The Improvement Practice
Operational excellence that runs on a system, not on heroics.
We build the system of work, and the capability to keep improving it.
So a sound strategy actually gets executed, and the operation keeps getting better without depending on your best people holding it together.
Who we help
For the leaders who own the gap between the plan and the floor.
Operations and regional directors in large, complex operations whose plans are sound but whose execution is inconsistent, and who know the organisation is capable of more than its results are showing.
The practice for the many, and the system they work in.
Where is performance leaking for you?
The same process done five ways across sites. Rework and firefighting. Standards on paper but not on the floor. Improvement that delivers a lift, then erodes.
Usually underneath: no shared standard, and no daily conversation to hold it.
The question we help you answer
Does your operation run on a system, or on heroics?
Three honest questions. Nobody is watching.
1Day to day, what really keeps performance on track?
2If your best people left tomorrow, would performance hold?
3Is all that frontline activity actually moving the measures you are accountable for?
Answer the three questions and see where your operation sits.
Find your weakest conditionWhat makes improvement hold
Most change does not fail. It stops being followed.
Six conditions decide whether a change is still running in twelve months, whatever method sits underneath it. They don’t make up for each other, so a change is only as strong as its weakest one. Tap the one you think is weakest where you work.
The weakest link sets the score, not the average.
Which one would break first?
Every change has a weakest condition. Finding it before you start is cheaper than finding out in six months, when the new way has quietly become the old way again.
How we work
A guided journey, not a fixed toolkit.
Our Sustainable Performance Excellence approach lives here, alongside systems thinking and established disciplines such as Lean and Six Sigma. Method where it earns its place, never method for its own sake.
Diagnose the real system
See how the work really runs.We use systems thinking to see the interaction between measures, structures, behaviours, processes, demand and consequences, not the tidy process map.
A picture of how the work actually flows, including the parts nobody puts on the process map.
Three lenses, held at once, from day one.
Where the operation is going. The tools people use every day, such as hubs and standard work. And the habits and behaviours of the people using them. Most programmes install the tools and hope. We coach the person in their use of the tool, because that is where the value is.
What changes
A system of work that delivers, and keeps improving itself.
Not improved once. Improving for good.
We are not improving your operation once. We are building its capacity to keep improving itself, the foundations of a genuinely learning organisation.
- FrontlineFive ways to do one job.One standard, owned by the people who do it.
- Your best peopleFirefighting, every day.Freed to improve the work.
- MeasuresLots of activity. KPIs that won’t move.Frontline effort connected to the measures that matter.
- ImprovementA lift, then it erodes.Gains that hold, and compound.
Who you will work with
Operators first. Coaches second.
We have run operations ourselves, so we know what Monday morning looks like when last week’s plan has already slipped. Get Knowledge is led by its co-founders, Lee and Jason, and backed by a team of experienced associates, so the coaching can scale to the size of your operation. We coach on the floor and in the moment, alongside your leaders at every level, because that is where habits are built.
The flexibility to personalise a framework to meet our business needs was highly beneficial and impactful.
Rather just talk it through?
Book a call with us.
A straight conversation about where your operation is losing performance, what keeps getting in the way, and whether we are the right people to help. If we are not, we will tell you.
Fair questions
What operations leaders ask us first.
Straight answers to what usually comes up in the first conversation.
Method where it earns its place.
We’ve done improvement programmes before. Why didn’t they stick?
Usually because the structure was installed but the conditions for it to hold were not. Six conditions decide whether a change is still running a year later, and the weakest one sets the outcome. We assess them before we start, so we can predict where it will fade rather than explain it afterwards.
Is this Lean or Six Sigma?
We use both where they earn their place, alongside systems thinking and our own Sustainable Performance Excellence (SPEx) approach. The method serves your operation, never the other way round.
Do you work with the frontline or with managers?
Both, and every level in between. A daily conversation only works when each level is having it, so we coach leaders at each tier in their own conversations, in the moment, on the floor.
Can you work alongside a programme another firm is running?
Yes, where our values line up with theirs. Sometimes the most useful thing we can do is apply the six conditions around something you already have in place, so it finally sticks.
Who will we actually work with?
A coach from the Get Knowledge team: one of our co-founders, Lee or Jason, or one of our experienced associates. We scale the coaching team to the size of your operation.
What if the problem is also at the top table?
It often is. Improvement is one of two doors into the same organisation. When the challenge also sits in how the top team leads, we bring in The Leadership Practice and connect the two.
Start with a conversation.
A short, no-pressure chat about where your operation is losing performance, and what it would take to build a system that holds.
Door one: Leadership, how you lead