Continual Improvement: How do fit organizations drive service excellence?

[Manjeet Singh]

 

I define a fit organization as ‘a dynamic, constantly-improving, customer-focused entity that delivers superior performance and results over the long-term horizon’. ‘Fit’ organization don’t get that way by accident. They intentionally pursue a set of steps that makes them Stronger, Agile, Innovative and Productive over time.

For example, Toyota came up with the principal of ‘lean’ production system more than 20 years ago. Since then many organization have tried to be like Toyota, but only a few organizations have actually achieved a lean transformation. The reasons for this are varied: Leadership did not make mental leap of same transformation from say auto manufacturing to healthcare or banking, or the company culture was such that even a simple improvement model appeared too hard to adopt, or they did not take a step by step iterative approach to find what variation of an improvement framework works for their organization and business.

Fit companies and leaders love problems because they see them as opportunities for improvement — and they engage in structured thinking to analyze and solve them. I think the pursuit of organizational fitness is like the pursuit of physical fitness: there are no secret formulas, no shortcuts to reach a long-term sustainable fitness. Both kinds of fitness require continuous focus and commitment to the hard work of improvement. When you accept that your current physical or organizational limitations as opportunities for growth and begin to see the never-ending journey of improvement as something inherently worthwhile, you have taken the first step towards becoming ‘Fit’.

How can organizations use Continual Improvement approach to drive service excellence?

Making improvement a regular habit and not a one-time goal:

The busiest week of the year at any gym is the second week of the new year, when — fueled by an excess of calories from the holiday season — people make resolutions to get fit. Of course, by February, everything is back to normal, and you could toss a football in the gym without hitting anyone. Organizations aren’t that different. Preceding each new fiscal year, senior management announces its goal to capture the top spot in the marketplace, rolls out 20 new strategic initiatives, and vows to improve employee engagement. By the second quarter, it’s business as usual.

For both individuals and organizations, the root problem is the same: there may be a stated goal — ‘lose 15 pounds’ or ‘be #1’ — but there is often no clearly-defined program to reach that goal. If there is, it is often the latest fad, promising results with minimal effort. 

Start small, set right expectations and keep a long-term view:

A friend recently decided to learn a perfect free handstand. He started by watching YouTube Videos, Instagram posts and attended a weekend workshop. He practised for a while but was not getting the expected results. So, he hired a fitness coach. In the first session, the Coach gave a wonderful advice. “Most people think that if they work hard, they should be able to master a handstand in about two weeks. The reality is that it takes about six months of daily practice. If you think you should be able to do it in two weeks, you are just going to end up quitting.”

Unrealistic beliefs on the scope – often hidden and undiscussed – kill the momentum towards service excellence.

Create the improvement culture:

Organizations do not naturally turn towards continuous improvement. It takes focused, concerted effort to create this kind of behaviour and culture. Here are few ideas to foster the culture of continual Improvement in your organizations:

• Listen carefully for complaints. Every complaint is a nascent improvement opportunity. Seize upon them and challenge people to solve them.
• Implement a simple framework to capture and implement improvement ideas.
• Make idea visible and respond to them. Your team won’t embrace improvement if people are afraid that their ideas will be dismissed, or if they’re afraid it will cost them (or their co-workers) a job.
• Expect (some) failure: If you’re consistently running experiments, you will inevitably fail, some of the time. Don’t criticize people for not succeeding. The Silicon Valley mantra these days is, ‘fail fast’, which provides a license to experiment without fear of failure.

Insane focus on Continuous Improvement of people:

The market, business models and the way people work are changing fast. Sadly, most organizations don’t engage in PDCA (Plan, Do Check, Act) type improvement cycle when it comes to improvement of people. Instead, they rush to the Do phase and typically stall there. I think the best approach is to use a continuous feedback approach to collect both qualitative and quantitative feedback and find areas where people need help related to their personal and professional developments.

Once you have identified the area, have a process to provide a coaching and career development for everyone. Challenge people to improve. Then, challenge them again!

How are you measuring the quality of your services?  Are you proactively driving service improvements?  And are those improvements aligned with your business goals? Whether you are a small business or a Global 2000 enterprise, driving service excellence and becoming a ‘Fit’ organization is an important goal.

Want to learn and discuss more on this topic?

Join me at ServiceNow Knowledge18 Conference on May 7^th, 2018 in following Breakouts and Lab Sessions:

BRE1232: BENCHMARKS AND CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT: HOW DO FIT ORGANIZATIONS DRIVE SERVICE EXCELLENCE?

LAB1397: EFFECTIVE BENCHMARKS PRACTICES AND STRATEGIES