Beyond all the processes that organizations often put into place to ensure operational effectiveness, there can still be one vital missing link to making high performance happen: A strong spirit of improvement, shared by employees throughout the organization. It can be a company’s most powerful competitive weapon -- and one that is completely within its control.
A spirit of improvement manifests itself in three important ways. First, it occurs when the great majority of an organization’s employees visually recognize both the need for, and the importance of, improvements. Secondly, it requires that employees have the motivation to act in support of necessary changes. Lastly, the organization itself must demonstrate that it has the energy and resources to carry out and follow through on improvement initiatives.
At the root of this spirit is a learning organization that is populated with individuals who are constantly learning the right ideas at rapid paces. Having this deeply knowledgeable workforce driven by a thirst for understanding is where the biggest competitive advantage lies.
The right knowledge is power
Organizations on the path to improvement must create an environment of effective learning throughout their ranks. Effective learning is the application of new knowledge in order to generate desired results. It’s crucial that companies understand, however, how real learning -- the kind of learning that will result in ongoing improvement -- transpires.
Real learning occurs on the job, in familiar work environments, not in the classroom. Learning is also a social and active experience, not an individual and passive event. Employees must collaborate with others, using their eyes, hands, and ears to ultimately absorb information and apply that knowledge.
Real learning is not about knowing rules, policies, and procedures, although these are important. Instead, real learning involves principles and concepts, and requires that employees become adept at applying them, along with keen intuition, sound judgment, and common sense.
With an authentic learning approach, organizations can ensure that employees will quickly apply their experiences and knowledge to effectively address challenges. This approach also arms employees with the ability to identify activities that provide value to the organization, and those that do not. By teaching individuals how to recognize this difference, companies will be well on their way to creating a strong and pervasive spirit of improvement.
Four key steps in helping employees learn
To ensure effective learning, organizations must understand the ways in which people learn. They then must tailor their training to incorporate these four components.
- Tap into the sphere of knowledge. Each individual has built-in experiences, beliefs, and expectations. People learn by connecting their personal experiences with the subjects being taught.
- Allow time for reflection. Once an idea is introduced and experienced, people need the opportunity to reflect on the information and compare it against what they already know.
- Expand on new concepts. Individuals must then build on new concepts and personalize them based on their experiences. They need to make important generalizations, broaden their beliefs, and thereby expand their understanding.
- Provide opportunities to test and validate. Individuals must be given opportunities to apply their new information, hands-on, in their real-world environments.
Through this experiential approach, employees can more readily adopt new information. While they may learn for 30 minutes, they must also apply the new concepts through practical exercises and embed new experiences by applying them on the job.
Without these crucial four stages, deeply rooted learning cannot occur. Organizations must demonstrate the patience to pursue these stages so as to create a true spirit of improvement with lasting buy-in. Otherwise change will not take hold.
Generating constant forward motion
As an organization introduces larger groups of its population to the correct learning process, it develops a community of common understanding and knowledge. Employees begin to connect through shared purposes and similar workplace ambitions. Valuable social learning is further propelled through storytelling, internal debates and informal discussions, and problem resolutions.
If the learning process is likened to a flywheel, then the more hands upon the wheel, the faster its speed. Therefore, the more people that become learners, the quicker the organization will be to accept new concepts and change, and the faster its speed.
Companies that want to create the biggest impact with improvement efforts would do well to rally their larger groups of employees -- that 80 to 85 percent of frontline workers -- around a few key concepts for improvement, rather than rallying 15 percent of its workforce around multiple concepts.
Are we there yet?
Companies with the improvement spirit are easy to recognize. The phrase “I can’t” isn’t in their employees’ vocabularies; it’s been replaced with “I don’t know yet” and “I will figure it out.” That determination is further evident in operations where all people strive to make a difference, contribute suggestions, and demonstrate excitement about educating their peers.
The perfect learning process and an overriding spirit of improvement aren’t created overnight, however. Management must exhibit patience and restraint so that critical mass can build. But once momentum begins, the speed of operational performance is astounding.