The key steps that need to be taken to ensure that Kaizen (continuous improvement) is part of your teams every day working lives

How to create the culture for staff to feel valued, and encouraged to come up with ideas for improvement in systems, processes and procedures, in order to improve productivity and create a more customer focused environment.

Aims of the seminar:

Whether starting from a low point, or not, every organisation can find ways to improve its performance. This programme will help you identify where improvements can be made and provide an understanding of how to implement them – continuously.

Two simple words, continuous improvement, are what most organisations are looking to achieve. So why is it that when suggestion schemes are introduced, or management say they would like staff to come up with ideas for improvement, that the initiative is not sustained? In many cases, failure occurs because the fundamental culture of the organisation has not changed.

A true values and cultural shift supported by the concept of Kaizen (continuous improvement) is required to make people feel really valued and supported so that they want to give more in terms of creativity and ongoing pro-active problem solving.

You will also take away with you a Cultural Auditing Tool in order to assess and evaluate how staff view your organisation and capture their ideas for improvement.

During this programme we will explore:

• How to create a more creative and committed workforce

• What are the changes you need to make in the values and culture of your organisation?

• Working towards a “no blame” culture and breaking down interdepartmental barriers.

• How to identify accurately where improvement is required and how to apply it

• The use of Kaizen (continuous improvement) as part of an everyday activity to pro-actively problem solving

Who will benefit?

Managers, Directors, Team and Project Leaders & Supervisors

Contents & Coverage

Introduction
How continuous improvement initially developed in Japan, and moving forward to take the best ideas from East and West to adapt for life in the business world of the twenty first century

The environment to make it work
What are the changes you need to make in the values and culture of your organization?

What do we mean by values?
The use of an instrument to assess your own organization, which has been used by leading blue chip organizations around the world to assess their environment

Creating the customer focus
The importance of linking work improvement and performance to being customer focused

Developing an improvement strategy
How should you clarify what needs to be improved, and in what time frame? Developing outcomes – i.e. goals and objectives – that are specific, clear and flexible

Project planning
Using SMART objectives to move forward

Inter-departmental activities
How to linking effectively with others in the organization to take forward changes.

Problem solving
The use of a real life case study to see problem solving in action

Delegation and accountability
The 4 step approach to enablement / empowerment, and in what circumstances is it not appropriate to delegate?

Motivating your staff to want to make improvements
Assessing the capabilities of your staff, and creating personal development plans

Performance appraisal options
Exploration of formal and informal methods of giving your staff feedback
Performance management systems and documentation

The “ positive sandwich”
Counseling for under performance, and agreeing a way forward with the member of staff

Keeping the momentum going
Celebrating success, and building a team who look to develop and expand their horizons

Action plan
To keep continuous improvement at the top of your agenda, you will take away with you a unique instrument called a Kaizen Auditing Tool for ongoing research and development purposes

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