CLF LE 4 - Leading Continuous Improvement

Welcome to this CLF PD platform post on the importance of continuous improvement and how it contributes to effective leadership. The sections below will progressively immerse you deeper into the different areas and guide you to reflect on your current practice and any areas for development.

Introduction

LCI 1- Understand the present through effective review and evaluation of data.

Continuous improvement is a philosophy that seeks to create sustained, incremental change with a focus on quality and begins with a clear Understanding of the present through effective review and evaluation of data. Leaders must be confident in the analysis of data and the stages of collection. cleaning, analysis, interpretation and visualisation. The successful use of meetings for these purposes is a key tool for leaders but their complexity must not be overlooked. Planning and delivering effective meetings requires a considerable investment of thought and time.

LCI 2- Plan and implement change strategically

Continuous improvement requires change and leaders must ensure that they Plan and implement change strategically. Understanding the need for and generating innovation is key to meeting changes in internal or external demands and can lead to improved efficiency, outcomes and competitive advantage. Leaders must recognise the dynamism of workforces and implement an effective succession planning process which proactively avoids any gaps in knowledge, skills or experience. The management of change must involve high degrees of strategic thinking requiring leaders to find the root of problems, synthesise information to see the whole picture and visualise possible futures. The change process should follow a recognised process, based on credible evidence and where possible suited to the organisational and project context.

LCI 3- Analyse impact

Leaders must be able to Analyse impact in order to demonstrate that intended results follow either directly or indirectly from activities and initiatives. This process goes beyond simply describing impact and seeks to understand the role of interventions or intervention components in results. Leaders must also be mindful of typical blocks such as cognitive biases, data validation and the difference between correlation and causation. Alongside change management and impact analysis, leaders must also master the process of de-implementation and changes to initiatives that are no longer effective. Leaders must be ready to systematically reduce, remove, replace or rethink processes in order to ensure continuous improvement.

Key Takeaways

Continuous Improvement is a philosophy that seeks to create sustained, gradual, incremental change with a focus on improving quality.
Analysing data should be a systematic process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modelling information with the goal of discovery, conclusion and problem-solving.
Meetings are a key communication, collaboration and decision-making strategy but vary wildly in their effectiveness and so require careful planning.
Innovation enables leaders to meet changing expectations, increase efficiency, improve outcomes and gain a competitive advantage.
Leaders must identify and grow talent to fill key positions within an organisation in a proactive attempt to avoid reductions in productivity and organisational effectiveness.
The precursor to strategic decision-making is strategic thinking which is about seeing the whole, finding the root of problems and visualising possible futures.
Change is perpetual and must be managed through a systematic process in order to successfully respond to internal and external influences.
Leaders must be able to demonstrate the direct and indirect results of initiatives and derive causal links between inputs and outcomes.
One of the key principles of good implementation is regularly evaluating and de-implementing initiatives that are not having the intended impact.

Reflective Questions