An Improvements ‘detective’ thinks in many different ways.

Improvements-Detective work requires high flexibility of thinking. For example: it is both analytical and creative (eg “Why do that? … “Could there be a better way?”) and is best done by external Consultants posing questions to your team.

• it requires the skills of a private detective, with ‘fresh’ eyes and enquiring brain uncluttered by “This is the way we’ve always done it”
• it needs total emotional detachment in order to be objective and rational
• it needs a degree of ignorance, for example to ask “What is that for?” - deceptively simple questions you may have long taken for granted
• it requires the ability (and experience) to think in many different ways. For example: Analytical Thinking for deducing the root causes of problems, and Creative Thinking for generating ideas for solutions. Customer Thinking is highly effective in spotting improvement areas. And Opportunity Thinking is a rare skill for seeing profitable connections/gaps/needs (entrepreneurs have it).
• it requires the ability and experience to encourage and stimulate teams/groups to work together and switch their thinking between many different ‘ways’ (Styles).

A major global company called us in to find out why managers and staff seemed siloed and weren’t communicating across departments or even within teams. On our first day in their offices we spotted a key cause of the problem. It was sitting on every desk - the company’s slogan. Nobody had even imagined that it could inhibit communication, but it did have that psychological effect. The layout of the offices was also an ‘obvious’ barrier to communication – obvious in hindsight.

We identified another ‘hidden’ cause of problems. An important change programme had been promoted by its acronym letters. By asking a few simple questions we found that staff had forgotten what the acronym actually stood for. The result: the initiative was simply ignored. Nobody had thought to check ‘understanding’.