When you find yourself in a tricky situation, and you aren't sure how to improve the situation, try mimicry. We know people that have their act together. We know people that have great ideas. We know people that keep their cool under pressure. So, when you are next struggling for inspiration, use your 'continuous improvement role model'. What would they do? How would they approach the improvement? Who would they call upon for help? Use these prompts to borrow their insights and come up with a new way to approach the problem. If you are looking for more ways to generate continuous improvement ideas for your business, and manage them through to fruition, then check out my book Effective Continuous Improvement . Available from Amazon and iTunes 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

How many times have you seen someone struggle at work because they haven't carried out proper 'preparation' for their work? I see it all the time. The funny thing is that the people that tend to have these problems say they don't have time to carry out the preparation. So, how do they have time to fix the problem they have just caused? Many times it is the employer that has to pick up the cost, which is frustrating for so many reasons. What kinds of tasks would benefit from better preparation? The list could be massive, but let me share with you a few of the regular issues I see: Not ordering materials in a timely fashion. Not speaking to colleagues to organise schedules, to complete projects. Not reading reports prior to circulation. Not reading the full specification prior to jumping head first into a contract. Not asking 'who would this impact' before changing job roles in a business. Do you experience the same kinds of things? So, what preparation could you

Every time a change is introduced, or a system tweaked, there is the chance for a stumble. This stumble might be a mistake, an inefficient or ineffective method, or complete confusion. Or something similar! In short, teething pains are to be expected. But, the point I want to make is, don't throw the towel in. This experience is normal, and a key part of the continuous improvement cycle (aka PDCA cycle). The whole point of the PDCA cycle is to: Plan a change / improvement . Do some work, to make progress with the plan. Check what the results are and evaluate them. Act differently to get a different result and then start the cycle again. Many businesses give up when an improvement doesn't work on the first attempt. Often there is little persistence and rarely an embracing of the PDCA cycle. If this is something you have seen in your business in the past, let me offer a few words of support: Set appropriate expectations for your improvement projects, don't expect the finished

Several phone calls this month have ended up with people realising that the headache they have is down to a lack of routine in their business . The small things that haven't been addressed in the run up to Christmas are now crises. The boring tasks that didn't get done earlier last month have now caused problems for the production department this month. The jobs that a recently departed staff member didn't hand over have now paused a project temporarily. Being clear about what needs to be done, by whom and when is a simple management task. Doing it however... most businesses don't! Don't be the same as the masses. Figure out your routines and find a way to make them stick . Available from Amazon 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? ' .

Are the responsibilities clear within your business? Do your team know what their responsibilities are and what they need to do when? This topic crops up time and time again. It's also something that is easy to overlook. Getting this right means that you can have fewer arguments. When it is clear who is meant to do what, the hiding places diminish. The excuses and finger pointing reduce. It is also a great thing to maintain, as it makes it easier to replace people when they leave your organisation. It is a truth that the roles that people undertake often creep and expand over time. If you don't keep a track of this, you end up with gaps and loose ends when people leave. How can you keep a track of this? Two obvious options jump to mind: Keep all of your job descriptions up to date. Create a spreadsheet / table of  tasks versus person responsible. Make either of these items a routine and that's it, in short. Keep the responsibilities clear, find better ways to execute the r

A common issue that stifles continuous improvement , one that I have already witnessed in 2024, is perfection. I can understand how this comes about. In the workplace it is common for people to be yelled at for making mistakes. Over time, this becomes normal and we associate not achieving perfection with being told off. When it comes to continuous improvement we have an issue here. Very rarely will an improvement be perfect the first time around. Usually it will need to be refined and tweaked a few times in order to work as intended. But, as we embark on a new year, we have the opportunity to change our approach to continuous improvement. We can replace perfection with effectiveness. We can make something better and do it again and again. We can iterate our way to high levels of performance; we don't have to be perfect on day one. Trying to be perfect on day one stifles us. It can overwhelm us. So, if this rings a bell with you, perhaps you can change your attitude to improvement t

It is an interesting challenge; how many continuous improvement projects can you handle at once? A better question is "how many projects should you handle at once?" I see many businesses struggling with their continuous improvement projects, especially after a Christmas break. Energies have returned. Focus is restored. A long list of things that need to be done refreshed. The problem that I observe is that many projects get started and few get finished. I use the word problem for three reasons: If you don't complete the projects you are unlikely to reap the rewards. Incomplete projects cause confusion amongst team members. Having a list of projects started, but not finished, can be demoralising after a while. There are conflicting demands on our time. We often have a day job to do. If you combine this with incomplete project definitions then you have a recipe for wasting a lot of time and resource. Available from Amazon So, what is a practical way to approach this dilem