Continuous improvement efforts can only be successful if your organisation has a real culture of continuous improvement. Here's how to instil and maintain a culture of continuous improvement in your organisation.
A culture of continuous improvement: why?
An article in the English-language media Tracc explains how to instil a culture of continuous improvement in companies. To begin with, continuous improvement is about incremental innovation, i.e. continuous efforts to improve processes and performance. However, these efforts can only be successful if they are accompanied by a genuine culture of continuous improvement.
This culture of continuous improvement is mainly about setting up a system in which continuous improvement projects follow one another continuously. By doing so, you will embed continuous improvement as part of your organisation's DNA.
In many organisations, the principles of continuous improvement are known. However, they are not always accompanied by a structured approach. A culture of continuous improvement needs a minimum of defined processes to ensure its sustainability.
What leaders need to do to instil a culture of continuous improvement
It is essential that leaders carry the culture of continuous improvement. It has been observed that transformations are more easily infused when they are carried to the highest levels of the company. So here's what you can do to instil a culture of continuous improvement:
1. Be exemplary
Leaders must themselves apply the good practices of lean management and continuous improvement. They must openly participate in continuous improvement initiatives, monitor projects and celebrate success. Because if the leaders themselves do not apply what they preach, why should the rest of the staff?
2. Communicate regularly
Internal communication has a central role to play in instilling a new culture. Issue regular communications to explain the benefits of continuous improvement, and why everyone should be involved.
These communications must be regular, concrete and embodied, in order to create a desire.
In addition, internal communication can actively participate in the transformation process. Considering, for example, that a culture of continuous improvement requires employees to be in a state of mind of continuous learning, you can disseminate content on skills development. You can also organise experience and expertise sharing sessions, in short, a whole range of actions to help build the right mindset for your new culture.
3. Solicit your staff to generate new ideas
Employees need to feel valued, that is normal. They need to feel that their opinions and proposals count. All the more so as they are on the ground. And yet, "it is the one who does, who knows". They are therefore often the best placed to identify what could be improved. You should therefore not hesitate to give them the opportunity to propose ideas to participate in a very concrete way in continuous improvement, to bring up irritants and to imagine solutions.
Don't be too hard on the ROI issue at first. Because you need to show that all ideas are acceptable, you need to defuse fears and shames. Set up a friendly atmosphere, and above all measure the number of ideas proposed.
4. Make it as easy as possible to participate in order to build a culture of continuous improvement
To ensure that your employees take the time to participate in continuous improvement during their working hours, it is essential to make their lives as easy as possible. Provide them with content to improve their skills, but also with tools and, ideally, time to take a step back from existing processes and identify malfunctions or irritants.
And when a solution has been proposed, tested, or implemented, ask the staff involved in the deployment to document the solution, to highlight the concrete benefits.
5. Highlight small, easy-to-implement improvements
Not all proposals for continuous improvement need to be studied at length, validated, tested and then implemented. Some will require time and processes, others are "quick wins" that can be implemented quickly and easily. In short, do not (systematically) complicate the process. Encourage the proposal of simpleincremental innovations, at all levels of your organisation.
Itis through these types of simple improvements that you will build a strong and engagingcontinuous improvement culture , where every employee can feel legitimate and have an impact.
6. Share news and communicate
Don't forget to communicate throughout the continuous improvement process. Use e-mails, newsletters, or communicate directly on your collaborative innovation platform to follow up on the improvements proposed and/or implemented. Because the success of a continuous improvement system also depends on your ability to follow up on what has been proposed by employees. This is how you will make everyone want to participate.
7. Take time to celebrate successes and congratulate participants
Celebrate successes informally, on a daily basis, but also formally. Take time to recognise individuals and teams who have been involved in continuous improvement. Commitment is valuable. By rewarding it, you will make as many people as possible want to participate.
