from Jo Usher, General Manager , Arcadia Cold Hazleton
As General Manager at Arcadia Cold’s Hazleton facility, one of my top priorities is creating a culture of continuous improvement (CI). For me, CI isn’t just a set of buzzwords or abstract goals; it’s a mindset that drives everything we do. Here’s how I approach it with my team.
1. CI is a Journey of Steps Toward Targets
When I talk to my team about continuous improvement, I explain it as a series of steps. Imagine you’re climbing toward a target. Once you reach that target, new ones appear, and the journey continues. It’s about progress, not perfection, and each step brings us closer to our goals. Breaking it down this way makes the process more manageable and helps the team see that every task, no matter how small, is part of a bigger picture.
2. CI Isn’t Linear and It Never Ends
One of the most important things I stress is that CI doesn’t have an end. It’s ongoing, and sometimes it doesn’t follow a straight path. Achieving one target might reveal other areas that need attention—whether that’s improving a related process or addressing an overlooked task. The work of CI never really stops, and that’s what keeps us improving day after day.
3. Failure Is Part of the Process
A crucial part of continuous improvement is understanding that failure is not the end of the road. When we don’t meet a target, that’s not a failure to me; it’s just another step in the plan-do-check-act cycle. Each missed target teaches us something new, and that learning propels us toward future success. Failure is part of the CI process, and embracing it is what helps us grow.
Stripping Away the Jargon
I work hard to remove the jargon from CI. It’s easy to get lost in industry terms, but that doesn’t help anyone. I make it a point to explain CI in ways that are intuitive and understandable for the whole team. The goal is to make continuous improvement something we live and breathe every day, not just something we talk about in meetings.
By focusing on these principles, I’ve seen how our team becomes more confident in taking on challenges and more motivated to push the boundaries of what we can achieve. Continuous improvement isn’t just a job; it’s a mindset that fuels our success here at Hazleton.
