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178 Just Promoted!

stretch everyone’s imagination and tolerance for failure as well
as success
■ Become magnets for attracting hard-to-hire talent who want to be
where the action is
■ Use and produce technology in new and different ways

As a starting point, assess your team, function, or organization against
these same innovation criteria. How do you measure up? Are there obvious
areas for improvement or for smaller, yet still important, adjustments that
could be made to improve innovation practices and culture?
Continuous improvement processes help to enhance innovation, and they
are also the building blocks to strengthen existing practices. Continuous
improvement efforts almost always positively affect financial performance and
bottom-line results. A focus on continuous improvement within the culture
and with specific tools is not glitzy. It is not glamorous. It is, however, a major
asset for any organization that embraces it. It can be as simple as implement-
ing worthy customer and employee suggestions. Over the past several decades,
much more sophisticated approaches have been implemented very success-
fully, and these approaches have reduced waste and have trimmed steps in sim-
ple and highly complex work processes. They have also reduced variation in
both manufacturing and administrative processes. In this regard, six sigma
(reduces variation), lean (reduces waste and undesired effort), and lean six
sigma (a combination of both of these approaches) are all proven continuous
improvement approaches that usually succeed when implemented well.
Here are examples of actions that organizations have taken that have suc-
cessfully implemented continuous improvement initiatives. Consider these
and other examples that follow as you assess your organization. Which are
present? Which should be part of your organization? What would it take in
terms of human effort, time, and money to implement selected practices that
would be of benefit to your organization?
■ Define and communicate goals and milestones for quality outcomes.
■ Adopt common process management tools and methods.
■ Appoint process leaders or process champions to lead and be account-
able for successful quality and continuous improvement targets
and goals.
■ Communicate and train others so they view their work from a continu-
ous improvement perspective.