The Progress Paradox: Does Standardized Work Stifle Creativity in Continuous Improvement?

Plain and simple: Standard work does not turn workers into non-thinking robots forced to repeatedly perform the same tasks day after day. Nor should it stifle creative thinking in solving problems on the job.

So say Dr. Mohamed Saleh and John Dyer in the latest Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement podcast. In this episode, the co-hosts continue their examination of tough questions that arise around lean, Six Sigma and other team-based continuous improvement efforts. The question is: Does standardized work stifle creativity?

The short answer is no. In fact, “Without standard work, you wouldn’t have any repeatability, a springboard for improvements,” Saleh asserts. “You wouldn’t have visibility to problems, and you would have chaos.”

Standard work creates a baseline for improvement, he says, “not a prison.” Moreover, he adds, “what people call creativity is often firefighting.”

In this episode, the hosts discuss behaviors that can give standard work a bad name, such as leaders who use it as a compliance tool or a “performance hammer” that creates disengagement.

On the topic of fire-fighting, Dyer relates how standard work redirects creativity from “jury-rigged,” temporary solutions to “permanently solving problems, and driving innovation and continuous improvement.”

He talks about the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle and its relationship to standard work.

“If (an idea) works, part of Act has to be to then make that part of your standardized work. So, you've now moved the baseline to a new baseline, and then you start coming up with new ideas,” Dyer says. “People don't realize that once you make some innovation happen, that then starts to unleash a whole new set of ideas on how you can innovate to the next level that were completely hidden before you put that first innovation into place.”

Saleh and Dyer also discuss:

• How dealing with multiple shifts can be one of the most difficult parts of implementing standard work.
• The impact of the “rain dance” mentality.
• The difference between standard operating procedures and standard work.
• The critical need to train all employees on continuous improvement topics so they don’t fight leadership’s efforts to develop standard work.

 “Standard work doesn't stifle creativity; it actually removes all the noise,” Saleh concludes.