Andrew Grove had once remarked, “A corporation is a living organism; it has to continue to shed its skin. Methods have to change. The focus has to change.” Values have to change. The sum total of those changes is transformation.” The keyword Grove used was a corporation, not a person.
Continuous Improvement is not a task or the responsibility of a department or person; it involves a cultural change to the entire organization.
1. What is Continuous Improvement?
Business continuous improvement starts from the mindset from the top down that a willingness to change is there. CI states we have an issue and we need to make a change for the better. The most common CI methodologies are Lean, 5s, and Value Stream Mapping and can be applied to any type of business. CI isn’t big, radical changes. Rather, it’s about the small cultural shifts in incremental change that leads to a significant long-term result. It is about these little changes that individuals carry out, which put together create change for the better.
2. Continuous Improvement is a culture, not a task
CI cannot be another checkbox on a company’s task list or for certain departments such as production. Rather, CI must become a part and parcel of the company’s DNA from the very top to the very bottom. As CI is woven into the Company’s DNA, real change and improvement start taking place. Without complete member engagement, CI will not be successful.
CI will play a most important part, and this is that every person has a role; from the leadership in a company to front-line workers, no one is left out. Everyone rowing the boat in the same direction. Everyone has a part to play.
Another important aspect of cultural change is cross-functional collaboration. The collaboration across departments fosters a culture of respect, appreciation, and most importantly CI.
3. Benefits of adopting CI as a Culture
The business will actually see the small change start to make a difference as the company culture in total begins to change. In other words, the business will become more efficient. When the culture is all on the same page with the same goal, everyone is making an impact to improve. When we make changes to improve, no matter how small, we are becoming more efficient.
Another example is in the domain of employee engagement: it has been shown that, when employees are given more power to decide, they become more willing to engage. Higher levels of engagement foster higher morale, which in turn directly correlates with employee retention.
The last example that I have is: long-term effect of CI is business growth and competitive edge. When you have a team making continuous improvements, your customer will know it. When you are on time, your customer will know it. When you have a happy customer, they’re not looking to leave; they want to stay.
Overall adopting CI as a culture is more impactful and far too important to leave to one person. Leaving it to one person is as if cleaning up after a toddler, blink and it is already undone.
4. Steps to build a CI Culture
Step 1: Leadership Commitment
For CI to impact the culture, the leadership team has to model the behavior and provide the resources.
Step 2: Training and Education
For employees to get engaged and empowered, they must be educated and trained. They need to be informed and empowered with, but not limited to, 5s, Problem Solving, Value Stream Mapping, etc.
Step 3: Encourage Innovation and Feedback
Employees must feel comfortable sharing an idea or giving feedback. When everyone is heard, we’re all at our strongest. One idea may give birth to another. An empowered workforce that is given a voice means they feel involved.
Step 4: Recognize and Reward Contribution
In recognizing and rewarding the efforts of CI, we reinforce the culture we are trying to build.
Conclusion
CI isn’t a one-and-done project led by one person. It is a lasting cultural shift that must be embraced from the top down. I would encourage all of you reading today to start incorporating CI in your day-to-day job. Call CIFT and let us help you make that lasting cultural shift.
