Whether dousing a fire or cooking a boiler...

... what you need is enough energy to overcome dissipation.

What I mean by that is this:

Process improvement, as often is the case with many sorts of changes, requires sufficient attention and consistency of effort or progress will not be made, or what progress will be made will back-slide.

It's like working to lose fat (a topic I'm all-too-familiar with). It's not enough to watch what I eat 1 day a week or 1 meal a day, or even "whenever I feel like it". I've got to be careful with my eating for as long as I want to be dropping the mass. It's not enough to exercise for 5 or 10 minutes a week, I need to exercise several times a week, and most professionals would tell me that it requires a minimum number of minutes per day (greater than 5 or 10). Certainly, sprinting once through an airport will remind me that I need to do that more often. (The sprinting part, not necessarily at an airport.)

How do the analogies apply?

Well... if one has a strong fire burning (like a building or a bonfire), dripping water a few drops at a time once in a while will not put it out. It requires that the volume of water has more potential energy than the fire so that the fire will be overcome. Otherwise the fire will simply burn the water off before the water has any chance of being effective at suppressing the fire.

Same goes for bringing a boiler to boil to make steam. Too-small a flame under the boiler and the water inside will never boil to produce steam. The rate of heat the water and boiler are able to dissipate is higher than the rate at which a flame that is too small is able to heat it. No matter how long you keep the flame going.

If water or flame are to time and money as bonfire and boiler are to process improvement, what you have here is a formula for appearing to spend time and money over a long period of effort with no apparent benefit or outcome.

The most benefit one could hope for would be to learn that it takes resources, commitment to continue, and consistent effort to get anything worthwhile done. It's not enough to be dripping water on the fire, it's not enough turn the flame up very high for moments at a time with long pauses in between.

An organization can spend a lot of time and a lot of money and get nothing for it simply because they didn't put enough of a concentration of time or money in a short enough period of effort to make a difference. If the potential energy of the existing system remains greater than the energy being put into the system, the added energy will only add entropy (i.e., chaos), will eventually dissipate, and will not be noticed.

In other words, process improvement takes effort and time. Like getting into shape. Not enough effort coupled with not enough time on task and it will be a very fruitless and frustrating experience.

Just like being busy with everything surrounding creating products and not just getting down to the business of creating the product. Sound familiar?