Ten Golden Rules of Continuous Improvement

Are you frustrated by problems that seem impossible to solve?  In today’s economic climate problems abound.  Persistent deficits, complex solutions, and special interests all combine to create major headaches.  Why is solving problems so hard? 

One reason could be as - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said “the solution of every problem is another problem.”  Yet Problems also create opportunities.  So perhaps it has to do with your paradigm and depends on how you look at problems.  The impossible is a paradigm - Change your mind and you change your performance. 

To the wise, life is a problem;
to the fool, a solution.
            - Marcus Aurelius

Process improvement rules can guide us to finding the solution.  The trick is in having the right frame of mind and discipline to use them.  For example, one simple rule to finding the root cause of a problem is to ask “why” five times to get to the root cause.  The first answer is never the whole story. 

How about “do it right the first time.”  If it was done right in the first place then you wouldn’t need to make excuses for fixing it.  Perhaps you didn’t have time to do it right, then when do you think you will have time to fix it?  Either way you should correct the errors immediately.

So you asked why five times, which is giving you a pretty good idea what the problem is.  What is the solution?  It is time to involve everyone - we are smarter as a group than a single individual.  But the group comes up with ideas that have been tried before.  You need to reconsider rigid thoughts, situations change.  Try to look at it from a new paradigm to eliminate the impossible thinking.

Once you have narrowed the ideas down to possible solutions, pick the simplest answers.  Mother Nature may appear complex but it is usually the simple solution that solves the problem.  At one time people thought the planets moved in circular orbits, which caused astronomers to create complex calculations with odd retrograde motions to explain planetary motion.  Then Kepler derived that the planets moved in elliptical orbits.  At first he rejected the idea because he had previously assumed this to be too simple a solution.  But he reconsidered such rigid thoughts and he was proven correct.

Complex solutions can also mean expensive.   In Lean Thinking we like to use our mind more than your money.  It is amazing how simple and inexpensive many solutions can really be.  Why do people insist on spending hundreds of billions of dollars to solve problems?  Because it is much easier to spend money then it is to change people’s paradigms.  If you think a problem is impossible, then you also might think the solution is complex and you will need to spend a lot of money to solve it.

The goal of continuous improvement is just that continuous improvement, not delayed perfection.  Continuous improvement implies we are always working toward perfection but never reaching it.  There is always an improvement.  So accept the fact that it is a process, make time for it, nothing is impossible, and discipline yourself to do it right the first time.  Otherwise fix it immediately when it’s discovered, involve the group in the solution and select simple solutions to resolve the answer to the fifth why you asked.  Problems are also opportunities waiting for you.

 Ten Golden Rules of Continuous Improvement

1. Problems create opportunities
2. The impossible is a paradigm - Change your mind to change your performance
3. Ask why five times to get to the real answer
4. Eliminate excuses, do it right the first time
5. Correct errors immediately
6. Involve everyone - we are smarter as a group than a single individual
7. Reconsider rigid thoughts, situations change
8. Think simple, not perfect solutions
9. Use your mind more than your money
10. The Goal: Continuous improvement over delayed perfection

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Posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 under Business Improvement Services, Business Training Seminars

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Originally published in 2009 by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title Ten Golden Rules of Continuous Improvement. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted with attribution only. www.bizmanualz.com