CI activity Stalling? Did you start with Why?

Its common for CI Programmes to stall or get dropped when shinier things comes along. Often CI projects lose traction or drive, and sometimes improvement initiatives can shoot off in many directions. Lots of effort is used, but do they actually move your business forward to the greater goal?

Develop a CI Programme that drives the business forward

Is your Continuous Improvement programme aligned with the business purpose and vision? Will your it move your business to towards that vision or could CI activity be simply using up valuable resources and distracting the team from reaching that greater business purpose?

The Why

Before we start it’s important to understand and define the Why. By "The Why " I am talking about your business/programme purpose and cause. Why does your business exist? What impact is it going to have on the world? Does your team understand the Why and are they motivated to deliver it?

I am referring to the work of Simon Sinek for this. Simon is one of my favourite thought leaders. I recommend his book Start with Why and his Ted talk - Start with Why, How Great Leaders Inspire Action (There is a link in the comments).

Simon explains that people are not inspired by what you do, by telling somebody what to do or what you're going to do, isn't going to inspire or enthuse anyone.

People are inspired by, why you do something

That's because The Why or the deeper business purpose & cause, connects with people emotionally, it connects with the limbic part of the brain or your heart, your soul, your gut, that part of you that makes a decision. If somebody is emotionally connected to your business purpose and understands the business cause, they are much more likely to buy into the cause and be inspired into delivering it. it's a way to tap into and inspire that intrinsic motivation.

Align Business Objectives to the Why

Having a clearly defined Why, also allows you to align the Vision, Objectives, Plans and activities to it. The why becomes that check point, the datum. Sometimes you may have an objective or activity that just does not sit right with you and you may not know why. Often, it is because it doesn't align with the business Why or purpose. The next bright shiny thing comes along that can draw you into a new direction, taking your business further from that Why. A clear Why can be used check every business decision, all business activity should move you towards not away from the greater cause.

Use the Why to Inspire Action

An example Simon Sinek uses in his Ted talk is Apple. Particularly in the Steve Jobs days, Apple inspired people to almost like a cult like following of their products, where people would queue up for days waiting for the latest iPod or iPad. Simon explains that they did this in the way they communicated, communicating The Why not The What.

So if they had communicated like the competitors and the sales pitch may have gone something like this “we make great computers, they're beautifully designed the simple to use, and they use a friendly want to buy one?”

It's quite clear, it's correct and I guess some people will want to buy a computer, but these words don’t inspire people. It does not inspire people to really buy into the brand or drive the motivation that causes people to queue for days outside a shop.

So how Apple communicated was everything. “everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently”, then they explained what they did. How they communicated was powerful and it had an impact on people, and people were inspired to whole heartedly buy into their brand. Creating that emotional connection to The Why, creates and builds relationships.

My Why

I couldn’t share this piece without sharing My why (Pure Improvement- Zoe Darlington),

“I am here to inspire and motivate people to achieve excellence and business excellence, so that people will relish and share in that sense of achievement and fulfillment.”

That’s because I get an absolute buzz out of helping people to raise the game, I just love to see team succeed and I truly believe that any team and anyone can achieve excellence and raise business performance. When people achieve that, they have fun and feel more satisfied in the workplace.

That's The Why, The What is Pure Improvement helps you to deliver an effective CI Programme that will reduce cost, reduce waste, improve quality and deliver a ROI.

Get Defining that Why

So when you define your business why use this formula (from Simon Sinek, Start with Why),

“To………………….. (To- do something), so that ………………… (that- being the impact to the world)”

My To is, “to inspire and motivate people to achieve excellence and business excellence”

So that is, “so that people will relish and share in that sense of achievement and fulfillment.”

Get together, if you have a founder, The founder may be able to articulate, that business cause or purpose, the reason why they started the business, it is probably bigger than that now, as businesses grow they become cultures and take on a communal why.

Pull together a team that can work together, a team that believes in the business. It can be a mixture of people from leaders to those on the shop floor. The best people are those who are connected to that business emotionally.

Go through the stories, what are they most connected to? what do they love about the business? What makes them feel pride? What are the achievements? When have they felt out of alignment or unsatisfied with the business? What are the shared sense of values?

You can then start to capture the essence of the business purpose and that why, and why the business exists. Make the environment fun and relaxed.

When you have the why defined you are ready to move on to the next post which is The Big Vision!

This article is from this series of posts on how to run a successful Continuous Improvement Programme. If you want a Continuous Improvement program that will help you to reduce costs, reduce waste, save time, improve quality, whatever your operational objectives are this series can help you.

Through the series I will using my 3 core pillars, the 3 P’s. This post is part of the first P, Planning the second P is Programme, which is a framework, process and templates for delivering improvement and the third P is Perform, this will help you to inspire people and guide you through how to get people to deliver results.

A bit about me

I help Manufacturing and Engineering Businesses achieve their operational performance goals, eliminate performance issues and save time and money.

Our programme will empower teams to drive improvement and deliver results, whilst saving time, money and delivering a ROI.

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Zoe Darlington