The Beauty of Making Things

By Pascal Dennis

Poesis is the Greek work for 'making things'.

Not coincidently, it's also the word for poetry.

A good piece of writing is like a fine piece of cabinetry, an elegant circuit board, or a beautiful engine.

Steve Jobs famously insisted that everything should be beautiful in the IPod, IPad, IPhone -- even if the customer couldn't see it.

A great carpenter feels the same way about the back of a cabinet.

This insight informed my life and the arts I've committed to:

• The art of management, and
• The art of writing

But do North American high school students appreciate the beauty of making things?

Have they been given proper guidance? Or do they stumble, by default, into barren general arts programs?

(See Oct edition of The Walrus Magazine for a piece on the plight of current graduates.)

I understand, for example, that there are almost a million unfilled skilled trades positions in America.

Good jobs in fields like mechanical, construction and information technology.

A chance to make something beautiful, to learn & practice a great art.

My sense is our kids don't have a full picture of what's possible.

Can I appeal to our friends and colleagues in the Continuous Improvement community to help?

Please spread the message every chance you get.

Making things is COOL.

Pascal

Lean Pathways Problem Solving Kata

By Pascal Dennis

My friend and colleague, Mike Rother, has done us a fine service.

His book, Toyota Kata, shines a light on Toyota-style problem solving, and comprises five questions:

1. What is your current condition?
2. What is the target condition?
3. What are the obstacles?
4. What experiments will you run next?
5. Where can we go see the results?

All fundamentally sound & helpful.

Our Lean Pathways kata goes like this:

1. Do I have a problem?
2. Do I know the cause?
3. Have I confirmed cause & effect?
4. Have I confirmed the countermeasure?

(For a deep dive the interested reader is referred The Remedy)

How do the two katas related?

In fact, they express the same underlying algorithm and thinking, and are synergistic.

Mike's kata is very helpful in getting people started, and getting them necessary problem solving "reps".

Toyota Kata also links problem solving to brain physiology and learning in a very interesting way.

Our kata explicitly links to problem to True North and Strategy Deployment, and highlights important technical aspects, such as:

• Three types of cause -- Point of Cause, Direct and Root Cause
• Nature of experiments to prove cause & effect
• Role of STW, visual management & Jidoka in confirming countermeasures

In summary, as Hemingway once observed, "It's all true..."

Pascal

More Greek Follies, Part 2 - Lessons

By Pascal Dennis

Last time I told the sorry tale of my friend John, who for altruistic reasons, sought Greek citizenship.

He ended up in the kind of situation Franz Kafka described so well -- foggy, corrupt, wasteful & ultimately sinister.

Are there any insights & lessons for Lean thinkers?

For a start, we can identify the types of waste John experienced: delay, over-processing, defects, motion, transportation and knowledge waste.

We can infer the following about the Greek Ministry of Citizenship:

• They don't understand, or care to understand, their customer
• Therefore, they do not have (or care to have) processes that meet the customer's needs
• Working at the Ministry of Citizenship is not, therefore, a value-creating job -- because there is no connection to any customer
• (In fact, Greek government jobs are often sinecures -- favors provided for voting a certain way.)

Am I being harsh?

Perhaps, but acknowledging the problem is the first step toward a remedy.

Governmental agencies around the world are prone to this dynamic.

Policy makers take heed!

Excellence in public service can be a major competitive advantage -- or disadvantage.

Public servants deserve what Deming called "pride of workmanship" -- the right to be involved in designing, and improving their work.

(A growing number of public sector colleagues have effected & sustained kaizen. Full speed ahead, folks!)

John told me his story in a beautiful outdoor cafe in Toronto's prosperous Greektown.

All around us, Canadians of Greek descent went about their business with purpose & energy.

(Canadian-, American- and Australian-Greeks are top of the class in education, income, and business ownership.)

"Why," John asked, "do Greeks need to leave Greece to prosper?"

John suggested Lean Pathways could help improve service in the Greek bureaucracy.

I'm not so sure.

Underlying the Greek bureaucracy is a set of dysfunctional mental models, which make process kaizen impossible.

For example, "the customer - who cares?" (Or "Why is that man bothering me?")

Let me conclude with a question.

How do you change mental models in the Greek bureaucracy, or any large organization?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Best,

Pascal

The Importance of Being There

By Pascal Dennis

Reflections of a Business Nomad - E-book now available

You get off a 12-hour flight at some Asian or European or South American airport and turn on the iPhone. Instead of taking in what's there, you're flooded with e-mails. The media tells us we're lucky, but haven't we created a hell for ourselves?

The real adventure of travel is mental. You have to be there. But nowadays everything works against that kind of presence – smartphones, pads, the e-mail barrage. Instead of focusing on the landscape, conversation, atmosphere, we're gone...

Reflections of a Business Nomad chronicles what I've seen & felt these past dozen years as an international consultant. Happy to tell you that the E-book is now available on Amazon.com and other providers. Clicking on reflections-of-a-business-nomad.com will also get you to the order page.

(Very kind feedback so far)

Reflections of a Business Nomad is also book about Leadership and Ethics. Should leaders read stories and poems? I hope so. Leadership requires imagination, empathy, and the ability to make sense of complex realities. The best leaders I know all read & reflect. The very best leaders are story-tellers.

Travel is linear – one place, one landscape, one conversation at a time. Hyper-connectivity dilutes the intensity of travel. Multi-tasking hinders the development of personal connections to local people and places. So let's turn our screens off. Let's look around, let's talk to the cabbie, make friends with the bartender. Let's be present.

Best regards,

Pascal

More Greek Follies, Part 1

By Pascal Dennis

I have a friend; let's call him John, also of Greek descent, who runs a successful accounting firm.

He is kind, smart, generous and devoted to his wife & young daughters.

He also has a soft spot for the land of his ancestors & decided to invest in a commercial building & hotel.

"Maybe," he thought, "I can create jobs & a small measure of prosperity."

To that end, the past two years he has tried to secure Greek citizenship.

John's experience provides another (sad) lesson in value & waste and a warning to all nations.

There but for good governance & management go we...

John spent a year trying to negotiate the foggy maze that is the Greek embassy & consulates in Canada.

After a year of frustration, he ended up writing to the Ambassador & at last, was "put on the fast track".

His Odyssey took him to Athens where he hired a lawyer to help him navigate the treacherous bureaucratic waters.

His lawyer advised him to go to his parents’ home town and register the necessary documents there with the Ministry of Citizenship - per Greek law.

At the local Ministry office he was passed from clerk to clerk -- five transfers in all -- till he arrived back where he started from.

The clerk in question just smiled, "as if she knew it was all a game."

Finally, she said, "Actually, you have to go to the Ministry's state office."

At the Ministry's state office it was deja vu all over again. Run-around, delay, multiple hand-offs - and more frustration and cost.

Finally, the Ministry state office supervisor said, "Actually, you have to go to the Ministry office in Athens."

John, beside himself by now. He had spent two years pursuing citizenship for altruistic reasons - with little to show.

He called his lawyer on her cell phone. She too was apoplectic and read out the relevant sections of citizenship laws.

"Sorry, there's nothing I can do," replied the supervisor.

"At that point," John said, "it dawned on me that I'd been played from the beginning."

"The only way to move my application forward was to provide an envelope (fakelaki). And that's when I got disgusted and left. I will never invest in Greece."

Sad, no? Is it surprising the Greek economy is in free fall?

What lessons can we learn?

Look for my next blog.

Best,

Pascal

Fail Forward to Success

By Al Norval

I watch as organizations practice the PDCA cycle. Typically, they do a good job setting up their plans with a hypothesis and begin to deploy them. But as time passes, they discover things aren’t going according to plan. They get frustrated, angry and jump up and down.

