Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement in Project Teams
From the The Money Files Blog
by Elizabeth Harrin
A blog that looks at all aspects of project and program finances from budgets, estimating and accounting to getting a pay rise and managing contracts.
Written by Elizabeth Harrin from RebelsGuideToPM.com.
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It’s very easy to talk about continuous improvement, but if you’re anything like me, it’s a lot harder to build the actions into the workflows and processes you use to ensure that the improvement actually happens.
OK, perhaps that is an exaggeration. There are some simple activities that, once you realise, are easy to change and within your sphere of influence. Those are the improvements we can make simply and with minimal effort, and that everyone appreciates.
But the world of work is increasingly more complex, more VUCA, more intertwined, and changing one thing has an impact on other things. We’re not talking about updating a document template to add a new section, but rewriting workflows within project management tools, or changing how benefits are owned, tracked and reported on across the company. Those types of continuous improvements warrant projects of their own. Projects that often we don’t have the time put aside to deliver on.
Continuous improvement in project teams
What do we actually mean by continuous improvement? In my experience, when people talk about it in a project management environment, they mean the ongoing effort to enhance processes, increase efficiency, and drive better results. Whatever that takes. Like I said, it could be small tweaks or organisation-wide transformation of how projects are run in the business. And frankly, that makes it kind of hard for the average project team to effect any major change.
Still, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. So, if you want to create an environment where people have the opportunity to raise their voices when they see things that can be improved, here are some suggestions.
Set the right example
If we want to foster the right culture, people have to believe they are already in a culture where their suggestions will be listened to. So we want to demonstrate:
Leadership commitment: That’s leading by example, speaking up and suggesting improvements, pointing out where things could be better and encouraging others to do the same whenever we hear them mention a good idea.
Communication: Unsurprisingly, communication needs to be taken seriously and you need to create the time for it. If everything is rushed, they won’t feel that they can share feedback and lessons learned (outside of structured conversations or retros). Create feedback loops or ask about improvement ideas in regular check ins.
Recognise the wins: Celebrate improvements and suggestions, even if they don’t turn out to be implementable – you’re recognising the fact that an idea was brought to the group. Hopefully this will encourage others to do the same and to feel that their ideas are valued.
Make it easy to suggest improvements
People need to feel empowered to suggest improvements and to act on them. Granted, most organisations don’t have dedicated ‘innovation’ time or slack in the calendar where people can work on their own projects. But you can remove the barriers to making suggestions.
Let people work their own way: Encourage ownership on the project and let people run their area of the project the way they feel best. If they find ways to improve or change the process, let them.
Suggestion schemes: In the olden days we used to have a box at work for suggestions. These days there are forms online where we can submit ideas. If you think people would be more open to suggesting ideas anonymously, make sure these systems are in place.
Incentivise innovation: In my very first corporate job we had a scheme where we sent in suggestions and got cards back. If you matched the cards to make a picture, you got a prize. Or something like that. It was a long time ago, but there was an incentive scheme for pointing things out. What could you do that’s similar?
Build in creativity training
Building problem-solving and creativity skills is a… skill. And we can train people on skills. Find some time for training on problem solving techniques, process improvement methods, creative thinking and so on. The Six Sigma training I did in my early career was so influential in how I approach problems today. But let’s just say I’m not naturally someone who would whip out a control chart.
Something else that’s easy to do and within your control is cross-skilling team members. Cross-functional learning and an appreciation of what other people do in their job helps people see the project from different perspectives and find improvement opportunities that way.
This is an interesting topic for me and I think there’s more we can cover, so next time I’ll look at tools and techniques for continuous improvement. Watch this space!
Posted on: April 08, 2025 08:00 AM |
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Comments (10)
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Kwiyuh Michael Wepngong
Community Champion
Financial Management Specialist | US Peace Corps
Yaounde, Centre, Cameroon
Thanks Elizabeth,
The point on "Make it easy to suggest improvements" is quite a salient thing to me. If the organizational culture instill fears and disempower the people from suggesting improvements, such an organization or project will be robbing itself of vital voices.
Aaron Porter
Community Champion
IT Director| Blade HQ
Payson, UT, United States
Great points!
I find that this is easier with dedicated teams. A project team that consists of multiple people assigned to multiple projects and operational work that only comes together for meetings is less invested in guided continuous improvement (GCI). On a phase-based project, you can do lessons learned with each phase and you might identify an improvement that needs to carry over into the next phase. I've had more success leveraging DA's GCI with scrum and operational teams I've worked with, creating a separate backlog of prioritized improvements, monitoring progress, and reprioritizing as needed.
Very interesting., thanks for sharing.
FRANCA OHIEN
Quantity Surveyor| Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company
Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
Thanks for sharing. This is as practical as it can get.
Oala Rarua
Manager Geology and Exploration| Ok Tedi Mining Ltd
Papua New Guinea
Great insights. Does PMI offer Six Sigma training?
Harry Varvarigos
Practice Implementation Specialist| Telstra Corporation Limited
Eaglemont Vic, Vic, Australia
Hi Elisabeth, some great points you make on the importance of continuous improvement and learning. What I like about Agile and hybrid delivery is that the team performs retrospectives (end of sprint reviews) to discuss how things went, celebrate what went well but also capture what could be improved and what actions to take. The great thing about this method is that the learning or improvement suggestions are then added to the backlog or a future sprint to incorporate the fix or learning in the future work. I also like how with Prince2, one of the first thing expected from a PM when they commence their project is to refer to the lessons learned register. This is such an important process step as it emphasizes a culture of continuous learning and improvement by requiring the PM to add to the lessons learned register any learnings from their project so that future projects can benefit from it.
Haydar Al-Hakim
Director of PM/PMO| SUHUB INTEGRATED COMUTER SOLUTIONS Co. W.L.L
Kuwait City, Sharq, Kuwait
Henry Mkhwananzi
Project Management Consultant| Innolead Consulting
Harare, Zimbabwe
Binay Samanta
Director| Project & Environment Consultants
Dhanbad, India
In a project management environment, ongoing effort to enhance processes, increase efficiency, and drive better results. It could be small tweaks or organisation-wide transformation of how projects are run in the company. And frankly, that makes it kind of hard for the average project team to effect any major change.
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