The Improvement Sustainability Model
Here at EnterpriseIS, we believe that delivering excellence in every project is the function of successfully addressing the key areas that impact project sustainability to ensure long-lasting benefits.
We developed the Improvement Sustainability model to illustrate how these elements inter-relate and how they are addressed to deliver value throughout a project lifecycle.
Improvement Sustainability is a Function of the Acceptance Strategy, Capability Building and Technical Solution Development. These elements are critical to ensuring that the project outcomes are delivered the first time effectively and sustained by the organisation well after the project is complete.
Each element will vary from project to project, but they all remain critical to ensuring effective problem identification, solution development and implementation.
First is the Acceptance Strategy. Without buy-in from the people, no project can be successfully delivered. An Acceptance Strategy requires a complete understanding of the stakeholders impacted by the change, or stakeholders who can impact the change. This doesn’t mean that all stakeholders have to be experts in the technical components of the project, but it does mean they have to understand the objective of the project and what it intends to deliver, to ensure they support the implementation.
In order to develop acceptance in the project, EnterpriseIS utilises a range of change management tools, specifically to identify behavioural drivers and opposing barriers. By using these tools; process mastery, team autonomy and individual purpose for the project can be achieved, ultimately creating a complete sense of ownership in the project.
Capability Building is the next critical building block in the delivery of sustainable improvements. Understanding the capability of the stakeholders enables critical decisions to be made for the development of a highly effective workforce. Ensuring that the right people are in the right roles, having the right skills with the right competencies is what it takes to support a capable organisation.
Whether it’s addressing the organisation design, or completing additional coaching to enable the effective use of new tools and/or processes, building capability is more that just sending someone on a 3-day course. Building capability is about setting up the organisation to sustain the changes on an on going basis.
Finally Technical Solution Development is the last piece in the puzzle for sustainable improvement. Developing the technical solution first starts with defining what you want to address and what success looks like, as this will drive the development of the correct scope. Once this is complete, we then establish an effective baseline to measure progress. Then can we start analysing the available data and identifying potential solutions.
Throughout this process, it’s imperative that stakeholder engagement is maintained to ensure the solution developed is relevant and able to be implemented in a cost/time effective manner. Finally, once the implementation is complete, measuring and monitoring the performance of the change is critical for closing the improvement loop and delivering a return on the investment.
Delivering any improvement in a high tempo, complex business is a challenge. Ensuring the improvement is sustained during regular operations is even tougher; however, effectively addressing the elements of the Improvement Sustainability model is possible.
Next time you start a new project, consider the elements of the Improvement Sustainability Model and how they could be used to improve the project outcomes. Remember, we’re here to help if you need it………….it’s what we do.
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