Step 1 of 5: Focus on Basic Needs & Stability First

Back to: Foundational Continuous Improvement for Leaders

As was mentioned already in our article Getting Started with Continuous Improvement, there are 5 steps to implementing continuous improvement. In this article, we will discuss the first step which is to focus on the basic needs and stability of your team. Before you worry about improvement, you first need to create a stable environment for your team. Just like people need basic necessities like shelter, food, and water before they can focus energy on other things- teams also have basic needs that need to be met before they can focus energy on improvement. Trying to engage the team in continuous improvement before these basic needs can be met will only undermine your efforts and lead to eventual failure. Some of these basic needs include a safe work environment, job security, and trust between team members.

Create a safe work environment

It should go without saying that creating a safe environment for your team is essential before worrying about other strategies such as continuous improvement. Hazards, unsafe practices, and dangers should all be eliminated. Some businesses inherently have more potential safety hazards than others such as mechanic shop vs an office, but generally speaking all leaders should consider and evaluate any needed safety protocols. Below are a few suggestions to help you get started:

• Perform a safety audit looking for any potential dangers
• Review any past safety accidents and ensure adequate countermeasures have been put in place
• Discuss safety with the members of your team and ask them to point out any issues they see or anything that makes them feel unsafe or uncomfortable
• If your company has a safety leader or team, engage them to help make sure your work area and procedures meet company standards
• If needed, enlist the help of an outside safety professional/consultant
• Learn and understand any government or industry safety standards (OSHA for example) and make sure your team is compliant
• Establish a culture on your team where people feel comfortable sharing safety issues and are willing to do what it takes to remedy any unsafe situations and prevent accidents
• Make sure first aid kits are available to team members when needed
• Establish a first responder program with designated trained team members who can help in the event of an accident or emergency

There are many more things that can be done and there is an abundance of materials, books, trainings, and certifications in safety if this is an area of focus for you. Ensuring people feel safe creates the stability you will need if you want a culture of continuous improvement. It’s difficult to innovate and improve if you’re worried about getting injured or badly hurt on the job. As a leader it will also be difficult to get people to trust you in continuous improvement efforts if they don’t feel you have their safety as a priority. Once you create a safe work environment, you will have much greater success with efforts to innovate and improve.

Job security

One of the biggest threats to continuous improvement occurs when people in the organization are worried about their jobs and being able to provide for their families. With good reason, most people won’t want to expend extra energy helping the company advance if they live in constant fear of layoffs or downsizing. The same is true for companies that are struggling to bring in needed revenue or who are being acquired by another company. Constantly changing leadership and high turnover don’t help much either. These types of things all make people feel uncomfortable and unstable in their jobs, which is far from ideal if you want them thinking about continuous improvement. It is therefore important to ensure that you have an environment where people feel secure in their employment and pay before attempting to make CI a part of the everyday culture. Here is a job security checklist to help you evaluate if your team is ready to move forward with CI:

If you checked one or more of these items as a potential risk, you should consider addressing the issue before undertaking any CI efforts with your team. Patch the holes and gaps first, then you can move forward with confidence.

In addition to these items, it is also important that people can feel security in taking risks to innovate and try new things and don’t fear retribution or punishment if an idea fails. If people don’t feel safe experimenting, they will stick to only what they know works and bring stability. For CI to work, people need to feel safe rocking the boat from time to time vs living in fear they could be punished or fired for any small failure or mistake. This culture of fear is prevalent at many companies and implementing continuous improvement should not be attempted if this is the case where you work. Of course, there will always be some amount of fear associated with change and innovation, but as a leader it’s your job to reduce that fear where you can and encourage people to feel safe trying new things. There is a balance between following company protocols and best practices vs experimenting with potential new ways of doing things. One of the best things you can do as a leader is help your team balance that properly.

When you and members of your team have stable job security, it frees up mental capacity to focus on other things like improvement efforts.

Trust between team members and with leadership

The third and final element to consider is establishing trust between members of the team and yourself as leader. Lack of trust can be a silent killer of any goal or initiative. When it comes to creating stability, your team must be at a minimum level of trust to be able to embrace continuous improvement. Of course, the stronger the trust the more it can help your efforts, but the highest levels of trust do not need to be achieved in order for CI to work. There are many different models of trust, and in this example we will use a common model with 3 different levels:

1. Rules Based Trust (aka Deterrence Based Trust)
   1. Trust is based on a belief that a person will follow the laws and rules of society and/or the company. This is the most basic level of trust, and enables people to work together and successfully complete transactional interactions without knowing each other well if at all.
2. Experience or Based Trust
   1. Trust is based on past experiences and interactions with a person. This is a common level of trust in the workplace, as many team members trust each other more as they get to know each other and how they will react/behave in certain situations.
3. Vulnerability Based Trust
   1. Trust based on the understanding of someone’s values, goals, dreams, fears, and weaknesses that comes only from transparency and vulnerability. This is the most intimate level of trust and is typically reserved for the most important people in your life.

In order to integrate CI into your team culture, you at least need to reach level one: rule-based trust. Behaviors such as cheating, lying, stealing, backbiting, gossiping, shirking, and name calling all indicate serious trust issues that need to be resolved. Team members need to trust that the other members of the team will be held accountable to follow rules and laws. They also need to know their leader will do the same. Establishing this basic level of trust creates the stability needed to integrate CI. Achieving higher levels of trust will greatly enhance your abilities. If you want to increase your levels of trust here are some suggested behaviors:

• Be honest
• Listen well
• Be consistent
• Show people you care
• Stick to commitments
• Be transparent
• Be personal
• Appreciate others
• Spend time with your team
• Admit when you’re wrong
• Be helpful
• Stand up for what’s right
• Help others be successful

In conclusion, make sure that you have taken care of your team’s basic needs before you try to implement continuous improvement. This includes creating a safe work environment, job security for members of the team, and building trust. If you find any of these things lacking, stop and address them head on first before you continue on your CI journey. If these basic elements are in place, then great! You are well positioned to take the next steps toward success.