Improvement Canvas

An inseparable part of the development and growth of any organization or team is the presence of complexities and problems that they have to face. Very often, there are no simple and quick solutions for resolving the issues. As a result, it may take a lot of time and experiments to achieve the desired result.

An excellent tool that can be useful for systematic problem-solving is Improvement Canvas.

Improvement Canvas is a template (canvas) that allows you to plan changes to the desired state through small steps.

The canvas consists of five parts:

1. Title of the Topic

2. Current State

3. "Ideal" state (Definition of awesome)

4. Next State

5. First Steps

Filling the canvas begins with formulating the problem/challenge you want to solve.

The topic can be known before the start of the meeting, or it can be chosen as a result of brainstorming.

Tip: if you have trouble clearly articulating the topic, start by describing the current state and then return to defining the topic.

To get support from all stakeholders, it is necessary to have a common understanding of the current situation and problem.

Give everyone two minutes to record their opinion on the current situation/problem on sticky notes. Then each person presents and explains their notes. The sticky notes are placed next to the canvas. After all the notes are shown, the team is given a task to summarize the “Problem/Current State” in a few sentences or points.

This two-step process is important as it forms a shared understanding and reveals different perspectives on the situation.

Ask the participants what should be the "ideal" state. If it was already implemented, what would it look and feel like?

"Ideal state" can be a distant vision, possibly even unrealistic over the next six months/year. The idea is to create a shared vision of the goal to be strived for.

Ask the team to describe this vision in a couple of points (maximum 5) or a couple of sentences (top 3).

Identify the first realistic sub-goal to your vision - the next targeted state.

Choose a period (date) and create a checklist of three to four things you want to accomplish by then.

For example: "In 6 weeks, we have achieved the following:..." followed by a list of statements describing what has changed. The criteria should be clear and easily measurable.

For example: "Within a week, we have no customer complaints."

You can start by brainstorming potential small actions the team could take to get the desired end state.

If it's a large task, ask: where would we start? Turn that into action. Do not discard proposals, and don’t censor stupid ideas right now.

The actions don’t require a complete plan to reach the end goal. Define a couple of small steps that can be taken to get started. Once the set of possible actions is defined, select (via a vote or discussion) which three will become our First Steps. These three ‘stickers’ are placed inside three red squares, Action Fillers, for tackling tasks. Finally, assign responsible for the actions.

At the end of the meeting, agree on the regularity and format of tracking your progress toward the goal. Depending on the topic and its importance, the progress can be tracked daily, several times a week, or weekly.

In any case, it is essential not to forget the agreements and periodically analyze the progress.

Once the "Next Desired State" deadline has passed, it's time to analyze the results.

To do this, ask the team:

• Have we achieved the desired state?
• How far are we from the Current State?
• How close did we get to our definition of “ideal”?
• Is our topic still relevant?

If yes, define the new next desired state. If not, create a new Improvement Canvas.