The Foundations of Improvement

In my life as a continuous improvement coach there were two things that I learned about process improvement that I'd like to share.

1. The process you're improving have people that work in them with a culture they live by
2. Process improvement for the sake of improvement can be destructive to culture

Here's what I mean: I like to make improvement. I like to improve my own processes and I like to help people improve theirs. I know that it's good for me and for other people to improve their processes but not everyone agrees with me. Some people are so focused on making the process happen that they don't take time to improve. Sometimes people don't think you can make improvement. Some people have no idea that their process needs to be improved.

I call these things cultural roadblocks. When you take the map of a current culture, especially if it is not open for improvement to process/change, then how can you improve the process? If your goal is simply to make improvement then your square peg won't fit the round hole. You can't force improvement on people and expect it to reap the harvest that you want.

So, before you go on to improve a process you need to make some cultural adjustments/interactions. It's important to understand and respect the culture you encounter so that you can get the cultural conditions right for improvements to take hold.

So, let's make the camp connection: Camp is a great place where people focus on the culture/community. There is a lot of talk about respect and trust and loving one another and growing together. There is very little talk about process improvement.

Let me give you an example. The other day I was to take our portable team building program to an event about 45 miles away, meet two facilitators and execute a half day program for 50-60 people. The program turned out really great and the people. Before I left I was supposed to grab two additional camp collared shirts for the other staff members. The night before the director had said that the dirty ones needed to be washed. The housekeeper picked them up and he asked what are you doing with them and she said washing them. Here's the rub, in the morning they were in the washer, not dried. How did the this happen? The key piece of information - that we needed them the next day - was left out. At camp, we solve the problem by using non official camp shirts instead of official ones.

No harm? A quality/professionalism problem, but no real harm. The real harm is that communication processes are broken. What if there were never a lack of shirts? (true north - the ideal - always have what you need) What I want to do is fix that process. I want to create a visual signal that says - wash these today - with a level set low enough that we never run out but with enough time for them to get through the process.

Here's problem number two - I don't own the process. So, I have to get a director who is working on major issues to help me solve this one small problem? Maybe, or maybe I need to understand this directors culture and figure out if there's a way to keep the problem from coming back. Even though he doesn't focus on process improvement the way I do - I can both respect his culture and work on the problem.

I'll report back and let you know how it goes.