The problem is they expect things to go according to plan and in truth, nothing goes according to plan. That’s one of the reasons why the Check/ Adjust part of PDCA exists and why it is so important. If things don’t go according to plan – problem solve and get things back on plan. Lean organizations understand this and get good at rapid PDCA cycles so they can surface and solve problems quickly and make many, small adjustments to keep them going forward towards their goals.

They also understand the other part of Check/ Adjust. When things do go according to plan, standardize and lock in the process.

In both cases, lean organizations learn from using the PDCA cycle. When things fail the hypothesis at the check step, they problem solve and get to root cause. They learn from this and develop a deeper understanding of what is actually happening. When things pass the hypothesis, they learn as well. The key is they expect to have failures and expect to learn from their failures.

In both cases, it’s important to lock in the learning and to share it across the entire organization. This sets up the formation of a learning organization, one that is based on learning from problem solving using the scientific method.

The faster they check/ adjust, the quicker they learn and the faster they can meet their objectives. Thus Lean organizations get good at using rapid experimentation and many small PDCA loops.

This concept was summed up nicely in the following quote:

“Virtually nothing comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. The only time you don’t want to fail is the last time you try something. One fails forward to success”

– Charles F. Kettering

The only real failure is not learning from our failures.

Cheers

Less is More - in Regulation Too

By Pascal Dennis

Ontario's sad, stagnant energy sector is a good example of what happens when you take the customer out of the equation.

It'd take the Marx Brothers to do justice to the current farce. (Do a brief Google search & you'll see what I mean)

Unscrupulous politicians have exploited the public's suspicion of commerce to erect a stifling web of regulation and special interest.

As a result, among other things, the province is forced to sell highly subsidized power, at a loss, to other jurisdictions. Taxpayers are, of course, stuck with the bill.

Mama mia...and that's not even the worst of it.

Commerce - suppliers & customers interacting in a complex, self-managing web -- is portrayed as a dodgy endeavour, and one requiring oversight by powerful mandarins.

"You need US to protect you from those guys..."

Greece is an extreme example of this syndrome.

To build a hotel in Greece, for example, you need the approval of half a dozen ministries, several unions etc.

You often need a "fakelaki" (small envelopes full of cash) to grease the wheels. Even then it takes years.

That's why the great hotel companies tend to avoid Greece - and why the unemployment rate exceeds 25%.

Things are not as bad in Ontario - yet...

Don't want to be misunderstood.

We need regulation.

Good rules level the playing field, and curb excesses (monopoly, tragedy of the commons, and so on).

But in regulation, as in the business, design and art, less is more.

Here's the corresponding Lean mental model:

We need simple, visual standards for all important things.

Best,

Pascal

What is Good Character?

By Pascal Dennis

Been spending a lot of time in Chicago this year.

Splendid town full of vitality as expressed in its architecture, street life, style...

Nasty teachers strike though, during which the above question was raised.

At issue was a rambling, semi-coherent speech by a union leader wherein she, apparently, made light of drug & chemical addiction and a chaotic lifestyle.

So what is good character?

James Q. Wilson tells us it comprises two things:

• Self-control, and
• Consideration for others

By this standard, did the union leader demonstrate good character?

Seems she struck out on both, no?

In fact, she seemed to be telling students, "its okay to do this."

A portion will try, and a smaller portion may become drug addicts and suffer terribly.

Self-control & consideration for others are severe standards to live by - (certainly for me they are).

But that's the value of standards - whether in the workplace or the heart.

Standards make problems visible, so that we corrupt, tricky, weak mortals can behave a little better.

As the wise man said, every day a little up.

In summary, good character comprises self-control & consideration for others.

Very tough, but we have to try.

Best,

Pascal

If Involvement is High, Pascal-san...

By Pascal Dennis

My old sensei, years ago, musing over a glass of bourbon.

"If team member involvement is high, Pascal-san, accidents, defects, lead time and cost are low. But if involvement is low..."

So it proved at our old Toyota plant. In fact, I proved it to myself through scatter plots and ANOVA.

(I long ago confessed to being a propeller-head)

Engaged employees is the Holy Grail in most endeavours.

The exception is, perhaps, monopolies or oligopolies, who for a time can run roughshod over their employees and customers.

But even "all-powerful" monopolies like the Soviet Union -- or the National Football League -- have their day of reckoning.

(A generation ago Major League Baseball was as dominant as the NFL is today.)

In any event, if we accept my sensei's premise, Job One of the leader is engaging team members.

Or, as my sensei put it, "How will you motivate team members, Pascal-san?"

I've been mulling that one over for decades.

Purists may cavil: "Leaders cannot motivate, only de-motivate."

I grant their point but it makes little difference to the practicing leader.

Formulate the question as you will.

The leader's job is to bring to life the following ideal:

Everybody feels that this is "my process, machine, team, production line, site, product, customer."

Everybody is fully alive and connected to everybody else.

To paraphrase W.B. Yeats, the best are full of passionate resolve.

Regards,

Pascal

Time to Boycott the NFL?

By Pascal Dennis

I'm struck by the number of football fans asking this question.

A quick Google search will yield pages of websites wherein fans vent their frustration.

Fans are increasingly cynical about the NFL's behaviour during the replacement referee fiasco, and its tardy response to the overwhelming evidence of brain injury.

Some people argue that it doesn't matter.

"Demand for the NFL is inelastic," commented former Forty-Niners great Steve Young.

That's MBA talk for, 'You can charge what you want & they'll still come...'

But older fans will tell you that once upon a time, Major League Baseball was as big as the NFL.

Indeed, this was true for most of the last century.

MLB could not imagine it would squander the good will of its fans - but it did.

Is NFL doing the same?

(He who the gods wish to destroy, they first award big ESPN deals...)

Any lessons here for Lean thinkers?

Here are a few:

Our customer defines value - connect with them, and check in regularly.

Problems are gold - treasure & make them visible.

Seek root cause, and run experiments to confirm root cause.

Check with the customer to confirm countermeasures are working as intended.

Best,

Pascal

Leadership – Going to Gemba with a Purpose

By Al Norval

It’s interesting to observe Leaders behavior as they begin to get comfortable with Lean and start to change their own behaviors to match the new Lean Mental Models. It’s obvious most are not comfortable, yet I always give Leaders a great deal of credit for trying, after all part of Leadership is modeling the behaviors you want others to use.

I’d like to highlight a couple of these new Lean behaviors - Going to Gemba and Leader as a Teacher.

Going to Gemba has several purposes:

• To see for yourself and understand what is really happening.
• To reinforce the standards of the organization and ask why when deviations occur.
• To show respect for the people

When leaders observe abnormalities they have two choices on how to respond. They can act like dictators and tell people to fix the problem barking out orders or they can ask why? The first does nothing to develop the capabilities of the team and at best leads to compliance behavior but does not lead people to get engaged. By asking why we get people to think and can teach them to problem solve for themselves. We engage their hearts and minds in solving the problems leaders have observed. Over time people will see these problems for themselves and become actively engaged at eliminating root causes.

Sounds simple but how do leaders do this? A terrific way I observed was a leader who was just getting into the routine of a daily Gemba walk through his section of the factory. He observed a group of operators struggling to keep a piece of machinery running. The equipment was dirty, covered in oil and grime. He could have told the team members what he wanted done but instead asked them why were they having trouble getting the machine to run? They replied that it was an old machine. Another question – what was the problem with the old machine?

No one could pinpoint the problem except to say that it hadn’t been maintained in recent years.

At this point the leader started explaining the concepts of 5S and Visual Management and how they were the foundation of TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) and with these techniques equipment could be put into a like new condition once again. Since the factory was noisy he used a set of pocket cards and images to help explain these concepts to the team. The pictures were like a thousand words. The Team Members understood what needed to be done but more importantly they understood why. They began to work on simple ways to improve the performance of the equipment and over time developed daily clean and inspect checklists, visual indicators of performance and found many sources of problems including air and oil leaks, loose fittings and contamination. The equipment started to run better and the maintenance team was freed up to work on the deeper, more complex machine issues.

