Last month, we hosted an event that brought together over 60 CI leaders from a diverse range of industries. The event offered a valuable opportunity for these leaders to connect, share experiences, and engage in discussions around the challenges they face in driving CI within their organisations.
During one of the sessions, we conducted a Mentimeter poll to gauge the top challenges currently facing CI leaders. Attendees were then divided into groups to discuss each of these challenges in more detail, allowing them to network and learn from each other’s experiences. This collaborative setup created an environment where attendees not only shared obstacles but also discussed successes, strategies, and insights.
Here’s a summary of the key takeaways and the top five challenges identified by these CI leaders.
1. Scaling Continuous Improvement Across the Organisation
The most pressing challenge revealed by the poll was the need to scale CI efforts beyond isolated teams or departments. While many organisations have managed to establish CI practices in specific areas, the question remains: how can these successes be expanded organisation-wide? Scaling CI requires a blend of strategy, resources, and adaptable frameworks, all of which we’ll explore in more detail in future discussions.
Download our whitepaper on Mastering and Scaling Continuous Improvement: A Blueprint for Sustainable Operational Excellence
2. Building CI Capability Across All Levels
Capability building emerged as the second most common challenge. To achieve sustainable CI, it’s crucial to equip employees at all levels with the skills and competencies necessary for CI practices to become embedded in the culture. When people are empowered with the right capabilities, they can contribute to improvement efforts more effectively, driving business as usual towards excellence.
Check out our whitepaper on Who? What? Where? When? How to build the right improvement capabilities for your business
3. Enhancing People Engagement
Engaging people remains a critical factor in the success of CI initiatives. Many CI leaders noted that programmes often falter when employee buy-in is lacking. Engagement challenges span all levels of the organisation, from the front line to senior management. Effective people engagement is foundational to driving change and minimising resistance, helping CI initiatives gain traction and achieve lasting impact.
Register for our webinar on The Critical Role of People Engagement in Building a Successful Continuous Improvement Programme
4. Fostering Cross-Functional Collaboration
Breaking down silos and encouraging cross-functional collaboration was identified as the fourth top challenge. For CI to succeed, teams need to work together seamlessly across departments, understanding the end-to-end process rather than focusing solely on their individual roles. This collaboration fosters a shared understanding of value streams and encourages joint problem-solving, both of which are essential to operational efficiency.
CI champions can assist with problem-solving, coaching, and process redesign within their areas. They help build capacity for improvement initiatives, spreading CI principles and practices and acting as an extension of the core team.
5. Supporting Data-Driven Decision-Making
Data-driven decision-making was highlighted as a unique but vital challenge in the CI landscape. Reliable data is essential not only for tracking the current state but also for measuring improvements and their impact. CI leaders underscored the importance of data to help guide strategic decisions and validate the tangible benefits of improvement efforts.
Conclusion
This event highlighted that while CI leaders come from varied industries and backgrounds, they often share common challenges in their journey to drive CI across their organisations. Scaling CI, building capability, enhancing people engagement, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and supporting data-driven decision-making were the top five challenges identified by our group. These areas are critical to establishing a sustainable culture of CI, and addressing them is essential to achieving meaningful, long-term transformation.
The discussions provided invaluable insights and practical solutions that can help CI leaders navigate these obstacles. Moving forward, we’ll continue to share strategies and examples from leading organisations on how to tackle each of these challenges effectively. By focusing on these core areas, CI leaders can build stronger foundations for operational excellence and drive impactful, lasting change across their organisations.
If you’re facing similar challenges and would like any advice or support I would love to talk.
