Lean Laughs

Why Lean in Sales?

By Pascal Dennis

Why indeed? Isn’t Lean a factory thing?

Well, no…

Lean is a business system comprising the entire enterprise.

The Toyota Business System, for example, addresses the three critical “loops”:

1. Design
   
2. Make
   
3. Sell
   

Guess which one is considered most important? Sell – because it’s closest to the customer.

Sales are about information. What features does the customer want? At what price point? What promotions does he respond to? How does she want to receive her products or service?

How was our last promotion perceived? And so on...

Production (Operations), usually our most valuable & expensive asset, runs on information. We only make what our information tells us to make.

If our information is wonky, our most valuable asset is unlikely to operate in its sweet spot. Result: overproduction, inventory and all the associated ills.

So how do we introduce Lean in Sales?

Here are some questions to get you started:

1. What is value in Sales? (Who are our internal & external customers and what do they need from us?)
   
   
2. What is waste?
   
   
3. What are some core mental models in our Sales department?
   
   
4. What are our current processes for delivering this value?
   
   
5. How aligned are they to delivering the value our customers expect?
   
   
6. How do we improve them?
   

Lean is harder outside the factory – because our product & processes are typically invisible.

If you make scrap in a factory, everyone can see it. “Hey, we made a whole pile of junk yesterday…”

In business processes, by contrast, you can’t see the scrap. A good forecast & a bad forecast look identical…

On the plus side, sales folks are usually smart & creative. If you introduce the fundamentals with finesse, they run with them.

For more, check out The Remedy – Bringing Lean Out of the Factory to Transform the Entire Organization, and our Lean Leadership Brain Booster suite.

That’s all for now.

Pascal

Aikido and Lean

By Pascal Dennis

Aikido is the Japanese martial art developed by Morehei Ueshiba -- one the greatest Japanese senseis.

I studied aikido for fifteen years -- hard practice 3 or 4 times a week, as well as, summer camps in New England and beyond.

My aikido training has never left me. When I joined Toyota I felt instantly at home.

"I get it, this is a dojo..."

Now, years later, I'm still practicing the techniques our aikido senseis taught us.

Go slow, stop and fix, repeat...

(I pause here and respectfully bow to the late, lamented

• Kanai-sensei of Boston Aikikai, and

• Kawahara-sensei of British Columbia Aikikai)

Turns out this is the best way to learn -- (see Dan Coyne's The Talent Code for more).

I'll say it again: Go slow, stop and fix, repeat...

So easy to say...

Do we have the guts & discipline to do?

Cheers,

Pascal

Success is the Enemy of Future Success

By Pascal Dennis

Strategy Deployment begins with True North -- our strategic and philosophical purpose.

True North entails developing a clear picture of

1. Ideal condition, and
   
   
2. Target condition.
   

At the process level, this means answering questions like:

"Is the process behaving as expected?"

Corollaries: Do I understand my process? Is our hypothesis sound? If not, how do we adjust it?

"Is there creative tension in our management process?

Corollaries: Are problems visible? Are we challenging ourselves or simply resting on our oars?

True North works much the same at the broad strategic level.

In my view, its purpose, at each "level of magnification", is to create discomfort, and reflection (hansei) thereby.

Wakefulness, if you will.

Success is the enemy of future success.

What quality do outstanding individuals (and organizations) share?

Relentless self-examination -- after defeat, and more importantly, after success.

As evidence, I'd offer Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, Garry Kasparov, Pablo Picasso, and all great sports teams...

Regards,

Pascal

East Meets West in the Toyota Production System

By Pascal Dennis

Fall is a good time to reflect on fundamental questions.

What's so special about TPS?

Okay, it has a very good track record in manufacturing and has spread into health care, construction, finance and other sectors.

But over the centuries, have there been other successful management innovations?

What's the big deal?

I believe TPS is unique because it represents a magnificent blending of cultures.

The American occupation of Japan after WWII brought the best of East and West together.

American muscle, optimism and engineering prowess met Japan's (and hence, China's) social, psychological and spiritual inventiveness.