A good news story all around driven by a leader who understood his role of teaching his people and building their capability so they can engage and solve problems for themselves.

For more information on Pocket cards/ Lean Brain Boosters and Lean Images see www.leansystems.org

Cheers

Never Short America

By Pascal Dennis

America's presidential election seems to be devolving into a simple question:

WHO IS THE LESSER BOZO?

Uninspiring, to be sure.

Some suggest that the absence of candidates of the calibre of Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, or Eisenhower, Truman, Reagan is evidence of America's decline.

Certainly, America's political process has seen much better days.

The words "fortitude" and "Washington DC" seldom appear in the same sentence.

It's my good fortune travel this splendid land and work with leaders at all levels, in a variety of industries.

And I'm always reminded that America is much more than Washington, DC.

Never short America, they used to say, and will again.

As bleak as things may seem, America has overcome worse.

Washington bozos are far less important that they seem to be.

In my view, America's rebirth is happening in small businesses all over the country.

In high-tech incubators, in labs, garages and non-descript industrial malls.

In places that rarely appear in the news.

Things will turn out okay, in spite of everything.

Best,

Pascal

Economy I and II - Never the Twain Shall Meet?

By Pascal Dennis

In a previous blog I introduced the idea of Economy I & II

The former comprises private sector companies like Apple, Amazon, Toyota and GE.

These companies face withering competition every day.

As a result, they're wonderful at creating value, but not so good at creating jobs.

Economy II, by contrast, comprises government and quasi-government organizations like schools, universities and hospitals.

These organizations face comparatively little competition (or in the case of government agencies, none at all.)

As a result, they're wasteful and inefficient -- but good at creating 'jobs', of a sort.

But Economy II is bankrupting America (and Europe, for that matter). Economy I can no longer create enough off-setting value and wealth.

What to do?

Conservatives argue that Economy II can only be mended by applying the disciplines of Economy I.

Essentially, this means enabling and applying Lean thinking:

• Understanding your customers, and thereby, value & waste,
• Visual management and 5 S,
• Standardized work,
• Jidoka (building quality into the process,
• Heijunka (level loading), and
• Point, flow and system kaizen

Enablers to this approach include education and health care vouchers that put choice into the hands of the customer.

Liberals ("progressives") argue that the philosophies & techniques of Economy II are not necessary and wouldn't be effective in any event.

A better approach, they argue, is to elect capable, charismatic political leaders, who can reform Economy II by force of personality.

They cite Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago, as such a leader.

What do I think?

Being an engineer and a businessperson, I'm naturally inclined to the practices I learned at Toyota.

The past twelve years, our Lean Pathways team has applied them with great success in a variety of industries.

Toyota thinking is rocket fuel. Stick to the recipe and wonderful things happen.

This is the evidence of my eyes and whole being.

The liberal/progressive argument seems, forgive me, to entail 'magical thinking'.

Even if it were based in fact, how many Rahm Emanuel's are there? And what happens when Rahm inevitably resigns as mayor of Chicago?

(Insiders say Rahm is there for one term.)

The broken processes mean a rapid regression to the bankrupt mean.

Sorry,

Pascal

The Poet Laureate of Travelling Consultants (!?)

By Pascal Dennis

Businessweek interview last week.

Good questions & kind comments by Venessa Wong.

Here it is.

King for a Day!

But just a day, as my teenage daughters have quickly reminded me...

Cheers,

Pascal

Strategy is Storytelling

By Pascal Dennis

Wonderful to see Business Week come to this conclusion in a recent issue.

The context was "PowerPoint is lousy, don't use it. Tell stories instead."

"The medium is the message," said Marshal Mcluhan, and, once more, he's right.

Don't want to be misunderstood. PPT is okay for training.

But it's not a strategy or problem solving tool.

One damn slide after another, the rate of information transfer asymptotically approaching zero...

PPT drains the life & poetry out of the most compelling stories.

Imagine the Sermon on the Mount in PPT.

Blessed are the

• meek

For they shall

• inherit the earth...

Or the Gettysburg Address:

Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers

• brought forth onto this continent,
• a new nation,
• conceived in liberty...

It's enough to make you jump out the window.

So, practice storytelling.

Seek a compelling narrative comprising an introduction, crisis and resolution.

Pascal

Reflections of a Business Nomad - Book Launch Party

By Pascal Dennis

Friday Oct 19, Avli Restaurant, Toronto's Greektown

A fine evening - thanks to all who came out, and to Lambros, proprietor of Avli and chef extraordinaire.

Special thanks to Holly Simmons, Steve MacLeod and the Skopelos Press team for making it possible.

A book is a footprint in time, a ship that you send off into the night, not knowing what will happen.

I'm gratified that so many friends turned out to mark the occasion.



Here's a short Launch video, a reading by yours truly, of one my favorite pieces from Reflections of a Business Nomad.

Best regards,

Pascal

PS E-book is in the pipeline and should be available on Amazon.com by the end of November.

PS 2 Here are photos of places from the book: Pinterest.

Economies I & II

By Pascal Dennis

Great piece in the NY Times recently by John Brooks.

Brooks comes up with a helpful formulation: Economy I & II

The former comprises private sector companies like Apple, Amazon, Toyota and GE.

These companies face withering competition every day.

As a result, they're wonderful at creating value, but not so good at creating jobs.

Economy II, by contrast, comprises government and quasi-government organizations like schools, universities and hospitals.

These organizations face comparatively little competition (or in the case of government agencies, none at all.)

As a result, they're wasteful and inefficient -- but good at creating 'jobs', of a sort.

Lean thinkers will argue that a job by definition is an activity that creates value for a customer.

Seen in this light, is a job in a suffocating bureaucracy that serves no one, truly a job?

I don't want to be misunderstood. Economy II is full of smart dedicated people who work hard and want to do the right thing.

They deserve what Deming called the 'pride of workman ship'.

They deserve to be involved in managing and designing their work. Given the opportunity, I've found they're very good at it.

The bigger problem is that Economy I organizations are no longer able to pay for Economy II.

As a result Economy II is bankrupting the state. Seen in this light, Greece is the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

Wither thou goest, go I.

Most western economies will hit the same wall before long.

What to do?

More next time.

Best,

Pascal

Lean is a Marathon, not a Sprint

By Al Norval

I often use the phrase a Lean transformation is more like a marathon than a sprint. Why? It takes staying power and commitment. Many times I see organizations begin a Lean journey but after a year or so start to lose interest. There are several reasons for this including:

• We’re not seeing the benefits
• It’s too hard
• I don’t want to change

As a result these organizations move onto something else. The next big thing. They get addicted to the cycle of the shiny new toy – they’ve got to have the latest and greatest but once they do it begins to tarnish and they move on. It’s no wonder their employees get disillusioned and accuse them of bringing in programs which are the flavor of the month.

Lean is about people and about changing the culture of an organization. People and culture don’t change overnight. It takes time to change a culture. Culture can be defined as: “The accumulated shared learning and experience of the organization that sets the norms for daily behavior.”

It takes time to change the shared experiences of an organization and turn them into behavior changes. So to change a culture takes staying power.

I came across this quote from Lou Holtz that sums it up very well:

“If you don’t make a total commitment to whatever you’re doing, then you start looking to bail out the first time the boat starts leaking. It’s tough enough getting that boat to shore with everybody rowing, let alone when a guy stands up and starts putting his life jacket on”

Lou Holz

Marathons take commitment both to training and to the run itself.

A Lean transformation takes commitment. In both cases there will be many reasons to stop. The best organizations overcome these obstacles and keep going.

Cheers

Nemawashi vs. Lobbying

By Pascal Dennis

A common question.

Nemawashi literally means "going around the roots" - so as to prepare a tree for transplanting.

