Make the culture of continuous improvement your competitive advantage with these 5 tips

The opinions expressed by entrepreneurs contributors are their own.

An organization's culture of continuous improvement is the dynamic force that is vital to achieving this desirable. This may sound like jargon to an owner or to the senior manager of a large organization. Nevertheless, it plays a central role in the future success of any business.

The optimal scenario for a business leader is to have customers who are delighted with the service or product, staff who are happy and fulfilled in their professional lives, and healthy financial returns that put smiles on the faces of all shareholders.

I have been coaching and training business leaders in continuous improvement for over a decade now. While each journey is unique to an organization, there are common themes for organizing and directing continuous improvement, regardless of organizational size, industry, or location.

What is continuous improvement?

Continuous improvement is an organizational culture in which everyone continuously strives to improve all aspects of the business. The goal of any working day is to delight the customer and consistently deliver high quality services. These involve:

Innovation as a constant beacon

Profitable operations

Culture of reducing waste of time, resources and money

Staff who naturally want better. By identifying a breakdown or problem, they will determine the root cause and take action to fix and improve it.

Faster and simpler processes that are easy to understand and follow

Let's take the example of an airline. Most of us like to travel. If we were to fly with an airline with a culture of continuous improvement, our experience would likely be very smooth and joyful, from booking the flight to arriving at the destination. We would jump through the catwalk.

Related: If Your Business Isn't Customer-Obsessed, You're Wrong

What should be ?

Continuous improvement is a journey. It takes time, planning, dedication, perseverance and some leadership behavior.

Research by Oxford University and EY teams has shown that a human-centric approach doubles the success of an improvement journey. Its presence – or absence – will either enhance or dismantle efforts. Here are five key tips for creating a culture of continuous improvement for long-term success.

1. Look for improvement opportunities

Sometimes the opportunity may be obvious, and other times we have to seek it out. Here are some common opportunity-seeking activities:

Ask your customers.

Listen to your staff. They have the most important insight.

Study business processes and explore opportunities to eliminate steps.

A customer complaint is worth gold! I vividly remember the blank stare of a business owner when I first mentioned this. What a great source to get to know your customer. Not understanding what the customer wants is like taking the airline passenger to the wrong destination because no one knows where the desired destination is.

2. Prepare to improve

You have found the opportunity for improvement; it's time to create an exciting roadmap that illuminates key activities. Here are some examples of preparation activities:

Develop a structure that promotes shared ownership throughout the leadership chain. This is not a lone hero, but a collaborative team.

Create an upgrade tribe (champions and experts) to pave the way.

Investing in training (i.e. leading change...