Knowledge Base · Getting Started
How do I run a 100-day improvement plan?
Diagnose first, pick two or three weak factors, sequence quick wins early and standardising work late, review weekly, and re-score at day 100 against the measures you started with. The book builds 100-day plans from its maturity assessments, targeting five points of improvement per quarter, and the free ADX course capstone has you build your own.
The 100-day plan is the book's bridge between diagnosis and a new normal. It appears first in Chapter 3, where sites assessed with the maturity scorecard each built one, aimed at a few of their weakest factors with a target of five points of improvement per quarter, and the pattern is reused wherever the book needs change to outlast enthusiasm.
Build it in four moves. Diagnose honestly first: a maturity assessment, a DILO study, a series of where-does-it-hurt sessions, any structured way of seeing where you actually stand. A plan built on impressions will aim at the wrong weaknesses. Choose few targets: two or three factors, not twelve. The book's sites improved quarterly precisely because the plan was narrow enough to finish.
Sequence in waves: quick Just Do It wins in the first fortnight to buy belief, one or two structured efforts, a rapid improvement event or a DMAIC project, across the middle, and the standardising work, new habits, boards, training, in the final stretch. Review on rhythm: a weekly check against the plan inside the existing huddle or leadership meeting, and a formal re-score at day 100 against the same measures you started with, so the result is evidence rather than a feeling.
The free ADX course ends by having you build exactly this plan as its capstone, because a plan you construct yourself, from your own diagnosis, is the kind that survives contact with your calendar. One hundred days is long enough to change how a team works and short enough that nobody can hide inside it.
Build the plan in the free course capstone
Related questions
- What is a CI maturity assessment, and how do I use one?
- Where do I start? A 30-day plan for continuous improvement
- What should my first 30/60/90 days of CI look like?
Source: Continuous Improvement in the Workplace, Ch. 3 (Learning to See) and Ch. 1 (Understanding Continuous Improvement).