Why Continuous Improvement Starts With Culture…
Some years ago, fresh into a new role as head of continuous improvement and eager to make an impact, a colleague told me, “culture eats strategy for breakfast’. Until then I’d never heard the expression and if I’m honest at the time I thought they were maybe a bit long in the tooth and ever so slightly cynical. How wrong was I!
Fast forward a couple of years and although my team and I had achieved small gains, quite frankly it was a slog. Every small change was met with resistance, often with full on vociferous challenge. Attempts to improve working methods for people, and efficiency for the business, were treated with disdain. And everything just took so bloody long!
But despite my colleague’s initial comment I still didn’t connect the issues I was experiencing back to organisational culture. I kept looking at my own personal leadership and my team’s approach to see what we could do differently. I know now I was focusing on the wrong things.
I imagine that many people involved in continuous improvement, myself included, will have studied Toyota in some shape or form as part of honing their craft. Given that culture is at the heart and soul of the ‘Toyota Way’ I’m still scratching my head as to why it took so long for the penny to drop.
Fast forward a few years later, new role, new organisation – where do I start? I start with culture.
How healthy is the culture in your organisation?
Culture can be hard to define, and this is where the cultural web, comes in to play. Built around six interconnecting elements including stories, rituals and routines, symbols, power structures, control systems and organisational structures, it helps you understand the culture of your organisation.
Listen to the stories people tell. Are they good or bad? Do people talk about poor behaviour, past dramas and things gone wrong?
Watch how people behave. Are these the type of behaviours you want to see in your organisation? What rituals and routines, good or bad do you see happening? Are people stuck in their ways?
Seek to understand how the organisation operates. Are there control systems in place and do they work well? How is the organisation structured and who has influence?
Look for visual symbols. How do people dress? Are logos used? Does the organisation have a clear identity?
Understand how decisions are made. Who holds the power? Are decision lines clear and are they made quickly and at the right level?
What next?
Going through an exercise like this is often uncomfortable and wont in itself improve the culture. This isn’t a quick fix; it takes time, and more importantly it takes consistency. It also takes a leadership team with the desire to embed continuous improvement as, ‘just the way we do business around here’.
So here are my top tips to creating a continuous improvement culture.
Change the rhetoric. Create stories in your organisation you are proud to tell. And tell them to everyone who will listen.
Live you Values. Make celebrating them a ritual. And align them with continuous improvement values, like Agile and Proactive.
Focus on a strong brand identity; one that people can buy into, and one that is symbolic of your organisation.
Create structures that encourage collaboration, where people can come together and generate ideas.
Reduce the bureaucracy that slows change down. Make your control systems transparent and easy to understand.
Distribute power. Give people the autonomy to do their jobs well and make those bottom-up improvements without having to jump through hoops.
Top down, bottom up, and everything in between, Continuous Improvement needs to belong to everyone. Here at Solvd. we are well on our way to achieving that.
