On Monday, someone shared with me the news of the latest update from Zoom that eventually allows us to share a screen into breakout rooms (You can get this by updating your Zoom app on your mac / pc). This is a massive step forward but got me thinking about the passion that we need to continue to move something forward. Zoom has captured a sizable chunk of the video conferencing market – but are continually competing with bigger players. They need to continually innovate – and this has seen other dynamic functions such as background noise removal and virtual backgrounds develop significant benefits to the way that people use their service.
How we then develop a process of continual improvement is fundamental to our future. Perhaps it is THE KEY to our future that we have not grasped. I would certainly put this in the same category as productivity reviews, strategy sessions and ongoing profit generation. What are the key principles that we need to be exploring?
At its heart, continuous improvement helps us to identify opportunities for work process enhancements and reduce waste. According to mckinsey.com, “It rests on the belief that a steady stream of improvements, diligently executed, will have transformational results.”
This relentless focus on continual improvement, therefore, relies on a ruthless focus on our activities. The ‘that’s good enough’ phrase does not sit well.
“Bitter is where improvement stops and the excuse wins. Whenever a performance or outcome is less than desired, instead of rationalizing it with excuses ask yourself: how did I contribute to this outcome and what do I need to do differently going forward? You will only ever live the life you create for yourself. So do you really want to spend it making excuses? (inc.com)“
Whilst focused on organisational continual improvement, Kainexus.com suggests we have 6 principles to think about.
- Improvements are based on small changes, not only on major paradigm shifts or new inventions.
- Employee ideas are valuable.
- Incremental improvements are typically inexpensive to implement.
- Employees take ownership and are involved in improvement.
- Improvement is reflective.
- Improvement is measurable and potentially repeatable.
These can be applied to a small business and messages such as having confidence in our ideas that do not need to change the world, providing a time for taking stock and repeating of processes that work could be taken to improve our performance.
As you may now be reaching for your A4 pad and favourite pens, perhaps explore your thoughts further about areas that perhaps you could navigate slightly differently and achieve different results.
What is it that you will address that can have a small change in your performance that you can do right now?