The beginning of a new year typically involves new ambitions and, in order to achieve better results, it is assumed that it is imperative to change for the better.

When we think about change, we think about organising ideas and planning next steps. When we think about planning, we think about a very solid and effective planning. KAIZEN™ defends a process of a structured and standardised planning with a frequent development of the different tasks inflow. This behaviour creates less resistance when performing a task; and avoids situations of constant stress, accumulating successive activities and delays against the plan.

For you to better understand this, we now present the five key steps to implementing a proper planning process:

1.       Define True North

It begins by clarifying what you want to achieve and what you effectively want to reach - define the vision. True North should be seen as the driver for defining the strategy to follow.

2.       Define goals

From a True North perception, goals should be SMART - Simple, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-based.

3.       Sort and prioritise tasks

For each goal set, a set of actions should be included which allow the achievement of success. Once the activities to be developed are identified, it is necessary to select the ones that should remain in the plan. For this, the actions must be distributed by cost and benefit in a matrix in order to prioritise the implementation. There will be tasks whose benefit will be small in relation to the cost or effort required; these should be recognised as a low priority or even eliminated. The focus should be on easy-to-implement and fast-return initiatives, the so-called quick-wins.

4.       Deploy small sprints

After an effective sort and prioritisation, you should distribute your actions in small sprints in a balanced way such that they produce successive results. We warn that the distribution and planning are realistic since planning for excess leads to successive situations of pressure and non-compliance with deadlines.

5.       Always keep on track

It is crucial that the planning is constructed with the use of visual management, ensuring it is placed in a visible location. In fact, you will only be active in correcting deviations in a timely manner if you frequently follow the plan, which itself must be dynamic and allow room for changes. It is a fact that there is a set of tasks that we trigger daily without any real contribution to the reach of True North that we previously defined. The structured application of these five steps allows us to mitigate a considerable number of non-fundamental actions. Waste elimination and value enhancement are the key concepts of the KAIZEN™ methodology inherent in a successful process!

Kaizen Institute is a multinational company that supports organisations in the design and implementation of processes that enable continuous improvement in a sustained manner.