The ten ground rules for practicing continuous improvement events exist to ensure the right environment to encourage participation exists. Therefore, is the job of the event facilitator to set clear expectations about following those rules. It is also their job to steer the group in the direction. Effective facilitators know how to guide the team and get results creating a positive and high-energy environment. They do that by encouraging and motivating the right behaviors. Let’s summarize them with the continuous improvement or kaizen event do’s and don’ts.
Kaizen event do’s and don’ts for Success
Keep the momentum on your CI event
Through the kaizen event, the facilitator teaches team members how to think lean and identify waste. For instance, the team will learn by doing. While they go through the event process, the team learns and uses tools to analyze the current state. Using lean thinking they will question the status quo and will learn how to see things differently.
To keep momentum, the event facilitator keeps asking questions. He or she builds upon the team’s ideas and concerns to challenge the status quo. Maybe, asking questions is the facilitator’s most important job. In other words, questions are the vehicle to guide the team to discover their solution. Through questioning with respect, they learn how to challenge the status quo.
Kaizen event do’s and don’ts, one more don’t
Also, to keep momentum on your CI journey I have one more Don’t for you. Do not engage in an event that is not aligned with your business goals. Through events, you are targeting those big gaps between the goals and the current state. Before you start planning the event, ask Do these activities help the business to achieve its goals? If the answer is no, then find another subject for your event.
