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   ​Many years ago, newspapers lined the streets of almost every city in the world.  People would gather at the "newspaper stands" and browse each page while sharing a story or two.  Word of mouth and the rugged ink stained paper were the main drivers of news, suggestions and ideas.
  Today we still have ideas and suggestions, but things aren't quite as simple as the good ole days.  Today making a suggestion often involves filling out a tedious small slip with more information than you can even read, shoving it in a bin that nobody collects and then hoping it gets "approved."  Here's the idea!   Workers see it all, touch it all and often have the closest connection with a process.  Why is this significant?  That connection can act as the perfect vehicle when looking to identify issues, collect improvement suggestions and or come up with innovative new ideas.   The best part is, you don't have to walk to a newspaper stand to do it.  

  The Kaizen template or improvement newspaper is a powerful tool that can be used with employees. They can suggest improvements, possible solutions and even create opportunities for improvements without necessarily having any idea of a solution.  Sounds a bit crazy doesn't it?  Well it is!  We’ve all been there before, a problem you see all the time and no ideas on how to solve it.  The Kaizen template enables employees to support improvements whether they have a fix or not. So how will this tool help employees?  To start, the suggestion or person filling out the kaizen template will need to capture a few pieces of information and document the information on the kaizen sheet.
  Here's the important thing to understand, no matter how much information you capture, it will do no good if it's shoved in a box waiting for review or hidden on a desktop only to become trapped in cyberspace.  
  Like any other lean tool, the kaizen template works best when it is made visible.  Here are a few important things to keep in mind when using improvement newspapers for a suggestion system.

1. Make it Visible
  Like we mentioned earlier improvement newspapers should not be contained within a network or hard drive, they need to be visible. Think for a second to a problem you’ve had before but couldn’t solve.  Eventually you share with a friend and they share a possible solution.  Immediately you think, “why didn’t I think of that?”  When opportunities are visible everyone can see, understand and help each other.  One advantage when using a computer to fill out the suggestion is that there will be no sorting through legible and illegible papers.  You can fill the paper out and print it out, placing it in an area where everyone can see the idea and before you know it someone is there to support you in finding a possible solution.

2. Keep them Alive
  About the era when tv was in full swing and computers began to emerge newspaper stands were laid to rest.  Now we get quarter machines by selected restaurants and no more standing with our friends talking and sharing the latest news on the front page.  Fortunately, Kaizen templates are far from dead.  They are in fact one very effective way to obtain opportunities for improvement but they must be kept alive.  Monitoring the suggestions during a huddle is one way to keep status up to date and ensure that each suggestion is moving forward.  In a huddle you can address the needs of the suggestion and help ensure ideas continue moving forward.  Possibly the most valuable aspect of this constant and continuous activity is that the people who make the suggestions will begin to understand that they are part of a team and their ideas mean something to others.  When people get a sense of belonging, support, action and appreciation your possible improvements will increase sufficiently.

3. Simple
  If you have ever used a new tv changer there is a bit of a learning curve to it.  Directions in hand and a thousand different settings to program it will never be as simple as walking to the newspaper stand to get some information.  The same principle should apply to our kaizen templates or improvement papers.  Not everyone knows how to use excel and not everyone will understand the process right from the start.  That makes it the perfect opportunity to train employees and go for a Gemba walk.  The bottom line, make it easy for the people filling the papers out.  The only thing that employees should be responsible for is filling out the template and doing their best to discover the root cause.  

  Although we may never see newspaper stands lining the streets again, kaizen templates or improvement newspapers could line the huddle boards of your organization.  They could fill white boards, line the walls and flow from the mouths of team huddles.  All while capturing innovative ideas from talented employees and driving improvement initiatives day in and day out.  The best part about this great tool is that it won't even cost you a quarter.  

  If you would like a template for a Kaizen/Improvement newspaper to get started click on the button below and begin experimenting with different tools that will help transfer improvements from idea to action.

Yes I would like a kaizen template!