Methodical approach to improvement

There comes a time when we need to improve something. It could be a process, a system or how things are done. Most people do this by trial and error. The chance of success with this approach is minimal.

However, you could also approach improvement methodically. This approach is optimal and promises high yield of results. It is therefore very important to know the methodical way of improving things.

The first step is to know what is it that you want improved. You need to be very clear about the specific thing that needs improving. This means you need to have a baseline of what needs improving. You need to measure it in some way or at least understand the level or status at which it is so that as improvement happens, you have a reasonable way of measuring or knowing that improvement is happening. Many people skip this step and so they end up either having a false impression that improvement is happening when it is not happening at all or they may think that there is no improvement when a lot of improvement has occurred.

The second aspect is a feedback mechanism. You want to have in place a way in which you will know that improvement is happening. This needs to be thought of and put in place right at the beginning as you plan your improvement plan.

Third is the crucial part – effecting the change that will result in the improvement. You need to sit down and think through the underlying problem. You need to zero in to the deep root cause of the problem. When doing this for information technology and engineering faults, one effective tool is by asking why more than five times. When you ask why is this not working? Once you get an answer, you ask again why? And keep asking why until you get to the real bottom of the issue. Based on that root cause, you can now develop the right solution or change that you need to effect in order to improve what needs improving.

Once you know what changes need to be effected, you need to test the solution. For engineering and technical systems, the test is easy to know. Outside the technical domain, you need some clever ways of testing. You can either look for examples of similar situations where your planned changes yielded good results, or you can test by cross checking your idea with colleagues who can give you a good, objective and honest view on the plan. Alternatively, you can test by doing a small part of the planned changes and see movement in the metrics.

The last part is also critical. Knowing when and how to effect change. You may have a very good plan but if you don’t have good timing or a good approach, you may not win. Timing is everything as they always say. Have a good plan for when and how you will effect the change.

At the same time, you need to know that results of your implemented changes may be gradual or slow in coming. Do not be over ambitious. Have the patience. As you effect the change, be ready to make adjustments, depending on how the results are coming. Be flexible and dynamic. Look at it as a long term or continuous improvement process rather than a short and sharp action. Improvement of most things takes time, resources and patience.

You have now mastered what is a good generic methodical approach to implementing an improvement programme. You can now apply this to many situations, be it academic performance, your performance at work or your business, even relationships and many more. All the best as go and implement a winning improvement methodology. This way, you will rise and shine!