If you are considering investing in strategy deployment software to support your organization's efforts to achieve your most important objectives, we congratulate you. Too many leaders talk a big game when it comes to strategy, but fail to provide the company with the tools and information necessary to effectively carry it out. (Here’s a good example of what can go wrong.)

There are a lot of systems out there that could be sold as a strategy deployment solution. You can find everything from glorified spreadsheets to purpose-built improvement platforms. We have had the chance to chat with lots of folks who have been through the selection and implementation process, so we thought it would be useful to share a few of the features that make all of the difference.

n improvement culture cannot be created with a “drop and grow” approach. A continuous improvement culture also needs careful maintenance to grow strong. However, it isn’t easy to measure the health of an improvement culture with spreadsheets or sharepoint files. While a plant gives warning signs in multiple ways, a spreadsheet does not. The only way to know if a culture is failing is that the spreadsheet won’t get filled out.

For consultants, bringing a continuous improvement software platform into their repertoire gives them the ability to conduct health checks on their clients without even being in the building. Software keeps track of due dates, engagement and participation rates, giving consultants and improvement leaders added tools to keep growing their culture.

Have you seen the LifeLock commercial about the bank robbery? A group of robbers comes in with baseball bats and demand that everyone get on the floor. The customers ask the uniformed security officer to do something. Instead, he says, “Oh, I’m not a security guard. I’m a security monitor. I only notify people if there’s a robbery.” He looks at the customers and reports, “There’s a robbery.” The narrator asks, "Why monitor a problem if you don't fix it?"

A friend who knows that I am interested in continuous improvement techniques of all sorts was visiting a relative in the ER in a California hospital. She sent me this photo. If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you probably know why this upset me, but I think it is worth listing the reasons it made me cringe.

Presenter: Matthew Cannistraro, Operations Analyst at J.C. Cannistraro

In this webinar, you will learn:

Background of JC Cannistraro and the factors that led to the need for improvement software

The importance of and methods for capturing improvement where it happens

Examples of bottom-up improvement that you can learn from

The role of technology in spreading bottom-up improvement

Actionable advice for launching improvement software in your own organization

Rapid improvement events are an important tool in the Kaizen toolbox. They are great for ensuring energy gets focused on a particularly challenging problem or one that needs to be solved pronto. We’ve seen them produce terrific, long-lasting results. We’ve also seen them devolve into a disorganized mess. Without clear direction and effective communication, the event can become a demoralizing waste of time.

How can you ensure the success of your next rapid improvement event and avoid the pitfalls experienced by so many others? Here’s our best tip – use software to manage the project before, during and after your event. Here is how it can help.

During a typical Gemba Walk, a manager or supervisor visits the place where work gets done. He or she observes as processes and tasks are carried out, asks questions, and reflects on what was seen. After careful consideration, they would ask for (or potentially offer) ideas for improvement or begin a PDSA cycle. This is an effective way for managers to get a first-hand look at what is happening with their team and to get vital feedback.

But could the approach be used to help employees who are not managers get a better understanding of the overall flow of value through the organization and where their work fits in? We believe that it can.

Matthew Cannistraro, of the J.C. Cannistraro company, is one of those leaders and customers. He gave an excellent presentation at last year’s user conference, a talk that was focused on capturing “bottom up” improvement ideas in the workplace. The talk was so well received that we asked him to expand upon it for a webinar… and that’s coming up on February 23.

I had a brief discussion with Matthew the other day and we captured it as a podcast to preview his webinar titled “The Intersection of Culture and Technology: Capturing Improvement Where it Happens.”

In our discussion, he starts by introducing himself and his company, a family-owned mechanical contracting company, based in Boston. He was exposed to KaiNexus when they were doing some 5S improvement work and discovered they needed a platform to help track their ideas and progress.

Readers of this blog know that the Lean approach to business management has taken root far outside of the manufacturing sector. It is used by healthcare organizations, software development firms, financial institutions, and even institutes of higher education. The construction industry likewise has benefited from applying and adapting the fundamental principles of Lean. Construction is a unique industry with each project being unlike the last. That is why agile thinking, effective communications, and extensive collaboration are necessary to maximize value.

We are in the continuous improvement business, so it is not surprising that we sometimes talk to HR managers and other leaders who have been sold on the idea that an electronic suggestion box is the way to gather employee ideas for improvement. Physical suggestion boxes have been around probably as long as there have been businesses, so why not modernize the approach by making it digital?

We applaud any attempt to get front-line employees involved in improvement, but our clients have told us that electronic suggestion boxes are not an effective way to capitalize on the collective wisdom of the team. Why? Largely because they do not go far enough in turning thought into action. Here is where they break down.