How Innovation supports continuous improvement
1. Enhances Efficiency
o Innovative tools and technologies can automate repetitive tasks, reduce errors, and streamline workflows.
o Example: Implementing a digital ticketing system can improve IT service response times and tracking.
2. Solves Persistent Problems
o Innovation encourages creative thinking to address recurring challenges that traditional methods have not resolved.
o Teams can identify root causes and develop more effective solutions.
3. Improves Customer Satisfaction
o Innovative products, services, or service delivery methods help organizations better meet customer needs and expectations.
o Continuous feedback can inspire new improvements and innovations.
4. Encourages a Culture of Learning
o Innovation promotes experimentation, knowledge sharing, and adaptability.
o Employees become more engaged in identifying opportunities for improvement.
5. Supports Data-Driven Decision Making
o New analytical tools provide insights into performance trends, helping organizations identify improvement opportunities and measure results.
6. Increases Competitiveness
o Organizations that innovate continuously are better positioned to respond to market changes, customer demands, and emerging technologies.

Well, few things, I have seen that the conversation by itself is a good step in the right direction, questions if a step adds value or doesn’t is very good. 2nd It helps to add this layer of Value Add, Non Value Add and Non Value Add but Neccesary, because then you will be able to allocate this categories within the same process step for example. and 3rd in the ideal world you need to have clearly defined CTQs (or KPIs), from the perspective of the customer, that will help teams to better judge if a step is adding value or not depending of the impact to those CTQs or KPIs defined. Great point Nelson!!, wow!

Ufff, those are two great questions. For the first question, I have observed that because in most cases for an org like world vision we are dealing with flows of information, data, money, it is hard for people to conceptualize their day to day work as processes, so then evething becomes “very subjective”, so the first step is precisely to think about process flows linked to our activities, that helps to take a big step in the right direction. For the 2nd question, I think that you are an experienced “improvement leader”, that understand that there is a process on how to improve, most leaders don’t think that way, undersanting that there is a process and having a methodology associated with that like DMAIC or PDCA, creates the perfect language for people to be able to tell a story of how we were able to improve something. Great job Nelson, keep reflecting, this is how you continue to develop learnings….

Thank you, Carlos. I, really love the value add idea from the perceptive of the customer/buyer. Any of us who would to share some views on occasions when the value add judgement/ determination has always turned out to be ”your word against my word” from the perspective of the seller and buyer (customer) . How have you always gone about navigating that?

Hi Nelson, I 1000% agree with this perspective. Something that shocked me many years ago, when I started working at World Vision, was how many of the projects or initiatives ended in recommendations. To me, this idea was the opposite to Continuous Improvement; applying is where the real knowledge is created, and I also think that transferring that knowledge is important.

Remember to be patient, what you are learning will still be very high level, I am glad you are thinking deeper. Regarding your point, I remember an old lean six sigma quote, which should go very well here at World Vision: In God we trust anybody else must bring data – Edwin R. Fisher in 1978 (jajaja). I know this will come with time and maturity, but I think it is possible to imagine that more and more we based our discussions and decisions on data.