Improvement is an Inside Job

“People support a world they help create.” - Dale Carnegie

It never ceases to amaze me how managers continue to issue orders and decree new initiatives from on high, and then they get upset when employees drag their feet after they are told what to do.

The typical fallback explanation is the classic – “people resist change.” That may be true in some cases, but people willingly and happily change and try new things all the time when they have a say in the matter. What you can count on people resisting almost every time, though, is being forced to change without their input.

Here’s the plain and simple fact about human nature. Employees want some control over the decisions and actions that affect their lives in the workplace. While no one should expect to weigh in on every decision that comes along, giving people a reliable way to offer ideas on how to improve the way work is done can go a long way to making them feel heard and valued.

One highly effective practice to satisfy that craving is a routine team huddle involving every person in recommending improvements. Lots of companies have some kind of activity that’s intended to give employees a chance to offer suggestions, but they often flop because the process is missing one or more key success factors.

Here’s what it takes to get people tuned in, turned on and eager to participate in those huddles:

1. Teams meet on a regular basis – weekly is the gold standard, monthly is the minimum – for 30-60 minutes in groups of 4-8 people.
2. Review the main metrics or KPIs that are relevant to the group’s work, and talk about the “stories” behind variances in the numbers.
3. In round-robin fashion, ask each person to offer at least one idea that will make an improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of any process they work with, emphasizing that no idea is too small.
4. Specify the first step to be taken by whom by when to implement the new improvement.
5. For ideas that were submitted in previous huddles, get status updates and indicate the next step in moving the improvement forward.
6. Use a tracking form (like this one) filled out in real time to record all the information.

As improvements are visibly documented, tracked and completed in a routine process, it demonstrates to employees that their ideas are valued. It also fulfills every person’s thirst for having control over the decisions and actions that affect their lives.

Click on the link below to learn more about proven processes for Systematic Continuous Improvement!

Begin your improvement journey today!

“Great is the enemy of better”

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