3 Best Practices for Successful Process Improvement Initiatives

Research shows 70% of process initiatives fail due to unsuccessful change implementation. But these statistics shouldn’t discourage you from pursuing process improvement. Most of the studies indicating low success rates only cover process improvement projects using Lean and Six Sigma.

One of the key factors in determining the success of process improvement initiatives is the approach taken. And I believe most privately held companies don’t need Lean and Six Sigma to implement process improvement. What you do need is the right method that fits the need of your organization to improve your processes while adopting the philosophy of Kaizen — also known as continuous improvement.

To increase your chances of success and reap all the benefits of process improvement, here are three of the best practices in process improvement:

Start by documenting your current state

We start every process improvement initiative by understanding the current state. To do this, you have to document your current process from pre-sales to follow-up and repurchase. What makes this practice powerful is that it typically solves 30% of a company’s problems.

Most problems are clarification issues. In my experience, leading teams through…