Imagine … an employee notices that a standard repeated task takes longer than it should.

She has an idea for cutting 10 minutes out of it, but she knows her boss isn’t going to think much of it. So she just goes back doing the work the same way as always.

Ten minutes doesn’t sound like much. But suppose 12 people perform that task twice a day. That’s four hours of total wasted time every day — more than 1,000 hours a year. With an average wage of $25 per hour, that’s an annual savings of over $25,000.

And it's all gone for one simple reason – the culture doesn't appreciate the cumulative value of small improvements, and there's feeble encouragement with no formal process to support people in coming forward with those ideas.

I’ve seen variations of this blind spot throughout my career. The people closest to the work see unnecessary steps, recurring problems, wasted materials and better ways of doing things that managers never pay attention to.

The problem isn’t a lack of ideas – people have plenty of them. It’s the lack of a structured support system to make it a regular part of how work is done day-in and day-out.

That's why our model for Systematic Continuous Improvement (SCI) includes routine team huddles devoted specifically to engaging everyone in getting everything to work better. Ideas are identified, documented, assigned, acted on and followed through.

Without that routine, it’s an idea here and an idea there that doesn’t add up to much – and people aren’t motivated to offer them when experience teaches them their ideas don’t go anywhere.

The cost of an improvement idea isn’t measured only by what it takes to implement it. Sometimes the greater cost is never hearing it in the first place.

If you want to build systems for continuous improvement with your team …Let’s talk.

Begin your improvement journey today!

Getting better at getting better.