Are you frustrated at the pace of improvement in your business?

Has your business started improvement initiatives only for them to lose momentum or fail to ever get off the ground?

Did it all start with enthusiasm, but then lost focus and energy?

Maybe you know you really NEED to start on a Continuous Improvement journey but you just don’t know where to start?

There is a lot of information out there. Should we follow a Lean Manufacturing approach? Do we want to focus on Operational Excellence? Should we think about Change Management first? Do we want a Six Sigma programme? Maybe TPM? OEE?

It can be overwhelming.

I am here to say that robust, sustainable improvement in your business is all about your PEOPLE. It is about engaging at all levels, providing simple and easy to use tools, enabling people to overcome the obstacles that they see every day.

It is NOT about a complicated improvement strategy or an extensive training programme.

Instead, help your people develop the ability to SEE what is really happening. Encourage and enable them to THINK in a logical, scientific way, in order to solve problems and overcome obstacles in their way.

They will learn how to make meaningful, sustainable CHANGE.

This is where the magic happens.

Help your people SEE, enable them to THINK, so they can learn to CHANGE.  Your business will transform.

For the best part of 22 years, I held Continuous Improvement roles within different Manufacturing industries, including Pharmaceutical, Dairy, FMCG, Food, and Medical Devices. I have been a CI Manager numerous times and an Operations Manager running a factory of over 500 people.

I've been on both sides of that particular fence, and understand the challenges of both perspectives.

I completed a 5 year Masters in Mechanical Engineering, graduating with a first class degree. I am a creative yet logical systems thinker, who loves to work with teams to break things down, figure them out and rebuild them better than ever.

I am hugely passionate about helping people make positive change. I get such a kick out of coaching and facilitating, especially when I see the lightbulb switch on in someone's head – when they solve a problem; when they realise they have the power to change; or when they get excited about all the improvements they could make.

My mission is to help people to be the very best they can be, by switching on as many lightbulbs as possible.

HOW I CAN HELP

Working with you, to transform your business

I'm not like many of the improvement consultants out there. I don’t like to go into companies and do things for them.

That approach might work in the short term, but it does not build the right skills, habits and culture within a client’s business.

Rather, I facilitate focused, effective activity to develop, stretch, and enable teams to make improvement. I work with teams to define what excellence means to them and where they need to focus.

I called my business SPARK Improvement for a reason - because I want to ignite positive change by helping people develop their skills and capabilities with energy, enthusiasm, and excitement.

Whatever excellence means for your business, I can help you get there.

HELPING YOU SEE

I can help you and your teams see where you want to go - to define and articulate your vision. To collectively, and creatively, illustrate what success looks like, where you want to get to. This might be about developing new products, breaking into new areas, initiating new processes. Or it might be about refining and improving existing products and processes, taking them to a whole new level.

I can also help you and your teams see what is actually happening through deep analysis of your processes. We use visual facilitation techniques to map out and illustrate the current operating patterns, so we can truly understand each step, so we can see who is involved, so we can see how all the different aspects interact and overlap. We can use data analysis to interrogate and dig deep on the facts.

You might be tempted to rush through this bit, keen to get on and jump into action, but it is incredibly important to spend time here. We must get a thorough understanding of the current situation so that you can make informed decisions going forward.

I can help you learn how to see the forest despite the trees.

HELPING YOU THINK

As well as being able to see what is going on, organisations and individuals also need to be able to think. To reflect, deliberate, cogitate. To understand, interpret, grasp.

Our brains are incredibly sophisticated and have evolved over the last few hundred thousand years to help us survive and thrive on this planet. But some of the habits we have developed actually work against us. We commonly, without even knowing it, jump to conclusions and are blinded by our biases and assumptions.

But there are ways to overcome this. There are ways to learn how to think and act in a more logical, thoughtful, scientific way. We can learn new habits, new behaviours, and new ways of thinking.

I can help you learn the art of thinking clearly.

HELPING YOU CHANGE

Once you learn to see and learn to think, then you can start to make change. We can develop small incremental steps, short cycle experiments, to move forwards whilst continually testing and adjusting.

This is not about project planning. This is about experimenting.

I can coach you and your teams, so that you learn how to run those tiny experiments, and learn from them, EVERY SINGLE DAY. You will learn to identify the obstacles in your way. You will build strong habits of reflection which enable you to learn from every step.

I can also teach you how to coach your staff, or teach your team members how to coach each other. I never want you to be dependant on me, I want you to be dependant on your own learning and your own helpful habits.

I can help you learn how to drive sustainable, effective change.

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GET IN TOUCH AND STAY CONNECTED

I'd love to have the chance to talk to you about how I can help your business

gemma@sparkimprovement.co.uk
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