How to Develop a Culture of Continuous Improvement Mindset

In the initiation plan, we need to understand the company’s existing work culture and the business model. Once you have established the current state, Plan what the company’s long-term goals look like in the best scenario. From this current state, determine small steps of 5-, 10-, 15- and 50-years Target. Your vision for the future should vary between realistic to optimistic states. Once you have set the goal, brainstorm with your team to create a roadmap to determine how to get the company from its current state to the future you have envisioned.

Every continuous improvement program needs a process. A process or a framework for improvement is an operating model and set of procedures that when executed correctly will lead to the development, analysis, and adoption of improvement ideas. Several successful frameworks for continuous improvement programs already exist such as the Toyota Production System (TPS). Within TPS, there are a few management principles, philosophies, and tools that can be used in any continuous improvement program. Some key concepts include Kaizen, Plan-Do-Check-Act, 5S, Gemba, etc. It is not necessary to know all these concepts at once. However, it introduces us to a lot of opportunities to work on.

Once the plan is set you need to interpret it to key stakeholders and communicate it among the employees across your organization. The feedback from your stakeholders is very important and will allow you to refine your options. It is essential to set up a whiteboard to allow every employee to give their ideas and suggestions. Having an understanding of shared vision and mission can mentor the entire organization to move towards achieving futuristic strategic goals. Always, encourage employees to give constructive feedback, it can be positive or negative.

A good way to try and connect employees is to manifest the differences they are making. For example, you can show them what they are doing for the lives of others by bringing in people that have been impacted by their work or by awarding them for their ideas or suggestions.

It is important to manage the deliverables and milestones and do not hurry into too many changes at once. For the initial 1 year keep track of the progress meticulously and understand the amount of effort that it takes to start, spread, and sustain initiatives. This will signify the number of improvement opportunities your team can handle at once. Putting extreme pressure can let it slip off track and direct the entire plan in the wrong direction. Hence, there should be consistency in doing any work.

 Any change in the organization should have a bottom-up approach and have a measurable ROI, but don’t overlook ideas with lighter impacts or customer-facing like improved satisfaction, efficiency, or engagement. Specifically, asking for ideas that make people’s jobs better, easier, or safer is one way to get an influx of improved ideas. Another way is to ask end-users about their expectations from the company to provide better goods and services. By encouraging these kinds of improvements and you are building open culture and accepting the changes.

 It is very important to reward the employees who made it possible to critically think about their work and examine potential ways of improving it. As your continuous improvement program begins to gain more momentum it is important to remember the people who make it possible. One way of sustaining the process is to regularly reward them in company events or over mail, to acknowledge their hard work. Many employees take pride in their work and are intrinsically motivated to improve them. Every improvement does not need to be a major project or event. Little changes can add up to have big results. Incremental improvement is the cornerstone of a culture of continuous improvement.

In the end, building a culture is a gradual process and is impossible to achieve in a day. It takes many sleepless nights, years, and cautious decisions to build a robust culture that insinuates employees to strive for excellence. An interactive environment is something that can create a flow of suggestions to and fro. This will create requirements on an organizational level stating for any change in policy or required training or trend.