It’s common for organizations to begin their Lean journeys focusing on production, operations and Lean tools. It’s only after toiling at it for a couple of years that they realize they should’ve focused sooner on the human capital aspects of creating lasting change. Commonalities between operational improvement and managing involvement are significant, particularly with regard to three critical work streams often overseen by the Human Resources (HR) arm of human capital [Read more]
Metrics are Scary and Should be Avoided at All Costs (Not)
May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Metrics are such an important element of continuous improvement. Wait…Metrics might be the most important element of continuous improvement. Why? Because continuous improvement by definition is the measurement of improvement — and if you aren’t measuring, how will the organization know how far it has come or where it needs to go?
Most organizations struggle mightily with the topic of metrics and sometimes it’s surprising just how much. I think it happens for a number of reasons. [Read more]
Quick thoughts on the definition of excellence, and the weekly rewind
April 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
It’s one of those days where what should be, and what is, are at odds with each other again…..
“Excellence” is something that ought to be defined objectively. There ought ot be agree-upon standards for excellence. In some cases there are, such as in sports where Excellence is defined as a team championship. Even then, however, excellence has a subjective interpretation – you might be a batting champion in baseball (meaning you have the highest individual batting average of any player), yet play for a last place team. A super star player might have sub-par statistics due to the poor team that surrounds him or her.
I think, if you ask almost any person, in any role, in any company what excellent means and they will tell you about their experience – and not necessarily about the standards within their profession. This may mean that, in reality, “excellence” becomes a locally-defined phenomenon, which is a mistake. [Read more]
It’s all in how you look at it – current state to ideal state
April 10, 2012 By 2 Comments
within all the reasons why a process can’t be changed, won’t be changed, or why it did not work last time lies a vital component necessary for overall improvement to begin – a definition of the current state. What all those protestations are giving us is the perception of the current state that is held by the people who are living with whatever process, as suboptimal or utterly broken as it may be.
What the person sees is their reality. A reality where both people and things don’t work. What they are sharing, when they complain, is their knowledge of the way things really work around here. When improvement concepts are introduced, they tend to take the tone of “Here’s the way things can or should work around here.” When poorly introduced, the new ideas sound condescending at best, and threatening at worst. What those ideas represent, however, is the ideal state – the concept of the way things should work, even if we don’t know how to get from here to there.
So, how to overcome the reluctance and resistance? [Read more]
Chronic problems are not problems, they are constraints.
April 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In any environment, among any group of people, there are going to be problems that just don’t go away. You might have a critical vendor who is your only go-to source, but who is chronically late to contract. You might have a genius employee who is a prima donna. Or, you might have a moronic [...]
A ROWE & Lean chat on business901.com, and the weekly rewind
March 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I had a chat with Joe Dager on the business901.com podcast a couple weeks back, and we discussed ROWE and Lean,and where the two approaches line up, and where they differ. Click the link to hear me discuss how what ROWE’s creators advocate might help to expose what Bob Emiliani calls “Fake Lean” or what Mark Graban calls “L.A.M.E” and create better focus for those whose Lean aspiration have gone astray. [Read more]
Results-Only Live: ROWE & Lean discussion today
March 13, 2012 By 3 Comments
TODAY AT 1:00 EASTERN
Lean author, consultant, speaker, practitioner and all-around guru Mark Graban has been a significant part of the discussion on how ROWE and LEAN fit together…or don’t. As a Lean expert with background in large-scale manufacturing at General Motors, and the application of Lean principles in healthcare settings, I thought Mark could offer a lot of perspective on Lean and ROWE. I introduced him to the folks at CultureRX, the company created by ROWE’s founders, and they invited him to be a part of their radio show. Hear Mark today on Results-Only Radio.
Management Improvement Blog Carnival #159
March 1, 2012 By 1 Comment
March 2012 marks the 2-year anniversary of My Flexible Pencil. Although I’m certain he was unaware of that, I am still honored that John Hunter of the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog is helping me to celebrate this milestone, by asking me to host the Management Improvement Blog Carnival #159.
The Carnival, begun by in 2006, is published 3 times a month and serves to provide a selection of links to posts on a number of blogs. The carnival covers management improvement: Deming, lean manufacturing, six sigma, innovation, customer focus, leadership, systems thinking, continuous improvement, respect for people… [Read more]
Guest post on A Lean Journey, and the weekly rewind
February 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Today, I have a guest post appearing on Tim McMahon’s A Lean Journey Site. The Topic: ROWE in the context of the Shingo model. When Tim asked if I’d like to do a guest post on his site, I jumped at the chance. I also reached out to Mark Hamel, a blogger, an award-winning author for his book: The Kaizen Even Fieldbook, and a Shingo Prize examiner, for input. Mark wrote a complete post of his own which will appear on Tim’s site tomorrow. Mark dives even deeper into how ROWE aligns with the Shingo, and how it does not. [Read more]
An All or Nothing Attitude Usually Gets You Nothing
February 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A big trap in leading major improvements is to set massive and sweeping goals with no intermediate steps or sub-goals along the way. Here’s the trap. Because these goals are so massive, it ends up taking forever to just get it started or to generate any measurable results. Consequently, people see little or no progress, they get [...]
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