Part 1: Developing Countermeasures in Process Improvement

In our previous blogs, I discussed the first four steps in the PLAN phase of the PDCA process. We are starting another blog series covering the fifth step — developing countermeasures. This takes us to the next stage of the PDCA process — the “DO” phase.

What’s interesting about this stage is that this is the part that everyone wants to jump into from the very beginning. It’s common for people to say, “Oh, we have these problems, and I know the answer.” Or they would say, “We need a body.” “We need a system.” But they aren’t really clear on what problems they are trying to solve in the first place.

Most of the time, in working with teams, up until this point of developing countermeasures, I very much have to hold the reins back. I am reminding them not to speed ahead. But at step five, I can finally let those reins go. They have a clearly scoped go-live from step four, which is identifying countermeasures.

The Difference Between Identifying and Developing Countermeasures

In step four, which is identifying countermeasures, you are only focusing on scoping and getting full agreement on the plan. As the term implies, you are only naming countermeasures to problems you’ve prioritized, particularly identifying what your key…