Today continuous improvement is the focus of every organization. In today’s competitive business growth and development need to be parallel. Organizations across the globe have realized the importance of continuous improvement.
Continuous Improvement teams are responsible for gathering out the defects in the controls and systems and eliminate them with proper measures. However, many times, these teams fail in their tasks and lack of efficiency and effectiveness. It is easy to initiate the journey of continuous improvement, but it is difficult to sustain. In this blog for Transformation Tuesday, we have covered the most common reasons for the failure of these Continuous Improvement initiatives:
- Inadequate Influence over systems
Continuous Improvement teams have to have information about the entire organization. They should have their eyes and ears everywhere. They should also keep the leadership in check and must be given a chair in the discussions carving out the future of the organization. Moreover, the professionals involved in the continuous improvement team must have a profound knowledge and understanding about company’s strategies and the way the leadership wants to carve out a niche for the organization in order to be able to analyze and solve problems as per the needs of the company.
- Lack of Practice and knowledge
Apart from support from the management, the team members of the continuous improvement teams should support themselves by constantly revising their knowledge and practising them at the required place at the appropriate time. One should be expert and confident on a particular subject before preaching them to others. They should lead by setting an example for others and should be aware of the latest industry trends and standards.
- Inability to accept
Instead of deploying continuous improvement teams at a certain level in the organization, the system should be employed at all the levels of the company to achieve the best results in the longer run. An isolated continuous improvement program might seem to be working on some issues for a shorter duration of time. However, this inability to accept the skill at all levels will not be able to contribute fruitful results for the company after a certain period of time.
- Gorging on today, neglecting tomorrow
A typical human mind always gorges upon the easy savings of today. However, this is a very dilute approach and will never prove to leave a profound impact on the company’s success. Instead of focusing on instant success, one should look at the bigger picture and start concentrating on it. The larger goal should be broken down into smaller targets and the skill set should be applied to achieving them. It’s not a bad thing to enjoy instant, short-term success, but to reach the top of the mountain; you have to focus on the larger goals and takeaways.
- Easy wins on the top of your list
Easy wins might create a great record for you on papers but would never contribute to creating a bigger change. Continuous improvement is a unique skill set which should be used to set an example for others by clearing out the biggest stone lying on the road to success. Push for the change you want to bring, if you think that’s the right to do even if nobody advocates you in this journey. If you won’t, no one will. Don’t rely on your resume and papers to tell the tales of your success, instead let the public victories narrate the saga.
In the journey of continuous improvement, don’t just identify what makes a team successful but also look at where the team fails. Since the real learning comes from analyzing the shortcomings.
Written & Compiled By Faber Kishlay Krishna & Faber Mayuri Pandya
