'They' say there is a lot of improvement BUT, not a lot is getting better…

I’ve skirted around the word ‘improvement’ in our conversations so far, but ultimately everything I talk about is aimed at challenging your thinking to help make today better than yesterday whether you lead people or are a facilitator of change.

Often though ‘improvement’ is seen as an add on to the day job for none improvement roles (and scarily some actual improvement roles), it is not a daily focus, it gets dropped when things get a little difficult, if there are cost challenges, people put their head down and focus on delivering the process output AND, we all become far shorter sighted as our survival instincts kick in, but when we are not in survival mode why is improvement still seen as an add on in a number of businesses.

I believe this comes down to combination of several things, and I appreciate every organisation is different. The below list are some of the things that people have shared with me as the reason why improvement is not part of everyone’s role in their business:

• No-one is championing improvement
• There is no agreed improvement strategy
• It is often done to people as opposed to with them
• Leaders are not engaged in it
• There is a belief getting people trained is THE answer
• It is outsourced to a change team or specialist team
• No time commitment given or available to solve problems
• No set structure to find problems
• A need for instant results and benefit realisation
• A perception that digital solutions are the silver bullet
• A belief you need a big budget
• Change is easy to say, but hard to do
• We have failed to sustain it too many times

In fact, when I started writing the list my aim was to only write a few things, but when I started to think about it there are a lot of reasons that I have spoken to people about.

Frighteningly, this list could have been a lot longer, the most important thing is:

“Do you resonate with any of these things?”

If you do I would love you to write a comment below!

And, whilst you think about your answer, let’s have a think about ‘improvement’ and what we mean by it.

When I talk to leaders, they often tell me they have 2 main ways that they typically improve what they do:

1)?????Firefighting through necessity

2)?????Improvement projects

Change teams are often aligned to supporting these two things also.

What I hear a lot less of is ‘daily improvements’, in fact I very rarely hear people talk about this, and for me is what people should be aiming for, because with this fewer fires will be lit and fewer projects will be needed.

I do believe, it is no surprise that with this long list and the fact that most improvement strategies are focussed on firefighting and improvement projects, that improvement is NOT seen as part of the day job, however I would love to see a shift towards making it so and everyone starting a movement from the pink line to the blue line.

To move to this takes a different kind of improvement strategy, in fact just this week I challenged an organisation to ask their senior leader, if they want to deliver this improvement strategy what does it mean for them and how will their role change. Because change is for everyone!

If you would like to chat about you improvement strategy please email me at [email protected]

This past fortnight we have seen episodes 165 & 166 of the podcast ', ' published.

I want to share the video to episode 165 because this is a special one as I get the opportunity to speak with someone I had the opportunity to work with and learn from last year Kevin Robinson for Toyota GM.

Kev is a man who knows all about teamwork, having served for almost three decades in operations within Toyota Motor manufacturing UK ltd. I get the opportunity to quiz Kev all about his business journey, how development strengthens teams, and the importance of true leadership.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Development is the key to not just strengthening people, but teams. If individuals become stronger, then they strengthen the teams of which they are a part.
• If we see problems setting in, then it could be down to poor leadership. It is incumbent upon as leaders to look at ourselves and how we have provided leadership, and mark any issues that could create negative impact.

Episode 166 is not quite as exciting as it is talking to you reflecting upon the learnings and the insights from 2021, with a specific focus upon the improvements we can make for 2022, and how better communication can provide the bedrock for positive change.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Making improvements and becoming more effective in what we do, all comes down to teamwork, and unless we are communicating well with our teams, we can't hope to see those improvements being made.
• Conflict is not always a bad thing. Conflict can be seen as meeting of differing ideas, the resolution of which all lead to a better solution.

And that be it another issue done and dusted, I hope I have prompted at least one thought from you. If you know anyone who would benefit from reading this please share it, and I look forward to catching up in 2 weeks time.

Have fun

Lee