This splendid Japanese word evokes images of quiet, patient work:

• Finding a the right spot for the tree, both physically and aesthetically,
• Ensuring good sun, soil & drainage,
• Digging new hole of the right depth & diameter, and then watering and fertilizing
• Carefully transplanting the tree, filling in the hole, etc

Thereby, we develop a 'shared understanding' - another rich image.

Lobbying, by contrast, implies hectoring, cajoling, and perhaps bribing.

(In America, lobbyists vie with lawyers and politicians for the title of Most Despised Profession.)

In summary, nemawashi is a rich, evocative and very helpful concept, fundamental to Strategy Deployment and leadership.

Let's not reduce it to lobbying.

Best,

Pascal

PS As you may know, I believe each organization has to translate the Lean Business System to fit its culture.

Occasionally though, only the original word will do - even if it's initially foreign.

Kaizen, muda, takt have entered the English language, and not only in manufacturing circles.

The Mummy's Curse

By Pascal Dennis

On November 22, 1922, Howard Carter opened King Tutankhamen's tomb -- and triggering various crazes.

For me, the most entertaining was THE MUMMY'S CURSE!!!

(Cue the orchestra)

Various pundits and assorted strays have suggested that Carter unleashed SUPERNATURAL FORCES thereby.

In my (jaundiced) view, something similar happened when academics entered the realm of BUSINESS MANAGEMENT.

After WWII there was an explosion of business schools, and academics, with little practical knowledge of management, broke the seal...

Unnatural (if not supernatural) forces were released thereby.

Most obvious is the absurd spectacle of practicing managers being taught by people who may have never practiced management.

Don't want to be misunderstood.

People go to business school with the best of intentions - to become better managers, to get a better job and so on.

But we often pick up more than we bargained for.

And to be fair, management schools have produced great senseis - Michael Porter, Russell Takeoff, Henry Mintzberg and others come to mind.

But great senseis such as these are noteworthy for being up front about what they don't know.

Takeoff, Mintzberg, the Hopper brothers, and others have written about what I'm calling THE MUMMY'S CURSE.

Mintzberg has suggested, half-seriously, that MBA graduates should have a skull & crossbones tattoo on their foreheads.

(I've been trying to remove mine for some years...)

The Hopper brothers argue, in all seriousness, that America's competitiveness varies inversely with the number or MBAs and lawyers graduating.

I'm having a bit of fun, of course.

But if you're going to business school, or have just graduated, be alert to the risks.

Remember Howard Carter and THE MUMMY'S CURSE!!!

Best,

Pascal

Value Stream Maps

By Al Norval

Once again last week I came across an organization with a value stream map hanging on their conference room wall. What’s the big surprise with this? In fact it’s no big surprise at all as I often see this happen. Teams do a wonderful job of mapping their Current State and identifying different sources of waste and various kaizen they are planning on doing to eliminate it. This team had even added a timeline and calculated a leadtime for their value stream which is something I don’t usually see.

What was my concern?

I could see their Current State map but I couldn’t see their Future State map nor what business gap they were trying to close. A Future State is driven by a business need and that need comes from the organization’s strategy. The strategy says what objectives we need to achieve as a business and outlines at a high level how we are going to achieve it. Often the strategy goes on to say what we’re not going to do to meet the business needs or targets and quite frankly this is another often overlooked step but that’s the subject of another blog.

The Value Stream takes this strategy and develops the tactics describing what the value stream needs to improve to meet the business objectives of the organization. There is a direct link between the kaizen and the improvements the value stream is making and the business objectives it needs to deliver to the organization. This link means a testable hypothesis is formed “If we do this, then we will get that”. It’s a simple binary test that can be checked at every review session.

This is a very different approach from the one that says – map the current state, identify waste, drive improvement and remove waste and see what results we achieve. This approach doesn’t set up a hypothesis, doesn’t use the scientific method and although it can lead to some improved business results, doesn’t stretch us to experiment, try new things and learn rapidly, all of which are required parts of a lean system.

What I’d wish I’d seen in the organization I visited last week, was a Current State map, a clear business target with gap identified, a Future State map and a plan on how to close the gap.

Now there are several testable hypothesis:

• Does the Future State close the gap to the business objective?
• Does the plan close the gap to the Future State?

By following the PDCA cyle and doing a Check/ Adjust against these questions, organizations can learn a great deal and accelerate their improvement efforts. More importantly, the improvements are driven by a business need rather than being random acts of improvement.

Cheers

Greece, Part 3 - What To Do?

By Pascal Dennis

In parts 1 & 2 of this series I described my sense of Greece's problems.

I wondered why people of Greek descent are so prosperous and successful, once they leave Greece.

I described some of my personal experiences.

(My granddad, Pascali, arrived in America at Ellis Island in January 10, 1921, but we still have family in the old country.)

What to do?

I posed this same question to a very gifted Greek in the ancient lake city of Ioannina.

Attached is his response, in an excerpt from my latest book, Reflections of a Business Nomad - Stories & Poems from the Road. [Click here for the excerpt]

What do you think of his response?

Best regards,

Pascal

PS Reflections of a Business Nomad is available for pre-ordering.

Just click on: reflections-of-a-business-nomad.com

Pascal

Reflections on Greece - Part 2

By Pascal Dennis

Last time, I shared my thoughts on some roots causes of the Greek malaise - government, governance and special interests.

Each makes it impossible to do anything. In Lean terms, they impose intolerable waste on the simplest activities.

Forget about the primary purpose of business - creating value & prosperity for customers & society.

Here's another root cause -- an absence of skill in, and appreciation of, manufacturing.

Making things is good for the soul - and the economy.

A few years ago my family visited our ancestral home, the lovely Roman town, Kastoria.

Beneath the beauty, there was blight.

My dear old aunt Hariclea shook her head when I asked her about it.

"There are no factories here, my dear..."

It didn't have to be that way.

In the 1980's and 90's major international firms were looking to invest in the eastern Mediterranean.

Greece - with its well-educated, multi-lingual workforce, its deep water ports, and many ties to Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia -- was well-positioned to benefit.

But Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who'd been educated in America and had an American wife, was virulently "anti-imperialist".

Rather than beating a path to corporate headquarters in Toyoda City, Stuttgart, Munich, Detroit, Fairfield CT and so on, Papandreou forged alliances with - wait for it - Gaddafi, Arafat and the Soviets.

Toyota, GE, Audi and other major internationals ended up investing in Turkey.

A generation of young Turks learned how to cut & shape metal, how assemble & test complex machinery, how to form & manage teams, how to solve problems and so on.

And another generation of talented Greeks, seeing little future, emigrated.

We are now in the midst of another Greek brain drain.

Next blog - what to do?

Best,

Pascal

Reflections on Greece - Part 1

By Pascal Dennis

I'm of Greek descent.

My grandfather, Pascali, arrived in America on Jan 20, 1921.

His name graces the Ellis Island Memorial Wall that looks out on lower Manhattan.

My granddad settled in Cincinnati where we had, and still have, family.

Colleagues ask, "What do you make of the chaos in Greece?"

It saddens -- and puzzles me.

Our extended family includes Greek-Americans, -Canadians, and - Australians.

Each group is distinguished by high achievement in education, the arts, and business.

(Here's some brotherly pride. My brother, George, is a PhD pharmacologist/oncologist with more than 100 publications in leading medical journals.)

Why do Greeks have to leave Greece for their talents to blossom?

Over the next few blogs, I'll share my thoughts, such as they are.

Here's one root cause - government & governance.

A chum of mine tried to launch a Greek branch of his North American service business.

He gave up after two years of frustration. "Greek bureaucrats don't want to help you," he told me. "It's like they want you to fail."

I had a similar experience when I applied for an EU passport. After two years of mind-numbing hassle, I asked the Greek Ambassador to Canada to intervene.

