Many of us love Marshall Goldsmith’s "What Got You Here Won’t Get You There" an awesome book about professional growth. I’d like to borrow the title and say this is also exactly why we need continuous improvement in company systems and processes. To go further than we have, something has to change.
Unfortunately, business change often becomes a “methodology of the month” or one “too heavy” mega-initiative after another. Which results in a few scattered and expensive localized improvements, more complicated processes, stress, and a growing cynicism.
I’ve studied why this happens and root causes include busy staff, competition for management attention and resources, efforts out of sync with goals, unclear ROIs, and change fatigue.
I also came to the painful conclusion organizational excellence folks like me haven’t done enough to avoid these issues. We start a project and can steamroll obstacles to the final report. We focus on milestones instead of building a healthy environment for ongoing improvement.
Owning this led me to rethink everything I do with clients. As a result, I developed what I call Continuous Improvement as a Service (CIaaS).
My intention with CIaaS is to nurture teams as they deliver a steady flow of prioritized, strategic, and discrete improvements while respecting the fact everyone has a “day job.” Put another way: Some changes matter more than others and there’s an optimum pace for change in every organization.
CIaaS includes one to two days of training and workshop each month designed to support an improvement sprint toward an agreed goal. I then serve that sprint's team, including remote members, by running check-ins, coaching, documenting results, and preparing for the next sprint. CIaaS is subscription based to ensure the fit and ROI is always there.
I know folks are curious so CIaaS incorporates aspects of the Theory of Constraints, Lean, Agile, PMO, EOS, and Appreciative Inquiry that I’ve found most useful in the last 39 years. Always the right tool for the problem, not a dump truck of acronyms.
While I was initially focused of the needs of larger clients, I expect CIaaS to also be a fit for smaller and mid-sized companies where resources are more limited or cashflow is a concern.
I’d love your thoughts on the CIaaS approach. If continuous improvement has an easy button, I want CIaaS to be it.