Mainstreaming innovation into business process improvement

Most North American organizations are struggling for a stronghold in their markets. They recognize the need to change created by the competitive business climate and rapidly changing customer expectations. Successful business improvement efforts focus on core competencies that typically drive improvement through one of three approaches: strategic innovation, business process re-engineering, or continuous improvement. All three depend on the inventive ability of the organizational resources and teams. However, teams struggle and often achieve only partial success in their process improvement initiative. This article focuses on how to provide improvement teams with the process, skills, and tools necessary to achieve the innovation desired while building long-term adaptability skills in team members.