Traditionally, a New Year has been a time of reassessment and for setting new goals for the coming year. So, two months into 2016, have you set
(and accomplished) any ambitious goals for improvement in your organization or business processes?
Despite our best intentions, both hard research and anecdotal evidence tell us that more than 90% of our improvement goals are never achieved. So, it is likely that next year—about this same time—you will be setting some of the very same goals you are contemplating even as you read this today.
Of course, if you are like me—and I suspect that at least some of you are—from a personal perspective, you have failed so many times to follow through on so-called "New Year's Resolutions," that you don't even bother to make them any longer. Or, if you make them, you make them only half-heartedly.
But, what about your business and growth strategies?
Can you really afford to just give up on ever seeing significant, long-lasting improvement to your operations?
Do you really feel that you have no alternative but to surrender to forces beyond your reach to affect or beyond your power to, perhaps, even fully comprehend? Do you really believe that your business is in the hands of fate, and the best you can do is keep up the valiant effort to "survive"?
I hope not!
As a manager or executive, your most precious resources are TIME, ENERGY and ATTENTION.
If you are like a good many managers and executives we meet on a regular basis, far more than half your TIME, ENERGY and ATTENTIONS are presently consumed in the day-to-day efforts required to put out fires. Only the "left-over" time, energy and attention can be applied to even thinking about improvement.
Then, of course, there remains the fact that it seems like you've already tried all the things that should help you improve, gain fresh traction in your market, and improve the bottom line. But, the efforts frequently seem to be in vain. Improvements are generally small—despite huge efforts, at times—and they are almost never long-lasting. It seems as though all of your precious TIME, ENERGY and ATTENTIONS are consumed for little or no gain—even when you try to focus on improvement.
Nevertheless, you faithfully get out of your bed every morning and come into your office to put forth another valiant effort against your unseen and, seemingly, incomprehensible foe.
There are only three things that every manager and executive needs to know. Yet, despite your years of experience, your training, your intelligence, your keen staff, you seem unable to narrow down the precise answers to these questions in order to achieve long-lasting and ongoing improvement:
It turns out, there is a tool set to help you and your management team quickly answer these basic—and, essential—questions. That tool set is called the Theory of Constraints' Thinking Processes. These tools help you and your team take five critical steps toward achieving long-lasting improvements and increasing profits. Those five steps are these:
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Share your comments below about how you and your company stay on track producing sustainable and effective improvements in your operations and supply chain. We look forward to hearing from you.