"10 Process Improvement Lessons for Leaders"

Robert Gardner

Quality Progress

November 2002, pp. 56-61

This article identifies and discusses 10 lessons which will help avoid common pitfalls when launching a process improvement program:

1. You won't get there without the end in mind—"Without purpose there is no framework for establishing priorities, aligning efforts, or judging success;"
2. Improvement competence must be grown organically—"Be skeptical of the well-marketed silver bullets that promise the recipe for success;"
3. Sustained improvement must be self-sustaining—"The ability to sustain improvement programs and their results is directly associated with the ability to understand and enable change;"
4. Local optima do not equal system improvement—"local optima-local improvements-frequently suboptimize the total system;"
5. Activity does not translate into results—"Though you certainly can't grow competency or produce results without activity, don't lose sight of the real performance measure-business results;"
6. It will get worse before it gets better—"The cost of an improvement effort is immediate while the corresponding benefits are delayed;"
7. If all you have is a hammer, that does not mean that everything is a nail—"Methodology selection should be driven by an honest assessment of your improvement needs;"
8. How long depends on how much—"Both duration and scope must be carefully considered when you are planning, supporting and evaluating projects;"
9. Without clear accountabilities, no one is accountable—"Most enterprises are organized vertically by function (by division or department), while processes operate horizontally across enterprise boundaries;" and
10. Crossing the goal line doesn't always score—"Sometimes, teams are so anxious to finish the project or management is so anxious to harvest the benefits, the deployment of solutions is not effectively planned or executed."

The article includes tips for dealing with these issues.

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