So Fred, one of your best and most valued employees comes to you with an idea. It’s something they have been thinking about for a while. It’s a great way to speed up your process, save time and money, and even improve customer satisfaction. Fred and the team have really thought this through.
What do you say?
“No, sorry Fred, we haven’t completed a full trip around the sun this cycle. We can’t look at anything new just yet. Even with Saturn and Jupiter in closer alignment. My hands are tied.”
Does anyone but me chuckle and shake their head at this conversation?
Play this same conversation in other aspects of your quest for improvement.
Are you waiting always for the New Year to make resolutions to do things better? In your personal life? Your career? Your business? Your relationships? Your health?
If there is a resolution that really makes sense it has to be the idea that the circumnavigation of the celestial body that we find ourselves residing on should be the sole determining factor as to whether we try to do things better today than yesterday!
The Japanese idea of Kaizen is simply to look at doing things a little better every day is a tried and tested approach to making improvements over time. It doesn’t rely on a change of the calendar, only in a change of attitude.
Can you do 10 hours of improvement work to save money and time this month? Usually I get eye rolls and laughter along with a litany of reasons why this is just not possible..not just now….not in the current economy.
Change the question to “Could you spare just 30 minutes to do something” and the answer is usually “well, OK…we’ll make that available”. Multiply that 30 minutes out each day for a month…..and yes, it’s that 10h I asked for.
Change happens either in revolutionary steps (big shifts) or over time in an evolutionary fashion (subtle shifts). The choice makes a difference and depends on many factors including the urgency, resistance, enthusiasm, cost, and the environment in which you work. It’s true that you might need some help, but that’s entirely OK!
None of these are reliant just on the New Year fireworks.
Imagine if you actually had your data and processes in order before you signed up for a new IT system? Imagine if you were able to train new staff because you all had clear procedures? Imagine if you had a business continuity plan for the entirely unlikely event of global pandemic….
Why not consider a new approach this coming year and put together a real improvement approach over the whole year? Imagine what you could achieve if you did rather than just imagined?
