#72 Four Performance Improvement Set-Backs To Avoid

You know the ultimate reason why we measure performance - why we have metrics and KPIs - is to improve performance, don't you? But has just the thought of the time, money and effort you'll need to improve performance, over and above your day job, almost got you running for the hills?

This is why pilot testing is such an invaluable practice to adopt, each time you discover a performance result that you believe is important enough to improve. Pilot testing is a small scale implementation of an improvement initiative, to learn how to make the full scale improvement get the best return on the time and money and effort you invest.

The power of pilot testing lies in minimising the effect of "Gumption Traps", what Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance calls the set-backs that throw us off our focus on Quality, on producing meaningful results.

So here are some tips for how pilot testing can help you prevent the set-backs of performance improvement:

Set-back 1: the wrong hypothesis about what really improves performance

If you have picked just one improvement idea, you've put all your eggs in one basket. You run the very high risk of that idea not in fact being the best idea to improve performance.

Instead, consider a range of ideas and test them as alternatives on a small scale. Then, after you pilot test them, look objectively at the impact each idea actually had on your results. You can then more confidently choose the best idea to implement on a full scale.

Set-back 2: not enough support to agree to a performance improvement

A decision maker is going to support improvement initiatives that are much more than just good ideas. Before she's going to allow resources to be taken away from something else and given to your performance improvement idea, she'll want to know it's going to work.

Rather than expecting decision makers to agree to an improvement idea because you think they should, demonstrate the impact of the idea with the results of a successful pilot test. Don't forget, a measure of return on investment (ROI) is a convincing way to measure success.

Set-back 3: loss of momentum when improvement takes too long

Some performance initiatives can take months or years to implement, and almost always the time people have to give to improvement is over and above their full time job. It's no wonder the momentum can wane.

Using the pilot test approach of keeping the timeframe and the scope small, you can make performance improvement initiatives happen as fast and focused as possible. When people see results happening quickly, their energy and motivation grows and adds to the momentum for continued improvement.

Set-back 4: when implementation goes awry

Any change you make to a process is going to be fraught with implementation bugs: incompatible systems, people misunderstanding, a step taking too long, hidden costs, and so on.

Pilot testing is tremendous for finding and ironing out implementation bugs in a controlled environment - where cleaning up the mess they create is no big deal. When you find the bugs, and decide how to fix them, then you can unleash your improvement initiative to its full scale.