(I was lucky. How many people are able to contact the Ambassador?)

A decade later, nothing's changed. My daughter Eleanor is going through the same stupidity.

In Lean terminology, my colleague, Eleanor and I experienced stupefying forms of waste: delay, over-processing, defects and so on.

So why should you pay your taxes?

Entrenched interests are another obstacle. Protected industries, unions and so on, make the simplest things impossible.

Road transport, for example. It's cheaper to transport an apartment full of furniture from Athens to Brussels that to move it a few miles within Athens!

Greeks buy vegetables from Brussels for the same reason.

Similar scenarios exist in the cruise ship, commercial development, and pharmaceutical sectors.

So why should anybody invest?

More to come.

Best,

Pascal

Tom Papas & Andy Saito - Ten Years Later

By Pascal Dennis

About ten years ago I had an idea for a novel.

I envisioned an auto plant manager whose life was in shambles, and a damaged ex-Toyota executive.

A deshi and sensei coming together in an unlikely friendship, and helping to heal one another thereby.

I saw a New Jersey auto plant in a death spiral, full of tension, despair and waste, unable to right itself despite the best of intentions.

These images became Andy & Me, whose characters and factory came to life for me.

Andy & Me was awarded the Shingo Prize and was commercial & critical success.

I was a bit shocked. Didn't think anybody would care for a 'factory novel.'

The characters, Tom & Andy, seemed to strike a chord. I'm been humbled by the personal feedback I've received.

I remember a young engineer who told me she cried when Andy revealed his 'secret' to Tom.

(Was it that bad, I wondered? Then I realized she had been moved in a good way!)

Tom & Andy's adventures continue in The Remedy - Bringing Lean Out of the Factory...

Tom & Andy take on not just a factory, but an entire automotive platform.

I wanted to express what I've learned working upstream & downstream of the factory.

The economic chaos of 2008 and 2009 informs The Remedy.

How could the splendid, historic Detroit auto companies have fallen so far, I wondered?

In fact, Tom & Andy seek the remedy to Big Company Disease.

Again, your response has been very kind. (Thank you.)

Where will Tom & Andy go next?

Not sure -- but they're up to something...

Best,

Pascal

Simple Doesn't Mean Easy

By Pascal Dennis

Big misunderstanding here.

People mistake complexity for depth.

In fact, complexity is a crude state.

Simplicity marks the end of process of refinement.

Hitting a golf ball is 'simple':

1. Eye on the ball
   


2. Smooth takeaway
   


3. Shift weight to front foot
   


4. Follow through so your elbows are pointing toward the target
   

Similarly, problem solving is 'simple'.

Here's the 'drill' we teach & which my books enlarge on:

1. Do I have a problem?
   


2. Do I know the cause?
   


3. Have I proven cause & effect?
   


4. Have I confirmed the countermeasure?
   

Both are simple.

But perhaps we can agree, neither is easy.

In fact, simple is one of the most difficult things there is, achievable only after years of practice.

(Malcolm Gladwell quotes the 10,000 hour rule, which sounds about right.)

Our hyper-connected world, with all its distractions, hinders our ability to put in the hours.

My suggested countermeasure, as you may recall, is turn the damn screen off!

I also believe in solitude - quiet time alone, for reflection, practice, meditation...

Indeed, solitude has been called the school of genius.

Since it is all too clear.

It take time to grasp it.

Best regards,

Pascal

Engaged Employees = Loyal Customers = Business Results

By Al Norval

I believe this is a fundamental truth. People who are engaged at work will do things, many of which are little things, to improve the Customer experience and drive up Customer Satisfaction. As Customer Satisfaction goes up so does customer loyalty and customer loyalty can be turned into business results through repeat business. Loyal customers are the best advertising an organization can have especially in this age of social media.

On the other hand, bad customer experiences can be made very public, very quickly. Blogs, Twitter, and other social media sites are full of people sharing experiences of poor customer service. I’ve written several blogs in the past year about the value of great customer service. It’s often said – it’s harder to attract new customers than to retain existing ones.

So given this equation is true, the burning question is – “How do Leaders motivate people and engage them in solving customer problems?”

This is a critical Leadership question – how to motivate employees to go the extra mile and do the little things that add up to make a huge difference to customers and the organization?

All too often we see leaders who are better at de-motivating employees than motivating them and often complain about employees who are doing everything they are asked to do but no more. Employee behavior is compliant but they aren’t engaged. You can imagine what the customer satisfaction results are.

Dr. Deming stated “One of the first roles of leaders is not to de-motivate employees”

What is an engaged employee?
To me it means creating a culture where people have some control over their work environment to make improvements. They are encouraged to make improvements but beyond that the organization gives them time and resources to make these improvements happen quickly. Employees know where the organization is going (True north) and understand their role in achieving this.

How to do this?
One way is through daily huddles where the team reviews the past 24 hours and takes a look ahead at the next 24 hours. Any issues are surfaced, made visible and assigned to a problem solver. During the day the team is free to solve problems within the guidelines agreed to by the team to achieve their goals. The Leaders role is to coach and mentor the team to give them both the capability and the confidence to go ahead and solve problems.

Give people some control to make the customer experience better. Create more value for customers. Drive up customer loyalty and watch the business results improve.

It really is simple and the critical task of leaders is motivating and engaging employees.

Cheers

Lean & the Non-Profits?

By Pascal Dennis

Charity is a fundamental virtue.

We have to help those entangled in the 'web of circumstance'.

There, but for the grace of God, go I.

More and more, I like to give of myself, my time and effort.

It's concrete, and NGOs & non-profits are in dire need of Lean support.

Are they not swimming in waste?

Over-processing, defects & delay are perhaps the most obvious.

For example, I've donated annually to a well-known children's charity.

Yet they continually send me, at high cost, the same bulk mail, even after I wrote and asked them not to.

Over-processing and defect waste, no?

I'm passionate about helping people with disabilities, and have offered to help half a dozen agencies involved in such work.

Only one has bothered to respond and the message was, 'Thanks, but no thanks.'

Are NGO's and Non-Profits not interested in running better?

Sadly, the message seems to be: "Just send us your money. We'll figure out how to spend it."

Sorry, you'll figure out how to waste it...

(Am I becoming cynical?)

Like any organization, NGO's and Non-Profits have a purpose, customers and processes.

Why shouldn't they be as effective as Apple, Amazon, Toyota, GE or any great organization?

Best,

Pascal

Kata – A Standardized Set of Movements

By Al Norval

As one who studied martial arts over the years, I became used to the concept of a kata. Students learn the basic movements of the martial art by following a routine called a kata. When students first learn a kata, their movements are clumsy and lack finesse and power but as the student progresses up the belts from white to yellow, green, blue, brown and eventually to black belt, the movements become more and more refined. Power is generated with less effort. The student’s movements take on a grace and elegance. The student learns from a master and as the student practices, the movements become natural and fluid.

The purpose of the kata is to teach the student the behaviors so they become automatic, so that you don’t need to think about them. They become second nature.

For those of you who saw “The Karate Kid”, you’ll remember the famous wax on, wax off. The same concepts are true for the problem solving kata. When we first learn the scientific method of problem solving it seems unnatural and our attempts to use it are clumsy. People often complain it takes them longer to solve problems using this new routine and why can’t we go back to the old way of just putting a temporary fix on problems and moving on rather than trying to get to root cause and experiment. Thus the need for a qualified teacher, a master who can coach, mentor and guide the student in the use of the new kata. This is a key role for Leaders to take on.

It takes time to learn the new kata and it takes time to learn to teach the kata. Just like the students working towards their black belts, there are years of practice and repetition required to gain mastery of the behavior until it becomes second nature. Along the way, the martial arts students learn discipline, concentration, body movement and physical fitness leading to improvements in body, mind and spirit.

Along the Lean journey as we learn the problem solving kata we learn discipline, concentration, and thinking to solve many problems the organization has been facing leading to improvements for the people, customers and organization.

