Let’s take a walk around your facility. What do you see? With a quick glance, do you know the status of the operations? Are you on pace or off pace? What problems do you see? What waste can you identify?

Now, pay special attention to the people. Do they appear stressed? Or relaxed? Frustrated or excited? Are they coming to work and simply “punching the clock” just to get through another day? Or are your people discussing improvements daily? Are your people content with current operations? Or, are they seeking out greater opportunities to develop new and/or improved processes to help solve problems and ultimately add more value to the customer?

Perhaps the more important question is “are teams discussing improvements”? Improvements to products, processes, and even to the way people are engaged and interact. Are teams aligned to a true north and are they discussing ways they can get closer to that true north?

Lots of questions, I know.

The answers to these questions should help you determine what’s next…Employees should love their work but feel uncomfortable, or dissatisfied, when they feel things are staying the same, or not improving. There should be an urgency to improve and create more value for the customer. Our teams should feel exited and eager to improve. So how do we generate and nurture this excitement?

Here are three ways to do just that:

First, CULTURE. Who knows this famous quote from Peter Drucker? “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Sure, people come to work to get a pay check. However, its the culture that keeps them from simply “punching a clock” day after day. Motivating a team to seek and discuss improvements is not easy. Unfortunately, some leaders and managers use authority and fear when they try to achieve results. This rarely works for long and does nothing to promote the development of a self-driven team. Rather than using power to influence others we need to use a holistic approach. A “what’s in it for us all” approach. We should communicate the vision and then ask our team “how do we get there”. When we are all rowing in the same direction we must empower people to do what they were hired to do. Row! It’s no surprise that employee engagement and workplace success are more likely if you motivate your team.

Second, PEOPLE ARE COMPETITIVE BY NATURE, but they need a scoreboard to know how they are doing. When going to a ballgame, why do we need a scoreboard? Why do people pay so much attention to the number of strikes and outs? Why is the score so important? Because it lets us know how our team is doing. It tells a story about whether we are winning or losing. And, it gives the team the ability to make adjustments as necessary to win the game. The same goes for our teams at work. How do you expect someone to get excited and engaged in “the game” if you aren’t keeping score? Use visual management and KPI’s, aligned to a true north, to establish a good scoreboard for your team. Set goals and engage them to find ways to meet them.

Finally, ENCOURAGE EXPERIMENTATION. To become a learning organization, one that is improving regularly, leaders mush encourage their teams to take risks and experiment with new and innovative ways of doing things. Begin small by asking your teams to find one small improvement each day and allow them time to do just that. When improvement experiments don’t work out as expected, celebrate the learning. When improvement experiments do work out, celebrate the success.

Don’t wait. Start today.