The Top 10 steps to take for non-linear growth towards enterprise success!

Originally Submitted on 10/1/97.

There are several things to consider when "positioning" your enterprise for growth. This topten list gives you a process that can be used to create non-linear growth. In other words, JUMP THE CURVE to the next level rather than following improvement in a linear mode. Companies which continually improve are excellent, companies which improve non-linearly are attractive!

1. Identify areas of the enterprise that will respond to measurement.

Measuring processes is important in that it allows the process owners to become their own authority. By using measurement to track responses to inputs, process owners can track changes and responses to changes "while" making changes.

2. Direct attention and RESOURCES to those areas that are important to key customers or key capabilities.

Understanding that major improvements in minor process will yield little overall change can keep you from spending too much time on trivial projects. Focus on those areas where a minor change can yield a major outcome. Even better, where any change yields a response from the bottom-line, customer satisfaction or demand.

3. Look for the best practice.

Sometimes best practices lie underneath our noses, but most of the time we have to dig around a little. Often best practices come from associated industries and processes. Much of the time, we are stuck because we've always done it that way...with the same folks, in the same manner--expecting similar results. In order to find the best practice, we need to look for clues to what it is we need to do that can create competitive advantage and usually that is where customers ARE NOT being served at the present.

4. Once you find the best practice, measure it!

We need to know why it's working and we can only find out why if we measure the process from front to back. This technique provides us with parameters which can be modified over time. Relationships between parameters can be tracked and tweaked as we view the process as it functions.

5. Implementing the best practice is tricky!

The days where we could merely say do this...are over. People need to be brought in early in the game. We need to establish prototypical plans which allow adoption in a small area before we de stabilize the system by dumping the new process into the fray. Pilot projects with prototypes are the best way to learn and implement new processes. This also provides us with feedback which can be used during roll-out.

6. Find the best theoretical best practice!

Sometimes there is a difference between best practices in the real world and in theory. Often there are clues to how the best practice could be changed in theory or in practice that can improve the process significantly. Identifying where theory and practice collide often provide opportunities for non-linear improvements!

7. Measure the gaps!

Gaps between where we are now and where we can be are important guidelines in establishing non-linear improvement. Sometimes, we just can't get there from here! We need the "jump in creativity" that comes from examining the difference. Until we know what it is we can't do, we often can't find what it is we can do.

8. Iterate, iterate, iterate...

In other words, run the process over and over using the observations to bring the process gap smaller and smaller. It doesn't matter so much, that the degree of improvement increases, but that the process is ran through the mill so to speak. Deming called this cycle PDSA, or Plan, Do, Study, Act. The action phase is a correcting phase which uses observation of output and process to redirect our attention to improvement.

9. TWO WAYS to improve!

During the PDSA cycle, two things happen. On one level, things improve steadily as each iteration of the process moves it towards continuous improvement. On the other level, we are likely to see emergent opportunities to improve the process non-linearly. These emergent forms will not always be clear but will present themselves if process owners act as their own authorities by using observations and measurements. Almost any process can be improved on these two planes provided the previous steps are employed.

10. Take a systems view.

Don't try to improve the process in a fish bowl! By understanding best practices and gaps in measurement, hopefully the process owners will create a context for a more holistic view. Seeing where the process interfaces with other processes and with the customer environment are crucial to big picture gains. Non-linear improvement comes from discontinuous innovation. Discontinuous innovation arises out of gaps in performance and the understanding of the theory behind the process. ALL ARE IMPORTANT!

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