How do you foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation in your organization?

Having worked for some of the best operationally engineered companies in my career, FedEx's Quality Driven Management Methodology stands above the rest in creating a culture of quality and improvement based on 6 key principles Customer define opportunities Be scientific Measure everything Quality involves teamwork Optimize business performance View failures as opportunities

Every time I have conversations about innovation, people are always looking for some new technology or AI applications. However, the culture of continuous transformation through innovation is not only thinking about how to use new technologies, but also how to improve processes and activities by simplifying the bureaucracy or steps that are no longer necessary. I frequently see activity overlap in different departments, people spending time to run similar or equal reports and analysis to support different needs. Innovation can be about identifying such problems and create communication channels to share information among departments and no longer need to spend time from multiple employees in different departments to reach the same result.

As a business analyst, there are several ways one can foster continuous improvement and innovation within an organization. 1. Stay Informed: Keep yourself updated with the latest industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices related to your domain. This knowledge will enable you to identify opportunities for improvement within the industry. 2. Develop strong relationships with stakeholders, including business leaders, project managers, and team members. By establishing open lines of communication, you can gather valuable insights, ideas, and feedback from different perspectives. 3. Conduct Thorough Analysis: Utilize your analytical skills to identify gaps, inefficiencies, and areas of improvement within existing processes.

To build a culture of continuous improvement, anchor your endeavors in a solid vision. Think of your vision as the compass guiding your efforts. From my experience, setting clear, measurable goals derived from the broader vision ensures alignment and drives efforts in the right direction. An actionable step here is to regularly review and adjust goals based on changing circumstances to stay relevant and impactful.

Supporting your team in finding ownership of their work and delving into how they can connect their own feelings of purpose to the work they are doing is part of the road to empowering people.

To empower your team, you first need to build trust, it takes time to be built, and only seconds to destroy it. Hence, when people feel in a safe environment they will achieve bigger goals.

Don’t forget Plan, Do, Check and Act. Simple approach that many can understand and apply in both technology and business processes. Or call it a pilot or “test drive” if that lingo resonates better. And it has the feedback loop built in as well!

Using a structured approach can make the process easier and help team members be more creative. It also helps to have a clear way of talking about things so people can improve or make new things. Using methods like Lean or Agile can help everyone understand what they need to do and how to do it. They can also help to manage risks. Having clear goals and ways to measure success can help keep everyone on track. When everyone knows how and why to use these methods, it can make them feel more committed to improving and making new things. This can help create a culture of innovation across the organisation.

If possible, try to engage your non-customers or those who “got away” to get that perspective as well. Definitely want to retain and grow your current customers and that is more cost effective yet a new customer might help you pivot or grow in a way you hadn’t thought about before or perhaps even develop a new partnership? Could also soften any concentration of risk concerns if a few customers drive a large percentage of annual revenue.

So many companies organize and improve around their internally derived wants/needs. It doesn't matter how efficient or improved you become, if it doesn't ultimately serve the customer/client's wants/needs it is a waste of time and money.

At Toyota, you always share bad news before the good news. It allows for the environment to learn from the failures. That is the power of the CI culture.

“Celebrate” failure by creating an environment where team members are encouraged to speak openly about temporary failures without fear of reprisal. Teams will escalate failures in a more timely manner the longer the environment is installed. When implementing such a strategy, leadership must serve as a buffer to ensure temporary failure impacts are contained and do not create a systemic adverse event. Additionally, leadership must continuously monitor the learning opportunities to identify when added support or inputting “bumpers” for personnel to guide them back toward the path is necessary. As teams learn, the need for “bumpers” will lessen and greater efficiencies achieved.

Collaboration and innovation go hand in hand, fueling organizational growth and success. By leveraging diverse perspectives and fostering a culture of collaboration, teams can unleash their creativity and drive transformative ideas. I recall a project where cross-functional collaboration led to breakthrough solutions, resulting in increased efficiency and customer satisfaction. Collaboration truly unleashes the power of innovation.

To collaborate is to innovate. Here's two tips to level up HOW you collaborate with others. #1 Look for people with cognitive diversity. You want to find people who DON'T think like you; we tend to only gravitate to people who THINK like us. Find people who have: different educational backgrounds, work experience, industry experience, lived in other places, speak different languages, etc. Collaborate with these people and they'll bring in fresh perspectives and ideas you've never considered before. They'll challenge how you see things and you'll innovate better. #2 Invite collaboration on everything - from the big to the small and do it regularly. Ask people for their feedback, listen and incorporate it what they've said into your work.

The single most important factor in creating a culture of continuous improvement is to have it driven by leaders at all levels. I've worked in places where it was done more grassroots and in places where it was driven by the top. There's no comparison in how they perform. Getting leaders to drive this means that it becomes embedded in the culture. It means people talk about it in every scenario. It means leaders know what continuous improvement is and how it works in the company. They will ask the right questions and drive the right behavior.

Leadership Strategy Planning Culture A leader (not just a sponsor) to drive change and be accountable for performance. A strategy allows you to share a common set of goals and principles. To be able to flex as more information comes in, to adapt as the situation changes. Plans are derived from Strategy; plans don't change. If a plan is not working, change plan. A culture that embraces the need to change, to innovate, to improve. Communication Use skip meetings and regular "formal" informal catch-ups to understand what is needed at all levels. A Business Glossary to ensure a common language