There are many parallels between the martial arts and problem solving; one of the most important is the concept of a kata with standardized movement and routine being foundational to both.

Cheers

Lean Brain Boosters - Making the Invisible, Visible

By Pascal Dennis

Two years ago my colleague, Al Norval, and I were wresting with a tough question.

How do you make Lean principles visible?

Lean thinking, tools & leadership are often paradoxical & counter-intuitive.

Moreover, often they contravene accepted 'wisdom', at least as defined in our business & professional schools.

I've always loved doodling and my recently-published book The Remedy -- Bringing Lean Out of the Factory, which was full of them.

We had a brainwave.

Why not create doodles that expressed Lean fundamentals in a light-hearted, engaging way?

We started with a suite of 12 entitled Brain Boosters - Lean Thinking.

Ya'll seemed to like them, so we followed up with two more suites: Lean Tools and Lean Leadership.

We've been gratified by the response & believe Brain Boosters are a fine addition to the Kaizen toolkit.

Here's how people have been using them:

• Mental Models Self-Assessment
• For each card, have team members individually score the organization 
• 10 = Lean Thinking; 0 = Conventional Thinking
• Plot the results. What do they tell you?
• Pick a few “hot spots” & make an improvement plan
• Reassess again at year-end
• Theme of the Day
• At team huddles, give a card to a team member.
• Ask her to find examples of both Lean & Conventional Thinking & report back at shift-end. Any learning points?
• Rotate on a set cadence so everybody gets a chance
• Lean Training, Kaizen Workshops, Gemba Walks
• Pass out Brain Boosters at training & kaizen sessions.
• Carry them during gemba walks & use to reinforce the basics

From time to time people email us with other innovative uses.

(One company obtained the rights to the images & has turned them into posters, T-shirts, mouse pads and other training aids!)

We'd love to hear more of your stories.

Thanks, as always,

Pascal

What's the Most Dangerous Thing We Do?

By Pascal Dennis

Take a moment & reflect.

For most folks, I imagine the following come to mind:

1. Driving my car,
   


2. Flying on an airplane,
   


3. Going downtown in a major city
   
   

For most of us the answer is - wait for it:

Going to the hospital.

A Google search will uncover horror stories. Here are some:

Objective risk analyses confirm our worst fears - hospitals are deadly places.

Mis-medication, infection, falls, wrong-site surgeries and the like are at epidemic levels.

The Health Care crisis is a recurrent theme in this blog, in The Remedy, and in my upcoming book, Reflections of a Business Nomad.

And yet, in a grand paradox, Health Care folks are smart, hard-working and, for the most part, dedicated to helping patients.

How did things get so bad?

Complexity is part of the answer - hospital silos are far deeper and more numerous than ever before.

In 1950, for example, oncology largely comprises palliative care. Today, by contrast, oncology is a deep silo comprising specialties, sub-specialties and sub-sub-specialties.

Our inexperience managing complex systems is a second cause.

Yet a third cause is that everybody else has gotten much, much better, largely because of competition.

GM and Ford, for example, make splendid cars at reasonable prices. Competition from Toyota et al has transformed them.

So Health Care sticks out.

We'll continue to blog, reflect, and work with all the good people stuck in lousy management systems.

I'm hopeful, in fact, because of their skill & dedication.

But I'll be vigilant whenever, I or any of my family, go into a hospital.

You be too.

Best,

Pascal

Reflections - ready for pre-order

By Pascal Dennis

Reflections of a Business Nomad - Stories & Poems from the Road is ready for pre-ordering!

Clicking on reflections-of-a-business-nomad.com will get you there.

Something a little different, and hopefully, fun and engaging.

Why did I write such a book?

I'm proud to be an engineer & businessperson (such as I am).

But first & foremost, I'm a story-teller, and these stories reflect twelve years of international consulting.

The book is illustrated with original artwork by the great Kirk Sutterfield, a splendid Canadian artist and draftsman.

Some people believe business is dry, analytical & somewhat boring.

Not true!

I've been privileged to observe & experience high drama, tragedy and comedy, often all at the same time.

Each story finds its own format -- some is straight prose, some prose poetry.

I've tried to make each piece as easy to absorb as possible and to find the 'right words in the right sequence'.

The book's five sections all end with a series of questions, for use by study groups.

You can dig into these if so inclined, or simply read the pieces for themselves.

Reflections of a Business Nomad is a book about values and leadership.

But it can also be enjoyed as a story book & travelogue.

Hope you like the damned thing.

Best,

Pascal Reflections - ready for pre-order

What is a Good Leader?

By Pascal Dennis

One of history's great questions.

Here are some thoughts.

Good leaders define reality for their team, organization, country.

They paint pictures of what is - and what can be -- and these pictures pull us into the future.

Good leaders have deeply rooted values and try to live their lives by them.

Their values are in accord with the great religions. Our readers will be familiar with the Cardinal Virtues by now!

Prudence

Temperance

Courage

Justice

Good leaders have what the ancients called a "tragic" sense of life.

In other words, they understand life is hard, that we only partially succeed and then we die.

But nonetheless, we strive to get better every day because that's what it means to be human.

And yet, good leaders don't take themselves too seriously.

They practice the "light touch", which recognizes the comedy in all things.

Good leaders are tough - they can cut your head off with one sword stroke.

But they act with gentleness.

Best,

Pascal

Macro Value Stream Kaizen – Zoology

By Pascal Dennis

Improving a macro value stream is our most challenging & interesting kaizen, in my experience.

A value stream entailing multiple nodes across a continent, or continents, is a complex animal with unknown habits and qualities.

Moreover, it's abstract and often impossible to see in its entirety.

Learning about it is akin to zoology.

We try to make it visible, first with macro value stream maps, then with tabletop simulations using point of sale data.

Then to learn its habits we run experiments & observe what happens.

Each experiment furthers our knowledge & brings us closer to understanding & taming the beast.

Managing our experiments requires a solid governance process - and usually means Level 1, 2 and 3 checking.

(Level 3 might entail the value stream kaizen Steering Team which over time become the value stream managers.)

Are we up to the challenge?

Too often I see organizations defaulting to software solutions.

The mental model appears to be, "The computer will figure it all out for us!"

In effect, they're outsourcing thinking.

Will the computer run the experiments that develop intuition?

Will the computer observe the animal in its natural state and thereby determine its habits and diet?

Remember the Stanley Kubrick movie, 2001 A Space Odyssey?

Remember Hal, the computer, gradually taking over?

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Dave?"

Best,

Pascal

Wisdom vs. Bureaucracy

By Al Norval

There’s an old adage about wisdom that says “A wise man knows when to break the rules”. This wisdom comes from years of experience and is learned slowly over time through solving countless problems.

Bureaucrats on the other hand hide behind rules and blindly enforce them no matter how silly they are and how bad the consequences are. After all, the rules need to be followed. We’ve all had experiences with steely eyed bureaucrats enforcing ridiculous rules. Try getting a visa to visit some emerging market countries. An exercise in waste and certainly a process with no concept of customer value.

In Lean we equate rules with standards. We teach people that standards are there to be followed. Not blindly like bureaucrats but followed and if we can’t follow them, then pull the andon and raise the problem. By raising the problem we give ourselves a chance to problem solve and eliminate the root cause from happening again. In Lean, standards are there to tell us when we can’t follow the standard. They are there to help us identify problems.

Standards then become the basis for all improvement and as Taiichi Ohno said “Without Standards, there can be no improvement”

So expect standards to change over time as they are continually improved through problem solving.

In summary, we need standards and we need rules. We need to follow the rules and follow the standards but only until something causes an interruption or disruption so you can’t. Then instead of blindly trying to follow them, raise the problem and get your team members involved in solving the problem.

