“Practitioner-Led” Approach For Real Improvements
Tanmay Vora
One of the sure ways to fail in any operational improvement initiative is to keep thinking about possible areas of improvements sitting in comforts of a corner cabin. Your thinking, approach and mindset may not necessarily align with those affected by such improvements. In worst case, you might not even be aware of the actual challenges faced by your teams and frontline managers.
For identifying “real” improvements, you need to talk to “real” people on the floor doing the “real” work – building solutions to customer problems, managing them, talking to them and facing operational roadblocks on a day to day basis.
Real improvements are always “practitioner-led” – people who are most affected by an operational challenge are involved in defining the solution. It helps you bring out “solutions thinking” within your team. As a bonus, it also generates better buy-in when you implement the improved process.
If your operational improvement ideas are not coming from people at all levels within the organization, you need to revisit your improvement strategy. Fresh thinking is needed on how you treat your people, align them to organization goals and empower them.
When your process improvement strategy follows a “top-down” path – people will dispassionately comply and their real problems may not even be addressed. When it is “bottom-up” – people are a part of the game. Involved. Aligned. Thinking. Ready to make a difference!
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P.S: The focus of my last few posts has been improvement – and I continue to think more and more about it. If you read this post in continuation to the previous ones, it may extend a better view of how improvement should be handled. Here are the links:
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Ideas to Avoid ‘Planning Trap’ and Focus on Execution
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‘Commitment to Quality’ and Organic Nature of Improvement
Wish you a productive week ahead and a GREAT Monday!
Bottom up approach in process improvement strategy does make people at all levels of hierarchy as part of the game, but what when final decission makers of these strategies implementation are top level personals. Presenting them these strategies, explaining them, formulating implementation plans makes this a top-bottom approach. Team members will at later stage be made aware of these strategies, imparted training, etc. So, what do you suggest on this?
Hi Jay, process improvement is a communication intensive activity where a lot of internal selling needs to happen (from the top to bottom and vice versa)
To sell your improvement ideas to people at the top does not make it a “top-down” approach, because people at the bottom are empowered to suggest improvements, create awareness about their ideas and then implement it. That still is a “bottom-up” approach. If your ideas are consistently overruled with the views of top management, then, as I said, companies need to re-look at how they are treating their people and empowering them to improve the processes.
Secondly, it is also important to understand that when I mention “practitioner-led”, I don’t mean “all practitioners” because that is not possible. But idea is to have people from different practices as a part of process improvement team – so that they can better represent their area of work and suggest improvements based on their real-life challenges.
Hope this clarifies your question.
Best,
Tanmay
This does clarifies my doubt. Ultimately the point is that decission makers must have an open mind and vision to welcome changes and suggestions.
Thanks a lot for finding time to revert back to my query.
Regards,
Jay Chahya
Nice article.
I am agree with you on “bottom-up” approach.