Why “Sustaining” Should Never Be Your Program Goal?
Are you involved in running a business or “program” within a business such as Lean, Ergonomics, Process Improvement, Safety, Quality, Operations, …you get the idea? If so, what is your goal? Often I hear people say something similar to the following, “I want an effective and sustainable fill-in-the-blank program”. On the surface it that statement sounds good, doesn’t it? Who doesn’t want their program to succeed over the long-term? I’m even guilty of this myself. I’ve even presented classes and continuing education sessions on how to implement and sustain effective ergonomics/safety/SPH/etc. programs. But is sustaining something really what we want? I now believe the answer to that question should be “No”. Let me explain.
Do you know the definition of sustain? According to Merriam Webster online sustain can mean the following:
- to give support or relief to
- to supply with sustenance : nourish
- keep up, prolong
- to support the weight of : prop; also : to carry or withstand (a weight or pressure)
- to buoy up <sustained by hope
- to bear up under b : suffer, undergo <sustained heavy losses
- to support as true, legal, or just
When using sustain as the goal of a program the meaning is closest to “keep up, prolong”. Is that really what we want? Just to keep something going? That’s not what I want my clients to achieve when I work with them to implement changes in their processes. Do I want those changes to take hold—absolutely! But, I don’t want them to take what we do today and keep doing that same thing tomorrow, next month, next year and five years from now. That would be sustaining the new process. I want them to continue to assess, modify, and change— partially or completely from what they are doing today to what they will be doing tomorrow. Why? Because I believe you are either moving forward or backward. If you are standing still, i.e. sustaining, you are moving backward.
Think about the cliché “Don’t rest on your laurels”. To me that means to never be satisfied/content where you are because if you do you will soon be left behind. The world and your company are ever changing. If we don’t continually assess and note those changes, our “new” processes will soon be outdated which causes our program to stagnate and decline. I view this as similar to lifelong learning. I’m out of school and I have degree. Granted I need to take continuing education classes to maintain my licensing/certifications but I could take the approach that I just want to do the bare minimum in thinking that I have learned all that I need to learn. In essence I can “sustain” my knowledge. I love to learn—not just in my area of work but also in my recreational and personal pursuits. I’ve realized just how wrong my thoughts about sustaining were to m real goals. My goal is far from sustaining what I know because what I’m doing and know right now is working for me today. I always want to learn and discover new ideas/information so that I can get better at what I do for others and myself.
Think about your company or any company for that matter. Do they want to sustain where they are at? Of course, they want to stay in business but to stay in business one has to always improve because there is always someone else trying to come up with a better widget or idea which can pass overtake it. If your company isn’t improving, providing a better service for your customers then it probably won’t be in business very long.
What about your “lean journey”? How well are you doing lean? Are you using the tools or have you moved beyond the tools and have ingrained the thought processes/systems of lean into your culture that you are always looking to improve? The same question can be asked of your quality or safety department. Are you satisfied with your current defect or injury rate? Is it one you want to sustain because it good enough? Are you sure? Is it good enough for tomorrow?
I can honestly state that for me professionally and for my clients, my goal is no longer to achieve sustainable programs. It is for us/them to achieve a culture/mindset/system of continuous improvement in whatever program we do, i.e. ergonomics, lean, safety, quality, etc. In a nut shell, it is all about continuous improvement. Move forward or move backwards. What is your goal?