Overview

“Sustaining and spreading a continuous-improvement culture means fighting any reluctance to change, and promoting the belief that what is good enough today is not good enough for tomorrow”

It’s easy to go through the motions, safely doing the expected work. However, all work should contribute to goals and value. By promoting continuous questioning if efforts align with goals and respect shared values, alignment with mission, vision, and a focus on improvement and innovation will steer digital transformation. Developing such a continuous-improvement culture requires teams to redefine responsibilities, adopt proactive measures to reduce problems from the ‘old’ culture. By promoting end-to-end responsibility, organisations swiftly adapt to changing circumstances. Accepting failure fosters a “climate for learning,” turning failures into opportunities to learn and improve.​

In a rapidly changing environment, knowledge is crucial, serving as the fuel for digital organisations and requiring integration into the organisational DNA. Merely providing access to training, courses, and exams falls short. Effective leadership necessitates cultivating a culture that values and encourages learning, with clear communication. Additionally, recognition and awards should be given for achievements.​

A CCoE should exemplify new behaviours and draw others in. A team-by-team approach to culture change avoids issues with “big bang” projects that often lose momentum. Clearly communicating the specific expected behaviours within the transformation scope is crucial to avoiding actions that undermine cultural change. The emphasis should be on identifying individuals across the business who will confidently embrace this cultural shift. Key stakeholders must buy in early to fully support and act as evangelists before the transformation begins. By encouraging a culture of continuous improvement to thrive, organisations will continuously improve both what they do and (more importantly) how they do it, thus reducing costs, improving efficiency, and delivering greater value to customers.

Activities checklist

Initial:

• Determining incentives to stimulate continuous improvement & learning​
• Determining work structures that enable teams to actually spend time on it​
• Activating existing and new communication channels to promote transparency: don’t share until it is completed but share what is done, why, and invite participation​
• Identifying and engaging stakeholders in cultural change before starting ​
• Setting up structures to actively seek input and feedback from a broad set of viewpoints instead of seeking support from those that reinforce the status quo ​
• Creating space for change by proactively addressing cognitive load & psychological safety

Recurring:

• Fostering a collaborative environment​
• Imposing end-to-end responsibility​
• Embracing failure, and learning from it​
• Designing for change, and adapting continuously throughout the process

RASCI