Continuous Improvement Thinking: Outside of Work

A very different article this month: looking at how you can use CI thinking away from the work environment, using a very recent and personal example.

12 months ago I desired to be a Triathlete and as of 10 days ago I can now say that I am. The journey from then to now is peppered with the use of the tools and techniques that are normally discussed when thinking about deployment in our factories, worksites and offices.

So, let me wind back the clock. 12 months ago, whilst a capable road cyclist, I could not complete a 50m pool length using freestyle and had a big dislike of running. How on earth was I going to follow through on my somewhat foolish commitment to the two people with whom I had competed in Triathlon Team events that we each do the full thing as individuals.

Define your Wildly Important Goal (WIG)

Put simply, I just had to finish the event; a 1500m swim, a 40km ride and a 10km run, and if I could do that in less than 3hrs 30mins that would be great. I also put in a stretch target of finishing in less than 3hrs 15mins.

What’s in it for me (WIIFM)

I had to be really clear on why I was doing this. The mental challenge of learning some skills to enable me to do something I have never done before and also to make some lifestyle fitness changes habitual. Sometimes the WIG will just not be enough, you need to be able to remind yourself why you are working on this WIG, because that is what will get you into a cold swimming pool in the winter months and will stop you from walking during a tempo run session.

Lead measures

I had to work out how many times would I practice each discipline each week, and how long did each of those sessions need to be. Then I could plan what the make up of each session was and put that in my weekly plan to colour ‘green’ when completed.

Keep score and make performance visible

By using my smartwatch and an app, it gave me all the per-session and cumulative data to show how each discipline was improving (or not!) and also an excel run chart gave me a piece of cumulative visual management to check my actual against my planned progress.

Regular, committed cadence

As mentioned above, I diarised all the planned training sessions. As well as locking in the time for each session, it meant I could also try to build the rest of my week around this. I did have to allow for some flexibility for when sessions had to be moved, but kept a very low tolerance for cancelling sessions.

Focus on the process not the outcome

This was a big one! Whilst session pace-times were interesting, I concentrated primarily on whatever aspect that session needed to practice. Be that reducing stride length, increasing cadence, controlling breathing, body position in the water or on the bike and so on. I had to trust that by working on each of these aspects the pace-time would improve and the distance capability would increase.

Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA)

If the above would not work, try to understand why, decide what to change in the next practice session, change it and then look at the new outcome. Lots and lots of small pilot tests and as much as possible making each piece of practice very deliberate so I could learn something.

Prioritise

And following on from the above two points, you can’t work everything all at once. Select the one focus area and just work on that. Not only does this make the deliberate practice easier, if your PDCA shows an improvement and you only changed one thing, then you probably know why you improved.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

If something was not working, don’t just jump to another solution. Ask around, get some data, look at that and then with a better hypothesis of what I was doing wrong, design and test a countermeasure (which links nicely to PDCA).

Coaching for Improvement

I used those around me to answers my questions, challenge me on what I was doing and offer me suggestions, even if it was in areas where I thought I was strong. Being humble and being coachable was probably one of my biggest revelations and my most effective enabler. And, on the odd occasion when I had something to give back, share what was working for me with my training partners.

Creativity over capital

Don’t go straight out and buy all the fancy training aids or enrol in expensive coaching sessions. I worked out what was needed during the journey and only spent the capital when pretty sure of a good return on investment. Virtual training aids and Online tutorials were put to very good use in the early months.

Let the data speak for itself

Another key point! How I felt in the pool, on the bike or on the run was not a very good gauge as to how the session actually went. I allowed myself to be led more by what the performance data was telling me, and then I used that in the PDCA cycles.

And so on…

For brevity I have only covered what first came to mind when thinking about this article (during a run haha). But there are other tools and techniques that could have been mentioned; My case for change, Standard Work, Error Proofing, 5S, etc. Maybe save that for another article!

The result

So did it work? A resounding yes. I finished in a time which beat even my stretch target, so I now need to re-frame my goals and go again! I have loved this journey, even if I did not enjoy every step. It has also been great to reflect on how I have used the CI/Lean tools and techniques of which I am a student in my professional life and put them into practice away from the workplace. I am sure many of you have done the same thing and many would like to try. So, if anyone wishes to do something similar, then please just reach out and I’d be happy to share my thinking and learn from yours.