Troubleshooting Your Continuous Improvement Culture

To close out this troubleshooting series, we are going to focus on keeping up the momentum!

Up to this point, the series targeted the processes required to ensure your contact center(s) has what it takes to meet ICMI’s definition of Contact Center management, which is: “the art of having the right number of properly skilled people and supporting resources in place at the right times to handle an accurately forecasted workload, at service level and with quality.”

We now need to look at how we keep the spirit of continuous improvement alive. That’s because the improvements you may have made as a result of troubleshooting your existing processes can’t be one and done. Changes in your customers, your employees, your operating environment, and your business will continue to happen, and therefore we need to ensure we have a process and culture that identifies and supports how we need to evolve and change to deliver the desired results.

Let’s start with what a continuous improvement culture (CIC) is, and then give you the opportunity to assess yours. CIC is a system of shared values within an organization in which the belief that what delivers results today may not work tomorrow. In this system, employees have a common focus; they all look for and desire to become better every day, and to do so through incremental improvements.

To help you identify the strengths and areas of opportunity, here are 5 questions you can answer about your current “culture of continuous improvement.”

1. Have you communicated the “why?”

Why a culture of continuous improvement is critical to the success of the organization, the contact center, customers, and employees.

a. Yes, we understand that communicating the “why behind the what” is the cornerstone of success of any change or initiative. We have let all our employees know what a culture of continuous improvement is, and why it is critical to the success of the organization. We also have articulated what we hope to achieve by having such a culture, as well as why that matters to the contact center, customers, and each team member.

b. Yes and no. While we understand that communicating the “why behind the what” is the cornerstone of success of any change or initiative, and have communicated the value to the organization, we haven’t done as good of a job or communicating what’s in it for departments and individuals.c. No, we just started thinking about creating a culture of continuous improvement, so we have not communicated anything to our employees.

2. Have you removed barriers to the success of a culture of continuous improvement?

a. Yes, we know that if we want to build a strong continuous improvement culture, we need to make it as easy as possible for our employees. We have minimized the two major roadblocks to success, time, and lack of resources by creating a simple continuous improvement process and providing the tools and training required to suggest improvements, track progress, and execute improvement ideas and processes.

b. Yes in some ways. We know that if we want to build a strong continuous improvement culture, we need to make it as easy as possible for our employees. We tried to minimize the two major roadblocks to success, time, and lack of resources but we need to work on simplifying our continuous improvement process and providing better tools and training that ensure employees can suggest improvements, track progress, and execute improvement ideas and processes.

c. No, we have not addressed the barriers to success for an effective culture of continuous improvement.

3. Have we been specific about the goals and expectations?

a. Yes, we have identified and communicated specific goals and expectations to our employees. We have given examples of the types of behaviors, initiatives, and processes we expect to see from teams/individuals focused on continuous improvement. We have identified metrics and key performance indicators, and now track our performance against them. We also understand that leading by example is one of the best ways to ensure success.

b. Yes, we have identified and communicated specific goals and expectations to our employees. We need to give examples of the types of behaviors, initiatives, and processes we expect to see from teams/individuals focused on continuous improvement. We know we need to establish metrics and key performance indicators and to track our performance against them, but currently we don’t have any of these metrics.

c. No, we have not, and aren’t sure what our goals and expectations of a continuous improvement culture are.

4. Are we open to improvements of all types?

a. Yes, we encourage and implement improvement ideas of all types. We recognize that while ideas that show a tangible return on investment and/or directly positively impact profitability are important, more is needed and organizations thrive on more than just the bottom-line numbers. Improvement ideas that increase efficiencies and impact the customer and employee experiences are also critical.

b. Yes, we encourage and implement improvement ideas of all types. We recognize that ideas that show a tangible return on investment and/or directly positively impact profitability are important. We also recognize that organizations thrive on more than just the bottom-line numbers. However, while we encourage Improvement ideas that increase efficiencies and impact the customer and employee experiences, we tend to prioritize and implement improvement ideas with ROI first.

c. No, all improvement ideas need an ROI.

5. Do we have a process to recognize, reward, and celebrate improvements?

a. Yes, we realize that recognizing and celebrating success is critical for sustainable integration. We celebrate both small- and large-scale improvement because we are aware that improvement starts with small increments which build up to larger changes.

b. Yes, we realize that recognizing and celebrating success is critical for sustainable integration. However, we tend to celebrate only large-scale improvements.

c. No, we do not have a process to recognize, reward, and celebrate improvements.

Score interpretation:

7 - 10: Moderate to strong culture of continuous improvement

You are well on your way or already have a strong culture of continuous improvement. You have identified the “why beyond the what,” and have either communicated it to everyone or have plans to do so. You understand the need to celebrate, recognize, and reward improvements.

There may be an opportunity to celebrate improvements of all sizes and types, not just the large-scale ideas that contribute directly to the bottom line. In some cases, the barriers to success may have been addressed and removed, in others, there may be a need to assess remaining barriers and provide the tools and training to make it easier for employees.

4 - 6: Inconsistent buy-in for a culture of continuous improvement

You are on the right track, but there are some areas of opportunity both in the processes themselves and in the execution of the processes required to fully establish a culture of continuous improvement. You understand the need for a culture of continuous improvement, but there is a lack of buy-in and commitment to making it a reality.

Scale ideas that contribute directly to the bottom line. In some cases, the barriers to success may have been addressed and removed; in others, there may be a need to assess remaining barriers and provide the tools and training to make it easier for employees.

0 - 3: At the starting line

Right now, there is an awareness of the value of a culture of continuous improvement, but a plan to implement and execute one needs to be developed. The starting point would be to establish a cross-functional team and build the business case for establishing this type of culture.

----

Bottom line: The bottom line is that establishing a culture of continuous improvement takes effort, but the return on investment includes an organization (and contact center) that has the ability to innovate, maintain a competitive edge, attract,and retain employees, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.