The result -- TPS -- represents an entirely new way of managing.

When ideas "mate" interesting things happen.

Scientific Management, as espoused by Taylor, Ford, Deming and others, enriched -- and was enriched -- by Eastern systems of thinking and feeling.

What other management system combines the rationality of time and motion studies, with the humanity and humor of continuous incremental improvement?

Every day a little up...

What other system is as comfortable with Zen-like paradox?

Lead as if you have no power?

Stop production so it never has to stop...

And what other system embraces the impossibility of perfection, while insisting we must work toward it every day?

TPS is a splendid marriage of East and West, of rationality and intuition, of Left & Right brain.

We're lucky to have it.

So here's an overdue tip of the hat to all those half-forgotten dreamers, engineers and managers who first intuited TPS in the 1940's and 50's.

Arigato gozaimashita!

Cheers,

Pascal

The Paradox of Standards

By Pascal Dennis

The Toyota Business system is full of paradox -- one of the many things that make it unique.

Standards are one its most paradoxical elements.

Standardized work (STW), for example, the best way we currently know to do a given task.

Our Lean Brain Booster pocket cards and apps teach that we need "simple, visual standards for all important things."

I was taught that STW comprises:

• Work content,
• Sequence
• Timing, and
• Expected outcome

Pretty strict, no?

You'd think, therefore, that STW would be restricting...

But STW frees you up -- for learning and improvement!

My wife, Pamela, teaches kindergarten. Her class includes a number of youngsters with special needs (autism, learning disabilities etc)

Children have difficulty with basic activities like tying their shoe laces, washing their hands, and going to the bathroom.

The latter, in particular, is rife with anxiety for many kids.

So, Pamela developed simple, visual standards for each of these activities.

Result: no accidents, anxiety or humiliation.

Effect: kids have more energy for learning. I'm very happy to report that Pamela's kids are thriving.

Lesson: Standards set you free.

Cheers,

Pascal

Visual Management - Drawing Helps Us Learn

By Pascal Dennis

I've been a scribbler for many years.

My journals are full of doodles, drawings, chicken scratch.

Now I know why -- it helps me learn.

Check out Science, August 26, 2011, Volume 233.

Ainsworth et al, in a paper called "Drawing to Learn Science" describe what happens when you draw.

Check out their Youtube video too.

Wonderful, no?

Wish I'd learned science this way...

Makes me think of Darwin, Leeuwenhoek and other greats.

Drawing things out in their notebooks, the messiness of the pages mirroring the messiness of learning & discovery...

So...get drawing ya'll!

Cheers,

Pascal

In Memory of Steve Jobs

They say Steve Jobs died the other day.

I don't have to believe it, if I don't want to.

Pascal

Visual Management -- Reverse Magic

By Pascal Dennis

Visual management infuses every element of the Lean Business System.

In a sense, we're doing "reverse magic".

David Copperfield makes elephants disappear.

We need to make the (information) elephant -- appear!

"Now you DON'T see it -- now you DO!"

Presto!

Many obstacles in most organizations -- fear, need for power & control, lack of knowledge etc.

But we can't move forward without it -- especially once you move outside the factory.

My book The Remedy is about applying this reverse magic in Sales, Marketing, Design, Engineering, Retail...

Cheers,

Pascal

Alpha and Omega

By Pascal Dennis

One of the great ironies of our time is the performance gap between Health Care and the so-called Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry.

As anybody who has spent time in the "Waiting Room" will attest. Value-Added time is microscopically small in the former.

By contrast, the good people in the QSR industry are getting better every day -- by applying the Toyota Business System.

Indeed, Business Week has had a series of articles highlighting their achievements.

I grew up in a restaurant, so my heart goes out to people who make the best of slim profit margins, long hours of often difficult work.

Well done, QSR and please continue!

It's easy to make fun, but the best QSR organizations provide excellent value and reliable service, while respecting the customer.

Can Health Care say the same?

Cheers

Pascal