IT Professional Services  & Management Consulting - Continual Service Improvement

Micromation Blog

Tools and Techniques for Continual Improvement - CSI Value Canvas

Posted by David Smith on May 27, 2015 8:30:00 AM

Three Common Challenges Managers Face

Continual improvement process managers face three common challenges:

  1. Breaking out of firefighting mode long enough to make an effective improvement strategy/plan;
  2. Getting senior management support, commitment and investment funding;
  3. And most importantly, winning the hearts and minds of the people who are effected by the changes.

Better Improvement Plans that People Embrace

Part 2 in this series of articles will share some tools and techniques for continual improvement that help Managers create compelling improvement plans that people embrace using a CSI Value Canvas.  See Part 1 – Domino Effect to create value faster with more focus and Part 3 - Improved management control using a CSI Register tool.

CSI Value Canvas

Improvements can take Herculean Effort

Most of the time it feels like you need super-human abilities to make positive change.

It’s all too easy to be consumed by the steady stream of daily emergencies making it difficult to find time to plan a better way of getting the rights things done.

When you do get a plan together it often competes with other plans/projects for approval, buy-in and investment funding from senior management.

Finally you get your approvals and its show time but no one wants to make the change, they like the way things are now or it’s not their priority.   Uuugghhh!!

Bring your Ideas to Life

Borrowed from one of my favorite books "Value Proposition Design", I created the CSI Value Canvas to bring the Domino Effect to life.

The Canvas is a simple one page improvement plan that is used to create compelling improvement plans that people embrace.

Use the Canvas to capture your great ideas, sketch out the value stream mechanics, facilitate dialog with your colleagues and articulate your compelling value proposition for change.

How the Canvas works

Use the single page Canvas planning tool and capture short/concise post-it notes level details.  Use these 5 steps to create your value proposition. 

  1. Capture your great idea by defining the purpose, time frame, outcomes and benefits that are important, this helps ensures you get buy-in, support and cooperation in obtaining your wildly important goals.
  2. List some controls that will guarantee your success by tracking your progress using metrics, artifacts and/or evidence.
  3. Next determine what directly enables the outcomes and benefits, these managed elements are typically categorized as people, process, technology and/or information needed to realize your strategy.
  4. Now assess the enablers to determine what the challenges are going to be, these could be in the form of issues, gaps, risks and/or road blocks that must be overcome.
  5. Finally formulate initiatives that directly address the challenges identified in the previous step, solutions should be fit for the original purpose.

CSI_Canvas_Template_v2

Socialize your CSI Value Canvas plan with senior management and stakeholders to get feedback, make iterative changes.   Often it's Plan B or Plan C that get approved and have this highest chance of success because people are more aware and understand their contribution.

Seven Reasons for using CSI Value Canvas

  1. Improved Planning Technique - focus your effort on what's important
  2. Creates Stronger Value Propositions - helps gain approval and buy-in for others
  3. Better Communication Tactics - breaks down resistance to change through awareness and contribution
  4. Increases Organizational Alignment – work together with common goal to produce maximum results
  5. Creates a Compelling Business Case (ROI) – get investment funding/budget approvals faster
  6. Eliminates Waste – find and remove things that don’t’ create value
  7. Reduces Risk – take control of outcomes to guarantee success.

Let us help you create your first Canvas

In conclusion, all service managers and process owners need to put on their continual improvement thinking hats.

Accomplish your wildly important goals by bringing your ideas to life.

Request a free Canvas tool and consultation with our experts to overcome your challenges and create your business value proposition.

Get a free CSI Value Canvas & consultation

 David Smith is the president of Micromation Inc. We help organizations increase customer value through continual improvement of services and processes by minimizing waste while maximizing yield.  

David is the author of “Implementing Metrics for IT Service Management” ISBN: 9789087531140 and contributing co-author of "IT Service Management - Global Best Practices" ISBN: 9789087531003.

 



 

Topics: Techniques, Tools, CSI

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