• Jun 10, 2015
• Comments Off on How to reboot your improvement processes
• Lavery McGlynn

How to reboot your improvement processes

At one time or another, every organisation ‘hits a rut’ in their Improvement Process. Here are my top tips to get back on track with focus and motivation:

1. Clear out Time-Wasting, non-value KPIs
Step one in getting your focus back, is to review your progress to date. Take stock of all of your existing KPIs and test them against your Performance Measurement yardstick – does this performance result really matter to my business? If not then it is taking up your time without adding value, and it needs to go! I recommend using the PuMP® Results Mapping technique to help you to decide what a ‘meaningful measure’ is, and what’s just wasting your time.

If in doubt – check for “weasel words”. If your KPI contains a word like efficient, effective, sustainable, engaged, transparent, accountable, reliable, quality, enhanced or best-practice, ask yourself what it really means. If you can’t pin it down, you can’t measure it.

Take the time to learn how to design and determine your KPIs. You need to start with a good understanding of the goals you’re trying to achieve, and then designing the right measures for those specific results.

2. Make performance measurement part of everyone’s job, not additional to it
Every employee is responsible for specific results, and for improving upon them. Their daily work directly impacts the overall success of the organisation, and they should be aware of this. They should also be able to measure their results to know how they are performing against the company’s strategic goals. Monitoring the performance of their own work should be a responsibility in everyone’s role description.

3. Make time to measure
When’s the best time to do performance measurement? Today. Don’t wait until you have ‘spare time’ to do performance measurement – when was the last time you had ‘spare time’ in your job? Measurement is fundamentally important to the success of any business or organisation and PROBABLY HAS a higher priority than a lot of the things currently taking up your time! Make the time for performance measurement today and you’ll see the results faster.

To find out more about PuMP® Results Mapping, or any other technique I’ve mentioned here, get in touch.