Accomplish Continuous Improvement of Performance

To ask that every performance be better than the last is to place tremendous pressure on the performer. The aspect of performance is at the heart of most endeavors. Intuitively, we know that performance is not a constant, but in a competitive situation, the goal is for it to improve over a set period of time. It is not enough to ask for consistent effort. When we watch athletic performers, we see that champions have more than just consistent effort; they improve through sound decisions about innovative techniques, effective training, better equipment, and better mental preparation. In business, performance is the execution of a plan, which is the narrative of the decisions of the business. The cycle is well known: set goals, describe action, set mileposts, take action, evaluate, and revise. Assuming the creation of a quality plan, the quality of performance will depend on the execution of the plan. But initial quality is not enough. Business competitiveness requires consistently high levels of performance with an overall improvement of performance over time. This means that taking action, no matter how excellent the plan or the one-time performance, is not enough. It is not enough to repeat a high-quality performance through consistent effort. To achieve a consistent improvement in performance, the decision-making process of the business documented by the revision of the plan, including the revision of the actions to implement the plan, must be continuous. If a business creates a plan that is excellent and implements the plan with flawless execution, but performance does not consistently improve, the business will fail in a competitive environment. The part of the planning process that creates success in a competitive environment and that causes performance to consistently improve, is evaluation and revision. How often do we see businesses taking months to create strategic planning, then finally implementing the plan, only to take months to evaluate and then revise the plan; in essence, taking the same time and resources required to create a new plan. No matter how good the plan, constantly recreating plans and implementing them will not accomplish consistently improving performance. Consistently improving performance is accomplished through constant evaluation and revision of planning coterminous with experience. Experience and evaluation cause revision, and the revision to the plan should be written. How can evaluation result in coterminous revision of the plan? The plan starts with the decisions of the policy-making group about strategy. The action plans are implemented by the executive officers. As the action plans are being executed, those charged with executing the action plans will change the plans to accomplish the task. The experience will be evaluated frequently by those from the policy-making group. At the highest level, the policy-making level where strategic planning is adopted, the planning does not have to be revised as much as at the operational level where action plans are being executed. It is at the operational level that the planning is frequently changed, but the changes are not documented. These informal changes are often what accomplishes the action plan, but frequently others in the business, especially those in the policy-making group, do not know about these changes. Frequently that is because those who change the plan are not sure they have the authority to change the plan but the changes are done to accomplish the task. If the members of the policy-making group do not know about changes to the action plan, their evaluation and further planning will be flawed. Those taking action should be able and required to amend the action plans. In this way, changes are communicated up and down the hierarchy of management. Moreover, changes are occurring with experience, and revisions to the plan are written contemporaneously with the decision to change at the operational level. Those charged with the execution of action should be empowered and required to change the action planning. When this is in place, the plan becomes dynamic – an effective form of communication within the business. Planning is the communication of the decision-making process of the business. The constant questioning of goals, selection of actions, identification of mileposts, and determining revisions should be a series of seamless, constant activity. It is this activity that will enable consistent improvement of performance over time. In business, we must do more than ask employees for increased effort to accomplish improvement of performance. We must establish a process to make good decisions that are documented in dynamic planning that is constantly evaluated and revised at all levels. That is the essence of championship business performance – continuous improvement in performance over time.