A meeting room in front of a wall of windows. Several people sit around a conference room table while a man with a laptop stands up and presents.

Where is your business at?

Continuous improvement (CI) cannot be implemented with a one size fits all mentality, it is highly dependent on organizational culture and development. To overlook this important fact will result in a suboptimal outcome of a CI strategy. Our approach at Developing Leaders is different. In my 35 years working in and with organizations of all sizes, I have observed that there are specific patterns of behavior and cultural elements that are fairly universal. These consistent patterns in cultural development dictate what is possible in terms of a firms approach to continuous improvement and leadership. By integrating these observations and insights with an understanding of organizational theory, I have created a model of organizational development that will help you in considering how to design and implement a strategic approach to continuous improvement for your firm.

To get the best value from this strategic material, we encourage you to review the levels of development below and select the one best fitting your firms current situation right now. If elements of two levels of development could fit your firm, choose the earlier level and review the strategic plan recommendations of that level first.

Entrepreneurial Firms have:

  • Processes that are unstable and require constant intervention to catch and correct errors
  • Expertise through individual and tribal knowledge
  • Information is typically kept manually by senior managers
  • There is a well-established “the way we’ve always done it” embedded which is resistant to change
  • Problem solving tends to be reactive, like a daily fire drill
See Strategic Plan
Group of professionals reviewing content on a tablet during a business meeting.
Professionals collaborating on a project in a modern office setting.

Awakening Firms have:

  • Awareness of innumerable challenges in constantly fixing an unstable process
  • Characterized by frustration and overload of senior managers
  • “Make it work” is part of culture
  • Process change very difficult as too much invested in status quo
  • Pain of under performance has risen to a point where investing in change is beginning to make sense
See Strategic Plan

Beginner Firms have:

  • Senior Management understands the need for improvement
  • Some investment made in learning how to improve processes
  • Problem solving abilities of team are weak and inconsistent
  • Likely have some employees with continuous improvement expertise but without support they are flight risks
See Strategic Plan
A diverse group of coworkers in a modern office engaged in teamwork using technology.
A diverse group of professionals collaborating in a modern office setting with a brainstorming session.

Intermediate Firms have:

  • A mindset of continuous improvement as a strategy to perform understood and accepted
  • Performance management is a daily activity by leadership personnel
  • Daily performance meetings drive daily goals and corrections
  • Junior level leaders part of the performance process
  • ​Significant knowledge and skill in continuous improvement through the organization
See Strategic Plan