Should You Introduce Improvement Software to Your Over-Loaded Staff?

One of the most common worries we hear about from people getting ready to introduce a continuous improvement software solution is that their people are already busy enough without having to learn how to use the new system and incorporate it into their daily activities. And it’s not just leaders who are concerned - their employees are worried, too. They're concerned that they’ll be expected to devote lots of time to learning how to use the software, and that the system will add lots of work to their already packed days.

Linda Vicaro, Improvement Coordinator & Coach at St. Clair Hospital in Pittsburgh, has managed to introduce continuous improvement software in a really awesome way in her organization. As she says, “Having another system for people to have to become familiar with was definitely something we were concerned about. We managed that concern by not forcing KaiNexus on people.” 

Instead, leaders in her organization were encouraged to support their staff and to help them incorporate KaiNexus into their existing work, rather than adding new steps to their day. For example, when employees have an idea and take it to their manager, their manager says “That’s a great idea; go put it in KaiNexus.” Vicaro also brings up KaiNexus frequently during meetings and daily huddles. This reinforces the idea that leaders in the organization really do care about the software solution and that it’s not just a passing craze.

Vicaro was able to get people to adopt KaiNexus by keeping the core of their work the same - submitting documentation, creating A3s, and analyzing results. The only difference is that these processes were moved into KaiNexus; no extra work was created for her people. 

Learn more about St. Clair's methods in this free webinar:

Kristin Bentz, Lean Transformation Specialist at Lee Health, offers another insight. "Some leaders have found that by using KaiNexus to share documents and keep track of their projects, it eliminates the need for extra meetings, phone calls, and emails," which actually saves them time and gives them an opportunity to work on other tasks, and increases cross-functional collaboration, and creates a digital knowledge repository.

Cross-functional collaboration is when a group of people with different expertise come together to work toward a common goal. A lot of the time, this team is simply a group of people from different department across an organization working together to solve a certain problem. Cross-functional collaboration is difficult partly due to communication barriers, different workflows and working styles, and different tools used by each group. Continuous improvement software is designed to remove those obstacles.

The knowledge that is held collectively in an organization is its “knowledge repository.” Over time, the collective knowledge of the organization degrades as people change roles or leave the organization altogether.

Continuous improvement software solutions can help by generating a cloud-based knowledge repository. Improvements and their workflows are documented in the cloud and are accessible to any user at any time. This allows current employees to learn from past efforts and stops knowledge from falling by the wayside.

How have you successfully introduced continuous improvement software in your organization? We’d love to hear from you.