How To Create A Culture Of Execution And Responsibility - By Changing One Thing In Your Weekly/Monthly Routine?

I personally love everything about planning and tracking – it helps me to stay organized, to set priorities, and not to forget the small things. This is the aim of any action list – and I hope at least one exists in your organization.Based on my experience, the most common and basic goals of creating the action list are the following:

ü  Create a culture of accountability and responsibility – have the ability to follow up with the individuals

ü  Drive execution by setting up deadlines

ü  Audit requirement to be able to demonstrate that the actions defined during the investigations are followed through

If we raise the bar, we might want to have clear traceability and the ability to check the reoccurrence and effectiveness of the actions and run some analysis.

If we start from this, easy to define the minimum info we need to collect:

ð  Start date: when the action was raised so we can track how long the implementation takes

ð  Problem and Root Cause to remember the purpose of the action

ð  Action: obviously what we need to do – might be changed over time, so important to link clearly to the original problem

ð  Owner of the action who is responsible for the execution

ð  Due date (and original due date is traceability is important) – some teams also use a “next update” date to keep the meetings focused and organised

ð  Status to clearly state where the action stands, this opens up the opportunity to capture ideas, not only ongoing actions.

ð  The notes field is handy to capture comments and changes and enhances traceability

A few add-ons could help to improve the quality of the action review meetings (to facilitate the discussion, stay organised, and make it visually easy to follow the list), also filtering will be accessible when we use standard wording in the plan.

ð  ID number so referring to an action is not confusing anymore

ð  Priority could help to take decisions when someone is struggling with the workload

ð  Automated formatting and icons can enhance the user experience and help to stay focused – especially for neurodivergent colleagues

ð  Strategic goal: this is a great visual tool to keep the teams focused on the company strategy and also bring the strategy alive, used in the everyday. Also, it can be the first level of filtering if review meetings are organized around the strategic goals.

ð  Area and other filtering info are essential for larger organisations or if you chose to use the action plans for analysis (the proposed format fully supports the use of Pivot tables and charts)

ð  Lastly, if the action plan is required by QARA, include a field that captures the date of the last update meeting.

By reading this through, it’s already visible how a simple list of actions can evolve into a plan and tracking tool, where the teams can start looking backwards to see what happened and what ideas were cancelled/put aside. And it’s more than a list of actions, dashboard and analytics. 

Using every single week, a good action tracker can create a culture of accountability, responsibility and execution: the first step to build a high performing team. 

If we create a habit of monthly/quarterly reviews, this tool will be the engine of continuous improvement by building a continuous stream of ideas and giving us the ability to assess the success of an action.

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Download the free template and create good habits, shift the culture for better and speed up the execution. Contact us if you are interested in having a free discovery meeting or would you like to get support in implementing great action review meetings.

Last week I had an opportunity to have a site tour and discovery meeting with a potential client. A well-established manufacturer, stable position on the market, some really good LEAN/Continuous Improvement best practices in place. My first impression was: I’m not needed here… Then we started to discuss their challenges. The usual problem: capacity shortage due to persistent technical issues and excessive downtime. When I asked what they had done so far – investigations, projects, any kind of problem-solving – the answer was shocking: “We need to talk to the operators/engineers, they will tell you”.

It was an eye-opening moment for me, that there were no written records of any great work, no traceability, and limited info-sharing.

In this case, when there is a talented and experienced team, a simple Action Plan in an Excel file can resolve many issues:
– How to share info across shifts/teams
– How to trace back successful/unsuccessful projects (or machine settings)
– Accountability and timely execution
– Resource management
– Priority setting and planning ahead

So we agreed to do only one thing: start documenting the changes and ideas. I’m genuinely curious how big the impact will be – as I’m sure they will see improvements quickly.

Do you have an Action plan – in any format – in your organization?

Do you have a question or need help?

Here to Back You Up – Have a question or facing a challenge? Send us your question, and we will do our best to answer promptly. Need more than a quick chat for your complex issue? Reach out for a complimentary discovery meeting, where we can delve into how Clover Consulting is poised to assist you.

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