Taking Action eNewsletter

Agents of Change

Issue Twenty-Five

As we begin to emerge from our current economic downturn, I sincerely hope that leaders of today’s organizations realize that we must continuously improve in order to stay relevant and competitive in an ever changing marketplace. We cannot rely on a seemingly endless revenue stream to cover up the costs of poor quality. We must focus on continuous quality improvement, strategic planning, innovative risk management, and, most importantly, serve as agents of change within our organizations.

Leaders must actively participate in continuous improvement for it to be truly embraced by employees. What kind of message does it send if it is announced that a new improvement program is being put into place and all of the “managers” must show up for a half-day training session? You can almost hear the groans; another management fad, another time waster, another half-day lost when we’ve got a mountain of work (and likely some rework) to do!

There is a far better, far more effective way.

• What if we announced that the CEO, CFO, COO, and all directors and managers will be leading improvement teams?

• What would the impact be, if the focus of the effort was to ensure that the voice of the customer was captured effectively, as a central component of our continuous improvement activities?

• What if employee’s input was solicited before we decided what changes should be implemented?

• What if we began communicating to all of our employees why continuous improvement  is so important, how and when changes will be implemented and measured, and how employees can participate?

• What if we truly decided to embrace the process of change, by letting it be known in every meeting and as the focus of regular performance reviews, that continuous quality improvement and customer satisfaction is everyone’s job, that the leadership is actively involved and will be reporting on the status of improvement initiatives, and that regular feedback is being collected and tied into the performance  / merit review process for every employee?

What would happen is that the entire paradigm would shift, as our organizations and most (if not all) of our employees would begin to embrace continuous improvement, perhaps at first because they have to, but eventually because “that’s just the way we do things around here”.

The Doug Williams Group has a long and proud history of helping leaders resolve the questions of what should change, and where to start. Our case studies are examples of how proper planning and execution of continuous improvement projects bring significant return on investment to our clients. A link to the case studies is provided here:

http://www.thedougwilliamsgroup.com/ClientsAndResults/CaseStudies/

If you want to learn more about how to lead an effective continuous improvement initiative, please contact me.