Blog

Chances are your organization is trying to find ways to be more competitive by seeking ways to lower costs, while maintaining or increasing customer satisfaction. Regardless of the economic situation, savvy organizations and their leaders are constantly looking for ways to improve quality, reduce costs, and increase customer loyalty.

Over the years, organizations have explored and implemented a variety of process and quality improvement methodologies. Some examples include Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, and Total Quality Management. Although varied in practice and approach, at the core of each one of these programs is the desire to improve organizations and deliver measurable results. So, if that’s the case, why do organizations experience differing results when implementing these programs?

The greatest process improvement dilemma faced by organizations today is that far too often, the improvements made are anything but continuous. The aforementioned programs run their course, and once team members have completed them, they return to their “real work,” and maybe more telling, their “old habits.”

What’s at stake? How can you ensure that continuous improvement measures form the basis of long-term solutions, as opposed to quick fixes? Continuous process improvement is a culture change that must begin at the top. Executives must view process improvements as “real changes,” meant to become a core part of their workforce’s “real work.”

Here are the steps to follow to make your next process improvement stick:

1. Gain executive sponsorship. If your organization’s leaders are not championing the process improvement, proceed with caution! You can ensure executive sponsorship by building executive sign offs into the process.
2. Communicate the strategy of continuous improvement to each member of the impacted workforce and engage top managers and front-line leaders as “trainers” of the process improvement.
3. Hold people accountable for improving their work processes by adding continuous process improvement behaviors and objectives to individual development plans. People who are responsible for executing work know where there are known shortcomings in the process and typically offer solutions on how to improvement them.
4. Reward employees for continuously analyzing their work processes to determine methods for improvement.

Creating a culture of continuous improvement is a critical component of maintaining a competitive edge in the marketplace. This can only happen when responsible leaders and workforces commit to the ongoing goal of making process improvements stick with the organization.