Principle 5 of the HPO manager – creative improvement & fact-based

HPO managers are very much aware that their organization can never stand still as the organization’s environment doesn’t either, and therefore they put much emphasis on continuous improvement in a creative way (as you can only achieve so much doing things the same way) (leadership behavior). At the same time, HPO managers are very good at successful improvement as they make decisions and take action based on facts and then display an iron discipline in executing these actions (managerial behavior).

How do you practice creative improvement?

1. You are continuously actively looking for ways to improve the way the organization operates.
2. You are actively looking for new and divergent improvement ideas within and outside the organization.
3. You develop a culture of continuous improvement with a can-do mentality in which problems are solved together in creative ways.
4. You enable employees to themselves determine the bottlenecks in their sphere of influence.
5. You enable employees to draw up improvement plans themselves and then implement these plans.
6. You celebrate successful improvement initiatives with your employees.

How do you safeguard fact-based management?

1. You base your management style and decisions on facts.
2. You always make improvements in the way in which performance is measured and reported.
3. You regularly conduct customer satisfaction surveys and consult with important customers and suppliers.
4. You continuously strive to better understand the performance indicators that drive the organization.

You make it clear to non-performers through measuring methods what poor performance means and what the consequences are.