7 Mins
Updated: December 23, 2024
Published: October 1, 2024
Every organization strives to reach its goals and sustain success. However, achieving lasting success requires more than setting objectives; it requires a commitment to continuous improvement. These improvements can only happen if the changes are implemented effectively.
Change management provides a structured approach that guides individuals, teams and organizations through transitions to new ways of working. Successful continuous improvement hinges on effective change management.
Change management is a sustained approach that ensures improvements are embraced, adopted and sustained. Without it, even the most promising initiatives may fail to gain traction because resistance to change, confusion, and lack of alignment can hinder progress.
In this article, we discuss the importance of continuous improvement and its connection to robust change management.
What Is Continuous Improvement?
Continuous improvement is a systematic, ongoing effort to enhance products, services or processes, and involves making changes over time. Key elements include:
- Incremental changes – Instead of large-scale overhauls, continuous improvement involves small, manageable adjustments, known as incremental improvements, that accumulate over time to create significant advancements.
- Efficiency and quality – The main objectives are to streamline processes and enhance the quality of outputs, ensuring resources are used optimally and customer satisfaction is increased.
- Performance enhancement – Continuous improvement aims to boost overall organizational performance by aligning changes with strategic goals and customer needs.
Continuous improvement is best achieved through efficient change management—which starts at the individual level through the organization’s employees.
Overall, continuous improvement involves ongoing efforts to plan and refine processes, implement change through people, and review enhancements. This approach often aligns with methodologies such as Agile, Lean, Six Sigma, and Total Quality Management, which focus on activities that improve processes.
But what are the specific benefits of having a continuous improvement process?
Why Your Organization Needs a Continuous Improvement Process
Industries are constantly evolving due to technological advances, market demands, and customer expectations. To stay competitive, organizations must continually refine their processes to adapt to the rapid pace of change.
Continuous improvement has various benefits, which vary depending on your organization's needs, size and the extent to which it’s implemented.
Operational efficiency
Continuous improvement drives operational efficiency by streamlining processes and eliminating bottlenecks.
By analyzing your workflow, you can identify areas where time and resources are wasted and implement improvement strategies to enhance productivity. This creates a smoother, faster process that allows the organization to reach its objectives sooner.
Cost reduction
Continuous improvement can lead to significant cost savings by refining workflows and eliminating inefficiencies in current processes. How?
Organizations ensure expenditures on resources, labor and materials are used effectively by identifying duplications or redundant tasks. Proactive problem-solving can help avoid costly mistakes and delays. These cost savings free up resources to reinvest into other more important areas of the business, such as promoting innovation and growth.
Reduced waste
Continuous improvement prioritizes sustainable practices by reducing waste in production and operations. For example, Intel, through continuous improvement using Lean, was able to achieve an 80% reduction in expenses through waste elimination strategies. These results highlight the transformative potential of continuous improvement strategies in achieving operational efficiency and reducing waste.
But that’s not all. Reduced waste saves costs and aligns with corporate social responsibility initiatives, improving the organization’s reputation and appeal to eco-conscious customers.
Enhanced employee engagement
A culture of continuous improvement encourages employees to contribute ideas and participate in decision-making. Organizations create a sense of ownership and motivation by involving team members in problem-solving and recognizing their input.
Engaged employees are more committed to achieving organizational goals and will likely stay with the company longer. In fact, data shows that highly engaged employees can lead to up to 23% higher profitability.
Improved quality
Continuous improvement focuses on delivering high-quality products or services. By regularly checking performance and making small changes, businesses can improve quality and exceed customer expectations. In fact, some data suggests 36% of all improvements impact quality and 31% of all improvements increase staff and customer satisfaction.
This commitment to quality helps build customer loyalty and strengthens the brand in a competitive market.
The Continuous Improvement Cycle
The continuous improvement cycle is a powerful tool for organizations aiming to achieve consistent growth and efficiency. It provides a structured approach to enhancing processes, services, or products.
While various methodologies like Kaizen, Lean Six Sigma, and Total Quality Management (TQM) exist, they all share a similar core cycle, which typically covers four key steps:
- Identify areas of improvement – Look for processes or outcomes that need enhancement by analyzing performance data and gathering feedback.
- Plan and implement changes – Develop a strategy for improvement, focusing on practical and achievable adjustments, and execute the plan.
- Monitor results – Track the impact of the changes using measurable metrics to ensure desired outcomes are achieved.
- Standardize successful changes – If improvements yield positive results, integrate them into daily operations to maintain consistency.
Following these steps enables organizations to drive sustainable progress and long-term success. However, to create a continuous improvement culture, they must invest in helping their people adopt and embrace change effectively and consistently.
Excellent Change Management and Continuous Improvement
Change management methodologies and continuous improvement practices both contribute to addressing transformative changes within an organization. While change management focuses on the people side, continuous improvement focuses on process enhancements.
These approaches can complement each other, especially in transformative changes where significant shifts and incremental improvements are needed. Integrating change management with continuous improvement ensures that both the human and process aspects of change are effectively addressed.
Continuous improvement practices
The continuous improvement approach is used by organizations to drive efficiency, enhance quality, and foster a culture of ongoing innovation. It encompasses practices from methodologies like Lean, Six Sigma, and Total Quality Management (TQM), which provide structured frameworks for implementing continuous improvement.
While each framework offers a unique approach tailored to different organizational needs, they all share a common goal of sustainable organizational improvement.
Kaizen is rooted in Japanese philosophy and focuses on small, incremental changes implemented consistently over time. Masaaki Imai, the pioneer of Kaizen, says, “The message of the Kaizen strategy is that not a day should go by without some kind of improvement being made somewhere in the company.”