This allows us to build in the wisdom of experience and countless cycles of problem solving and learning into the improvement of the standards.

Cheers

The Power of Images

By Pascal Dennis

Powerful piece by Caitlin Flanagan in the Atlantic this month.

"Jackie and the Girls" - about JFK's bizarre & uncontrollable womanizing.

Visual thinking and the power of images are central themes in this blog.

Caitlin's piece reinforces them.

Despite overwhelming evidence that JFK was a creep, the iconic John-Jackie-and-the-kids photos, hooks us every time.

"John-John has found a new an adorable new hiding spot. His devoted father, the most powerful man in the world, is clapping his hands with delight..."

So JFK continues to get a free ride, as it were, while contemporaries like LBJ and Nixon are judged harshly.

Their resentment is understandable, no?

Any learning points, besides "images are powerful"?

Let's see:

Life's not fair.

Be careful to be born rich...

Any others?

What would Socrates have thought?

Best,

Pascal

Reflections of a Business Nomad - Update

By Pascal Dennis

My next book will be released October 15.

Something a little different, hopefully fun & engaging.

My earlier books have been prescriptive: "Here's how you do X..."

Reflections, by contract, is a contemplative book

"Here's what I've seen these past twelve years, flying around the world, teaching the Toyota Way."

Why did I write such a book?

I know some great stories & want to share them.

(Korean BBQ at Port Suez as a 10,000 TEU container ship floats by...)

I'd also like to help people, (myself included), SLOW DOWN...

The SLOW movement folks have it right - slowmovement.com

Each piece is best read out loud and slowly.

Mainly though, I wrote it because I wanted to.

Hope you like the damned thing.

skopelospress.com

Cheers,

Pascal

Making the Problem Invisible

By Pascal Dennis

Japan workers 'told to lie about radiation'

More nuclear follies, folks.

You may recall an earlier blog entitled Reverse Magic.

The gist was that the Lean Business System, aka the Toyota Way, is essentially a magic act.

We seek to make the invisible, visible.

Looks like TEPPCO subcontractor workers were encouraged to do the opposite.

"Let's make the visible, invisible.

Let's hide a potentially deadly problem."

Here are some reflections:

Is this just a problem at TEPPCO & the nuclear industry?

Or are there other industries adept at hiding problems?

How about your business or ours?

Are we making problems visible -- warts & all?

Socrates was famously unattractive, and seems to have used his unsightliness.

"I'm not pretty, but sometimes, neither is the truth."

At the very least, accepting the often ugly facts, saves a great deal of energy.

Faking it is exhausting...

Best,

Pascal

Is Five Why Analysis Too Simplistic for Complex Problems?

By Pascal Dennis

A common question, especially in industries that are just now learning the Lean Business System.

Problem solving is a kata - a set of core forms that we practice over & over, hopefully under the guidance of a capable sensei.

(At Lean Pathways we try to reinforce the problem solving & related katas through our Brain Booster pocket cards & apps)

When practicing the problem solving kata, we pull in the tools we need including, Five Why, Ishikawa, Process Flow Diagrams, SIPOC etc.

It's a mistake to structure any problem solving discussion in either/or terms.

It's not Five Why OR Ishikawa OR Process Flow Diagram OR FMEA.

To paraphrase Hemingway, "it's all true." We pull in what we need. Another common mistake is underestimating Five Why.

"Five Why is too simple for me. I want a more complex tool, because this is a complex problem. (And I am a very complex guy!)"

In consulting practice we've used Five Why to get to the root cause of complex design, supply chain and organizational problems.

Five Why is especially helpful when we've clearly defined a Direct Cause.

Often there are multiple causes, and we need to apply Five Why sequentially to get to the root cause of each.

A common failure mode is not understanding the three types of Root Causes - Inadequate Standard, Inadequate Adherence to Standard, Inadequate System.

These are derived from the splendid NASA and Loss Control literature & are invaluable because they point to actionable root causes.

In summary, problem solving is a kata and not unlike trying to hit a curve ball, shoot hoops, or hit a golf ball.

(All of which baffle me...)

You practice, practice, practice the core skills & movements.

Then, if you're very lucky, the day comes you can do it unconsciously.

Best regards,

Pascal

The Power of Quick & Easy Kaizen

By Al Norval,

I often run across organizations that have adopted a kaizen workshop methodology to problem solving. They follow good standards for 5 day kaizen with good problem definition, good process descriptions and well trained teams. And they generally make great improvements in their processes and achieve excellent results.

While this is admirable, they are missing out on much of the power of kaizen. That’s not to say we don’t need to run kaizen workshops, of course we do, but we need to do more. We need to find a way to engage all of our Team Members in making improvement every day.

In the words of Taiichi Ohno “Every day a little bit higher”

Slow and steady, relentless continuous improvement. This is the true spirit of kaizen. Team Members making small improvements and solving small problems every day. While kaizen workshops are great for solving larger problems, there are many more small problems we face every day. Rather than ignore them or develop short term workarounds for them, I’d suggest a better process is to solve them through engaging Team Members in Quick & Easy Kaizen.

Quick & Easy Kaizen are improvements driven by front line staff. These are things that come out of the andon pulls, ahead/ behind boards, shift takeover meetings, and daily huddles.

The problem solving still follows the scientific method but due to the small nature of the problems, they can be solved in a few hours. This allows more Team Members to be engaged in more cycles of problem solving and build more capability. Results are achieved quickly and more importantly the confidence of Team Members grows along with their capability enabling them to solve even more problems.

Many organizations believe these problems are too small to work on but when added together often equal or exceed the results obtained through a kaizen workshop. Don’t underestimate the power of the many.

Used in combination with Kaizen workshops, improvements are greatly accelerated. Kaizen workshops lead to a huge step forward but then lock in the gains by stabilizing the improvement and building on them using Quick & Easy Kaizen until another kaizen workshop and another huge step forward. The cycle repeats and every day the organization gets a little better.

Cheers

Standardized Work for Knowledge Workers

By Pascal Dennis

Standardized work (STW) is fundamental to the Lean Business System.

What's the best way we know - right now?

How do we summarize our current best way one, simple, visual page?

How do we engage our team in continuing to improve our best way?

These are core questions.

At Toyota I learned that STW comprises:

1. Content
   


2. Sequence
   


3. Time
   


4. Expected outcome
   

Embedded tests that signal Good/No Good are also critical.

Does this recipe apply outside the factory?

The embedded tests concept applies universally.

As for the other elements - yes and no.

Yes - in short cycle time, repetitive knowledge work e.g. a pharmacy or laboratory analyzing high sample volumes.

No - in long cycle time, non-repetitive knowledge work e.g. a surgery, engineering or design process.

STW confers all its customary benefits - if applied with finesse.

A good example is the Checksheet - which is simply a list of embedded tests that tell us whether we're okay or not.

Atul Gawande's fine book The Checklist Manifesto illustrates how we might apply STW to knowledge with finesse.

Translation will be vital as we move the profound Lean principles upstream & downstream of the factory, and into entirely new field of work.

(The Remedy is my humble attempt to illustrate what this might look like.)

The worlds awaits Lean thinkers with finesse.

Best regards,

Pascal

Lean & Six Sigma

By Al Norval

I deal with several organizations where the competition between Lean and Six Sigma is nothing short of destructive for the organization. These typically large organizations have two camps both of whom are dug in and set in their ways. They seem to spend more time fighting with each other than actually helping people in the organization make improvements. The skirmishes typically involve sending articles around the organization by email where the pundit has an opinion that supports one side or the other.

I’m always puzzled by this as both improvement methodologies are necessary. Some organizations understand this but end up splitting the two improvement methodologies anyway with statements like “Lean is about removing waste and Six Sigma is about reducing variation”

Hogwash. While reducing Muda (waste) is a key pillar of Lean, so is reducing Muri (Strain) and Mura (variation). These three concepts are related as Strain and Variation are causes of Waste. Strain or Overburden applies both to machines and manpower. We can see it when equipment is made to run faster than it’s capable of or IT systems become overloaded with new software. When it’s applied to people it lines up with another pillar of Lean – Respect for People. Strain here often leads to ergonomic issues. Asking people to do work that causes injuries certainly isn’t showing them due respect.

