Continuous Improvement
Competition does not stand still, so neither can you. The drive to improve needs to be relentless. However, unfocused continuous improvement can be as dangerous as an unguided missile. Changes in one part of the organization can negatively impact performance in another and waste people’s time and company resources.
Knowing the gaps between current performance and what would be possible if your business were performing at its full potential, enables you to define a high-level road map pinpointing areas of priority and thus knowing where to focus continuous improvement training, resources, and time.
But achieving continuous improvement capability is more than just recognizing where to focus. It also requires a culture of innovation and change. People need to feel “psychologically safe” to take on the perceived risk of failure. At DSS, we have helped many clients through the challenges of focusing continuous improvement efforts to deliver real value, but we have also supported them in designing and delivering the necessary cultural change to ensure continuous improvement becomes part of the organization’s DNA and is sustained over the long term.
How to Achieve Continuous Improvement
Over the years, DSS has identified what we believe to be the key pillars of Continuous Improvement:
Organizational Alignment & Development to ensure everyone agrees, understands, and focuses on the chosen targets and highest priorities (i.e., what we will do versus what we won’t do) backed by cascaded KPIs and accountabilities from senior management to the front line to ensure targets and priorities are met in a disciplined manner.
Prioritized Improvement Ideas selected and implemented following a structured, hypothesis-driven approach that identifies the easiest, highest value ideas in priority areas.
Coaching & Capability Building to ensure people feel safe to speak up, contribute and know their efforts are appreciated. These are skills that many leaders, but particularly front-line leaders, often need to develop. Through targeted face-to-face coaching and support, these skills become second nature and continuous improvement develops into an integral part of “how we do business.”
Sustaining Continuous Improvement Capability through continually refreshing the understanding of performance gaps and understanding where things are going well and why and where the challenges still lie. This way an organization can ensure that improvements don’t unwind and that there is razor sharp clarity around where to go next.
What Can Our Approach to Continuous Improvement Do for You?
At DSS we:
- Base improvement targets on key value drivers of constraints
- Develop an improvement mindset and build continuous improvement capabilities
- Manage and deliver improvement ideas quickly
- Track continuous improvement results with simple metrics and KPIs
- Embed continuous improvement in the management operating system
