them, this can be a difficult exercise and a lack of confidence doesn't help. Talking with others (especially the boss), without expectation, and gai

I am pleased to announce that my latest product, The Effective Routine , is now available. One of the issues I see with many businesses is the lack of formal routine that they employ. Whilst this doesn't sound too bad, it can lead to: Poor habits. Unnecessary reworking of previous activities. Re-starting initiatives every few weeks (until you give up). Missing key tasks and not noticing until a crisis appears. Slowing the growth of your business due to diverted resources (from dealing with the above). Businesses that do deploy some kind of routine often fail to extend the idea fully. The Effective Routine  offers ideas on this to stretch your thinking so that you can maximise this approach. And, importantly, this guide and toolkit offer strategies to successfully deploy your routine as well as sustain the system you develop. To get hold of your copy of The Effective Routine , just use the button below. 0,The Effective Routine This 39 page PDF guide also includes 6 worksheets and to

As I write this post, I hope that you have already got plans in place for 2021 with regards to your process improvement projects. Even if your plans do not run in line with the calendar year, it can be worth taking the time now to reflect briefly on your plans to make sure that they are still inline with where you want to go. It is also, unfortunately, a task that many people don't get around to. Reviewing and revising business plans and continuous improvement plans can seem like a huge task. As you know, huge tasks often fall by the wayside as the day to day activities (and possibly crises!) take over. Kaizen, the art of using small steps, can help us here. Instead of firing off the 'fight or flight' response in the brain, consider having a five minute review of your plans. Don't commit to anything more than this. When you do carry out this quick review, if you feel inclined to make some changes and alter / improve your plans then feel free. This is the art of Kaizen,

One of the troubles with continuous improvement is the infectious way that you can create opportunities for improvement once you get the 'bug'. You start off with a few small items that you want to improve in the business and then suddenly you are spotting opportunities left, right and centre. Now, this can be great for some people. They'll dive in, change the world and still manage to deliver on their day job. Wow! ...and then there is the rest of us. The list no longer looks like a wealth of opportunities , it looks overwhelming. I see this all too often and it usually leads to one problematic eventuality: Continuous improvement stops. Has this happened to you? If it has, let me share with you one simple method that can help you to get back on track. Narrow your view! Pick one improvement and focus all of your energies on it. Nibble away at it, a little bit at a time and just park the rest of your improvements for later. I have worked with two teams in just the last week

Someone tried to derail my day yesterday. They hadn't prepared their information in a timely manner and then tried to cancel our meeting just moments before it was meant to start. I won't go into how I originally rearranged my day for this meeting, or the fact that we still managed to have the meeting, despite a good chunk of data being missing. But, amongst all this frustration, there was a clear learning point for the person in question (I hope that they got the point!). The point was that not only was the task not done, the person who had to do it was oblivious to the fact they had the task to deliver in the first place. I mean, they would have known about it when the task was originally agreed, but since then it has floated away into the ether... So, let me share with the three step plan for increasing the hit rate with these kinds of actions. You can use this if you find yourself struggling, or if you find members of your team accepting tasks and then just not delivering.

If you have read my other blog posts, or books, you will know that I continuously refer to a specific challenge within continuous improvement . The challenge is what happens after you have improved all of the really obvious improvements. I refer to this as being the difference between moving from 'bad to OK' compared to moving from 'OK to amazing'. The first part of the journey is relatively straightforward. You see something that isn't right and you fix it. Simple. So, what happens when you move past this point and you can't see as many things to improve? You need a different focus, you have to start looking somewhere else for your improvement inspiration. Create a powerful vision for your business. Available from Amazon and iTunes The other day I was talking to one my my client's member of staff about this very issue. The person in question was relatively new to the business and had made a big impact to the running and organisation of their manufacturing