Let’s face it, we are all busy. From family obligations, to household maintenance, to working a full-time job our time is often gone before we even have the chance to spend it, if that makes sense. Many people are literally just treading water trying to stay afloat in a society of chaos. Since we are so busy simply trying to maintain, where are we going to get the time to actually improve? Hmmm… Well, just like we would like to improve certain aspects of our personal lives at home, we also need to try to implement improvement in the workplace as well.
Improvement is Possible and Critical
In the business world, everyone is basically in competition with one another trying to provide the best product or service at the most competitive price. This is essentially the beauty of a free market; businesses are always motivated to improve. However, what happens if there is no time for improvement? Well, I think nearly anyone can anticipate the answer to that question, sales will fall, the customer base will move on, and the business will literally flounder like a little canoe in a sea of ocean cruise liners. Time is of the Essence! If you choose to treat each day the same, following through with the same motions at the same times, there will never be any time for improvement. Where’s the room for actually brainstorming or implementing improvements if you do not sit down and actually “make” time for them to exist? You can’t buy time, you can’t add more hours to the day, and you can’t stop time from ticking away, but you can prioritize and “MAKE” time for improvement.
Tips to “MAKE” Time
Don’t just sit back in your comfortable captain’s chair waiting for improvements and value added changes to come to you, instead make an effort to go out and seek change.
- Identify Areas for Change: Roll-up your sleeves and head out onto the work floor. This may be a warehouse, factory, retail showroom, stockroom, etc. Whatever business sector you are a part of go out and look for possible areas of improvement. Where are employees or customer grievances coming from? Is there a particular machine that is always in need of repair causing losses in productivity? Be a detective and find the culprits of complaints.
- Brainstorm Ideas to Assist with Improvement: For instance, have employees been negatively identifying a particular work area as always being unorganized and messy? If so, look into implementing a helpful 5S program which will create unparalleled levels of organization and higher levels of production when done effectively.
- Implement Desired Improvements: Once improvements have been identified and solutions have been acknowledged, IMPLEMENT THEM! One of the mistakes many businesses make is that they sit on solutions instead of implementing them. They say things like “Oh, we’ll start this change after the holidays.” Procrastinating on needed improvements basically tells others around you that they are not really important, and many times when improvements are stalled they never end up even happening.
Don’t let the absence of extra time be your excuse for not making the needed improvements within your business. When it comes to the topic of improvement the early bird truly does get the worm.
