5 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Process Improvement

As we head into 2025, businesses are focusing on improving processes to stay competitive and grow. This is the first blog in our series, “Preparing Your Business for 2025: Mastering Process Improvement.” We’ll explore practical tips to fine-tune operations, boost morale, and align improvements with your goals. By the end, you’ll have what you need to drive long-term success.

Now, let’s look at some common mistakes businesses make during process improvement. Avoiding these pitfalls is key to creating real change, efficiency, and better customer experiences. Here are some of the most common missteps — and how to avoid them:

#1 Not understanding the problem

Before you can start improving a process, you need to understand what the problem is. Organizations make the common mistake of saying something’s a problem because it’s happening right now and it’s the most urgent thing on their plate. However, if a problem only happens once, can it be considered a real problem?

In process improvement, we have to be clear on what qualifies as a problem. To identify problems in your processes, you have to understand what we call the gap scenario, which refers to the gap between the ideal state and the current state.