How do I Create a Culture of Continuous

Improvement?
Emma Harris
19 May 2021

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Continuous Improvement is the objective of many organisations. It isn’t however

just something to be done, it is an approach or a culture and as such it can be hard to
achieve. In this article I will explore the vital ingredients of a culture of Continuous
Improvement and how to build it into your business as usual.

This article covers:

 What is Continuous Improvement?

 Why Continuous Improvement often Requires Cultural Change
 3 Vital Ingredients of a Culture of Continuous Improvement
 Continuous Improvement as Business as Usual
 Some Practical Help

So let's get going...

What is Continuous Improvement?

Continuous Improvement - also known as Continual Improvement, CI, Continuous Improvement

Process, CIP and often used interchangeably with the term Kaizen - is a long-term approach to
improvement that systematically seeks to achieve small, incremental changes in processes in
order to improve efficiency and quality. This is in contrast to one overwhelming innovation. For
more detail on this please read: What is Continuous Improvement? A Simple Guide.
ATC Platform: Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Why Continuous Improvement often Requires Cultural Change

One of the common problems with improvement initiatives is that the team responsible focuses
on actions and doing, but don't give enough focus to the mindset of the rest of the organisation.
This can be because they don’t have the time or the skillset to address this. It can even be
because they don’t realise it is required.

This however is a grave mistake; equally as important as anything that is done, is the cultural
shift that needs to go alongside it.

Continuous Improvement is best thought of as a business culture or approach which involves

everyone - leadership, management and employees - in finding and eliminating waste on an
ongoing basis.
This can be quite a change for many organisations as it requires all employees to take
responsibility for ongoing improvement, something which is often only felt to be the
responsibility of management. 

 Employees may want to be involved in suggesting improvement initiatives, but not know
how to do so.
 Or they might not want to be involved because they feel it isn't their responsibility - that
it is somehow above their 'pay grade'.
 They may also be unsettled, or even worried by improvement initiatives and just wish
people would stop changing things and leave them as they are.

There may be many different reasons why your employees might not support continuous
improvement but they all need to be addressed. This can only be successfully achieved by
embedding into the culture of your organisation that change is vital and everyone is equally key
in suggesting and making improvements.

3 Vital Ingredients of a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Changing the culture of an organisation is hard, because it is as much about hearts and minds as
is it about actions. 

There are however 3 vital ingredients of a Culture of Continuous Improvement.

Vital Ingredient #1: Employee Involvement 

Often organisations think they are involving their employees in change initiatives, but actually
they are just telling them about the changes planned. A culture of Continuous Improvement
requires your employees to be properly involved. This means:

 Embedding ways for employees to suggest changes and improvements as part of daily
life
 Responding to these suggestions positively and not as criticisms or trouble making
 Enabling those who do the work to be involved in relevant change initiatives right from
the start

The more employees are involved in suggesting improvement initiatives and their

implementation, the more they will feel ownership of them and the more likely they are to be
successful.

Vital Ingredient #2: Senior Management Commitment

Senior management commitment to Continuous Improvement is essential.

There are a number of reasons for this:

  If senior management aren’t supporting it, why should everyone else?
 It is key that employees can see the link between change initiatives and the strategic goals
of the organisation. This really helps with explaining which initiatives are chosen to be
implemented and why, but is very hard to achieve without senior management support.
  Senior management participation generally enables decisions to be made
quickly and benefits to be realised promptly.

Vital Ingredient #3: Keep The Communication Going

It just isn’t enough to send out an e-mail and say 'everyone is responsible for finding and
eliminating waste on an ongoing basis'.

There has to be
an on-going programme of communication, all focused on getting and keeping employees
involved. This needs to cover:

 Explaining how everyone can make improvement suggestions

 Explaining the criteria whereby change initiatives are accepted or rejected
 Enabling involvement in the prioritisation of accepted change suggestions
 Giving visibility of change roadmaps wherever possible
 Keeping everyone updated as change initiatives are implemented 
 Involving those effected in their implementation
This can't just be a series of e-mails either. It needs to be embedded and effective.

Continuous Improvement as Business as Usual

For Continuous Improvement to be successful making incremental improvements must be
become business as usual.

The absolute game changer here is the employee engagement and empowerment to identify
small steps for incremental change and as we have explored achieving that requires an effective a
business culture.

Having said that systems and tools are also important, especially if they can help you embed a
culture of ongoing incremental change.

Some Practical Help

Triaster's ATC platform is a software tool that is designed to capture everyone's ideas and
prioritisation views to enable you to build the best possible change roadmap that everyone can
get behind. It also takes care of much of the communication needed to build a culture of
Continuous Improvement. (But not all.) 

If you are serious about creating a culture of Continuous Improvement, you should sign up for a
free trial of the ATC Platform now. 

Related Articles:
What is Continuous Improvement? A Simple Guide

How to Build a Continuous Improvement Roadmap: a Practical Guide

The Complete Guide to Continuous Improvement in Business

Related White Papers:
The Complete Guide to Continuous Improvement in Business

This is an entirely updated and refreshed edition of an article originally written in 2016.

Written by Emma Harris

Emma was Operations Director for Triaster for nearly 20 years, during which time as well as
learning and perfecting her BPM and process improvement skills, she honed her inbound
marketing expertise. She now runs D2e - Designed to engage - which designs and develops
bespoke, engaging, HubSpot CMS websites, that help your entire company to grow and scale.
She is delighted to still be delivering Triaster's marketing, whilst also helping other companies
turn their websites into their hardest working asset.

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