It is the small steps that lead to the big goals

Small steps or giant leaps?

If you are in a house, not knowing for sure which floor, and the fire alarm goes off, what will you do? The elevator has stopped, you can start walking down the stairs calmly and disciplined, you can see the time and see if there is a false alarm, or you can wait for auxiliary crews to arrive with a fire truck? Then a distinct gentleman appears in the background, pretty in his clothes and clearly an expert in his area. He says the most effective thing is to jump out the window. Admittedly, it is pitch-black outside, but it is probably not so high, and there is a soft-landing spot down there that you hit. The adviser, of course, expects a generous allowance, and he has gone before you take the ground. Would you choose such a solution?

Easy to choose the long steps

On a daily basis, we constantly see these giant jumps that everyone does, not knowing where they land, even if they think they know it, and experts confirm what they think. On national issues, they are called reforms. Political parties boast about how much reforms they will implement, and the success criterion is defined by how much money they should spend. Usually, a goal that is easy to reach, just to open the account and set a frame. Even in smaller political environments, the same thing happens. Some politician gets a huge idea of a hundred million's project, and committees, local councils and hired consultants are engaged in investigating the idea for months. In the end, one often finds arguments that the idea is good and feasible and will pay off in the long term, then so much cost is used anyway that the idea can hardly be stopped. In most cases, costs are exceeded, schedules crack and the result of the idea is not as amazing as one had hoped. In companies, breakthrough improvements are often talked about. It is easier to decide fifty million to upgrade the computer system than to allocate a thousand dollars to a device to reduce heavy lifting for the employees.

Breakthrough improvements are also important

Of course, there is nothing wrong with breakthrough improvements. Situations often arise that entail that it is appropriate to implement a radical action. So-called five-day Kaizen, for example, is popular. The primary is the working method and the important Pull principle. By engaging employees, involving them in daily improvement work, and drawing on their ideas, expectations and needs, a breakthrough improvement can be successful. Using the Push principle, on the other hand, where external experts or managers decide major measures, the measure often has limited effect, because the ownership and enthusiasm around the introduction is lacking. We cannot just run an involvement process, give a nice lecture or tell the staff how good this is going to be for them.

It is the many small steps that lead to results

Development and improvement work is about innovation. Have a Vision to go for, set goals, map challenges and experiment with solutions. Small steps are safer, cheaper, carry much less risk, and contribute to a much greater extent to reach the goals of satisfactory solutions for everyone involved. This is a process that everyone in the organization can participate in. It creates enthusiasm and effort and with good foundation throughout the organization it is guaranteed to deliver successful results.

Effective improvement work is small steps incorporated into a fixed pattern, every week and every day. All the time to achieve a common goal in an effective teamwork, where one has a simple and clear vision on the horizon in front of them. It is the training on this fixed pattern that gives the good results and continuous improvement, not presentations of individual measures, large groundbreaking projects or quick fix solutions.

Introducing small steps as a fixed pattern in everyday life is not difficult, it is first and foremost a challenge to anyone who wants to be a leader and aims to develop their organization to be radically better next year than they are today. Have high Visions and ambitions, but break them down into small affordability goals, set aside time every day for improvement work with the involvement of everyone, and even stand up as a leader and coach in this work.