Likewise Six Sigma is about reducing variation but more importantly it’s about making data driven process improvements using DMAIC which is a variant of Deming’s PDCA cycle.

In both cases, organizations have good people working in broken processes.

The trick is to apply the right technique to the right problem. Here’s my recommendation:

When problems require simple problem solving, use Lean. When faced with complex problems use Six Sigma.

Abraham Maslow once said “If the only tool you have is a hammer, it’s tempting to treat everything as a nail”

In my opinion, both improvement methodologies are necessary. Learn to coexist and get on with the real work of helping people make improvements enabling the organization to achieve its goals.

Cheers

You Respect Us

By Pascal Dennis

Egypt, a few years ago, working with a major client.

Just before the demonstrations in Tahrir Square that led to the Egyptian Spring.

My Egyptian colleagues were gracious, hospitable and hungry to learn.

Dozens of questions on standardized work, visual management, problem solving, strategy deployment.

I answered as best I could, pleased to have such eager students.

After each session, team members came up to shake my hand.

"We are so happy," a young fellow told me," to meet somebody like you."

"What do you mean - someone like me?" I asked.

"You respect us," he replied.

Somehow, sadly, this was an abnormality.

Lean principles, like Respect for People, seem to connect with fundamental human yearnings.

The desire for safety, security and respect.

The desire to have a hand in designing, and improving, your work, and to creating value for your customer (both internal & external).

The desire to be part of a team, in a great enterprise.

During the same trip, I asked the senior executive sponsoring our work, about extremism in the Middle East.

"Invest; give people decent jobs," he replied, "and all that crap would disappear in no time."

Best regards,

Lean Laughs

Lean Hotels

By Pascal Dennis

Lean in the service industries is a frequent topic in this blog.

The great hotel chains -- Ritz, Hyatt, Marriott, Westin, Disney and others -- are superb Lean companies.

Marriott's Twelve Guiding Principles of Leadership and Customer Service, for example, reads like a Lean manifesto:

1. Continually challenge your team to do better.
   


2. Take good care of your employees, and they’ll take good care of your customers, and the customers will come back.
   


3. Celebrate your people’s success, not your own.
   


4. Know what you’re good at and mine those competencies for all you’re worth.
   


5. Do it and do it now. Err on the side of taking action.
   


6. Communicate. Listen to your customers, associates and competitors.
   


7. See and be seen. Get out of your office, walk around, make yourself visible and accessible.
   


8. Success is in the details.
   


9. It’s more important to hire people with the right qualities than with specific experience.
   


10. Customer needs may vary, but their bias for quality never does.
    


11. Eliminate the cause of a mistake. Don’t just clean it up.
    


12. View every problem as an opportunity to grow.
    

Marriott's standard - our principles will be in the nightstand drawer of every Marriott room.

A few years ago, I was staying at the Sharm al Shaikh Marriott, at the bottom of the Sinai peninsula.

Being a natural pain, I decided to check Marriott's adherence to its standards, in this relatively remote hotel.

Sure enough, I found the principles were there were supposed to be.

The hotel manager smiled when I told him, and described Marriott's training & development processes.

Ritz, Hyatt, Westin, Disney & the rest all have corresponding principles & practices. Well done - and please continue!

Are there any other industries that could learn from Lean hotels?

Oh, I don't know, perhaps Health Care...?

Value Added vs. People Being Valuable

By Al Norval

A big part of Lean is observing the work that people do and breaking it down into three categories:

1. value added work,
   


2. non-value added work
   


3. necessary non-value added work
   

When teams go through this exercise, people are always amazed at how small a percentage of their time is actually spent doing value added work. For knowledge workers in an office environment, it could be 15-20% of their time is spent doing value added work. For a product moving through a value stream, the amount of time spent on value added activity is often less than 1% of the total lead time for the product.

The remainder and bulk of the time, not spent on value added activity is waste which can be broken down into two groups; necessary non-value added and pure waste. In a Lean environment teams work daily to eliminate the waste. Necessary non-value added includes activities driven by regulation or legal obligations. For these kinds of activities, team still must work to reduce the waste in them although the activity itself can never be eliminated.

It’s often a shock to people when they learn that 80% of their work is non-value added. Many times they assume we are saying they are non-value added and react accordingly often with anger and indignation. On the contrary, we aren’t saying the people are non-value added, we are saying much of the work they do is non-value added. The people themselves are still valuable team members. We need to separate the people from the work they do. While this sounds easy, many times it’s a difficult concept to explain to people.

When this happens, I always fall back on the pillars of Lean and talk about how Lean is built on Respect for Humanity. Lean is very respectful of people and so sees it as dis-respectful to ask people to do work that is full of waste.

At this point in time, people usually become engaged in the improvement activity to drive waste out. Understanding the foundations of value & waste as well as Respect for Humanity are key concepts to getting team members to engage and drive improvement.

Cheers

The Importance of Defining Purpose - World War II vs. Vietnam

By Pascal Dennis

In recent blogs I've talked about Policy, Strategy & Tactics using military metaphors.

Let's talk a bit more about Policy - why we're fighting.

In the absence of a clearly defined Policy (or Purpose - I'll use the terms interchangeably) all bets are off.

During WWII the allied Purpose was crystal clear:

1. Remove Hitler and Tojo from power
   


2. Destroy the Nazi and Japanese war machines
   


3. Destroy their will to fight
   

"Unconditional surrender" was an apt expression of this policy.

Result: absolute clarity of purpose among the troops. They could focus on getting the terrible job done.

By contrast, during the Vietnam war, America's Purpose was vague.

And this was America's critical error, argued Col. Harry Summers, the late, great author & US Army College lecturer.

America's efforts, he argued, amounted to "grand tactics".

Result?

Misalignment and tragedy.

For the only time in the history of the republic, the Army and the People were not aligned.

A famous exchange between an American and Vietnamese general goes like this:

US General, "You never defeated us in battle."

Vietnamese General, "That is true. It is also irrelevant."

Some implications for leaders at all levels, no?

Best regards,

Pascal

Beware INITIATIVES

By Pascal Dennis

Like most people, I went to business and engineering school with the best intentions - get a better job, learn interesting stuff, become a better manager and so on.

But we pick up more than we bargain for - including dysfunctional mental models, which I've written about at length.

We begin to believe that, because we are so smart and well-educated, we can manage from a distance.

And the corollaries:

1. What can front line workers possible teach us?
   


2. Improvement means head office INITIATIVES dreamed up by people -- just like us!
   

Result?

Endless INITIATIVES stream out of head office.

They crowd out real work and often crush our managers and team members.

Everywhere, I see good people struggling under the weight of actual work plus the funny work head office insists on.

Executives are like crows - they like shiny things.

Here's some advice:

1. Resist the temptation
   


2. Put the shiny things on a wall in the Executive metrics room
   


3. Look at them occasionally, but don't do anything
   


4. When the organization has some "white space", pull one off the wall and look at it
   

Then put it back and forget about it.

Here's a reflection point:

At our old Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada plant - we never had INITIATIVES

We had tough performance targets set through Strategy Deployment, and the expectation that we'd figure out root causes & countermeasures.

Result: we focused entirely on making the day's production and improving our management system.

We were free to balance continuous improvement with breakthrough.

We owned our management system.

Best,

Pascal

PS Congratulations to Spain for winning Euro 2012! Splendid tournament - congratulations to the hosts, Poland & Ukraine.

Wonderful creative play by Italy, Germany & others. (Fortitude by the Greek side, at a tough time.)