Thus, Kaizen emphasizes gradual changes, with every employee contributing to process improvements. The approach also encourages frequent workflow reviews, enabling teams to identify inefficiencies and address them promptly.
Lean Six Sigma combines Lean principles, which aim to minimize waste, with Six Sigma’s focus on reducing process variation. This hybrid approach uses data-driven methodologies, such as the DMAIC process (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control), to identify inefficiencies and implement solutions. Lean Six Sigma is particularly effective in industries where precision and process standardization are critical, such as manufacturing or healthcare.
For example, one hospital used DMAIC to improve the efficiency of transferring patients with acute type A aortic dissection, enhancing critical care delivery and patient outcomes.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a holistic approach that integrates quality improvement into every aspect of an organization. TQM emphasizes customer satisfaction as the ultimate measure of success, focusing on proactive problem-solving and prevention rather than reactive fixes. It encourages cross-functional collaboration and aligns improvement initiatives with organizational goals.
Each framework has distinct strengths that cater to specific needs. Kaizen fosters a culture of relentless improvement, Lean Six Sigma drives tangible outcomes through analytical precision, and TQM embeds quality at the heart of operations. These approaches can be powerful on their own, but when integrated with change management, they become unstoppable forces for efficiency and innovation.
So, what exactly is change management, and how does it stand apart?
The role of change management
While continuous improvement strategies are designed to initiate change, change management is the catalyst that amplifies their impact by dismantling barriers and unlocking potential. Change management ensures changes are implemented at every level of the organization and that they are sustained by engaging the people within it.
Change management processes are inherently innovative and serve as catalysts that inspire teams to confidently embrace new directions. They play a crucial role in motivating and preparing individuals to adapt to change with optimism and resilience, and position transitions as opportunities for growth and improvement.
To truly grasp the power of change management, let's explore the Prosci ADKAR® Model.
This model guides individuals through change by focusing on five essential elements:
- Awareness of the need for change
- Desire to participate and support the change
- Knowledge on how to change
- Ability to implement required skills and behaviors
- Reinforcement to sustain the change
The Prosci ADKAR Model
By addressing these elements, change management models like our ADKAR Model ensure that individuals are equipped to successfully navigate change, aligning personal transitions with the organization’s strategic objectives
So how can change management and continuous improvement work hand in hand to achieve success for organizations?
How change management and continuous improvement complement each other
A structured change management process is designed to help an organization effectively manage change and can support continuous improvement initiatives. Here's how:
- Offers a structured yet flexible framework that allows organizations to customize their improvement initiatives. This adaptability ensures that processes are aligned with specific goals and challenges, making continuous improvement efforts more relevant and impactful.
- Connects individual and organizational change, which increases the likelihood that organizational changes are adopted and sustained, allowing ongoing improvement.
- Emphasizes high-value steps and activities, ensuring that the change process guides organizations to focus on the actions that most impact change success and that efforts lead to meaningful improvements.
- Provides robust processes aimed at communicating progress and aligning all those impacted by the change, which helps sustain improvements and ensure commitment to the continuous improvement journey.
- Clarifies the objectives, actions and deliverables that will lead to change success. This organization helps maintain focus and momentum throughout the improvement process.
Applying change management principles to achieve continuous improvement results in a resilient workforce—one that is equipped to tackle emerging challenges and contribute to the continued success of the organization.
To illustrate the synergy between continuous improvement and change management, let's explore some real-life examples where these practices have successfully worked together.
Case Studies: Continuous Improvement Using the Prosci Methodology
These real-world examples illustrate how organizations have successfully leveraged change management through the Prosci Methodology to drive continuous improvement and achieve remarkable outcomes.
Insurance company reaches organizational alignment using Prosci
Challenge – A prominent insurance company in the Caribbean faced a lack of structure, resulting in fragmented results and inconsistent efforts. Their disorganized approach to projects also meant the company was not performing as successfully as it could be.
Solution – They used Prosci Proxima, a web application that guides you through the Prosci Methodology, and our Research Hub, an easy-to-use digital platform that provides access to Prosci research, to access insights and develop data-driven change management strategies. Regular use of Prosci assessments helped them track progress and manage the change process effectively.
Results – Better alignment among executives led to more cohesive sponsorship and support for change initiatives. The company saw improved success rates and a positive cultural shift, with employees demonstrating a greater willingness to adapt to change.
University of Virginia (UVA) completes 275 improvements
Challenge – UVA faced challenges with a large number of distributed stakeholders in their higher education projects. They needed to improve project outcomes and stakeholder engagement to realize significant time and cost savings.
Solution – UVA leveraged Prosci's structured change management methodology, including the sponsor coalition and PCT assessments, to identify gaps in stakeholder support and realign project objectives. This early identification allowed the team to adjust their approach to deliver value more effectively.
Results – Applying the Prosci Methodology led to the completion of 275 improvements and initiatives, resulting in annual savings of $21.9 million and cumulative savings of $82.1 million over four years. The success of these initiatives highlighted the importance of building change capability and empowered project owners to thrive through change. UVA plans to continue hosting Prosci Change Management Certification Programs to further develop its change management capabilities.
These case studies demonstrate how structured change management can be instrumental in achieving continuous improvement by aligning project goals with stakeholder needs and enhancing organizational change capabilities.
Achieve Successful Continuous Improvement With Structured Change Management
In the pursuit of organizational excellence, professionals leverage new tools, technologies and processes to drive continuous improvements. However, the key to ensuring these improvements are effective and enduring lies in the integration of structured change management.
Change management plays a critical role in this journey by providing a robust framework that guides individuals and teams through transitions. It ensures that improvements are implemented, adopted and sustained, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
By investing in strong change management practices, you unlock your organization's full potential, paving the way for ongoing growth and adaptability.
