We all know there’s no free lunch. Continuous improvement (CI) takes time and energy. There’s a significant learning curve, skilled people need time away from “normal” work to analyze and plan improvements, and there is the disruption change causes.

Naturally, the more massive and disruptive the change, the more resources are required, and the smaller the change, the fewer. Therefore it seems sensible that the best way to accomplish continuous improvement is through small, incremental changes that cause minimal disruption. Why then do so few of us actually do things that way?

Reasons for failure

I believe that there are three basic or general reasons for failing to achieve a state of true continuous and incremental improvement:
1. We lack patience and/or follow through
2. We don’t understand or don’t believe
3. Incremental isn’t always sufficient

I believe the first reason, a lack of patience and follow through, is the most common and also the most detrimental. It leads to many phenomena that ultimately lead to continuous improvement efforts consuming more time and money than they save and failing to permeate the culture.

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