How can you promote a culture of continuous improvement in your organization?

Leading by example, self-recognition as a continuous learner, characterized by being a 'learn-it-all' rather than a 'know-it-all'

Feedback, that is constructive and personalized. Feedback is one of the best ways to promote continuous improvements and then reward employees with a response to the progress they make. On any level in the organization Feedback & Rewards are the way to go. Appreciation should be public, feedback should be personal this will make people realize that their efforts are valued. Combine this with other factors such as increments and this can go a very long way in simply inculcating a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Here are a few that might be interesting to try and explore. 1. Provide freedom for thoughts. 2. Enable teams in execution. 3. Build belief in every individual. 4. Align the professional growth with learning & mentoring. 5. Keep the improvement (value) in the center, sideline experience, designation, and hierarchy. 6. Provide freedom to share, seek & act on feedback. 7. Make progress visible to all. 8. Be bold to remove negative energy. 9. Build a bond in the team, be one among them. 10. Celebrate the outcome, aim high!

Don't dictate, always participate: Your employees will judge your commitment to improvement by what you do and not by what you say. Set the right tone by rolling your sleeves and work alongside your team. Build a team of leaders who continuously improve their own processes and discuss it with others. Once people see this improvement, they will know about their improvement.

You can’t improve without getting candid feedback and that needs the right culture. All the processes in the world won’t change things unless people have the. psychological safety so that they can freely express their POV, and know that it will be heard with respect and actions acknowledged. Continuous improvement is a co-creation exercise.

The only way to encourage feedback and collaboration is by making sure there is trust in a group. The first step is choosing/recruiting the right people and the next step is having leaders who are transparent and have the strength of building relationships to get the best out of individuals and teams. Feedback is crucial for constant improvement. Everyone needs to be open to constructive feedback. Without that character trait and with egos in the room, success is hard to build on.

Firstly, setting SMART goals and ensuring that all stakeholders involved and aware and trained on changes taking place and its benefit to the organisation is key to creating a continuous improvement culture. In addition, keeping all stakeholders informed from time to time on progress as well as getting feedback on how the changes have affected the stakeholders positively is another way to motivate others to move in that same path. Perseverance and continuous monitoring will ensure sustainment of any improvement projects and over time it will create a proactive mindset amongst all stakeholders to seek the most effective and efficient way to operate on a daily.

Promoting a culture of continuous improvement in an organization involves fostering a mindset that values learning, innovation, and adaptability. 1. Provide leadership support 2. Feedback session 3. Training and development 4. Rewards and appreciation 5. Continues monitoring

It starts in the hiring process. Look for people that possess that innate “constant curiosity.” There is a big difference between being difficult to work with because you question everything and questioning everything in a fun and collaborative way that challenges the status quo.

One of the best ways to learn and improve is to actively listen to diverse perspectives. When we create a space where feedback is encouraged, everyone feels valued and contributes their unique experiences. This open exchange of ideas fosters collaboration. By listening to different viewpoints, we can identify potential blind spots and build solutions that are more comprehensive and effective. Encouraging feedback and collaboration not only leads to better decision-making but also boosts team morale, fosters innovation, and ultimately, drives success.

Any form of PDCA is a great way to encourage improvement. I add an extra letter to the acronym and use PPDCA. Play, Plan, Do, Check, Act. Adding PLAY is essential because this is the most creative and inclusive time within the process. Play removes stakes and barriers so ideas flow. It also is welcoming and creates space for multiple communities to engage and through their interaction reveal ways to make the plan and action as inclusive as possible.

Las organizaciones hacen bien la parte de Plan y Do, pero normalmente olvidan chequear si es que los resultados son los esperados y tomar acciones correctivas cuando no lo son. Y esto es una mentalidad que va permenado en el día a día, con el ejemplo y la retroalimentación adecuada.

Continuous improvement is a journey, not a destination, emphasizing constant change. Structured methods like PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) ensure efforts align with goals. Plan objectives, Do the solution, Check impact, and Act by adjusting or standardizing. Leadership support and employee empowerment are key. Foster open communication and recognize improvement efforts to create a culture of excellence

Be careful with your "monitoring" (metrics). A great quote on metrics I read some time ago... "The first time you use metrics to punish is the last time you get good metrics."

Si on gère avec le PODC, on améliore avec le PDCA. Mais qui le fait, quand, comment, où et pourquoi (The 5 W). Pour mettre en oeuvre le cycle, assurez-vous d'avoir clairement identifié les rôles et responsabilités des gens impliqués.

💡❗️How about to turn your workplace into a party zone for improvement! Cheers for successes - big or small, they're the fuel for motivation and recognition. Share those wins with the whole crew. Now, here may be the twist - celebrate failures too!!! Failures are none ever, if we learn from them!!! They're like secret treasures for learning and bouncing back stronger. Please make sure they're one-time guests, though, and use them as stepping stones for getting even better. 🎉🚀

I look to embody the value of “fail forward”. We are human and we are going to make mistakes, especially if in a growing pattern, new role, expansion of tasks or timeframe of operational structure changes. What’s imperative is that when these failures happen, they are addressed with constructive feedback to encourage growth. I find that so often the focus of feedback, although constructive, is heavily scaled toward what we are doing poorly when focus ought to work hand in hand with recognition for work well done. I employ myself to find these moments and directly reach out to anyone in my company that has done well. Recognition of growth goes such a long way and helps brighten days.

