Don't Let Perfect be the Enemy of Good or Great

Truths

We grew up going to school. We understand the concept of grades and getting things right or wrong. In fact, it is a very American ideal that success happens to a few in leaps and bounds and that being perfect or great for an exam, test, or moment is all that matters.

Fast forward to attending higher ed institutions and moving into the workforce, and you'll hear phrases like:

My top strengths are…
My experience is mainly in…
I’m best when the following conditions are in place…

In a word - learn. Be insatiably curious about solving big aspirations and problems. Today and tomorrow's workers cannot be the old IBM I or T employee, rather they must have the range of a generalist and also be eager to outlearn others in specialty areas.

Kaizen is the Japanese term for this approach, meaning change for the better or continuous improvement. It is a Japanese business philosophy that concerns the processes that continuously improve operations and involve all employees.

From our CEO Bryan Setser

"I had my first introduction to [kaizen] while working for Terry Holiday and Susan Allred in the Baldrige Award Winning School District Iredell-Statesville. To this day, Susan is on my board, Lory Morrow, Melanie Taylor, and Kelley James whom I met and worked with there also help our team and clients now at Setser Group. We are all very steeped in rapid cycle innovation which at the core holds the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle (PDSA) as a core way we approach any aspiration or problem. While we have written about quality tools like the PDSA before, this first e-letter of 2023 offers further insight into why it is so critical to solving problems in a Volatile, Uncertain, Ambiguous, and Complex (VUCA) world."

Let's dive further into the tool itself.

Tools

Before the holidays, our team was asked to look at some best-in-class school of education centers around the world. Our work begins with questions and the questions behind the question, which often drive more insatiable curiosity in our pursuits.

What is your PLAN this week for any project or effort? What did you research before beginning to think about your approach for the day or week?

Who do I know? Is this a diverse group of experts?

Who knows me?

What data sources should I consider?

Are there any reports I should read?

Who should I grab a call with to learn the important state of the state of education centers?

Who is best in class internationally?

Should we call our buddy Lynn Gangone at AACTE who we worked with a few years back?

How about Brent Madden at Arizona State University?

Who is looking at this work through an equity and inclusive lens?

These are just some of the questions we’re asking ourselves in any innovation planning approach.

Next, comes the steps to DO the work.

How do I calendar the work?
How do I block off time to do it?
What are the communications, change management, and learning agenda processes to bring all up to speed?
How will we visually manage the project and capture and manage knowledge?
Can I crowdsource any of it with a post on several social media sports?
Should I involve others in the DO Steps?
How can we divide and conquer to shorten the lifespan of the PDSA?
Can I provide some assignments to others and huddle in the next 48 hours to make meaning in a shared Google Doc on early observations, insights, and emerging recommendations for synthesis?
What are the client's expectations?
When do they need to see some early patterns or visual representations of our work?
Do I create the visuals or do team members?
What is our expectation for review and refinement of those outputs?
Can we invoke a three-loop learning philosophy to shorten the cycle time to quality outcomes?

In terms of STUDYING the results, these questions begin to move the work forward.

Who needs to be involved?
What do the data and information we researched tell us? What does it not?
What can we celebrate?
What are the opportunities for improvement?
What are the potential action steps?
Who else can look at our research and verify it?
What do we need to share with a novice or potential customer in order to get their views and feedback?
Have I shared this work for feedback from equity-based leaders for inclusive practice?

How do we synthesize the study phase to create tangible ACTION steps to shift, sustain, scale, or scrap our findings into another PDSA cycle?

How long should the cycle be? A week, 30 days, 90 days?
Do we need to move to charter like in the 90-Day cycle handbook from the Carnegie Foundation?
Or can we use these PDSA templates in digital form and how multiple members contribute their work to the action steps on a weekly basis?

Triumphs

Finally, who can we learn from as it relates to education and workforce?

Start here:

Without Trumpets: Continuous Educational Improvement, Journey to Sustainability by Susan Allred

Susan is on our advisory board, and her book and subsequent revision empower leaders at each level of the implementation of the improvement process.

Journey to Excellence-Transforming Our Organization: Iredell-Statesville Schools

Dr. Terry Holliday, Superintendent of the Baldrige Award Recipient Iredell-Statesville Schools, describes how the organization has transformed on its journey to performance excellence and the lessons learned using the Baldrige Criteria.

Howard Community College Wins Baldrige Award

The award honors HCC’s shared commitment, which has resulted in improvements in closing the achievement gap, increasing completion, and preparing students for the workforce. Read about their amazing journey!

Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Worksheet

We are inspired by the work of IHI in the medical industry and often modify their templates to improve our work in education.

This Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Worksheet from IHI is a useful tool for documenting a test of change.

Want to share Setser Group on social media?

What are your plans for continuous improvement? Do you practice Kaizen? Learn more from Setser Group here: https://linktr.ee/setsergroup

#Kaizen #ContinuousImprovement #PDSA #SetserGroup #FutureOfLearning #FutureOfWork #SetserNation

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