How to Create and Sustain a Continuous Improvement Culture in Your Organization

The reason why only 25% or less of new businesses make it to 15 years or more

Imagine having a child that’s not growing.

Days, weeks, months and years go by but the child remains stunted! It feels horrible, right?

Now imagine the child is stunted because you’ve neglected him. And if he dies of malnutrition, how would you feel?

It’s the same with businesses. Fact is, most organizations are stuck!

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years. Only 25% or less of new businesses make it to 15 years or more.

The main reason is organizations aren’t improving, and if they do well in the beginning, they reach a point and stall. Which explains why you should embrace a continuous improvement culture in your organization.

In this article, you’ll learn:

a) What’s continuous improvement culture
b) Frameworks for continuous improvement culture
c) Steps to create and nurture continuous improvement
d) Benefits of a continuous improvement culture.

What’s Continuous Improvement Culture?

Let’s break it down:
“Continuous” means doing without stopping or interruption, “improvement” means making better and “culture” means the way of doing things. frameworks-for-continuous-improvement-culture

So, Continuous Improvement Culture (CIC) is the long term business approach of making things better in terms of operations, production, servicing, efficiency and reducing waste.

This involves leaders and employees of an organization using frameworks such as:

Frameworks for continuous improvement culture

• The Toyota Production System (TPS)
• The Deming Cycle (aka the PDCA Cycle)
• Six Sigma
• Lean Manufacturing System

• Total Quality Management
• Kaizen

Continuous Improvement (CI) isn’t a one-step process, nor is it a one-person role.

Asides the frameworks, the following are the specific tactics to create and nurture CIC in your organization:

Steps to create and nurture continuous improvement

1. Reset your mind

The mind controls everything. If you want to do something, you must first decide to do it. So, for a continuous cultural change, you must first see the need for it and embrace it. Only then will you put in the work wholeheartedly.

2. Create a supportive environment

Both the physical and social environment are important to effect the changes you want. For continuous improvement, you should understand the business environment, create the right atmosphere, support cultural change and encourage teamwork.

3. Impart necessary knowledge and skills

Offer continuous education and training both to the managers and employees. You should empower everyone, you included, to continually improve.

4. Set specific goals

If you want to improve, you should first set a specific and measurable goal. And to make it feasible, keep it simple. As human beings, we’re discouraged by complexities, so the simpler it is, the easier to be acted on.

5. Requisite tools

You may decide to go from point A to point B, but without a functional vehicle, you won’t reach there. That’s why you should employ the appropriate technology and frameworks such as the Kainexus software to enable continuous improvement culture.

6. Involvement

When you involve employees and other stakeholders, you give them the power to take responsibility. By asking them for improvement ideas, you make them own and trust the process of continuous improvement.

7. Regular communication

After you’ve set goals and decided the metrics to improve on, you should share with the employees and make it clear to them what role they’ll play. More, explain the reasons why, emphasizing the benefits of improvement to their personal lives as well. Why? Because people care more about what’s in it for them before they take action.

8. Take action

Motion beats meditation. All decisions and no action makes moments a wasted time. Implement the decisions you make in order to improve.

However, don’t be tempted to take one giant leap. It’s overwhelming. Take it one step at a time, removing barriers to improvement and addressing the myths, objections and limiting beliefs of all parties involved.

9. Be a role model

As a leader or manager of your organization, you should walk the talk and set a good example. Engaged leadership and senior management commitment encourages employees to continually improve.

10. Measure improvement

Now that you set specific goals on what to improve and how much, and you continually put in the work, it’s crucial you measure the results at the end of a certain period of time to help you know if you’re on the right track and what further changes to make.

11. Reward system

Do you remember back in school when there was a reward system for the pupils or students who performed well? That’s how you reinforce improvement.

You can reward your team by giving shopping vouchers, offering pay rises, etc., not seeing it as an expense but an investment.

12. Repeat

Creating a continuous cultural improvement isn’t a one day thing. It’s like breathing. You do it over and over again, unless you want to die. There’s a quote by Zig Ziglar that says repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.

And it’s true. Organizations such as Danaher corporation and Toyota company have continued to use these ways and you can see the results.

Benefits of a continuous improvement culture

So if you also want to have a slice of the pie, having

>>Dedicated employees

In 2020, there was a Gallup poll of US workers. It showed that only 20% of employees were engaged in their job. The 80% weren’t involved, which means that they don’t perform to their full potential. However, when employees are involved, they become committed to their work and highly productive.

>>Reduced production cost

Employees have ideas and valuable insights that can be used to improve processes and reduce production costs.

>>Improved product and service quality

Around 54% of all improvements in CIC impacts quality of products and services, which streamlines the overall manufacturing process and leads to customer satisfaction.

>>Lifelong competitive advantage

For example, at Toyota, everyone within the organization is challenged to continuously improve. That’s how they constantly solve problems and continue to grow. Toyota invests time and money into their employees and this has become the model for a true learning organization. So, what can companies learn from Toyota? Did you know that Toyota employees generate more than one million process improvement ideas annually, with 90% of those ideas being implemented? This is why Toyota has created a culture that encourages and rewards this behavior. Therefore, whether you’re beginning or continuing your lean journey, the transformation to a continuous improvement culture is vital to your success.

Then implement these step by step in your organization. When you do, the sky won’t be a limit, but your starting point to even greater heights.