Continuous Improvement
Looking for something specific? The following topics address a wide range of business needs and challenges.
Four Reasons Lean Initiatives Fail and How Leadership Can Help
It’s been estimated that at least 60% of continuous improvement initiatives fail to achieve their desired results. In reaction to lackluster results, I’ve seen budget cuts, SME resignations, training…
Common Leadership Errors: Focusing on Backward Accountability
Feedback is a critical component of helping others improve their performance. Information about what behaviors to repeat or do differently in given situations allows for continuous improvement over…
Common Leadership Error: Failing to Evolve
The world around us is constantly changing. The markets we operate in, current economic conditions, world events, access to material goods and competition are all things leadership considers when…
Common Leadership Errors: Retraining Fixes Everything
What happens in your organization when a human error occurs? By human error I mean an undesired behavior that could, or does, lead to some undesired consequences for the performer, people around them…
When Safety Systems Work Well
I recently had the opportunity to do an assessment with a company that is a safety culture exemplar. At ADI, we work with a lot of companies that have sophisticated safety management systems, but…
Caution—Don't Try This At Home
In my experience, mistakes can be our greatest teachers under two conditions. We must take the time to understand both why they happened, and how to change our behavior to prevent repeating them. I’d…
The Demise of Effective Training
My colleagues and I have noticed a disturbing trend as we complete surveys and assessments for our clients. A significant number of employees are telling us that skills training has become woefully…
Improvement Discontinued
The signs of an impressive continuous improvement (CI) culture were plentiful. Walls of the common areas were adorned with A3 problem solving papers and visual management boards were scattered across…
Sustainability in Your Process Improvement
Lean and Six Sigma are very useful tools for process improvement initiatives with the intent of reducing waste and variability in work processes and the product. These reductions can lead to a…
Lean: The Missing Piece is Behavior
For many years the lean champions who have been through our Performance Management classes have all said the same thing, “This is the missing piece.” Most of them had experienced the same…
