Finding new ways to improve

The systems and habits approach to improvement relies on constantly tweaking your daily behaviors. We develop standard ways of doing things and then work to adjust them to provide greater benefit.

We look for ways to improve what we are doing. We test those tactics. Then, if they provide a better outcome, we standardize them so we can continue using those optimal tactics.

If we try something and it doesn’t provide a better outcome, we return to the previous standard. This allows us to test out many possible improvements without taking on great risk.

This sounds simple. But many times, when we want to improve, we don’t know what to do. There are limitless options available so how should we start?

To learn about new tactics, we need to stay curious. We should become a sponge for new ideas.

If we are business owner, do we need business process improvement? We can read up on new Lean strategies, but will that help in our situation? We can attend new training to better develop coaching tools for helping our staff improve. We can learn how to leverage the work we do to obtain better outcomes.

If we are looking to improve our health, should we explore high-intensity interval training (HIIT)? We can explore new options for optimizing our health such as NAD therapy. We can add electrolytes to our water with Liquid I.V.

The key is to realize that whatever you try, you have to look at it systematically to get the most from it. Doing something once won’t get you the lasting results that you need. Instead, you will have to find ways to incorporate the new changes regularly into your routines.

The systems and habits approach to improvement uses the Plan, Do, Study, Act process made famous by Dr. Edwards Deming. This means that we plan out what could improve the process. Then we implement it. We observe and study it to see if it helps improve the outcome. Then we either standardize that improvement so we continue to gain from it. Or we throw it away and go back to the old standard if it doesn’t improve the outcome.

This takes away the pressure around finding the perfect way to adjust your routines to improve. Instead of searching for perfect, we keep tweaking. We keep what works. We get rid of what doesn’t work. It shifts our focus to be on progress, instead of perfection.

As we progress, we will find better ways forward. We can keep focusing on making progress and making adjustments. But we know that we are on a good path regardless of each individual step.

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine who said he recently started to limit his screen time before he went to bed. He was accustomed to being on his laptop before calling it a night.

He was telling me that he noticed as he started to avoid electronics at night, he slept better and was able to feel more energized the next day. I told him the key was to make sure that this became the new normal, the new standard.

If he goes back to his old habits, then the improvement he is experiencing will go away. He won’t reap the full rewards. But now that he discovered a better nighttime routine, he should put his effort on maintaining that routine. Continuing with it will solidify it. It will make it more likely that he doesn’t have to keep solving the same problem.

So, whatever it is that you want to improve, make sure you learn how to standardize the new improvements. You can test various tweaks until you find something that helps. But then you must make this a recurring trend, not a one-time change. This will help you gain the most from each adjustment that you make.