Concentric circles of improvement

Joe Ely has a brief meditation on cycles of improvement, The Orbits of PDCA where he says:

Yet PDCA happens in concentric circles, widened by longer time intervals. Did our bigger plans work last month? Last quarter? Last year? Over the past five years?

This is a good reminder that continuous improvement doesn't start or stop at the day-to-day level. It runs up and down the organization and across time. Circles upon circles upon circles of improvement.

[Found via Frank Patrick - a long time friend. We connected on this topic many years ago.]

[Photo: "Ceiling Circles" by o palsson]