Do this year's improvement goals look worryingly familiar?

Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik

A "whole system" approach to ensure you deliver your improvement goals

Do you have a goal to improve your operational performance this year?  Perhaps to improve profitability, reduce defects or improve on–time delivery.  If so, do those goals look familiar, because you set similar goals last year but for one reason or another haven't achieved them?

In so many  organisations I’ve worked with, I’ve seen them set ambitious goals at the start of the year and then not delivering them.  Worse still, they’ll often explain this away as due to external factors or something unforeseen, only to resort to “we must try harder next year”. 

The reality is that everyone was already trying hard last year, and they’re actually doing nothing different in the way that goals are set or worked on.  Of course, it’s easy and comfortable to stick with the familiar, but what’s the realistic expectation of achieving a better result that way?

If that is what has happened in your organisation, then I have good news.  It doesn't need to happen to you ever again.

What I've discovered is that it is vital to see your goals in the context of your overall “operating system” – the structures and methods that the organisation uses to achieve its results.  Study and experience have taught me that – whether by design or accident – all of the elements of the system work in an interconnected way to deliver a result.

“Every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it does.”

W. EDWARDS DEMING

So, if you want a different result, you need to change the system.  Simply addressing one specific element may not achieve the result that you expected and may even make things worse despite your best intentions.

While the idea may sound complex, the number of “building blocks” for such a system is quite small and not as daunting as you may think.  The challenge is having all in place together and applying them consistently, but even this aspect is a function of the system.

Which is better, failing to deliver on goals that, in your heart, you know are necessary for the future success of the business or getting to grips with a relatively simple system for delivering improved performance reliably and sustainably?

To find out how to adopt this systematic approach, come to my webinar “Foundations for High Performance with Ease” on Friday February 7th February at 12 noon