If you talk to any of our clients about the projects that brought them the most success and sustained improvements across their continuous improvement journey, they would all have a similar characteristic in common – genuine, committed buy in from their leadership team. If you’re looking to establish your company as an industry leader for the long term, continuous improvement is key to not letting inefficiencies creep in and the competition capitalizing on your complacency.
It’s not enough to just set and then forget your company culture. Creating an inherent culture of performance improvement and individual ownership is complex and relies on, not only the teams involved feeling empowered, but also knowing they have the support and investment of their leadership team to prioritize their new ways of working and make the necessary changes.
Why leadership buy-in matters
As leaders, we’re constantly thinking about whether our resourcing is allocated correctly and whether we’re meeting our bottom-line requirements to deliver a profit for our stakeholders. With this control over budgets, time and personnel, genuine support for a continuous improvement project ensures projects have what they need to position them for the best chance of success in the long-term.
To see a genuine cultural shift within your organization, leaders need to model that same commitment to improvement as much as the junior worker just starting out. When leaders model the commitment, it becomes embedded in the company’s DNA.
Leaders can remove obstacles that those on the factory floor may not have control over. By being able to rely on their leadership team to make the changes necessary for the change project, it is more likely that the team will feel empowered to implement the change in a lasting way, while also making it more likely for them to be motivated to suggest ongoing change opportunities as they identify them.
There is a certain level of motivation that comes from knowing the leadership team trusts you to make the right choices for the business at a process level. Leaders don’t have to have all the answers, but their trust in their people and being able to rely on their expertise gives teams the sense of purpose and confidence to make positive change.
What real buy-in looks like
There are key activities that leaders can do for genuine commitment to a continuous improvement project. Be active in your endorsement of the project, attending the meetings and asking questions, offering constructive feedback and input to healthily challenge ideas, rather than trying to take over the project or micromanage.
At both an internal and external level, leaders should champion the project’s value to the business. This will empower the project team to deliver on the potential of the change. Whether this is celebrating the wins and taking learnings from the setbacks, leaders who are with their teams on the journey are more likely to sustain the gains into the future.
The best ideas often come from those who are closest to the source. Make sure you are providing the environment to facilitate wisdom-sharing, rather than dictating how you believe it should go. This will ensure your people feel safe to experiment and suggest changes as they’re seeing them, rather than growing disillusioned with “how it has always been done”.
For a business to stay ahead of its competitors and succeed financially, being committed to a continuous improvement journey must be a way of life. With the transformative power of leadership buy-in, you can support your teams to be in control of their own contribution and become invested in the outcome of their projects.
Talk to CCi today to find out how you can step up and become true champions of continuous improvement, and empower your teams to self-solve at the source.
About the author
Jay Milligan is the President and CEO at Competitive Capabilities International (CCi). Jay has over 30 years of operational leadership experience, championing more than 1000 employees with multiple P&L responsibilities exceeding $200 million across technology, business services, financial services, energy, and manufacturing sectors.