“There is always space for improvement, no matter how long you’ve been in the business.”
– Oscar de la hoya
We all desire for the teams we influence and lead to be successful — both now and in the future. How can we ensure our teams achieve the results that will lead to success and a better future? I suggest an important key is to embrace the philosophy of continuous improvement (CI).
CI can be defined as a philosophy that we need to continually strive to get better at what we do, such as making never-ending improvements to our work processes. The roots of the CI philosophy can be traced to the father of quality management — W. Edwards Deming — and the Japanese, who refer to the philosophy as Kaizen. The contrast to traditional thinking can be illustrated as:
- Old thinking: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
- New thinking: “Just because it isn’t broke doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.”
Respected management expert Brian Tracy sums up the philosophy: “Practice the philosophy of continuous improvement. Get a little bit better every single day.”
Benefits of Continuous Improvement Philosophy
Why bother with striving for CI? Studies have shown some of the benefits include:
- Boosting productivity. CI improves processes and eliminates waste, leading to increased efficiency.
- Improving the quality of our products and services, leading to less re-work and more satisfied customers.
- Creating a competitive advantage. CI gives your team an edge over competitors.
- Improving the team culture. As your team experiences improvements, satisfaction, engagement, and morale will all increase. Employees will feel empowered to make a positive difference.
- Increasing teamwork. CI encourages all employees to contribute ideas and work together to implement value-added improvements.
Key Principles Supporting Continuous Improvement Philosophy
Here are some of the key principles underlying the CI philosophy, which I also refer to as a CI mindset.
Make an Intentional, Long-Term Commitment
It is said that nothing good happens by accident. To be successful at CI, we need to have a long-term view and commitment. CI should not be a mere management “flavor of the month,” but an enduring, never-ending quest to strive to make things a little bit better. Deming, in his classic 14 Points for Management, emphasized the concept he called “constancy of purpose” — an unrelenting, unwavering focus on process improvements.
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