Continuous Improvement

For the Forest Service to be successful in implementing this plan it is necessary for Organizational Development Branch to provide a higher level of strategic planning and coordination of Continuous Improvement (CI) related activities in a truly corporate manner. As a result, BIB has developed a new vision and mandate to effectively move into this new corporate role.

Vision:

‘To help make the BC Forest Service a high performing organization that is built on a solid foundation of a sustainable continuous improvement and learning culture.’

Mandate:

• Coordinate and develop the annual corporate CI strategy and budget,
• Provide quarterly and year-end performance reports on the corporate CI Strategy,
• Lead the development and delivery of corporate and headquarters based CI projects and activities,
• Coordinate the completion and ongoing maintenance of the Corporate CI Skills Inventory,
• Lead and coordinate the development and on-going support for a corporate community of CI and LO practitioners,
• Provide internal CI expertise and in-house facilitation and consulting skills when and where required,
• Develop and deliver CI education, training and development of training materials for use throughout the Forest Service.

Vision for a Continuous Improvement/Learning Culture

‘A more sustainable, cost-conscious continuous improvement approach to delivering the mandate of the Ministry – continuous learning and improvement is an integral part of the Forest Services’ corporate culture and goals’.

The CI Culture of the Future

What will that future state “look” like in the Forest Service? It will look like this:

1. People throughout the organization understand how high performance connects to and is dependent upon organizational learning and continuous improvement processes and activities, and the theoretical and organizational linkages between continuous improvement and organizational learning is understood (see Appendix F diagram),
2. CI is a visible and thriving part of the Forest Service organizational culture. Business and performance management processes and the interrelationships between business areas are fully understood. Forest Service staff clearly understand how their work helps to achieve the Forest Service strategic priorities, goals and objectives,
3. People in all offices and at every level are always looking for ways to do the business of the Forest Service better – more efficiently and more cost effectively. This will be evidenced by:
   1. Leaders, managers and supervisors encourage staff to challenge the status quo and invite, support and sponsor ideas and suggestions for improvement,
   2. People are comfortable with respectfully challenging the status quo,
   3.  Ideas, suggestions and successes are shared across the organization,
   4. Where suggestions for improvement involve or impact other business areas of the organization, cross-functional design teams are in place and at work ensuring inter-relationships and linkages between business areas are respected,
   5. Forest Service clients and partner agencies are an integral part of the organizations’ efforts to improve performance and are actively participating on design teams and in performance reviews,
   6. The major business processes of the Forest Service are mapped out, kept updated and improved over time.
4. There is sufficient capacity and depth of Forest Service CI skills and competencies to coordinate CI activities to help better manage changes to the Ministry business or organizational design. This will be evidenced by:
   1. Use of external consulting expertise is infrequent because staff at all levels possess the skills, abilities, competencies and confidence to use a continuous improvement approach to the way they conduct their day-to-day business activities,
   2. Ministry hiring and recruitment procedures, job descriptions and EPDP’s include the need to be knowledgeable and proficient at CI and Learning Organization (LO) skills, functions and processes,
   3. There is both a strong commitment and adequate resources to maintain a sufficient number of internal CI practitioners to enable the use of CI and LO tools to be sustainable (see Appendix G diagram),
   4. To ensure the wise and effective use of resources the corporate CI Skills Inventory is updated and maintained on an annual basis,
   5. The Organizational Development Branch has an evolving role in the organization. Some of the functions that BIB provided in the past are no longer required because there is a healthy, sustainable CI culture in place across the Forest Service. BIB will continue to provide a strategic planning, coordination and maintenance role for corporate CI resources (see Appendix E diagram),
   6. There is a corporate CI strategic planning team with representatives from each Division that effectively coordinates and manages all CI and related LO projects and activities that are funded corporately (see Appendix B for details on the corporate funding criteria).
5. Analysis of the current state versus the desired state is occurring annually. Strategies and action plans are being worked on to close the gap between the two. This will be evidenced by:
   1. Performance measures exist for all core business functions and strategic initiatives,
   2. Senior managers review progress to targets on a regular basis,
   3. Work is underway to eliminate barriers in the way of reaching desired targets and performance data is used to drive actions to improve.
6. The Forest Service is clearly seen as a leader in CI and LO in the BC Government.