Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to move products, services, or processes from one state to a state considered to be better, a healthy company culture is the cornerstone of continuous improvement, But how do you establish a culture that support improvement initiatives? We’ve put together a few tips.
1. Create a culture of no blame:
Encourage your team to bring mistakes and near misses to light.
Your team should feel comfortable to share this information, as these are the incidents upon which better processes are based.
If team members are afraid to uncover problems and mistakes, there can be no lessons to be learned from them, the improvement will be impossible as a result and mistakes will be repeated again.
2. Constantly focus on getting better:
Team should be encouraged to provide the best possible performance at all times.
Ensure that team efforts are recognized, and highlight members whose efforts are key to the success of improvement initiatives.
3. Transparency within and outside of the organization:
Share information and awareness through all available channels, so everyone can be kept up to date.. Celebrate wins, but also share your lessons learned from mistakes.
As continuous improvement is an on ongoing process, it’s important for team to learn when and how progress is being made.
4. Listen to coworkers and clients:
Ensure that there are opportunities get feedback from coworkers as well as clients.
It’s easy to collect feedback from coworkers by holding regular team meetings, in which team members can share their accomplishments and challenges. Keeping these meetings casual, makes people feel comfortable and encouraged to share useful information.
You can also gain valuable feedback from clients using suggestion boxes and surveys. Make it as easy as possible for clients to provide feedback about their experience at your organization.
Clients are the best sources of information to know what you are doing well and where you need to improve.
5. Be respectful:
Everyone has their own values, beliefs and cultural identity. When each team member and each client feels respected, better collaboration can occurs, and information can be exchanged easer.