{"id":7,"date":"2015-03-21T15:39:52","date_gmt":"2015-03-21T15:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/2008\/07\/10\/improvement-intiatives-are-like-diets\/"},"modified":"2015-04-08T16:32:37","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T16:32:37","slug":"improvement-intiatives-are-like-diets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/improvement-intiatives-are-like-diets\/","title":{"rendered":"Improvement Initiatives Are Like Diets"},"content":{"rendered":"

All diets work while one is dieting. \u00a0However, once the desired weight loss is achieved the vast majority of dieters go back to their normal eating habits and lifestyle. \u00a0The result is that all diets are statistically long term failures because the fundamental issue of a lifestyle changes was never addressed. \u00a0But we never hear about the failure, only the near term success.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Improvement methods\/initiatives like Lean, Six Sigma, TQM, Theory of Constraints, ISO, etc. are very much like diets. \u00a0When a company is committed to and focused on applying the flavor or diet of the month, it inevitably achieves the improvements it sought.\u00a0 However, most companies shift the focus to another area, problem, or initiative once the initial gains have been achieved.\u00a0 The result is that the initial improvements spring back over time. \u00a0No one ever publicizes this fact so we only hear about the initial success. \u00a0In fact, many success stories are improvements on improvement initiatives that did not take hold from years before.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The problem is that most improvement initiative and tools do not address the need for a management system platform and culture that must sustain the improvement over time. \u00a0They just assume that it is there. \u00a0In fact, most organizations do not have a management system platform that was engineered and evolved to absorb the improvements and to make them permanent. \u00a0In these cases most improvement initiatives are ultimately doomed to long term failure.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So what must we do to avoid this trap? \u00a0Like Stephen Covey said: “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” \u00a0Start by focusing on understanding your organization’s processes and their interaction. \u00a0Then standardize and stabilize these processes.\u00a0 Involve people at all levels of the organization in this effort to ensure process ownership, responsibility, and consistency. \u00a0You will be surprised by how much “low hanging fruit” you will find. \u00a0Use process mapping<\/a> to capture and document the resulting current state. \u00a0Then develop appropriate process measurables to measure and monitor the processes. \u00a0The result will be a management system platform and infrastructure that will allow you to much more rationally, practically, and effectively apply improvement tools and methods.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sorry folks, there is no silver bullet. \u00a0Improvement and organizational excellence are a journey, not an event.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Kirill Liberman, President<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All diets work while one is dieting. \u00a0However, once the desired weight loss is achieved the vast majority of dieters go back to their normal eating habits and lifestyle. \u00a0The result is that all diets are statistically long term failures because the fundamental issue of a lifestyle changes was never addressed. \u00a0But we never hear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,7,8,10,11,12,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-as9100","category-continual-improvement","category-iso13485","category-iso9001","category-lean-six-sigma","category-pinnacle-enterprise-group","category-process-improvement","category-quality-management-system","category-tl9000","category-ts16949"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}