In the R&D team, we aimed at developing a new analytical method. The team encountered a setback when initial testing revealed unforeseen technical challenges, leading to a delay in the project timeline. Instead of viewing this as a failure, the team celebrated their willingness to push boundaries and explore innovative solutions. They held a post-mortem meeting to analyze what went wrong, openly discussing lessons learned and brainstorming alternative approaches. This transparent approach encouraged collaboration and creativity, ultimately leading to the development of a more robust method. The team celebrated their ability to adapt and learn from setbacks, reinforcing a culture of continuous improvement within the R&D department.

celebrating both successes and failures is essential for fostering a positive and supportive work environment, promoting learning and growth, building resilience, fostering innovation, enhancing trust and transparency, and increasing employee engagement. It's a critical aspect of organizational culture that contributes to long-term success and sustainability.

Además del valor motivacional de celebrar los éxitos, creo que la cultura de la mejora continua se va consolidando cuando los fracasos y errores son conversados abiertamente y usados para entender sus causas y mejorar.

Be open to change, lead by example, encourage the team to look into opportunities during change rather than only the risks, finally : understand that change is continuous and it is a necessity to change and improve in order to stay relevant and competitive

A melhoria contínua também precisa ser conectada com um programa sustentável de meritocracia, tendo como foco reconhecer esforços individuais e coletivos, desempenhos e resultados qualitativos e quantitativos que possam contribuir diretamente com o posicionamento competitivo do negócio.

In my experience training is one of the key factors in ensuring continuous improvement. Investing in continuous learning and development programs to equip your team with the skills they need and having regular touch points in order to carry out training needs analysis will also help to identify inefficiencies and implement improvements.

In my experience and from a Human Resources perspective, providing training and resources for continuous improvement is essential for nurturing a growth-oriented culture within the organization and throughout a team. By offering targeted training programs and access to relevant resources, HR and leaders can facilitate the development of employees' skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for embracing change and driving improvement initiatives. Additionally, these efforts demonstrate the organization's commitment to supporting employee growth and ensuring their success in meeting evolving challenges."

To foster a culture of CI, integrating comprehensive training and robust resources is paramount. Embrace a multifaceted training approach that has data and change management ingrained in its framework. This will equip your team with the versatility to tackle diverse challenges, fostering an innovative mindset. Concurrently, providing an arsenal of resources, advanced software, intuitive templates, and detailed guidelines; enables streamlined planning and execution. This dual strategy not only enhances individual skill sets but also cultivates a collaborative environment where innovation thrives.

It’s crucial to start with the ‘Why?’. If every person on the team understands that encouraging a “learning mindset” will allow for individual & collective “growth”, continuous improvement will be an easy thing to embrace. Seeing challenges as opportunities for learning rather than obstacles will ensure that the team is “excited about the possibility of a better tomorrow as opposed to being concerned about everything that can go wrong”.

1. Set up a north star goal (like exceptional customer experience, quality, fastest offering etc.) and cascade its communication to all levels of the organization. Align everyone's goals with that north star metric and encourage everyone to take Kaizen initiaitives for the shared goal. 2. Empower & educate employees to use Gemba approach (be at the real place where the work is done) and critical thinking to identify defects and address root cause of the problem. Upskilling the team enables them to recommend creative solutions for improving quality, reducing time to process to standardization of tasks and automation etc. 3. It is very important to foster a culture of open converations to set up a feedback loop.

The culture of continuous improvement is a factor of staff who believe that their ideas are heard and the rate of implementing the ideas. When the people in the organisation are able to see a good rate of conversion of ideas into action, it encourages them to ideate more and at a point in time becomes a culture. More often, continuous improvement becomes a spreadsheet of ideas; management must be aware of this, ensure there is a system for giving feedback and a reward mechanism

Fostering a culture of continuous improvement requires a holistic approach, including strengthening a sense of belonging, encouraging creativity, and embracing people’s challenges and fears. I recall a situation where my initiative to improve an architectural plan outside my scope of work was supported by top management, leading to positive outcomes. I also remember another situation where my suggestions for improving a report structure were met with resistance due to others' fear of appearing incompetent. Empowering employees to implement better ways of working while understanding the reasons behind resistance is key to addressing underlying mindsets and fears and promoting a culture of improvement.

In my experience, continuous improvement thrives where it is not just strategy but well embedded in culture. Often, when any process or practice is always reviewed with sense of why/ why not/ what else. Or simply challenging the service standards by having aspirational goals. Caveat, continuous improvement should also always be having a counter view that allows innovation/ invention. When peers were looking at getting stronger horses and just adding wheels; someone considered to challenge status quo by introducing motor, Paper to paperless. That allows you to even say things like ‘why are we even doing this’. Every good thing at some point becomes trivial and quite often makes itself redundant.