If you truly want to achieve maximum results from your improvement effort, it’s essential to have an effective implementation and sustainability plan.

Consider that, even when people excel at identifying major opportunities for improvement, if they don’t execute, they don’t make gains. In our work with hundreds of organizations, we have observed that the most successful are outstanding at execution.

These execution plans involve the use CI tools for measurement, applying accepted best business practices such as the “4 Disciplines of Execution” (see related post), as well as a number of key focus areas, including:

1. Get senior leaders to become actively involved
2. Identify clear project plans for delivering results, including measures and milestones
3. Engage team members and stakeholders
4. Set expectations and consequences — both positive and negative
5. Develop an organized structure and an activity / accomplishment reporting plan – communication matters!