{"id":1008,"date":"2018-09-05T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/?p=1008"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","slug":"strive-for-continuous-improvement-instead-of-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/strive-for-continuous-improvement-instead-of-perfection\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cStrive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our previous post talked about Continuous Improvement, but it\u2019s an important topic that deserves to be thoroughly explored, so please consider this a continuation of the discussion we began with our last post.<\/em><\/p>\n

No matter how good we are, we can always be better.\u00a0 No matter how proficient we are, we can always be more so.\u00a0 No matter how knowledgeable we are, we can always learn more.\u00a0 There\u2019s always room for improvement.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Continuous Improvement is all about.\u00a0 The thing is, we\u2019re OK with the \u201cImprovement\u201d part.\u00a0 It\u2019s the \u201cContinuous\u201d part that sometimes eludes us . . . the idea that even though we just improved something, we\u2019ve got to turn around and improve it again, and again, and again.\u00a0 We want some sort of closure, some sense of completion.\u00a0 But Continuous Improvement is a tough master that, no matter how well we\u2019re doing, tasks us to do even better.\u00a0 Still, great companies embrace both parts of it . . . the need to improve and the need to improve continuously.\u00a0 For more on this, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cStrive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>~ Kim Collins<\/em><\/p>\n

For most of us, striving for perfection would be a fool\u2019s errand (although we can remember a few Michael Jordan buzzer-beaters that came pretty darn close).\u00a0 If you believe, as we do, that there\u2019s always room for improvement, then aiming for perfection would just be setting yourself up for failure.\u00a0 It makes more sense to set your sights on improvements that are reasonable and achievable, even when your target for improvement is something that\u2019s already performing pretty well.<\/p>\n

When we think about improvements we might make, our thoughts tend to gravitate toward the processes we use to produce our products or deliver our services.\u00a0 And that makes sense since producing our products or delivering our services are what consume most of our time and money.\u00a0 But focusing on the processes we use can distract us from other areas in need of improvement.\u00a0 For instance:<\/p>\n

Start with yourself.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Do your leadership skills need a tune-up?\u00a0 Are you as good a communicator as you need to be?\u00a0 Are you well-organized?\u00a0 Do you manage your time well?\u00a0 Are there emerging trends in your market that you need to understand more clearly?\u00a0 The list of self-improvement opportunities can be almost endless.\u00a0 Consider yourself a never-ending work-in-progress.<\/p>\n

Demand the same of others.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Everyone ought to have a self-improvement plan.\u00a0 Not just you and not just your managers.\u00a0 Everyone.<\/u><\/em>\u00a0 Not necessarily a formal document, but at least a clear idea of what they want to work on.<\/p>\n

Training, re-training, and cross-training.<\/u><\/strong> \u00a0Are your people well-trained for the work they are expected to do?\u00a0 If you have introduced new equipment or technologies, have your people been re-trained so the company gets maximum benefit from those investments?\u00a0 Are your people sufficiently cross-trained so that in the event of an absence or illness, your operations can continue as usual?<\/p>\n

Snafus, screw-ups, and breakdowns.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Sometimes, despite our best efforts to the contrary, things head south.\u00a0 Something significant should have gone just as planned, but it didn\u2019t.\u00a0 It went horribly wrong.\u00a0 In those situations, be like the FAA after an airplane accident.\u00a0 Was it pilot error?\u00a0 Was there a mechanical failure?\u00a0 Did the weather have something to do with it?\u00a0 The FAA always wants to know what happened so that safeguards can be put in place to make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again.\u00a0 Similarly, when something goes out of control at your business, the resulting confusion points the way toward a needed improvement.\u00a0 In these situations, there\u2019s a temptation to just fix the problem and move on.\u00a0 Don\u2019t do that.\u00a0 When a train derails, it\u2019s important to get it back on the tracks, but if we don\u2019t figure out what caused it to derail, it will happen again.\u00a0 Take the time to figure out the underlying causes of the problem and fix those so that the problem doesn\u2019t return.<\/p>\n

Continuous Improvement goes hand-in-hand with Employee Engagement.\u00a0 The more your people (at all levels) understand that Continuous Improvement is everybody\u2019s responsibility, and the more they feel that their ideas for improvement are heard and valued, the more they will be \u201cengaged\u201d in supporting the company\u2019s goals.\u00a0 In the best of all worlds, Continuous Improvement becomes a mainstay of your culture and your company becomes a place where everybody is vigilant for that one little thing that doesn\u2019t work quite right, that one problem that keeps re-occurring, or that one skill that hasn\u2019t been mastered yet.\u00a0 Imagine yourself saying to a new employee, \u201cWe\u2019re always on the lookout for ways to improve.\u00a0 We\u2019re good at what we do, but we\u2019re always looking for ways to do better . . . that\u2019s just the way it is around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds pretty good, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our previous post talked about Continuous Improvement, but it\u2019s an important topic that deserves to be thoroughly explored, so please consider this a continuation of the discussion we began with our last post. No matter how good we are, we can always be better.\u00a0 No matter how proficient we are, we can always be more<\/p>\n

Read More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,33,127,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1009,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions\/1009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}