If you determine that an Item will not result in a change, your first instinct may be to simply delete it. However, if the Item was meaningful despite resulting in no change, it is prudent to retain that information. Otherwise, what’s to stop another employee down the line presenting the same idea, not realizing that they are merely duplicating a previous effort, and forcing the same analysis to be conducted once more?
We recommend only deleting Items that:
- Were created as part of testing or training
- Contain sensitive information not relevant to improvement work or are otherwise deemed inappropriate from an HR perspective
You should NEVER delete an Item if...
It's a bad idea
This is an opportunity for additional coaching. Someone submitted this idea because they feel that there is a problem; and as a leader, you should help them find a solution to solve that problem.
If they originally came up with a bad solution to the problem, rather than deleting the Item you should help them find a better solution or connect them with someone else who can.
It can't be feasibly done
Sometimes people submit pipe dreams to KaiNexus, and even if you agree that it's a good idea, you can't do anything about it. This is an opportunity to engage with the employee and see if a more practical opportunity for improvement can be made. Even if it can't, resolving the Item as "No change" and leaving it in the system ensures a record that the idea was submitted and tells people in the future why it wasn't implemented.
It has been done before
When an Item is submitted that's already part of your standard operating procedure, a hole in training or communication has been identified. Letting someone know that their idea has already been implemented fills that gap, and provides you with the opportunity to share that information with others, too, in case they weren't aware.
Leaving the Item in KaiNexus rather than deleting it records that the idea came up again and that the employee is engaged in continuous improvement.
Nothing needs to be done
If someone submits an idea and you really don't think anything needs to be done, you should communicate with that employee in KaiNexus to let them know why. By resolving the Item and leaving it in the system, anyone else who has that idea can reference it. This should very rarely be the cause for resolving an Item as "No Change," as most ideas will have some value to the company.
You don't want it to appear in Reports or Lists anymore
If you're considering deleting an Item because it no longer needs to be reported on or displayed in Item Lists, we recommend you archive it instead so that you can clean up your system without losing any data.
Benefits of resolving Items as "No Change," rather than deleting them:
- If someone else has the same idea, they won't have to resubmit it (and you won't have to keep deleting it).
- The person who submitted the Item gets credit for being engaged in continuous improvement, even if the idea isn't implemented.
- You have new opportunities to engage with staff and coach them in identifying opportunities for improvement that will result in a change.
- By responding to Items rather than deleting them, employees will see that you value their input, even if you don't agree with it.
- You can track the percentage of ideas that result in a change, which is a good measure of the health of your culture of continuous improvement.